Resources: Core Practice 4
Health and Well-BeingToolbox Resources
Active Design Toolkit for Schools
The Active Design Toolkit for Schools provides ideas and resources to incorporate active design into schools. Although the toolkit was developed to inform school design in New York City, many of the ideas presented in the toolkit can be adapted for use by schools anywhere in the country to improve the success, health, and well-being of their students. The toolkit was developed by the Partnership for a Healthier New York City in collaboration with New York City’s Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Education, and Transportation.
Active Schools is a national collaborative of leading health, education, and private sector organizations that provides school leaders and educators with the tools they need to create active learning environments. The program is offered at no cost to schools, and those that sign up receive access to evidence-based resources, free professional development opportunities, grants and incentives, a customized action plan, and technical assistance.
Alliance for a Healthier Generation: Schools
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation works with schools, companies, community organizations, healthcare professionals, and families to transform the conditions and systems that lead to healthier kids. Their website contains information, tools, and resources for schools covering nutrition and health education, physical activity, and school wellness policies. The Alliance also runs a Healthy Schools Program, an evidence-based initiative to create and sustain healthy school environments. The program is being used by more than 40,000 schools nationwide.
ASCD Educational Leadership: Resilience and Learning
Originally published in September 2013, this back issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership journal focuses on different facets of resilience encountered in a school environment and includes strategies, lessons learned, and other key takeaways for fostering resilience in your own school.
ASCD School Culture and Climate Resources
ASCD has compiled a listing of articles, books, webinars, online courses, and videos covering a range of school culture and climate topics.
ASCD webinar: Navigating Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) from the Inside Out
In this webinar (recorded January 2018), Stephanie Jones, professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, reviews Navigating Social and Emotional Learning from the Inside Out (an in-depth guide to 25 evidence-based programs that details curricular content and programmatic features that practitioners can use to make informed choices about their SEL programs) and the tools it provides to support educators as they compare curricula and methods across top SEL programs, and explains how programs can be adapted from schools to out-of-school-time settings, such as afterschool and summer programs. The session integrates concrete examples on the specific skills targeted and instructional methods that are applicable for K–6 settings.
ASCD The Whole Child Podcast: Is Resilience the Secret to Student Success?
This podcast (originally aired September 5, 2013) attempts to answer the question: what does resilience look like in the classroom and how can it be developed across schools? Discussion includes how resilience is best developed and whether it should be taught as a curriculum, integrated across all content areas, or organically developed by each student. Guests include:
- Sara Truebridge, an education consultant on resilience who collaborated on the 2009 documentary film Race to Nowhere and is the author of the forthcoming book, Resilience Begins with Beliefs.
- Andrew Fuller, a clinical psychologist and author who has worked with many schools and communities around Australia, specializing in the well-being of young people and their families. He is a Fellow of the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Learning and Educational Development at the University of Melbourne.
Boulder Valley School District Farm to School Manual
This guide, created by Boulder Valley (Colorado) School District’s School Food Project, provides tips, strategies, and best practices for starting and maintaining a farm to school program.
Center for EcoLiteracy’s Rethinking School Lunch Guide
The Center for EcoLiteracy’s Rethinking School Lunch Guide provides ideas and strategies for changing school meal programs, promoting health, and increasing ecological understanding. The guide draws on the wisdom and knowledge of leading school nutrition experts and practitioners and lessons from successful programs. It is designed to help make the case for change and discover innovative solutions to the challenges of reinventing school food. The guide even includes a section on procurement and how to obtain fresh, seasonal, sustainably grown produce and products from local and regional sources.
The Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin – Madison conducts rigorous scientific research to bring new insights and tools aimed at improving the well-being of people of all backgrounds and ages, including children in K-12 school settings.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Schools Water Access Resources
This set of resources compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) focuses on improving access to safe, clean drinking water in K-12 schools. Resources include CDC’s toolkit, Increasing Access to Drinking Water in Schools, as well as tools and information from federal partners including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Central Iowa ACEs 360 Coalition K-12 Mental Health Resources
The first years of a child’s life can have a profound impact on future learning, behavior, and overall well-being. The Central Iowa ACEs 360 Steering Committee is leading efforts to raise awareness of the life-long impacts of childhood trauma and to support initiatives working to prevent or mitigate its effects. Their website lists a number of links curated for K-12 professionals including teachers, aids, administrators, school counselors, staff, and others who work closely with educators or school-age youth.
