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C-CUEs

From the Center for Christian Urban Educators

C-CUEsFrom the Center for Christian Urban Educators

April 4, 2019

Useful links, thoughts and quotes for school leaders and teachers curated from the web by Harriet Potoka, Director of the Center for Christian Urban Educators.
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Why Schools Should Be Organized To Prioritize Relationships

Strong relationships can prime a person to learn. And for those we adverse childhood experiences, strong relationships can mitigate the negative effects of trauma. Schools organized with relationships as a priority can benefit children in many ways. In this Edutopia video, teachers share how they make time and mental space to connect with students.

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How Learning Works: 10 Research Based Insights

Digital Promise and the Institute for Applied Neuroscience teamed up to synthesize findings from the growing field of learning sciences research into 10 key insights about how people learn. These insights are relevant for learners of all ages and ability levels and are true in classrooms and out-of-school learning settings. This post discusses these these insights and how teachers can use them in their classrooms to provide the best possible learning experience for students.
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Why We Really Need Social-Emotional Learning Now

Children and young adults are coping with new and prevalent emotional realities educators should not ignore. Research indicates that when educators work to teach learners how to alleviate and manage stress, students become more likely to learn deeply, avoid negative behaviors and achieve successful outcomes with long-term effects. Social-emotional learning (SEL) practices are the focus of copious research studies — and it’s a good thing they are because SEL is needed more than ever.
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TEACHERS: 4 Tools to Help Kids Develop Empathy and Cultural Humility

Cultural humility is when we recognize that we have biases and limitations to our knowledge regarding another’s culture. Whether they are seeking to relate to someone of a different race, age, or gender, kids who can better keep themselves in perspective and practice cultural humility are more likely to value the contributions of others to their lives -- a necessity when fostering truly collaborative, forward-thinking societies. Check out these picks to help kids reflect on their own views and work toward the welfare of others.

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TEACHERS: Effective Teachers are Self-Reflective Teachers

The end of the year is fast approaching and teachers will be checking up on how much content they taught this year, how much they didn’t get done while frantically trying to assess students for their learning so they can write an accurate report for the end of the year. It is important that teachers do not forget the most important things about their roles as teachers when reflecting. Using this list can be helpful.
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TEACHERS: How to Promote Resilience in Your Students

How to promote resilience in students is a hot topic in education and health at the moment and for a good reason. Resilience is the ability to cope with negative life events and challenges. It has been described as the capacity to ‘bounce back’ from difficult situations and persist in the face of adversity. Developing resilience in young people is considered by many as the antidote to the epidemic of mental ill-health across our society today. Here are five ways teachers can promote resilience in their students.

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TEACHERS: How Kids Learn Better By Taking Frequent Breaks Throughout The Day

Rhea’s research on the Finnish model of frequent breaks in the school day for children is exciting and interest in bringing more breaks to American schools is high. What is the benefit of this practice and why should you consider it for your school?
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TEACHERS: Changing How Educators See Negative Behavior in the Classroom

When negative behavior happens in a classroom teachers tend to dwell on the negative and ignore the positive. During a typical day, 10 great things may have happened and one horrible thing. And when teachers reflect on how their day went, they typically focus on the one horrible thing, forgetting about the 10 great things. Read more about this negative attribution bias and how it can be changed.
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TEACHERS: 4 Things All Project-Based Learning Teachers Should Do

In today’s educational environment, students are expected to collaborate, think critically, and work together to develop innovative projects and answers to complex questions. To support this mission, many schools have begun to implement Project-Based Learning (PBL). Making a shift from traditional forms of learning to PBL can be challenging. Here are four steps to help teachers create a Project Based-Learning classroom.
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TEACHERS: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself About Unmotivated Students

In this podcast and post, Jennifer Gonzales has put together a list of five questions teachers can ask themselves to see if they really are doing everything they could to boost student motivation. She goes through the questions herself, reflecting on the years when she was a classroom teacher with middle school students.
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TEACHERS: Yes, Over Parenting is a Problem, but Teachers Can Do Something About It

