Helping students to become resilient

New publication provides strategies for school counselors

A new guide helps guidance counselors, educators, and after-school staff coach students on how to be resilient, as well as the positive effects of strong character. The publication combines the teaching of ethics with helping children to resolve problems in everyday life. Strategies include:

- Strengthening adult and child partnerships in problem-solving

- Drawing lessons and ideas from the experiences of story characters to apply to students' lives

- Engaging in discussions to enhance listening, mentoring and coaching

- Teaching a variety of coping mechanisms and strategies

To read a free sample of the guide (a PDF file), click here.


Tags: Counselors, Character Education, Education, K-12, Education by Sistrunk

Scrambling for scholarships

Paying for college: Resourcefulness the key

For college-bound high school seniors, scholarship-hunting is a serious endeavor. Only a fraction of students will get a full ride. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch examines the challenges facing kids and parents in its article, Piecemeal tuition.


Tags: Scholarships, College Tuition, Education by Sistrunk

Katrina students: Seeking common ground

Youngsters finding ways to fit in

In the more than six months since Hurricane Katrina - thousands of students, and the schools that have taken them in - have had to walk a fine line between fitting in and loyalty to friends back home. Displaced students and their new schools continue to adjust, as CNN reports.


Tags: Katrina, K-12, Education, Education by Sistrunk

Reconnecting out-of-school youth

Doing 'Whatever It Takes'

A new report documents what creative educators, policymakers, and community leaders are doing to across the country reconnect out-of-school youth to the social and economic mainstream. The publication, Whatever It Takes: How Twelve Communities Are Reconnecting Out-of-School Youth, provides background on the serious high school dropout problem and describes in-depth what twelve communities are doing to reconnect dropouts to education and employment training.

The report also includes descriptions of major national program models serving out-of-school youngsters. Click here to download the report, which is provided by the American Youth Policy Forum.


Tags: Graduation, Graduation Rates, Dropouts, Student Achievement, Achievement Gap, Urban Education, K-12, Education, Education by Sistrunk

Teacher's lounge goes global

Web journals become the new fly on the wall

It was only a matter of time. Teachers have entered the blogosphere.

Many teachers' blogs are merely personal journals or opportunities for professional networking. But look out for the ones that are technology's answer to the teacher's lounge - complete with professional chit-chat, catty remarks about colleagues and - gasp! - gripes about students. More from Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.


Tags: Teachers Lounge, Teachers, Education, K-12, Blogging, Blogs, Education by Sistrunk