Character.org is an organization of passionate people advocating for integrity, honesty, respect, and other core ethical values to be fused into education for the betterment of our nation. They offer an evidence-based framework for implementing and evaluating character development through their 11 Principles of Effective Character Education. On their website, you will find resources on key topics like service-learning and school climate; lesson plans and best practices; training opportunities; and information on their Schools of Character program.
Chef Ann Foundation’s School Food Institute
The School Food Institute gives school food service professionals and childhood nutrition advocates the in-depth training, operational skills, and strategic vision necessary to make school food fresh, healthy, and sustainable. Online courses give you a front row seat in Chef Ann Cooper’s classroom, where you can learn directly from a leader in school food change on how to transition school meal programs to scratch-cooked operations that provide real, healthy food to kids at school every day. From procurement to finance, recipes to marketing, each course helps make nutritious, fresh, sustainable food a reality. All online courses satisfy U.S. Department of Agriculture professional standards and participants can earn School Food Institute Certification.
Children and Nature Network – Family Nature Clubs Toolkit
The Children and Nature Network (C&NN) is a long-time advocate for getting families out into nature. This is the idea behind their Family Nature Club initiative. Family Nature Clubs help people get time in nature back on the family calendar by providing regular opportunities to engage in hikes, paddles, camping trips, and other fun outdoor family activities. These experiences help to give families a sense of place, allow for free play in nature, and familiarize them with the many opportunities for outdoor recreation in their neighborhoods. C&NN developed this toolkit to help families (or any group!) create their own nature club, with step-by-step instructions along with tips, tools, and resources.
ChopChopKids Magazine and Teacher Curriculum
ChopChop Kids, the publisher of ChopChop Magazine, was founded in 2010 to inspire and teach children and families to cook real food together. Through its namesake magazine, ChopChop reaches more than two million families annually. The magazine is available in English and Spanish and offers nutritious, great-tasting, ethnically diverse, and inexpensive recipes, as well as interesting and little-known food facts, Q&As, and games. The magazine is distributed to schools to teach students about food, cooking, nutrition, and health. A complementary curriculum has been developed with classroom activities, printables, and lessons in math, science, ELA, and social studies that are aligned to national standards.
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
CASEL is the world’s leading organization advancing one of the most important fields in education: the practice of promoting integrated academic, social, and emotional learning for all children, from preschool through high school. Visit their website for case studies, research, policy, and resources (including guides, videos, book recommendations, and informative materials) on integrating social-emotional learning in schools.
Collaborative Learning for Educational Achievement and Resilience (CLEAR)
CLEAR partners with education systems to create and sustain trauma–informed models of practice that support integration of trauma-informed practices into the school environment. Visit CLEAR’s website to learn more about this unique professional development opportunity, see a list of schools implementing the CLEAR model, and obtain more information about child trauma on their resource webpage.
Common Sense Education’s Social and Emotional Learning Educator Toolkit
Social and emotional learning skills aren’t “core content,” but they are at the core of all content. In this toolkit, you will find lessons, activities, classroom tools, and family resources to help students learn about character strengths and develop empathy, compassion, integrity, and more.
Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom (Quick Reference Guide)
From Amazon.com: Nearly 50 percent of students in the United States alone are known to have been exposed to some form of trauma. Kristin Souers, a mental health counselor, and Pete Hall, a former principal, present 12 practical, easy-to-implement strategies to help students living with trauma thrive in the classroom. Based on the best-selling, award-winning book Fostering Resilient Learners, this laminated reference guide will give every educator the tools needed to ensure every child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged in school.
Dig In! Standards-Based Nutrition Education from the Ground Up
Explore a world of possibilities in the garden and on your plate using ten inquiry-based lessons that engage fifth- and sixth-graders in growing, harvesting, tasting, and learning about fruits and vegetables.
