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well-being Playlist

We’re thrilled that you’ll be joining this month’s exploration of what it means to be well and how we can design learning that fosters well-being now and in the future.

To get your wheels turning, we invite you do thinking and exploring below — first by reflecting on well-being in your own lives, and then by perusing some pieces that speak to you and elevate different dimensions of wellness that schools and society are grappling with.

Part 1

REfLECT

We’ve been inspired by this framework from the Global Wellness Institute — a push to think holistically and multi-dimensionally about our well-being. We invite you to take a few minutes to journal or reflect on the following questions:

  1. How does this match your own understanding of wellness/wellbeing? Are there domains you don’t often think about?

  2. Which do you intentionally nurture in your day to day life? What does that look like? Are there domains you want to invest in?

  3. What does this framework make you think about well-being in your schooling experience (as a student, parent, educator, etc)? What gets honored? What gets ignored? What doesn’t have a place in schools?

Part 2

Explore

We’ve curated a few pieces to optionally explore. As you do, consider, what does this illuminate about the state of well-being in schools and society? What ideas does this prompt for you and your own practice?

 
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Teachers are not okay

“You can’t deep-breathe your way out of a pandemic:” EdWeek explores the state of teaching today, when “more than a quarter of teachers said job-related stress leads them to think often about quitting.” What are the implications for administrators and others who support teachers and their wellbeing?

The Nap Ministry

In 2016, Tricia Hersey founded The Nap Ministry, which explores the liberating power of naps. They believe rest is a form of resistance and name sleep deprivation as a racial and social justice issue. In this interview, she elaborates on these beliefs, but also shares her own personal practices for wellbeing.

best practices for centering wellbeing

What would it look like for schools to truly prioritize mental health? This piece from Teen Vogue explains the Biden administration’s new guidance (October 2021), and shares context for the mental health crisis in schools. Those guidelines include many real-world examples of how the recommendations are being put into action by schools, communities, and states across the country.

“this is real and this is all of us”

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. In her famous TED talk, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris “explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain.”

 

Resources from our guests