Uncategorized Archives - Stand 4 Kind

Embrace the Mistakes

Stand 4 Kind — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 23:34:16 +0000

We are more comfortable doing when doing familiar things. Familiarity make us feel safe. Consider the way in which you drive to familiar places: when the route between point A and point B is known, we are unlikely to try a new route. After all: if there were a more efficient way of getting home, wouldn’t we already be doing it? We rightly assume that the payoff of trying something new is likely to be not worth the risk. After all, the nature of experimentation is that most of the time, things don’t work out. If we listen to one hundred new songs, we may only really latch on to a couple of them. We are unlikely to embrace the mistakes we make.

Skipping over a song we don’t fancy is no problem but we feel differently about mistakes. Making a mistake is generally something we try to avoid. Students too often view mistakes as something to feel ashamed or embarrassed about, humiliated by, or fearful of. Mistakes are often not embraced because they are not encouraged. Too often, mistakes are actively discouraged. The truth is that making mistakes is a critical part of how people learn. Mistakes are crucial pieces of information that force us to reconcile our actions with unanticipated outcomes, and help us forge ever more accurate and robust solutions.

How our brains respond to Mistakes

The part of our brain that is responsible for learning and memory—the hippocampus—can help us understand mistakes. Cells in this area of the brain are able to identify when there is a “mismatch” between our memory and the current environment. When you just can’t seem to find your car, everything in the parking garage looks familiar, but you feel that you are NOT in the right place. The feeling even happens before you are aware. Before we are consciously aware we are getting “warmer,” we start to unconsciously recognize the environment that is around our car as correct.

Mistakes trigger the same types of processes. “Error neurons’ are part of our brains way of signaling when we are moving in the wrong direction. Within milliseconds of any error, these “Error” cells respond in direct proportion to the size of the mistake. These cells also trigger new connections to be made in our brains when we make mistakes. We can’t help but learn from our mistakes!

Where the fear of mistakes come from

When we structure learning environments for young people to make mistakes, we maximize the potential for learning. Acknowledging and accepting that failing is scary is the first step to incorporating failure into the process of learning. The fear of error comes from a place that is ancestral. When our early ancestors made mistakes, it often meant they paid the price with their life. Being revealed/labeled as incompetent can also lead to a downward spiral of anxiety and performance issues, as well. And our brains respond to this type of event…with fear. The same type of negative emotion you experience when you find a spider, is the same neural process that happens after a mistake. When students make a mistake, we must support them in rooting out negative thoughts like “I am stupid,” and replace them with the thought “I am learning.”

The problem with only exploring territory that we understand is that we have very little to gain from that territory. If we map out everything around us the danger might be moderated, but so is the gain. We are unlikely to get trapped by something unexpected, but we are also unlikely to learn something new. The problem with unexplored territory, however, is that it is dangerous. We don’t know what lurks around the corner.

What can we do about it?

The solution to this problem is to stay at the border of what we know and what we do not yet know. Psychologists call this space the “the zone of proximal development.” It is the space at the edge of our knowledge. Failure is common when we are pushing ourselves to the edge of our abilities. When we must use everything we know to extrapolate an answer about something unknown our learning is made as efficient as possible. When a problem is easy to solve, or familiar, a student feels confident and empowered. But when a problem is more difficult to solve and a student feels confident in their abilities they are likely to give it a try. And when an error is made, the student and teacher can diagnose the error, and incorporate the solution into future problems.

Embrace the error

When students make mistakes, our first inclination might be to “correct” them. Showing them that their answer was not correct, how and why it is was not correct, and giving them an understanding as to how to find the correct solution. What if students had the freedom to make errors? If students learned in a classroom where mistakes are encouraged versus corrected. Errors are commonplace. Everyone makes mistakes. Even teachers writing at blackboards has been shown to model mistakes to the class, normalizing mistake making to students in a way that humanizes the experience.

Embracing the commonplace of error will make our students better learners and our teachers’ better teachers. When we are able to take risks without fear of reprisal or humiliation, the classroom becomes a place where experimentation is encouraged and “risks” appear to have smaller consequences.

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Kindness & The 2020 Election

Stand 4 Kind — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 23:07:38 +0000

Things may feel tenser than ever before. With the Coronavirus pandemic surging and the upcoming Presidential election, lots of what you see on Facebook, Instagram, and television is likely to feel polarized. Some folks are likely very worried that if next week’s election does not turn out how they hope, the next four years will be very difficult. Try to remember that while you are watching the news, the tense debates between the candidates for President and Vice President, and over hearing all kinds of conversations about our nation’s future that you are respectful and showing kindness to those who may have different beliefs or opinions.

Let’s commit to Stand 4 Kindness while the United States undergoes her electoral process!

If you are 18 or older, get out there and VOTE!

If you are under 18, talk to your parents and older siblings about their plans to Vote!

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How will schools re-open?

Stand 4 Kind — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 17:59:22 +0000

There does not seem to be much of a question of if schools will re-open. They most certainly will. The question seems to be howschools will re-open. As a second resurgence of COVID-19 spreads across the country, with more than 3 Million people infected as of July 8^th, and the highest 7-day average rate of infection to date, with over 52,000 new infections per day, we are seeing the groundwork for the first day of school being laid already. As we move closer to the start of the 2020-2021 school year things seem to be getting worse versus better, leaving many parents and teachers wondering how students can safely return to school this fall.

“More than 3 Million People infected as of July 8th”

What are different states up to?