Discovering Our Food System is an interdisciplinary, community-based, experiential learning curriculum from Cornell University Cooperative Extension that explores the people and processes that shape our food system. Rooted in the places we live, eat, work, learn, and play, Discovering Our Food System will help youth better understand what the food system means to them, how it affects their community and their health, and ways in which they can influence the food system. This curriculum has been created primarily for educators who work with youth ages 12-18.
The Edible Schoolyard Project’s mission is to build and share a national edible education curriculum for pre-K through high school. The Project’s website offers an array of curricular resources to empower students of all grade levels with the knowledge and values to make food choices that are healthy for them, their communities, and the environment. All lessons are fully integrated into academic subjects and support content standards, Common Core State Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards. The website also provides information on training opportunities and programs around the country that are implementing edible education at their schools and in their communities.
Based on the TEDTalks model, EDTalks feature compelling short talks and Q&A on a wide range of issues impacting public education and young people. Resilience-related talks cover mindfulness-based interventions in schools, resilience in students experiencing homelessness, and trauma-informed classrooms.
Empowering Education is a nonprofit dedicated to bringing comprehensive, mindfulness-based social-emotional learning to K-12 schools. Their products and services include: a standards-aligned, evidence-based K-8 curriculum Empowering Minds; engaging professional development opportunities; schoolwide implementation guidance and coaching; school-family partnership assistance and programming; and Whole Child support consulting. Free samples lessons are available on their website.
The Food Trust’s Kindergarten Initiative
The Food Trust, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has developed a toolkit for its Kindergarten Initiative, a program focused on teaching kindergarteners about farm fresh foods through cooking in the classroom and farm field trips.
Developed by the World Wildlife Fund, the Food Waste Warrior Toolkit provides lessons, activities, and resources to help educators create a classroom in their school’s cafeteria and show how what we eat and what we throw away impacts our planet.
Forward Food Food Service Resources
Forward Food is dedicated to growing a healthier, more sustainable food system by placing an emphasis on plant-based foods. Their website provides resources for K-12 schools including recipes, product lists, sample menus, and a toolkit to help schools develop, implement, and market plant-based meal programs. You will also find more information about Meatless Mondays and free training for school districts.
Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom
From Amazon.com: In this galvanizing book for all educators, Kristin Souers and Pete Hall explore an urgent and growing issue—childhood trauma—and its profound effect on learning and teaching.
Grounded in research and the authors’ experience working with trauma-affected students and their teachers, Fostering Resilient Learners will help you cultivate a trauma-sensitive learning environment for students across all content areas, grade levels, and educational settings. The authors—a mental health therapist and a veteran principal—provide proven, reliable strategies to help you
- Understand what trauma is and how it hinders the learning, motivation, and success of all students in the classroom.
- Build strong relationships and create a safe space to enable students to learn at high levels.
- Adopt a strengths-based approach that leads you to recalibrate how you view destructive student behaviors and to perceive what students need to break negative cycles.
- Head off frustration and burnout with essential self-care techniques that will help you and your students flourish.
Each chapter also includes questions and exercises to encourage reflection and extension of the ideas in this book. As an educator, you face the impact of trauma in the classroom every day. Let this book be your guide to seeking solutions rather than dwelling on problems, to building relationships that allow students to grow, thrive, and—most assuredly—learn at high levels.
Fuel Up to Play 60 is the nation’s largest in-school health and wellness program, created by the National Dairy Council and National Football League in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This free program offers funding opportunities for schools and an online Playbook full of school-tested action strategies to improve healthy eating and physical activity at schools and beyond. Fuel Up to Play 60 empowers students, with the support of adults, to take the lead in making healthy changes and to have a positive impact in their communities. In addition to their Playbook, Fuel Up to Play 60 offers a wealth of healthy eating and physical activity information, research, and tools on their website to enable educators to empower their students to adopt healthy behaviors and make healthy changes in the school environment.
This toolkit was developed by Slow Food USA and Whole Kids Foundation to help school district food service staff develop their own protocols for safely using school garden produce in cafeteria meals. Its templates and step-by-step process build off the successes and safety protocols of five U.S. school districts.
