10 Back to School Tips to Help Students Succeed in the Classroom

Sep. 03, 2019

Congratulations, guardians of Philadelphia: You and those growing humans you nurture fabricated information technology through some other summer! Equally students around the region trade their mosquito bites and Minecraft for homeroom and homework today, nosotros asked local experts to share the latest inquiry on what students demand virtually, in and outside of the classroom, to succeed this yr.

Here, some of their dorsum to school tips to help all kids prosper:

Prefer the audio version of this story? Listen to this article in CitizenCast below:

1. TEACH EMPATHY

"I call up broadening what it means for students to be successful is the well-nigh of import matter to recollect this schoolhouse twelvemonth," says Angela Duckworth, the Penn Professor of Psychology and MacArthur "Genius" Award-winner who'due south virtually well-known as the author of Grit but who, since 2013, has also been leading a squad of research scientists at her West Philly-based Character Lab to detect and disseminate ways for educators and parents to build kids' character: kindness, social intelligence, purpose, and more.

"It'southward not that I don't recall report cards and standardized exam scores are important—I do—but there is so much more to a child's well-being," Duckworth says. She believes thriving ways tending to iv needs: academic; social; emotional; and concrete—in other words, school, friendship, happiness, and health. Adults, she says, have the job of creating environments that set kids upwardly for that kind of "holistic thriving."

What you tin can do: Visit characterlab.org for research-backed tips on how you tin assistance the students in your life thrive in all four spheres. Follow Duckworth's weekly " Thoughts of the Week " on her blog, and cheque out C-Lab's proprietary " Playbooks " to get a deeper wait at nurturing grapheme traits like curiosity, gratitude, proactivity, and more than.

ii. Gear up THE TONE FOR QUALITY Slumber

"Lots of studies show that children from grades K through 12 who don't become plenty slumber or have poor quality of slumber are more likely to struggle academically and have emotional and behavioral concerns," explains slumber skillful Ariel Williamson, PhD, a faculty fellow member with appointments in CHOP's Slumber Centre, PolicyLab, and Eye for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness. Sleep-deprived kids, she says, struggle with maintaining attention and are even more than probable to consume unhealthy foods. The National Slumber Foundation recommends that kids ages 6-13 become about 9-xi hours of sleep per night, and that teens ages 14-17 log about 8-x. "We know from research studies that fifty-fifty 30 more minutes of sleep can benefit kids' outcomes," Williamson explains.

The nearly crucial, research-backed ways to help kids become enough slumber: Don't let them have whatsoever caffeine, which can be hiding in some root beer, Mount Dew, and Sunkist; insist on bedtime routines and consistent bedtime and wake-up times for kids of all ages (when teens make up for lost weekday sleep past snoozing til noon on weekends, they're merely derailing weekday schedules even more); and accept a family policy wherein everyone avoids electronic devices for at least a half hour before bedtime—screens' blue light hampers melatonin production, which our bodies need for slumber.

What you can practice: Advocate for later school start times, and sleep didactics, in your district; set slumber routines in your house; and support organizations like Beds for Kids and Pajama Program , to help all children get the sleep supplies they deserve. For more info, see the Sleep Enquiry Society , National Sleep Foundation , and American Academy of Sleep Medicine .

3. GET BACK TO NATURE

You've probably heard nearly the uptick in doctors giving patients " nature prescriptions"—simply beingness outside , says Aaliyah Green Ross, Director of Pedagogy at The Schuylkill Center for Ecology Didactics , can lower blood pressure and stress hormones, reduce rumination, and amend clarity of thought. In that spirit, The Schuylkill Middle, which offers year-round programming like schoolhouse field trips and their contempo all-family "Shooting Stars and S'Mores" upshot, has also been collaborating with CHOP to employ similarly beneficial programming for Philly-surface area children. Chosen Nature PHL , the initiative has The Schuylkill Middle working with CHOP pediatricians to prescribe fourth dimension in nature for kids who could benefit from it.

"During a well-child visit, a doctor will appraise a child, asking them how much time they're spending out in nature, and how comfortable they feel outdoors or how much they know about parks in their area ," Light-green Ross explains. "If the doctor feels it's necessary, they'll connect the family with someone called a nature navigator, who's an employee of The Schuylkill Center, who will follow up after the visit, help identify what barriers are stopping them from getting as much outdoor time every bit they need, and work with them to figure out where their local parks are and what programs they can join at their local rec centre. They'll connect them with resources and give them the knowledge and motivation they need to spend more fourth dimension outdoors."

For at present, The Schuylkill Center is working with CHOP clinics in Roxborough and Cobbs Creek, with expansion to more clinics forthcoming, but anyone can admission NaturePHL.org , which contains a mapping tool with the just database of all the parks and green spaces in Philly.