Overparenting is a big problem in our culture, regardless of the motor vehicle employed as a metaphor: helicopter, snowplow or lawnmower. While parents need to back step back and stop intervening their kids’ lives this article suggests that educators should meet parents partway.
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TEACHERS: Eighth Graders Learn Speaking Skills in TED-Ed class

Teachers at a New Jersey middle school collaborated to help eighth-grade students build their public speaking and research skills while exploring their passions in a TED-Ed elective course. Students researched topics of their choice, crafted a speech and visual aids, and then presented in front of an audience and video camera.
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TEACHERS: Top 20 Tech Tips for Teachers

Listen to the very first episode of the Shake Up Learning Show, where you will learn about integrating technology into the classroom, growing as a leader, refining your instructional strategies, and transforming your classroom! Kasey Bell is the host of the show. She is a former middle school teacher turned digital learning coach, as well as an international speaker, consultant, blogger, author, and—of course—podcaster! Her mission is to help teachers learn to meaningfully integrate technology in the classroom. In this first episode she share her top 20 tech tips for teachers.
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PARENTS: Here’s the Best Things You Can Do For Your Kids, Parents

Parents worry about many things related to the development of their children. Some of these concerns are universal and shared by parents from time immemorial. These stresses about their children’s development can be consuming and almost suffocating. Parents, read this article and give yourself permission to breathe.

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PARENTS: Parents are Losing Their Kids to Video Games

A recent article on the Fortnite epidemic found that alarmed doctors are now treating Fortnite-obsessed kids for mental and physical health problems; including everything from “carpal tunnel to sedentary obesity.” Dr. Kate Roberts, a psychologist from Wenham, Massachusetts found that the most disturbing part of the addictive trend is how it changes young kids’ behavior. What can parents to to break video game obsession?
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PARENTS: The ABC’s of Reading to Your Child

Watch this video to learn about active reading - making sure you read with your children, not to them. Reading experts share tips on how parents can help make reading fun.
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LEADERS: Districts Offer More Teacher-Driven PD

Should teachers choose their own PD? Learn how some school districts nationwide have changed their approach to teachers' professional development, allowing educators to take more control over what they learn. This approach includes a focus on more online professional-development materials and other resources available to teachers.
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LEADERS: goLEAD: Becoming More Intentional About Student Leadership

Read how one ACSI school became very intentional at equipping their students to by developing a two-year leadership program, which would strike a good balance between learning about leadership and experiencing what it means to lead.
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LEADERS: A Practice That Doesn’t Exactly Feel Like Self-Care But Totally Is

Decluttering and getting organized might feel like a tedious chore, but it's actually a self-care practice. In her new book Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter an Organize to Make Room for Happiness, Gretchen Rubin writes that having outer order saves us time, money, space, and energy. It helps us to feel less frustrated and overwhelmed and overworked and creates a feeling of sanctuary. The book is filled with simple, clever strategies for decluttering and organizing. Read about a few of them here.
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LEADERS: The 2 Rare Skills You Need to Be A Great Leader

At some time or another, most of us have experience a boss, manager, or leader who made us feel recognized and valued. And as a result, we were able to do more than we ever thought we could. What skills do these leaders have that allow them to help others become their best? Fundamentally, there are only two. Even the first is far from common on its own, and because the second builds on the first, it’s especially rare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=894&v=BEsZOnyQzxQ

If this newsletter has been forwarded to you by a friend, administrator, or colleague

and you would like to be placed on the mailing list

send a note to that effect to Harriet Potoka at

hpotoka@ccuechicago.org

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Center for Christian Urban Educators

The Center for Christian Urban Educators seeks to encourage, equip, and empower Christian educators as they impact the lives of the children entrusted to their educational care.

Email: hpotoka@ccuechicago.org
Website: ccuechicago.org
Location: Chicago, IL, United States
Phone: 312-310-5617
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CCUE-Chicago-567881706592903/?fref=photo
Twitter: @HJPotoka