Got Veggies? is a garden-based nutrition education curriculum that was developed by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Nutrition and Physical Activity program with the goal of getting children to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. The curriculum features seven full lesson plans, a series of shorter garden-based activities, recipes, and tips for cooking and eating from the garden.
Developed by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, Growing Minds works with schools in 60 Appalachian counties to help them provide farm to school experiences to their students. Their website includes information about cooking with local food and gardening with students, along with lesson plans, recipes, and a database of children’s books that are appropriate for farm to school lessons.
Guide to Taste Testing Local Foods in Schools
This guide, developed by VT FEED, provides tools and resources to help school nutrition staff, teachers, and farm to school coordinators implement a school taste test program that encourages students to try new foods, integrates local food into school meal programs, and involves students and staff in school food change.
HealthCorps is a nonprofit that gives teens tools to improve physical and mental health so they can learn to live more productive and happier lives. The organization offers two programs: Living Labs, where a HealthCorps Coordinator is placed inside a high-need high school to teach wellness-related classes; and HealthCorps University, which provides one- to two-day professional development trainings in the HealthCorps curriculum for educators and key organizational personnel.
HealthCorps’ curriculum provides turnkey skills to integrate health and wellness into an organization’s current programming and represents lessons from over a decade of work and research in many of America’s most challenging high schools. The curriculum has been refined and developed since 2003, is aligned to National Health Education Standards, and has been vetted through a board of medical experts. The curriculum is free and can be downloaded from HealthCorps’ website, where you can also read program success stories, view videos, and find healthy recipes.
The Heart of Learning: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success
Written and compiled by the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and Western Washington University staff, this handbook contains valuable information for educators who work daily to help children become competent learners despite the enormous barriers posed by traumatic experiences.
The In Defense of Food curriculum is a companion to the PBS documentary In Defense of Food, using activities and film clips to give students tools to think critically about food. Students learn why it is important to eat healthfully, investigate how food companies influence their food choices, and create action plans for changing their eating habits. They become motivated to eat real food, and excited to share what they have learned with their family, friends, and community. The curriculum is designed for middle school after-school programs and can be adapted for students from age ten through adulthood in a wide range of settings.
A program of the Chef Ann Foundation, the Lunch Box provides school district administrators, food service directors, and their teams with best practices, tools, and resources to help with menu creation, financial management, procurement, marketing, and engagement strategies, all to ensure every student has access to healthy, nutritious, and delicious food every day. Visit their website for free access to scalable and downloadable recipes, U.S. Department of Agriculture compliant menu cycles, procurement tools, financial calculators, training tools, and more.
Mindful Schools is nonprofit training organization that offers online and in-person courses, multimedia content, informative articles, and a network of mindful educators spanning all 50 U.S. states and 100+ countries.
MindUp is a product of The Hawn Foundation and was developed to help children build personal resilience, develop positive behavior, and improve learning and scholastic performance. Grounded in the pillars of Neuroscience, Positive Psychology, Mindful Behavior, and Social-Emotional Learning, the program consists of 15 lessons that are tailored to a child’s age group and development level. Each lesson offers students mindful strategies that can increase self-control, focus, empathy, and optimism. Visit the MindUp website to learn more about the lessons, pricing, and to view related research and white papers.
National Association of Physical Literacy
The National Association of Physical Literacy (NAPL) aims to inspire a healthy, active world in which all people have the ability to move, the confidence to play, and the desire to affect genuine wellness for generations to come. The global leader of physical literacy programming, certification, training, and curriculum, NAPL is a resource for K-12 schools looking to infuse more movement into every facet of the school day.
National Center for Outdoor and Adventure Education
The National Center for Outdoor and Adventure Education (NCOAE) is a values-based outdoor adventure and education provider for teens and adults interested in personal growth and professional development. NCOAE’s core curriculum emphasizes teamwork, environmental stewardship, and the acquisition of technical skills, helping people of all ages improve their self-confidence and interpersonal relationships. Courses and trainings vary in length from three days to three months. Courses focus on a variety of outdoor and wilderness skills including mountaineering, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, backpacking, surfing, sea kayaking, and remote backcountry travel and camping. Trainings and certifications include the NCOAE ‘Intensive’ Emergency Medical Technician-Basic (EMT-B) training, Advanced EMT (Bridge) training, Wilderness Medicine, and Leave No Trace.
