JumpStart National Bologna Day Eve

It’s also United Nations Day, so we are going to take this week to acknowledge the conflicts happening in the world, so sit back, unwrap that bologna sandwich that I know is in your lunchbox, and enjoy!

Big Idea:  While facilitating a workshop yesterday, one of the attendees reminded me of this quote that’s so succinct and true.

While driving to said workshop yesterday, I listened to a really interesting podcast with Dr. Gabor Mate that echoed the same sentiment. Trauma is what happened to you, and recognizing that trauma is actually freedom - freedom to address what’s happened in your body and its responses as a result of what happened.

​In our classrooms, we are dealing with the the individual’s unique response to their trauma.  And it’s imperative that we do the inner work on ourselves first before we can hope to help our students.

I think our biggest call to action as educators is to bring conflict, war, and trauma into the open.  Create safe spaces within your classroom to have open discussions around all types of conflict.  When we suppress our emotions, they just build up and can lead to depression, which has staggering statistics these days.

This Week, Try This:  Sit for a minute and become aware of your own response(s) to stress.  When you think of the most stressful thing in your life, how is your body responding?  Tightness in the throat?  Knots in your stomach?  Muscles clenching?  Draw your awareness to those areas and breathe until you can notice a difference.

Quote:  "Hurt people hurt people." (unknown)

Educator Resource:  Coping with Conflict and War - This PDF outlines coping strategies for us as adults and that we can use with students.  My biggest takeaway is that we should not shy away from talking about the conflicts happening on a global level.  If you don’t feel confident in that role, find someone in your school who can help so that when it comes up in your classroom, you already have someone in mind that can be a resource to your students.

​Dad Joke:  My friend Joe recently went on the Dolly Parton diet.  It really made Joe lean, Joe lean, Joe leannnnn.