What you can do: Donate to The Center, nourish its programs, enroll your kids in its camps on the days that schoolhouse's not in session, and cheque out NaturePHL.org to observe your local dark-green spaces.

4. NURTURE MENTAL HEALTH

The statistics are alarming: Rates of suicide and depression among children and teens are at an all-time loftier. The Ardmore-based nonprofit Minding Your Heed wants to change that. "It doesn't affair how smart you are, how athletic you are or how good y'all are at annihilation if y'all're not in a good place emotionally, considering somewhen things will come crashing down if yous're non taking care of yourself," says Minding Your Listen'southward Executive Manager Trish Larsen.

The organization works to destigmatize mental health issues with show-based programming that sends teens who've been diagnosed with a mental health condition into schools to speak to students, starting with classrooms as young as fifth form. "Nosotros talk to kids about their mental health in a gentle way or in a profound way, depending on what we're invited to do. We help them to understand how unmanaged stress tin can lead to negative coping, self-destructive behaviors, and astringent feet and depression," Larsen explains.

They also do suicide prevention training for teachers and parent education nights. "We're basically trying to aid kids understand how to talk almost mental health and how to put words to their feelings from a immature age, and then that it just becomes a role of their vocabulary and also a condolement, letting them know that in that location are folks who tin aid them."

What you can practice: Donate to help continue Minding Your Mind's programs free for schools. "We never plough people down, and we're ever looking to bring our programs to some of the most underserved schools in our surface area," Larsen says.

five. ENCOURAGE PHYSICAL Activeness

No one tin fence the countless, proven benefits of getting kids moving: from relieving stress to minimizing obesity to improving slumber. But as anyone who's e'er signed upwards for a gym membership can attest, finding a physical outlet and sticking to it is the hard part. The West Chester-based Healthy Kids Running Serial has come up with a solution: Their five-week, coed running program for kids in pre-m through eye school is designed, as founder Jeff Long—who attended St. Joe'due south University on a track scholarship says—"to introduce kids to running in a fun and positive way with the hope of building their self-esteem and instilling in them a get-up-and-go attitude." Philadelphia has two non-profits with the same mission, located at schools around the city: Students Run Philly Style and Girls on the Run , which focuses on running and empowerment for young girls.

Almost anybody can run, Long says, and the organization is mindful of offering challenger divisions for kids with disabilities. "It'south a keen opportunity for kids who mayhap aren't hitting all the homeruns or throwing all the touchdowns. It's an all-inclusive kind of opportunity for kids to just do their all-time and be cheered for whatever their best is," he says. Long's program is now in 275 towns in 36 states, and CHOP runs a series in W Philly.

What yous tin can do: Go to HealthyKidsRunningSeries.org to find a local race serial for your kids; there's a $35-$xl entry fee, with scholarships bachelor. As well check out Girls on the Run locations, and how to start y'all own hither ; and Students Run Philly Mode teams, and how to bring one to your school here .

6. Practise MINDFULNESS

A recent study out of the Center for Education Policy Enquiry at Harvard University (CEPR), MIT, and Transforming Education confirmed what anyone tin intuit: Mindfulness is a good thing for students. Total stop. But what that research, which focused on a small-scale cohort of students in a short-term mindfulness program, also called for is the need to explore the benefits of longer-term mindfulness program. Philly's own Gail Silver, a children's book author and founder of Yoga Child , is one step ahead of Harvard, having created the nonprofit School Mindfulness Project , which strives to create an unabridged mindfulness ecosystem in schools and the wider community.

The premise: A veritable SWAT team of yoga and mindfulness leaders sweeps into a schoolhouse, first sharing practices with teachers, so implementing programming throughout an unabridged schoolhouse for the duration of the academic year, with ongoing follow-upwardly, allowing for school-wide integration and sustainability. "By the time our beginning graders are in ninth class, they tin come dorsum into their elementary schools and be mentors or volunteers or somewhen employees," Silver says.

What y'all tin practice: With the budget for one yr of SMP'south programming topping out between $250,000 and $450,000, all donations are welcome. Besides, check out the Philly-based yoga plan started Project Little Warriors .

vii. PLAY CHESS!

Chess is idea to date back to 6th-century Republic of india, and schools worldwide have implemented chess programs for decades. With good reason: Chess builds confidence, teaches respect, gets students thinking well-nigh consequences. In the era of screens, it'southward a especially powerful antidote to tech-brain. Merely what's unique almost the nonprofit Philadelphia Chess Society is its delivery, since 2017, to enabling students throughout Philly to head to tournaments in other neighborhoods and cities—like national tournaments in Ohio and Illinois.