National Center for Safe Routes to School
Established in May 2006, the National Center for Safe Routes to School assists states and communities in enabling and encouraging children to safely walk and bicycle to school. The National Center serves as the information clearinghouse for the federal Safe Routes to School program. The organization also provides technical support and resources, coordinates online registration efforts for U.S. Walk to School Day, and facilitates worldwide promotion and participation. Their website offers program tools, training, events and activities, data resources and analysis tools, and funding information for Safe Routes to School related programming.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network – School Personnel
This webpage features tools and materials to help educators, school staff, and administrators understand and respond to the specific needs of traumatized children. You can learn more about creating trauma-informed schools in the Trauma-Informed Care section of this website.
National Drinking Water Alliance
The National Drinking Water Alliance’s (NDWA) mission is to ensure that all children in the U.S. can drink safe water in the places where they live, learn, and play. NDWA works to build access and consumption through inter-related action areas: research, policy, safety, access, and education. Resources for K-12 schools are broken out on the website around each of NDWA’s action areas.
National Farm to School Network
National Farm to School Network (NFSN) is an information, advocacy, and networking hub for communities working to bring local food sourcing and food and agricultural education into school systems. NFSN has a resource database with hundreds of resources available, including NFSN publications and resources created by other organizations. These resources are searchable by setting (K-12 schools, On the Farm, etc.) as well as by topic (school gardens, procurement, fundraising, etc.).
Nourish is an educational initiative designed to open a meaningful conversation about food, health, and sustainability. A program of the nonprofit Worldlink, Nourish combines PBS television, curriculum resources, web content, short films, and professional learning. Visit the website to download the Nourish Curriculum Guide, browse a collection of short videos and food system tools, and read about how educators and schools are using Nourish with their students.
Ordinary Magic: Resilience in Development
From Amazon.com: From a pioneering researcher, this book synthesizes the best current knowledge on resilience in children and adolescents. Ann S. Masten explores what allows certain individuals to thrive and adapt despite adverse circumstances, such as poverty, chronic family problems, or exposure to trauma. Coverage encompasses the neurobiology of resilience as well as the role of major contexts of development: families, schools, and culture. Identifying key protective factors in early childhood and beyond, Masten provides a cogent framework for designing programs to promote resilience. Complex concepts are carefully defined and illustrated with real-world examples.
This documentary chronicles a year in the life of Lincoln High School in the community of Walla Walla, Washington. The kids who come to Lincoln have a history of truancy, behavioral problems, and substance abuse. After Lincoln’s principal is exposed to research about the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences, he decides to radically change the school’s approach to discipline. With the aid of diary camera footage, the film follows six students. From getting into fights, grappling with traumatic events in their lives, and on the cusp of dropping out, they find healing, support, and academic promise at Lincoln High.
Physical Activity Design Guidelines for School Architecture
Physical Activity Design Guidelines for School Architecture is a practical tool that provides architects, designers, school planners, educators, and public health professionals with strategies for making K-12 school environments conducive to healthy physical activity. The design guidelines include specific strategies in 10 school design domains that support active school communities and enable students to adopt healthier physical activity behaviors.
Procuring Local Foods for Child Nutrition Programs
This U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service guide showcases the many ways schools can purchase locally in accordance with regulations. It also provides information on what local means and where to find local foods.
Project Adventure is an internationally recognized leader in adventure-based experiential programming, combining challenging and engaging activities with focused reflection to build character, promote teamwork, and encourage responsibility. Project Adventure’s “hands on” SEL (social and emotional learning) programming allows students and educators to learn and experience critical social and emotional skills. In addition to SEL programs, Project Adventure also offers Mindfulness Training, SEL schoolwide consulting, youth leadership training, and summer adventure camps.
