Remembering Columbine… The Day That Changed Everything 20 years ago Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shattered the perception of safety and security we’d always assumed was part of our school campuses. A few times over the years, audience members that have seen me speak...
The Emotional Baggage Affecting Our Students & Staff You care deeply about educating students. You spend extra hours, read books, and even joined a closed Facebook group to get fresh info. But your students haven’t really responded, your school culture is still...
3 Simple Ways to Strengthen School Safety April 20, 2019 will mark the 20th anniversary of the tragic school shooting at Columbine High School. This harrowing tale of violence in schools has played out over and over again since then, all the while striking fear...
4 Ways to Help Students Unpack Their Emotional Baggage Being student-centered is easier said than done. Self-preservation is human nature. Thinking about one’s self is a way of survival and we have all had days in the classroom in which we feel like we are just...
Free Suicide Prevention Lesson in This Blog There are nearly 45,000 suicide completions each year here in America. It is the second leading cause of death for our high school students. Imagine if one passenger jet crashed EVERY SINGLE DAY, killing everyone on board....
Are your students and staff questioning their value? Years ago, someone really close to me told me that my effort to obtain my LMFT wouldn’t benefit TEEN TRUTH. I was crushed by that feedback, and honestly, pretty pissed off. It shook me to the point that I considered...
3 Simple Ways to Stop Teen Suicide There’s no easy way to broach the sensitive topic of teen suicide. So I will just get to the staggering statistics that clearly show the severity of the situation regarding our youth today. In 2016, according to the CDC-Centers for...
The Value of Being Valued A teacher will never, ever, know the impact they have on the lives of the students in their classroom. At times, a student will come back into your life and show you, but for all of the students who have reached out, there could be many more...
An Easy Way To Connect Students On Your Campus Is every student on your campus connected? If they aren’t, let’s fix that issue right now! One of the concepts that I wrote about in my book, Building Resilient Students From the Inside Out, is the idea of how ONE...
3 Easy Concepts to Boost Resiliency on Campus Remember when you tried out for the cheerleading squad and didn’t make the cut or when you got your report card and although you wanted to make it on the honor roll you missed it because of that 77 in Chemistry? How about...
6 Ways to Foster Resilient Students “Get Back Up Again” Hey!I’m not giving up todayThere’s nothing getting in my wayAnd if you knock knock me overI will get back up again, ohIf something goes a little wrongWell you can go ahead and bring it on’Cause...
3 Easy Ways to Win Grant Money for Your School Your budgets are tight and your bosses are asking you to do more with less. Financial struggles continue to hold your students and your school back. How can you solve these issues? There’s a simple answer that most...
What’s Your One Word for 2019? If you’ve read my book, Building School Culture From the Inside Out, you know that I believe messaging is the surest, fastest, cheapest way to build school culture. The schools that do it well are alive with activity. The ones...
The Most Important Part of Your New Year’s Plan The winter holidays have come and gone. Christmas parties and semester finals are distant memories. All the decorations are out of sight and the buzz of a new year can be felt throughout the campus. The hope is...
A New Year’s Resolution Every Educator Should Make The New Year is a time for new beginnings, setting goals and bettering yourself. My New Year’s Resolutions usually center around healthy habits, eliminating negative relationships, etc. etc. I usually do not...
A Big Lesson I Learned From Sitting With a Lonely Student I’ve spoken at over 1,000 schools, reached millions of students around the world, and have obtained a masters in professional counseling. But just when I thought I had it all figured out, I learned a truly...
How To Build Empathy In Students Picture a crowded high school cafeteria on a Friday. As an educator, the image probably sends a shiver of anxiety down your spine. As you monitor the cafeteria, you notice a group of girls laughing and whispering juicy gossip to each...
The Weather Outside Might be Frightful, but the Fire in You Can Still be Delightful: Keeping Teachers Going Through the Stress of the Season This change in season is often coupled with anxiety and stress in the field of education. Winter break is right around the...
The Single Best Way to Be Grateful How come she gets more likes on Facebook than me? Why do they have so many followers on Instagram and I don’t? How can they afford exotic vacations while I’m barely scraping by? Am I doing as good of a job as they are? In a world...
Guide Students and Staff to Gratitude in Three Simple Steps November is synonymous with football, food, and family. In the world of education, it’s famous for Thanksgiving Break. Since August, students and staff have been working hard to meet our goals and all we can...
Changing Mindsets of Negative Adults and Being More Appreciative of Each Other: Four Things to Keep in Mind Here’s the thing about changing adult mindsets: you can’t. What you can do is change the way you react and interact with those staff members. The best advice I...
I Hope You Fail This Year. Here’s Why… You read that right. I hope you fail this year. And no, all the time up in the air on planes hasn’t finally gotten to me. I’ve got a good reason. The reason I hope you fail is because as leaders that is how we become...
Failure is Not an Option, But It Should Be: Create Space for Innovation in Four Manageable Steps You may have read the brain research that says students learn best when they analyze their mistakes and adapt their thinking. We have all heard the stories about Michael...
Use These Student-Made Videos in Your Class You want to engage your students, but there’s constant resistance. What would change if you gave students a voice, and put them in the position to solve their own challenges? The award-winning TEEN TRUTH films are the...