"Most of the kids we work with come from families that cannot afford the full cost of going to these tournaments. And kids need those large trips: You can get a lot of benefits out of chess no matter how you're playing it—locally, just for fun—just going on the road and seeing new things can be a motivator, can really exist transformative" says PCS board member Jason Bui.

What you tin can practise: Donate to Philadelphia Chess Society hither . And reach out for details on how you tin support chess-playing in your community. PCS would peculiarly dear to run into more girls playing.

viii. PROVIDE More ACCESS TO THE ARTS

Of the 10 largest cities in the U.Southward., Philly has the largest percentage of people with disabilities, and the nonprofit Art-Accomplish is committed to enabling every single person in the disability customs, including our region'south students, to experience the richness of our city'due south arts scene. "Nosotros believe access to the arts is a human being correct, and that shouldn't be denied in any kind of mode," explains Art-Achieve's executive manager, John Orr. Fine art-Achieve, he explains, believes in the social model of disabilities: structures and programs tin can (and should) be designed to increase participation, instead of putting the onus on people to alter to fit structures.

Now, with a budget of simply around $500,000 a yr, the small-but-mighty organization partners with more than 220 arts organizations to adjust their existing programs to make them accessible to all, and they engage more than 200,000 people per year. One of their nearly popular programs for school-aged children: Access Philly, which ensures that anyone with a PA-issued ACCESS card, can visit whatever of 36 participating museums and 12 participating theaters with upwardly to three guests, for just $2 per person, with nix blackout dates. As for why Fine art-Attain programming is then meaningful for students, Orr says it all-time: "We believe that engagement with the arts is a critical component to growth, learning, and personal fulfillment."

What you tin do: Donate to Art-Attain, and actually consider how adopting a new perspective on access—1 where organizations brand their spaces more accessible to all— could positively touch your arrangement, employer, and go-to places. Then, speak up to HR and direction, appropriately.

9. Listen TO MUSIC—AND Trip the light fantastic toe!

When, in 1974, professional violist Welthie Fitzgerald founded Musicopia , a nonprofit that provides instruments and music programming to underserved Philly-area students, there wasn't a ton of quantifiable research on the benefits of music: information technology was common sense. At present that at that place are studies confirming the positive impact of music, i can see, with the gift of hindsight, what a visionary Fitzgerald really was. Since 1974, Musicopia (originally dubbed Strings for Schools), now helmed past Fitzgerald'due south girl, Denise Kinney, has helped more than 300,000 children in the Philly region feel the arts and has collected and placed more than 4,000 instruments with students, through its Souvenir of Music Instrument Donation program. (Other local initiatives, like Temple Contemporary's Symphony for a Broken Orchestra and LiveConnections are likewise answering the phone call to get music and instruments in the easily of students.)

Its sister system, Dancing Classrooms Philadelphia , has been around since 2007, and brings ballroom dancing to 5th and 8th grade classrooms in the region. Since its founding, the plan has served more than 25,000 students in public, charter and parochial schools.

What yous tin do: Donate to support either or both orgs; volunteer to collect, catalogue, and distribute instruments; attend the groups' upcoming 2022 High Note High Step Fundraising Breakfast, Thursday, Nov 14th, 7:30-9:30 a.m. at The Union League of Philadelphia (140 S. Broad Street). RSVP to [electronic mail protected] Business casual attire requested.

10. Fill THEIR TUMMIES WITH Expert Food

"They say breakfast is the most important repast of the day—simply in my heed, all meals are the most important," says Hilary Stiebel, programs managers at Philabundance . "We tin can't larn without diet, and we can't keep our minds active and salubrious when we don't have the proper diet to keep going." In Philadelphia, the need for nutrient is so great among the student body of the School District of Philadelphia, that every single student in the District is eligible for costless lunch—no burdensome paperwork required.

Philabundance meets the needs of students where they are—in school—with a wide range of school programming, from providing breakfast and afterwards-school snacks, to organizing monthly backpack programs wherein all students in designated schools are eligible and encouraged to bring home five pounds of food for their family unit, including one pound of fresh produce.

What yous can exercise: Stiebel says that the most meaningful fashion to back up Philabundance's work in the region is through fiscal donations—$1 goes further than a piece of donated food, particularly when information technology comes to supplying fresh produce—and organizations like theirs demand citizens to call their local reps to request back up for SNAP , The Farm Bill , and Child Nutrition Reauthorization measures that assist get students the food they demand, and deserve. Donate here , and get advocacy tools hither .

RELATED: Looking for more than ways to brand a departure? Check out our guide to how to help Philly schools.

Photo courtesy Phil Roeder / Flickr

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/back-to-school-tips/

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