Resilience in Children Exposed to Trauma, Disaster, and War: Global Perspectives
From Coursera: How do children overcome hazardous experiences to succeed in life? What can be done to protect young people at risk from trauma, war, disasters, and other adversities? Learn about the importance of fostering resilience in children at risk. During this course, participants will learn how trauma can affect children and the systems they depend on, gain insight into core concepts, research methods and lessons learned in last 50 years of resilience research, learn how research is being applied in the real world through interventions that promote resilience, and engage in discussions with others who are working with children at risk around the world. Participants are welcome to take the MOOC at no cost or to register for a Course Certificate ($49).
Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools: Building and sustaining quality in testing times
From Amazon.com: This book unpacks the complex, dynamic blend of individuals’ psychological and professional assets, workplace conditions and leadership support which enable teachers who stay in teaching to continue to make a difference in their careers, regardless of shifts in policy, workplace, professional and personal circumstances.
Whilst much has been written over the years about teacher stress and burnout, there is very little research which reports on the conditions which are essential for teachers to sustain their commitment and effectiveness over their professional lives, in contexts of challenge and change. Drawing upon a range of educational, psychological, socio-cultural and neuro-scientific research, together with vivid accounts from teachers in a variety of primary and secondary schools internationally, and from their own research on teachers’ work and identities, the authors discuss the dynamic nature, forms and practices of teacher resilience. They argue that resilience in teachers is not only their ability to bounce back in extremely adverse circumstances but that it is the capacity of teachers for everyday resilience which enables them to sustain their commitment and effectiveness in responding positively to the unavoidable uncertainties inherent of their professional lives.
The authors conclude that resilience in teachers can be nurtured by the intellectual, social and organisational environments in which teachers work and live, rather than being simply a personal attribute or trait, determined by nature. Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools will be of key interest to policy makers, head teachers, teachers and training and development organisations who wish to improve quality and standards in schools.
Responsive Classroom is an evidence-based approach that emphasizes social, emotional, and academic growth in a strong and safe school community. Developed by classroom teachers, this approach gives K-8 educators the skills they need to help students build academic and social-emotional competencies. Visit their website to learn more about the broad array of consulting services and professional development opportunities they offer, including one-day and multi-day workshops; on-site, whole school professional development and consultation; teacher certification; and free online resources.
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is a nonprofit organization that improves quality of life for kids and communities by promoting healthy living, safe infrastructure, and physical activity, starting with bicycling and walking to school and beyond. The Partnership advances policy change; catalyzes support with a network of more than 750 partner organizations, as well as schools, policy makers, and grassroots supporters; and shares deep expertise at national, state, and local levels with those helping to propel their mission. The Partnership’s website provides information on Safe Routes to School, advancing policy change, and creating more active schools, as well as resources and best practices around Safe Routes to School policies, programs, and initiatives.
Scaling up Healthy, Climate-Friendly School Food: Strategies for Success
Friends of the Earth’s report—Scaling Up Healthy, Climate-Friendly School Food: Strategies for Success––spotlights a growing movement of pioneering school districts using their massive purchasing power to provide plant-forward, climate-friendly food that is healthier for students and the planet. This report, which includes four detailed case studies, is based on lessons learned from 33 interviews with school food professionals. It documents specific climate benefits of menu shifts and provides valuable resources, detailed strategies, examples, and best practices from 18 school districts. The report also points to major policy and structural barriers and highlights policy actions that can help flip institutional incentives from an emphasis on highly processed, industrial animal products to healthy, fresh, climate-friendly, plant-forward meals.
School Culture Recharged: Strategies to Energize Your Staff and Culture
From ASCD’s website: Why do some schools succeed while others struggle? Why do policies and programs often fail to deliver what they promise? In this follow-up to their insightful School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It, authors Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker offer practical advice and strategies that help you build positive energy to reinvigorate your school’s culture and staff.
Written as a standalone guide, School Culture Recharged clarifies the difference between culture and climate and zeroes in on key school improvement efforts, including
- Moving from the culture you have to the culture you want;
- Using the school’s culture to improve teaching, job satisfaction, and morale;
- Maximizing the intentions of professional learning communities; and
- Developing organizational habits—rules and rituals—that can contribute to positive change.
