Life, with all its beautiful and challenging high notes and low notes, is a journey and experience that is unique to each individual. It is filled with moments of joy, obstacles to overcome, love, sadness, and a myriad of emotions that serenade our daily lives. While we often embrace and melodically cruise through the calm, relaxing moments, it is the doubt-filled, sad, angry, and stress inducing moments we find most challenging and disruptive. It is in these times that we, as do kids and our students, need anchors to walk beside us, co-regulate with us, ground us, keep us safe, and move us continually towards resilience.

It’s a universal “inside joke” that the kid we’d really like to have a break from is the one who is never absent. Like EVER. And while it’s kind of a joke, it’s also kind of true. Those kids can really wear us out. Did I just break some unwritten “teacher code” by saying this out loud? I hope not.

But what if we flipped the script for a moment?

What if we asked ourselves, “What is this kid really seeking?” And no, a hard spanking is not the answer we’ll support in the restorative practices.

The reality is that many times, this kid is often seeking connection. He comes to school every day in order to be seen, heard, and valued. And while he may get love at home, he is still seeking something from this teacher, this adult, in front of him.

In a recent conversation, with a friend that embodies all these attributes, she asked me how I like work, what parts of my life I am loving, what aspects bring me joy, challenges I’m facing, and then they threw in one that I wasn’t expecting…..how do I build my own resilience?

Recently, I've noticed that I've been unintentionally viewing the world through the lens of cynicism. Normally, I see a lot of light and positivity in everything around me, but lately, it feels like I've been surrounded by darkness. The constant exposure to negative news, crime podcasts, and dark-themed books seemed to have taken a toll on my perception of the world and the people in it.

You know that word "REST" we've been hearing about? Yeah, it used to bug me because it felt like giving up. The past year has been full of surprises, and REST keeps showing up in random places - podcasts, stories from friends, and even research stuff. Got me curious, you know?

If you have been following the work of the Resilience Team, you’re aware about how we, as educators, want to respond rather than react when something is going on around us. When we react, it’s often because we don’t feel safe and we’re in our Fight/Flight/Freeze/Fawn mode, ie, our brainstem. And when we respond, we’re working from a rational prefrontal cortex mode.