Managing Stress and Crazy Days

When dealing with challenging situations, kids, and meetings, we have to find ways to prevent burnout and "leave it at work." During my graduate work, this was a big topic (thought really we should be talking about how to prevent burnout from grad school).

Fans of my Facebook page were asked, "How do you "leave it at work" after having a rough day, working on a difficult case, interacting with a tough or needy child, responding to a crisis, etc? Do you have a ritual, phrase, or certain thing you do to leave it at the office and not bring it home?" Here's what some folks had to say...

• "Immediately engross yourself in your personal life: call people to chat or run errands, listen to music or audiobooks on your way home (my personal fave). Just simply make a mental switch to all things non work! Don't dwell!"
• "Funny enough, on particularly rough days, I do the progressive muscle relaxation exercises that I teach kiddos with anxiety to do! I got them from the appendix of "Treatments that Work with Children" by Christopherson & Mortweet....I close my door and do them before I leave [or] I do them in my car driving home. Sometimes, on a really awful day (like a death of a student or teacher), I take a "me" night to myself and take a hot bath, light candles, and allow myself to just let go of it all. I try to acknowledge and move on."
• "On my drive home I pass a certain landmark that signifies the time I must stop thinking about work and move on to my personal life." 

What great ideas! I often will make phone calls on my drive home, just to say hi or check in with someone. I can always be found rocking out to the radio in my car, so that's not something specific I do to clear my mind. "Me" nights are a fantastic thought, and always start for me with sweat pants! I've also heard of people having a significant landmark or road sign. One of my professors told a story that upon arriving home every day, she would touch a tree by her front door, and that was where she left her day at work. In the morning, she'd touch the tree again, and it would tell her to begin her next work day.

This website has excellent tips on how to manage stress at work, like taking care of yourself, prioritizing and organizing, breaking bad habits, and improving communication. Give it a read, because it's useful for school psychologists as well as just about anyone else having a rough day, week, month!

There is also an excellent chapter from Best Practices in School Psychology IV from Heubner, Gilligan, & Cobb that I found on the National Association of School Psychologists' (NASP) website. I also remember reading this back in the grad school days.

Any other tips or suggestions that help you manage stress and burnout? Hopefully some of these resources will help you through the mid-school year slump!

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Invite Your Principal to Lunch

With School Psychology Awareness Week (SPAW) starting on Monday, November 14th, I'm curious to see what other professionals out there are doing! Last year, I told mini-stories that went along with each of the areas children are encouraged to "SHINE." This year, I'm doing a little something in the building... more to come. :)

What are you doing in your building to commemorate this momentous week (ha)? If you don't have an idea yet, I would like to pass along one from the New York Association of School Psychologists (NYASP), of which I'm a board member. NYASP is encouraging psychologists around the state to "Invite Your Principal to Lunch." Here's a memo regarding the event:

Make the Connection

In concert with National School Psychology Awareness Week, school psychologists in New York will be inviting their educational leaders to lunch. NYASP President, Peter Faustino, says, "What better way to share our mutual vision than for student achievement than to share a meal together?" During the week of November 14th, school psychologists are encouraged to do the following:

1. Schedule a time to meet with your building principal.
2. Order in, bring something to share, or simply eat together in your office.
3. During lunch, take the opportunity to highlight the variety of domains of your practice (outlined in the NASP Practice Model) and consider how particular domains may be applicable to the building's success.
4. Thank your principal for his/her leadership.
5. Report to NYASP [or your own state's organization] and tell them how it went.

Please share your stories of what you did for SPAW, and how it went! Look for an upcoming post regarding my activities.
 
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Awesome Bullying Resource for Staff & Students

My building, like so many others, faces a big problem: bullying. Most of it is verbal, done online, or done on the sly during the day. Most of it doesn't get reported. When it does, action is taken, but is it ever enough? Can bullying ever truly be eradicated from a school building, or any other establishment or workspace? I could blog on this forever, it's a never-ending battle. Last year I attended a two day training on today's bullying, bullying theory, the district's anti-bullying policy, and the severe negative effects of bullying.

We watched a video that I HIGHLY recommend you both view and purchase for your school. The 40-minute documentary is called Bullied: A Student, a School, and a Case That Made History and it is absolutely free through the Teaching Tolerance website. Bullied tells the inspirational and eye-opening story of Jamie Nabozny, a young gay man who was severely bullied in school. From the website blurb:

"Bullied is designed to help administrators, teachers and counselors create a safer school environment for all students, not just those who are gay and lesbian. It is also intended to help all students understand the terrible toll bullying can take on its victims, and to encourage students to stand up for their classmates who are being harassed."