For education leaders at all levels, this book delivers a compelling message: Understanding and harnessing the transformative power of school culture can propel your school into the kind of place where teachers want to work, administrators can focus on what matters most, and students can thrive.
School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It
From ASCD’s website: Your school is a lot more than a center of student learning—it also represents a self-contained culture, with traditions and expectations that reflect its unique mission and demographics. In this groundbreaking book, education experts Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker offer tools, strategies, and advice for defining, assessing, and ultimately transforming your school’s culture into one that is positive, forward-looking, and actively working to enrich students’ lives. Drawing from decades of research on organizational cultures and school leadership, the authors provide everything you need to optimize both the culture and climate of your school, including:
- “Culture-busting” strategies to help teachers adopt positive attitudes, outlooks, and behaviors;
- A framework for pinpointing the type of culture you have, the type that you want, and the actions you need to take to bridge the two;
- Tips for hiring, training, and retaining teachers who will actively work to improve your school’s culture; and
- Instructions on how to create and implement a successful School Culture Rewiring Team.
Though often invisible to the naked eye, a school’s culture influences everything that takes place under its roof. Whether your school is urban or rural, prosperous or struggling, School Culture Rewired is the ultimate guide to making sure that the culture in your school is guided first and foremost by what’s best for your students.
From Amazon.com: A unique collaboration between the celebrated management thinker and Fifth Discipline author Peter Senge and a team of renowned educators and organizational change leaders, Schools that Learn describes how schools can adapt, grow, and change in the face of the demands and challenges of our society, and provides tools, techniques, and references for bringing those aspirations to life.
The new revised and updated edition offers practical advice for overcoming the many challenges that face our communities and educational systems today. It shows teachers, administrators, students, parents, and community members how to successfully use principles of organizational learning, including systems thinking and shared vision, to address the challenges that face our nation’s schools. In a fast-changing world where school populations are increasingly diverse, children live in ever-more-complex social and media environments, standardized tests are applied as overly simplistic “quick fixes,” and advances in science and technology continue to accelerate, the pressures on our educational system are inescapable. Schools That Learn offers a much-needed way to open dialogue about these problems – and provides pragmatic opportunities to transform school systems into learning organizations.
Drawing on observations and advice from more than 70 writers and experts on schools and education, this book features:
- Methods for implementing organizational learning and explanations of why they work
- Compelling stories and anecdotes from the “field” – classrooms, schools, and communities
- Charts, tables, and diagrams to illustrate systems thinking and other practices
- Guiding principles for how to apply innovative practices in all types of school systems
- Individual exercises useful for both teachers and students
- Team exercises to foster communication within the classroom, school, or community group
- New essays on topics like educating for sustainability, systems thinking in the classroom, and “the great game of high school.”
- New recommendations for related books, articles, videotapes, and web sites
- And more
Schools That Learn is the essential guide for anyone who cares about the future of education and keeping our nation’s schools competitive in our fast-changing world.
Sea to School: A Guide for School Cafeterias and Classrooms
This guide explores the emerging “sea to school” movement in which K-12 schools are sourcing locally and promoting seafood caught in regional waters. These schools are incorporating locally caught seafood into their meals for a variety of reasons and through a variety of procurement models. This guide covers why schools might choose to source local seafood, the different methods for purchasing local seafood, and innovative strategies for promoting local seafood to students.
SHAPE America – Society of Health and Physical Educators is committed to ensuring all children have the opportunity to lead healthy, physically active lives. SHAPE America has developed guidelines for physical activity and physical education in schools, and their National Standards for K-12 Physical Education serve as a foundation for physical education programs across the country. You can access these standards and guidelines on their website, in addition to helpful resources, tools, and professional development opportunities to help make physical activity a core component at your school.
Shrinking the Carbon and Water Footprint of School Food: A Recipe for Combatting Climate Change
This ground-breaking report from Friends of the Earth shows how institutional menu shifts toward less and better meat and more plants can fight climate change and increase access to healthy food, all while saving money. The report includes a case study that shows how Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) was able to significantly reduce its carbon and water footprint over a two-year period by replacing a share of its meat, poultry, and cheese purchases with plant-based proteins. These actions also saved the district money and improved students’ access to healthful food.
