Having been a high school child development teacher several years back, the headline for this article caught my eye.  Back then there was some concern about a sudden spike in teen pregnancy.  The NICHD now reports that teen pregnancy has continued to decline, along with a number of other encouraging statistics, indicating that programs and efforts that have been developed are making a positive impact.

More Encouraging News:

Binge drinking among high school students has dropped to its lowest since the statistics were first tracked in 1980.

2015 stats show that high school students who reported smoking daily has dropped to an all-time low since data was first collected in 1980.

The number of children who were victims of violent crimes dropped dramatically from the early 1990s to the early 2000s.

95% of children now have health insurance, an increase of 7 points between 2000 and 2014.

There has been a noticeable narrowing in the racial and ethnic achievement gaps in math scores, although math scores overall declined slightly.

The percentage of young adults who graduate high school remains the same at 92%.

Up from 49% in 1980, we now have 68% of high school graduates going on to a two- or four-year college immediately after high school.  (I'm wondering how the trend toward a "gap year" fits into this statistic.)

On the other end of the spectrum, the statistics show that there are some areas that continue to cry for a stronger impact:

Stats in 2014 show that 21% of all children in the U.S. live in poverty, and the same percentage live in "food-insecure" households.  That percentage held steady from the previous year. 

Obesity rates continue to rise, and during the span of 2011-2014, 19% of children ages 6-17 were obese.

The rate of children who were victims of serious violent crimes did not change significantly, and was at 7 children per 1,000 in 2014.

Psychological Membership is foundational to the success of students in the school environment.  In order to develop the feeling of belonging that every child needs to succeed, teachers need to be intentional in their efforts to build a classroom community.  Every individual must be - and feel - respected and valued within the community.  Teachers can build the classroom community as is typical with morning meetings and greetings and getting-to-know-you activities, but also, teachers must be insightfully focused on individual strengths and needs, in order to ensure that every child feels like a valued member of the community.  Some simple strategies include:

1. Having Class Experts based on strengths, but with young children, we must have expert areas that everyone can fit into, so everyone can be an expert at something.

• Shoe Tying Experts
• Buttoning Experts
• Zipping Experts
• Insect Experts
• Animal Experts
• Block-Building Experts
• Letter-Writing Experts
• Letter Sound Experts

2. Positive teacher responses to students' wrong answers:

• Oh Jesse!  I love the way you are thinking!  The lower case "p" and the lower case "q" both have a circle on the line and a line that goes down into the basement.  You are really getting to know how to write those letters and to identify which letters look similar.  This is great thinking!  The letter we are looking at is actually a lower case "q" not a "p", (go over the way it is written),  but I am so proud of you, Jesse, for knowing so much about these letters already! So many preschool children confuse the "p" and the "q", so we will all continue to work on getting to know "p" and "q".
• Jimmy, you are actually pointing to your elbows, not your wrists, but I want to thank you for doing that! (Give Jimmy a BIG smile.)  In preschool and even in kindergarten there are some body parts that children continue to forget or confuse, and guess what...the wrist is one of those body parts!  Jimmy, please point here on your body (point to your own wrist), and show the class where they can find their wrists, too.  Everyone find your wrist, please.  Now Jimmy, can you show everyone where their elbows are, please?  Great!  Now the wrists? Let's do it fast!  Jimmy, do you want to lead?  Okay, Wrists-Elbows-Wrists-Elbows-Wrists-Elbows!  Awesome!  Thanks for helping us with that Jimmy.  I hope all of my preschool friends will remember wrists and elbows very soon.

3. Respond to Behavior Issues WITHOUT Embarrassing Children

• Every Error in Behavior Choice is a Learning Experience for the Child.
• Trash the Clip Chart and the PBIS Flip Chart!  How Humiliating is that?  As indicated in my original post on motivation, would your  name clipped to this chart in the teacher's lounge motivate you?

• Public Humiliation DOES NOT WORK, and it is often the cause of the problem worsening.  
• Many children are Much More Sensitive than we realize about the peer perception and public reprimand.  No matter how kindly you ask a child to "flip their card" or "clip down", they are still experiencing negative feelings inside, and it is embarrassing...even to those who the teacher may have developed judgmental beliefs about their comfort level with undesirable behaviors at school.  Experience and research prove it again and again, so consider revisiting your strategies.

4. Allow Children to Share Their Excitement and Experiences
Make it known in your classroom that this child participates in this activity and that child enjoys doing that, so that the pride of interest and progress are shared with peers.  "Joey, how was that soccer game this weekend?"  "Oh, Jane, you play soccer, too?  Did you have a game this weekend?"  Spare some time in your meeting, at the snack or lunch table or the last 5 minutes before going home to check in with children on their personal interests and activities.  Be sure that everyone has their fair number of opportunities to share throughout the year.  Other ideas...

• Show and Tell
• A News Board 
• Person of the Day/Week Posters or Sharing Time
• Pet Day
• Assignments and Activities that give Free Choice of Topics to children and are shared with classmates, even displayed after sharing (easy options: journaling, building, painting, etc.)

This is a great article for those working with infants!  It provides invaluable insights regarding stress in babies and strategies that combat stress effects and support proper development.  Professionals and parents can benefit from the article and should consider putting these elements of care into practice.  Click on the photo to find the article.

Press the MyPlate Ribbon and have your students  make a pledge to become a MyPlate Champion for National Nutrition Month!  You can download personalized certificates for the children to take home!

Click The Two-Bite Club image, and go directly to the USDA's web page to download the materials.  We hang a grid in the hallway with a marker attached to a string.  The dates are across the top and the children's names are listed down the left side.  On any day that a child tries two bites of a new food or a food they usually don't like (and we limit this to healthy foods, of course), they have the freedom to stop at the chart the next morning and put a check mark in their box for that day.  At the end of the month (you can shorten this to a week or two), we tally up how brave each child was with trying new foods, and everyone goes home with some fun nutrition information and a certificate for being a member of the Two-Bite Club.  The kids really enjoy the challenge, there are some great conversations that arise from it, and we have found that several children changed some of their snacking habits.  There is certainly a heightened awareness of "which food is healthier" and "which food gives me energy and which makes me tired" at the lunch table.  Be sure to introduce MyPlate before doing this, and don't forget to set up your lesson so that the kids notice on their own that there is no place on My Plate for junk food!   What an eye opener it is!!

• Choose MyPlate:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
• MyPlate for Kids: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids/
• MyPlate Daily Food Plans for Preschoolers:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/health-nutrition-information-preschoolers/daily-food-plan-preschoolers.html
• USDA's Cookbook for Child Care Centers: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/recipes-healthy-kids-cookbook-child-care-centers-0

• Federal Nutrition Education Resources:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/downloads/USDA-DHHS-ComprehensiveListing-FederalNutritionEducationResources2005-to-Feb2010.pdf
• The Family Dinner Project:  http://thefamilydinnerproject.org/
• Food Network's Recipes Kids Can Make: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/recipes-for-kids/cooking-with-kids/recipes-kids-can-make.html