8 must-reads for education professionals

A summary of the conversation between Dr. Elke Paul and Dr. Doug Walker hosted by CreatePositive.

We are excited to bring MORE resources to help educators and students process the pandemic in a way that promotes growth, healing and connection.

We are delighted to announce that Celeste Duff has agreed to join the CreatePositive team as a research assistant and analytical process maven.

The Eton Journal For Innovation and Research In Education recently released an issue on Human Fulfilment and the Aims of Education. The issue contains a multitude of innovative explorations into how education can be used to move students towards human fulfillment. According to the APA dictionary of psychology, fulfillment is the actual or felt the satisfaction of needs and desires or the attainment of aspirations. One purpose of education is to prepare students for life, or in our way of thinking a good and meaningful life of contribution.

We are excited to announce the global launch of our Elephant in the Classroom course! The last school year has been fundamentally and disruptively different from any other. There is a deep wish to "just go back to normal:" back to the safety of the known structures, relationships, and ways of working. However, when the new school year starts, there will be an elephant in the classroom. Too big and potentially destructive to be ignored, it is the legacy of the pandemic: an undercurrent of exhaustion, vulnerability, grief and loss, but also an impression of newly discovered strengths, growth, agency and hope. We're here to help.

We are proud to be collaborating with ISS on their mentoring program. “At ISS we are designing a mentoring approach to provide students with an individual, balanced learning program that will best prepare them for life after school, while offering them positive, memorable experiences while they are here.” We couldn't be happier to join them on this journey. Together we create positive relationships.

Ever wonder why meditation is part of the morning routine of highly effective people? It's because meditation is free, simpler than it seems and not what many skeptics imagine.

We're delighted to announce that the Wellbeing Café, our new collaboration with ECIS, the Educational Collaborative for International Schools, is open! We are creating a virtual place for ECIS members to discuss a new wellbeing topic for staff and students every two weeks. Get ready to pull up a chair, grab a cup and recharge!

The past year has been a taxing one. For many teenagers this has involved a disruption in their education, a personal experience of sickness or loss, and the inability to spend time doing things teens are known for like playing sports, going to parties, making music, going to the mall or getting outside. One educator we work with reflected back on the things that he remembered most about high school and realized that none of those opportunities were currently available to most teens saying "COVID has stolen their youth". Even before the pandemic, today’s teenagers faced different challenges than previous generations. But are today’s teenagers really that different from past generations?

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to two things: first, to your ability to recognize the emotion you are experiencing and to manage that emotion in a useful way rather than being overwhelmed by it. Liz Gilbert, of Eat, Pray, Love fame, is fond of saying: "You invite your emotions along for the car ride, but you don't let them drive." The second component of EI is your ability to interpret accurately and respond appropriately to the emotions of others. But can EI be developed?

Check out the 10 education trends currently emerging that will lead to higher engagement and increase human ability to navigate the changes of the next few decades as predicted by the World Economic Forum.