Principal Connections

I attended I really great session today on self-regulation. It was part of a series of centrally-organized vice principal leadership sessions. This has been the best session to date! The workshop was premised on the work and research of York University's Dr. Stuart Shanker, who provides one of the most practical and understandable definitions of self-regulations, at least that I have read: "Self-regulation is the ability to manage stress. It refers to the neural processes that control the energy expended to deal with a stressor and then recover. When an individual's stress levels are too high various systems for thinking and metabolic recovery are compromised. The signs of dysregulation can show up in the behaviour, mood attention and/or physical well-being of child, teen, or adult." Having self-control or responding to situations in an appropriate manner were part of what I previously understood self-regulation to be about. Clearly it goes beyond a sense of co...

There are so many students in our schools who are in crisis. There have been countless days where I have felt that no amount of compassion could comfort and my lack of common experience made me I qualified to help these most vulnerable students. In the last 4 years, I have helped students through the deaths of parents including a suicide, I stopped a young girl from ending her own life and have worked with countless kids enduring truly difficult medical circumstances including cancer. There is no training on how to deal. There  is lots to read on what to say and what not to say but it always seems so abstract and impractical. It's a struggle to manage my own reactions and emotions and maintain composure. I have tried in vain to remain stoic but have yielded to my humanity so many times and have cried along side students and their parents. I have stood frozen and speechless in front of caskets of students who have died, feeling inadequate in offering consolation to a devastated fami...