Healthy School Communities

How well does your school support the health and well-being of students and staff members? Explore the answer with this ASCD Action Tool and accompanying online scoring and analysis tool. Updated to reflect current research, new standards, and best practices, the Canadian second edition of the action tool guides you through the four steps of the Healthy School Report Card process with rationale, tips from successful participants, and easy-to-use tools. Tools for organizing can help you develop a school-level process for working with your community. Then you can use the scoring tools to assess your school's current health programming and create an evidence-based environment that supports learning and teaching. This Canadian second edition includes * Updated indicators for the 11 characteristics of a healthy school. * Expanded description of how healthy school communities fit into ASCD's Whole Child Initiative. * Testimonials and lessons learned from sites that have implemented the Healthy School process. * More ideas for how schools can create plans that fit their unique situations and share data with their community. The Healthy School Report Card is the ideal tool to help you meet required guidelines, identify and prioritize improvements, and garner the support of policymakers, family members, and the community.

HEALTHY MINDS, HEALTHY SCHOOLS is a universal, curriculum-based program for elementary school children aimed at improving children’s social, emotional, behavioural, and academic functioning.Dr. Tina C. Montreuil and Micah A. Tilley’s unique program integrates components of emotion regulation, mindfulness, and metacognition, providing children with practical strategies they can use in everyday life. Comprised of 16 lessons, Healthy Minds, Healthy Schools provides students at the elementary level with practical, everyday strategies to combat stress, anxiety, and depression, and demonstrates the universal need for policy-oriented approaches to school-based mental health. A number of components are integrated throughout, including emotional regulation and expression; mindfulness and metacognition; the link between thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations; acceptance and selfcompassion; goal-directed behaviours; problem solving; and conflict resolution. With guided instructions, personal reflection sections, and group activity exercises, this essential resource equips children with tools to develop improved attention, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility, strengthen their social skills, and enhance their academic performance. This highly colourful and graphically appealing book includes both strategies and activities adapted for children in elementary school. It is an invaluable resource, offering teachers, educators, and other specialists, such as psychologists, counsellors, and social workers, supportive material to teach these valuable social–emotional skills.

Students and educators today face obstacles to student achievement, well-being, and success that are above and beyond traditional instructional and assessment concerns. From low school morale to bullying to shootings, school climate has become a national and global concern. Research overwhelmingly indicates that a positive school climate promotes cooperative learning, group cohesion, respect, and mutual trust—all of which have in turn been shown to improve the learning environment. In short, a positive school climate is directly related to improved academic achievement at all levels of schooling. In this ASCD Arias book, Peter DeWitt and Sean Slade explain the most important aspects of school climate and how we can make positive changes in our schools. Readers will learn * How to engage students and school stakeholders. * How to empower staff and students and foster autonomy so people take ownership of their ideas and the learning process. * How to promote inclusivity and equity throughout the school. * How to create a welcoming, cooperative, and safe school environment that nurtures students’ social-emotional needs.

Developing a 'healthy school' has been a key aim for many schools across the globe, yet achieving successful implementation and sustaining the positive benefits has proven to be challenging. This text draws upon their wide range of international expertise and experience to demonstrate how guidelines can best be implemented.

Bestselling author Dr. Marcia L. Tate delivers 12 brain-based principles for avoiding teacher burnout and increasing health and wellness for teachers. These research-backed strategies will help you thrive personally and professionally. Each chapter digs into the benefits of these self-care and stress management tips and offers suggestions for bringing the practice to life in your classroom. Avoid teacher burnout with these self-care tips for teachers and other educators: Understand the root causes and symptoms of educator and teacher stress, overwhelm, and burnout. Learn practical strategies proven to help you live better, live longer, and become a better teacher. Integrate wellness principles and coping strategies into your daily life so you feel rejuvenated and ready to serve others. Translate your wellness to the classroom, creating happy, ready-to-learn students. Maintain a lifestyle of happiness and health for long-term success. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Passion for Your Purpose Chapter 2: Laughter Chapter 3: Optimism Chapter 4: Games Chapter 5: Movement Chapter 6: Music Chapter 7: Calm Surroundings Chapter 8: Close Personal Relationships Chapter 9: Nutrition Chapter 10: Sleep Chapter 11: Spirituality Chapter 12: Purpose Epilogue References and Resources Index

The academic setting has a significant influence on the well-being of children and teens. Effective school leadership is, therefore, essential in promoting a healthy school environment. This book, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, establishes the kind of leadership a health-promoting school needs to be successful. It explains the steps school leaders should take to promote health, beginning with an explanation of the link between health and education and then moving into a discussion of how schools can be transformed and what sort of leaders are required for such a transformation. These changes can be applied in individual classrooms and schools as well as more broadly across whole education systems. The theoretical healthy school framework outlined in the main text by Dr Robin Cheung, a seasoned scholar-practitioner in the field of school health promotion, is complemented by success stories written from interviews conducted by Dr Cheung’s co-authors, which are included in the supplemental material of the book. These anecdotes and quotes from these stories enliven the text and narrate how principals in Hong Kong have transformed their schools into successful and thriving health-promoting educational settings. This volume draws particular attention to the role of leadership and management in promoting health and learning in educational and academic settings that will be of interest to school leaders, policy makers, and educators alike. Leading Healthy and Thriving Schools in Hong Kong: Theory and Practice is the first book in the Healthy Settings Series, which focuses on the upstream, midstream, and downstream approaches for improving population health and reducing health inequity in various settings and contexts.