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.
Commitment vs Compliance
Are you committed or are you compliant? What does that mean in terms of leadership and as an employee?
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.
To the Mr. E’s of the World
Gratitude is such a strange and powerful concept; that by merely expressing kindness and appreciation toward another, the act of gratitude happens to also produce so much personal satisfaction. A person can “accidentally” make themself feel good by intentionally making someone else feel valued. Considering how blessed my life has been and what a joy it brings me, I don’t dole out gratitude nearly often enough.
3 Steps to Create a Full Life, Not a Busy One
In today’s fast-paced world it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that we need to be busy all the time to be successful. We cram as much as we can into our schedules (and into our kids schedules) trying to achieve more each day. However, this constant busyness can leave us feeling drained, overwhelmed, underwhelmed, and unfulfilled.
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.