T.G.I.F. Newsletter - Climate Anxiety, Struggling Students, and Lagom

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This is the 34th T.G.I.F. Newsletter. This newsletter will always be free. Your support helps with site costs and provides some much-appreciated motivation. 🙏. You can keep me energized with a coffee ☕, or by using the button below. Thank You!

T.G.I.F. is a weekly newsletter featuring education news, and teaching, personal development, and professional learning resources.

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Recommendation - If you haven’t tried Poo~Pourri* you’ve been missing out. Protect the atmosphere of your teacher restroom with fresh fall smells*.

Hello Friends and T.G.I.F. 😁 Here are some things I thought were worth sharing this week.

The News

Here are some articles that grabbed my attention.

• Where does your state sit in the latest U.S. News and World Report education rankings? You can use a drop-down menu to see both pre-K12 and higher education information.
• Studies show that more than half of young people are experiencing anxiety connected to climate change. The UN recommends that climate education be mandatory in order to help students deal with global warming. Very few countries have committed to making the study of climate change compulsory. Often it seems that children are leading the way on this issue. I can understand why they are anxious as so few adults are moving forward with urgency.
• Here are a few tips to help struggling students. You’ll find five general suggestions that make sense. Trying to find ways to boost students’ self-confidence is a great place to start.
• If you’ve ever wanted to try a Genius Hour with your students this resource will help you get started - there are 14 of them. If you are new to Genius Hour this video provides background information.  

Growth

Personal Development and Wellness Resources

• Lagom may be just what we all need. In Swedish, it means “just enough”. This idea can be applied to work-life balance, exercise, and chronic cases of FOMO. Lagom is recognizing that what we do affects others and that less can actually end up being more.
• This seems perfect to share in a newsletter that comes out on Friday. Here’s how to have a good weekend. There is even a tip to help you beat the “Sunday Scaries” 😱.
• I’m not sure I agree with everything in this article, but I am a fan of the “reading” part.

Inspiration

Here is a quote I’ve been revisiting this week:

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx - The Essential Groucho: Writings or by and about Groucho Marx*

Favorite Things

• 📰 Article - The Inflated Promise of Science Education - Full disclosure, I’m a science teacher. I often wonder why so many people don’t trust it. Although it’s not perfect, scientific evidence is usually enough to persuade me to believe. I had to read this article twice. It made me think. There are a few good suggestions to be found here. This quote stuck with me, “Social trust in science must be earned and cultivated, and the process depends as much on power as on knowledge.”
• 🎹 Billy Joel - LIFE Magazine released a special tribute issue dedicated to Billy Joel. I love the story of how the song “Piano Man” came to be.

• 💡LED Lights* - have added an entirely new vibe to my science classroom. My daughter put them up pretty quickly. I’m still figuring out what all of the buttons on the remote control do.

Thank you for reading. Have a great weekend.