Food service directors face complex demands and requirements and serving kids tasty and nutritious food must remain their number one priority. The OUSD case study shows that plant-forward menu planning can support the mandate for healthier, delicious food and provides resources that can assist school districts—and other public institutions—in their shift to climate conscious menus.
Social-Emotional Learning Webinars from Panorama Education
Panorama Education uses surveys and data analysis to provide hands-on coaching and support for schools and school districts looking to improve climate and culture, teaching and learning, family and community engagement, and social-emotional learning. The organization’s website includes an archive of past webinars touching on topics around social-emotional learning, including how-to’s and case studies from schools and school districts.
State Farm to School Policy Handbook: 2002 – 2018
This handbook offers farm to school advocates a road map to learn about and engage in policy efforts that advance local food purchasing and farm to school activities that benefit students, farmers, and communities. The handbook summarizes and analyzes every proposed farm to school bill and resolution introduced between January 2002 and December 2018, and includes an analysis of trends, case studies, and advocacy resources for advocates and policymakers to support state farm to school policies.
Sustainable Schools Project Tools and Resources
A program of Shelburne Farms, the Sustainable Schools Project works with schools to cultivate responsible, informed citizens who are engaged in building sustainable communities. The Project’s tools and resources webpage includes numerous resources related to education for sustainability, best practices, curricular examples, and a listing of partner organizations with complementary resources.
Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative
The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative’s mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school. Their website contains information on what is a trauma-sensitive school, as well as resources, research, and guidelines for creating and advocating for trauma-sensitive school environments.
Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Learning Communities Transforming Children’s Lives, K-5
From Amazon: Growing evidence supports the important relationship between trauma and academic failure. Along with the failure of “zero tolerance” policies to resolve issues of school safety and a new understanding of children’s disruptive behavior, educators are changing the way they view children’s academic and social problems. In response, the trauma-sensitive schools movement presents a new vision for promoting children’s success. This book introduces this promising approach and provides K–5 education professionals with clear explanations of current research and dozens of practical, creative ideas to help them:
- View poor academic and social progress through a trauma-sensitive lens.
- Create a school climate that fosters safety and resiliency in vulnerable children.
- Establish relationships with children that support their efforts to self-regulate.
- Design instruction that reflects the social nature of the brain.
- Work with the brain’s neuroplasticity to increase children’s executive functioning.
- Reduce teacher attrition in high-risk schools by decreasing secondary traumatic stress.
- Influence educational reforms by aligning them with current research on the prevalence of childhood trauma and its effects on learning.
Integrating research on children’s neurodevelopment and educational best practices, this important book will build the capacity of teachers and school administrators to successfully manage the behavior of children with symptoms of complex developmental trauma.
USDA Farm to School Planning Toolkit
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm to School Planning Toolkit contains tips, examples, insights, and resources for schools, school districts, and community partners looking to start or grow a farm to school program.
USDA Office of Community Food Systems
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Food Systems website is a repository of information for schools and farm to school advocates, including fact sheets, videos and webinars, and state and program staff contacts, as well as links to resources for procuring local foods, Farm to Preschool, and Farm to Summer.
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation provides tips, resources, and case studies to assist schools in creating and/or strengthening wellness policies. A model wellness policy is available to download and adapt to meet your school’s unique needs.
Other Resources
Alliance for a Healthier Generation Healthy Schools Framework
Cabell County Crew Mao
Center for Ecoliteracy Rethinking School Lunch Guide
EUSD Green Initaitives
Explore Elementray School Code of Conduct
GHS Flyer
GSCQ School Grounds
GSNN Sustainability is About How we Treat Each Other
Health Wellness Framework
Middle School Crew Targets
Middle School Social and Emotional Learning Advisory Program
Panorama ED Sel and Climate Data Assessment
RTI on Steroids
School Climate Survey
Timothy Baird – Being Mindful about Mindfulness
USDA Farm to School Planning Toolkit