 

I can't speak highly enough about this excellent documentary. It is SO powerful. Aside from the fact that it is free to order (why haven't you ordered it yet, you've had a whole paragraph!), it comes with a great viewer's guide with lesson plans, quizzes, and facts for both staff development and student discussion. There are "school climate" surveys for both teachers and students, to gauge how safe invested parties view the school. There are talking points and activities to address empathy, discrimination, courage, and justice when showing Bullied to students (I would recommend it for the 7th grade+ crowd). There's also information specifically targeted towards bullying and LBGTQ youth.

Go now! Order it for your school! Use it for staff development or in classrooms and to start the discussion about bullying at your building. A "zero tolerance" policy is only as good as the universal enforcement behind it. To quote the sign on my door: "Bullying: Confront it. Report it. End it."

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Professionally Proactive

This weekend, I attended the New York Association of School Psychologists (NYASP) executive board meeting in Albany. Wow, what an experience! We covered so many topics and I haven't totally processed everything yet. There were about 40 attendees from all over the state, representing NYASP's public relations, legislative involvement, budgeting and accounting, the newsletter, the awards committee, continuing professional development, conference committees, and of course, local chapter representatives, which is were I fell.

I have to admit, I was wary of attending the board meeting. I wasn't sure what to expect, but only heard great things when I asked colleagues in the area that I traveled with. While my co-representative is a newer member, the other three ladies are seasoned practitioners in the field and with NYASP, so they took us under their wings, which we needed and appreciated! Once the board meeting got going, it was quite enjoyable to discuss issues in the field with like-minded professionals. Mostly, I just sat back and took it in, or chatted with my co-rep. The other board members know their stuff and care so much about the field of school psychology, our interests and expertise, and of course, the kids. It was so great to be with people who "get it" and are working to make sure that other stakeholders do too.

My co-rep and I left with tons of ideas and things to plan for our chapter in the coming year. The first step towards reaching that goal of being more involved in the profession is complete!

 

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Goal Setting

Well, with Labor Day tomorrow, the summer truly is coming to an end. Boyfriend and I are having a family get -together tomorrow with our parents, my grandpa, my future step-brother, and Boyfriend's niece (referenced in this blog entry).

 

Tuesday is the first day back at my building, staff only. I'll be leading much of the opening day activities for the staff, as my colleague and CSE chairperson recently had surgery and will be out until at least October. I'll be discussing new Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) initiatives for the year, the upcoming Response to Intervention (RTI) regulations, new Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) expectations, and other tidbits. Hopefully I won't be a snooze! Wednesday the kiddos return. I have to be honest, I really haven't been excited to return to school since I spent almost the whole summer working, but I am really looking forward to seeing my munchkins! My running friend S, Squirmy McAntsypants, and other blog stars will be returning, but others have moved on. D, the kiddo who Hulked out and threw a chair across my office, was placed in an agency program due to extreme unsafe behaviors, and A was placed at a different school in a class for students with Autism.

As I start the new year, I want to go back to my roots. Every year during my graduate program, we had to update a portfolio of our experiences, case studies, reports, and other important work samples. It mostly was the bane of everyone's "busy work" existence, but once we graduated, it ended up being a comprehensive testament to our Master's degrees (see me being glass half full). One document that was constantly tweaked was our "role reflection," where we had to outline three goals we had for ourselves for the coming year. Here's some new goals for the 2011-2012 school year:

1. Be more visible. As a school psychologist, I spend an insane amount of time testing, writing reports, and developing IEPs. Sometimes I don't notice I've wasted half a day at my desk until it's 1:00pm. This year, I want to be in classrooms more, whether it's assisting with a lesson, observing, doing whole class interventions, or catching kids "being good." I want to have a positive image for myself not only with the kids, but with the staff. Since I've been in the building for a year, I want to end the adjustment period and make solid, positive relationships with my staff.
2. Keep better data. Our district was evaluated by the state this year with regards to our BIPs, and only one school passed (not mine, but thankfully the school of one of my Master's cohort friends). I'm going to be a stickler this year both for myself and my staff about BIPs, hence our opening day discussion. I'm a total data nerd, so I'm going to work on getting better, more consistent progress-monitoring data for the behavior plans in our building. It requires a lot of time and energy, and often gets pushed by the way-side when other more critical things come up, unfortunately. Data will be useful not only to monitor student growth, but also for reporting out to parents and administration, and at the CSE table.
3. Be more involved in the profession. Sure, I'm a member of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), the New York Association of School Psychologists (NYASP), and my regional school psych organization, but that doesn't necessarily mean I do much more than pay dues. I recently became the co-chair representative of my NYASP chapter and am on the planning committee for the 2012 NYASP Conference, which will be held in my area. Next weekend, I'll be attending the NYASP Executive Board meeting in Albany, NY (which I'm sure to blog about), and later this month, will be enjoying a regional luncheon conference. I would love to attend the 2012 NASP Conference in February in Philadelphia, PA, which will be dependent on funds. Professional organizations can be hugely important and beneficial for your career, so I'm looking forward to cultivating those relationships.

What are your goals for the upcoming school year? T-Minus 3 days folks...

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