Welcome to the Duck Pond Blog!
Your go-to source for all things education, trauma-informed, leadership, and beyond!
Our experts share some of their favorite tools, strategies, resources, and suggestions.
Love and Hurry are Incompatible
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?
Presence.
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.
Mastering the Pause
When we're deep in it, we sometimes react instead of responding. And afterward, upon reflection, we often think about how there was another way to handle the situation. We know better, but when we're "deep in it," we still struggle.
Misteps with Trauma-Informed Schools
There are three environments in which almost all young people exist: the family environment, the community environment, and the school environment. It’s time that we let go of all the narratives that cast blame or point fingers and instead, build radical acceptance that each of these places has the possibility to build positive outcomes for children.