3 events, 3 days, NY ➡️NC ➡️NY. Awesome time at each.
1st – Professional Development w the teachers from North Bellmore School District – all diff grade levels of Elementary School, 50 teachers in total.
That note that I shared in stories, from one of the teachers who talked abt finding out the REASONs behind a child’s behavior, before punishing them for that behavior immediately, came from this group.
Day 1 one was Monday & we laid the groundwork for discussion. I asked what terms that came to mind when they thought abt mental HEALTH, & just like w the previous group, negative associations were what was primarily shared.
Tuesday I then flew to @bartonathletics w my friend @cutlerbetsy. She was introducing her college resource app, @athlete_mh_link to the student athletes at Barton. She graciously asked me to share my story as the backdrop for why this tool of hers was so important for their students to use.
Barton, we did in the school chapel, & the Chaplin, at the panel discussion said a very profound thing abt anxiety. He said: “None of us are born w instructions as to how to deal w anxiety. None of us. So bc we don’t know, when we don’t learn, it stays inside of us & it festers – as tightness in our chest, pains in our back, foggy brains, & even more serious physical health complications. It’s why LEARNING how to release & rewire it is so impt.”
OK, back to this afternoon for Round 2 w North Bellmore, we dove into campaigns to attack “stigma.” I showed them 10 of the most popular campaigns in our world, to “fight” stigma: from Let’s Talk, to R U OK? to Stop Stigma, to You Good? The biggest takeaway after a LOT of back & forth – these campaigns do not work unless we uncover the underlying truth – Same Here, I struggle just like you, we all struggle, we all face challenge, so we are all on the same team. W/o that understanding, the campaigns above only talk to the “effected” ppl, & only further separate the “sick” from the “healthy.”
Fun to see a school take on the Scale so passionately & want to incorporate it into student/teacher daily interactions. Time to open communication!
