In 1990, Congress officially established the first week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week in order to acknowledge the importance of mental health. While mental illness can be an incredibly sensitive topic, it's one that needs to be talked about more. There are many misconceptions about mental illness, [...]
I speak with educators every day, and the overwhelming message is clear—COVID-19 has changed everything. Students are experiencing a health crisis of unprecedented proportions, with an increase in anxiety, depression, PTSD, and even eating disorders. Educators often feel ill-equipped to address this crisis within standard general education classrooms. Something [...]
The Problem The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened long-standing mental health challenges for students and staff alike, while highlighting the inequity in resources to deal with those problems. From 2019 - 87% increase in students seeking mental health services Nearly half of the schools surveyed do [...]
For over 40 years Conover has developed research-based SEL/soft skills assessments and skill building systems. We often have success stories from program administrators who run transition and work experience programs. These individuals are on the front lines helping their participants succeed in life and the workplace. These administrators understand [...]
The decisions you make now in setting up your environment and infrastructure will determine the future success (or failure) of your distance learning program for your staff and students. Last spring (when COVID-19 caught us all by surprise), it was acceptable for staff to fill in the gaps by [...]
A recent study was just released by Northwestern University’s Kirabo Jackson on the effect of soft skills vs test scores. This study demonstrates that schools that build social-emotional qualities are getting better short-term and long-term results for students than schools that only focus on improving test scores. https://hechingerreport.org/early-research-focuses-on-schools-that-develop-students-social-emotional-qualities/ This study [...]
Definition of Emotional Intelligence As the workplace adjusts to fewer people doing more work, new sets of skills are needed. Often there is no one around to supervise and direct the actions of others. Each worker must be able to work well with others, to direct their own work, and [...]
There has been much attention placed on social emotional learning (SEL) in the last few years. SEL is critical to the success of every person in our society. No doubt about it, improving SEL skills will result in more emotionally connected youth and adults. But is that enough to instill [...]
An important part of empathy is the ability to trust and be trusted. This is key to bullying prevention. When trust exists between individuals it allows them to take risks and be open with each other. As trust builds, there will be more sharing of information, feelings, and opinions. The [...]
Many jobs require employees to work with customers or clients. Your students need to start developing their communication skills so they can successfully interact with customers when required to do so. The quality of customer service is an important factor clients consider when making decisions about where to shop or [...]