In a July 8^th press conference on education, Vice President Mike Pence indicated that the White House “hope[s] every school in America is able to open this fall.” Schools across the country are trying to be creative in their plans to keep students and staff safe. Utah schools are considering 4-day school weeks so that the 5^th day could be used to decontaminate the building. Alabama schools seem set to open on August 10^th, but recognize that “could still change,” according to Montgomery Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Ann Roy Moore. In Florida, Education Commissioner Richard Corcora relayed an order that schools must be open “at least five days per week for all students” and provide all services required by law, including in-person instruction. Schools in New York seem to be taking a more cautious approach according to an article in today’s New York Times. New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has suggested “two days a week or three days a week, depending on the week,” and expanded “remote learning exclusively,” at parental discretion.

The White House “hope[s] every school in America is able to open this fall.”

-Vice President, Mike Pence

What are some of the concerns for schools?

Every state, and even each county nested in those states, has to wrestle with the unique needs of its population when considering how to re-integrate communities back into schools. Further compounding the difficulty of reopening are expectations from parents as they balance worrying about the safety of their children and their own families, with getting back to work as the economy continues to slowly attempt to get back to normal. Teachers and school staff must also be considered. While children seem to be more resilient to the symptoms of Coronavirus, the average age of a teacher in the United States is around 42 years old. Many teachers are also in higher risk age groups according to their age, or any number of pre-existing conditions. What’s more, we do not know if a teacher/student has grandparents who live at home, children/siblings who have pre-existing conditions, or connections to other vulnerable individuals.

What does the path forward look like?

The CDC recently released a series of guidelines/suggestions surrounding the safe re-opening of schools. There were a host of suggestions that were made to reduce the spread of coronavirus and attempt to keep people safe. Schools should, according to the guidelines, consider implementing hygiene education, modified layouts, staggered scheduling, cohorting, mandating student mask compliance, and preparing policies for when someone gets sick. President Trump tweeted in opposition to these guidelines stating that he “disagree[s] with the CDC on their very tough and expensive guidelines for reopening schools.” He went on to call the guidelines “impractical,” and intimated that he would be coming up with his own set of guidelines for schools to follow.

The first weeks of August, and the new school year, feel like a long way out. But, those days are just around the corner. Stand4Kind will continue to monitor the schedule for re-opening schools, and will be here to support our students, teachers, schools, and communities to the best of our ability. Remember, kindness always wins!

Check out some of our other recent posts:

The importance of community

Compassion = Empathy + Action

What is Leadership?

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Love These Assemblies? Check Out This Video

groadmin — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Thanks to all for making our assemblies life changing. #stand4kind @foreignfiguresofficial @5050bmx

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Six strategies bus drivers can use to support students – By Dr. Lori Desautels

groadmin — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 06:00:00 +0000

Relationships matter, and resilience research shows that one caring adult within the education system can make a huge difference to a student. I want to share how bus drivers, who are our initial and final school responders for students each day, can create attachment first thing in the morning and as students return home.
Safety on the bus matters most, and these strategies attend to this factor and don’t interfere with the physical well-being of students. But transportation personnel have a powerful opportunity to help students regulate their emotions by creating a safe environment while building relationships. Just “feeling felt” by another person builds cognitive function, and bus drivers can often see environments, patterns of behavior, and aspects of a student’s social and personal life that may be difficult to detect and understand in the classroom.
Many of our students are walking into our classrooms with a biography that has become their biology. Chronic anxiety and early chronic adversity intimately affect brain architecture because unpredictable and ongoing stress causes the brain and body to marinate in toxic, inflammatory chemicals, which not only affects behaviors and relationships but can also affect health outcomes for an entire lifetime.
Jack Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child and a professor at Harvard University, constantly explores the research and scientific evidence on children’s “toxic stress response” and the impact this neurobiological system has on brain development and the development of disease years and decades later. He has said, “We now understand, in a way we never did before, how early experience literally gets into the body and affects the development of the brain, the cardiovascular system, the immune system, and metabolic systems.” Normal stress is good for healthy development, but when the stress response systems are activated in the absence of supportive, calming relationships frequently and over a long period of time, this type of toxic stress disrupts neuronal health and neuronal circuits.
In the midst of toxic adversity, the brain has significant plasticity and is resilient, and this is the best news for all educators, parents, and support learning personnel. According to the Center on the Developing Child, the presence of adequate adult support can help to buffer ongoing adversity.
This past summer, my graduate student and I trained transportation personnel in northern Indiana on how to build strong relationships and help students to emotionally regulate when they stepped onto the bus each morning. We’ll continuing this training next year with a large school district in Indianapolis: Washington Township Schools serves over 11,200 students, and 175 transportation staff members will attend this training in November 2018.
Six Helpful StrategiesThere are several brain-aligned strategies bus drivers can implement with all students before and after school. These strategies promote relationship and emotional regulation, creating a culture of unified support for everyone on the bus. On bus 60, for example, creating a special name or hand signal could help a child “feel felt” first thing in the morning.
1. Three buckets: At the front of the bus, the driver can keep three buckets. The first can be labeled: “What do you need today? Grab a pick-me-up!” The second: “What’s on your mind?” The third: “Celebrations!” Each day a student can reach in the first bucket for an affirmation, a book, a sudoku, a coloring book, or a cotton ball with lavender, for example. The second bucket is a place where students can leave a note or drawing with a worry, problem, or concern, to help get it out of their system—the driver can check in later with any student about a worry if that seems warranted. The celebration bucket is a wonderful way to mention daily or weekly successes: Students announce the celebrations—which can include displaying special projects or other student work—of the students on bus 60 on a Friday afternoon. Announcements can happen either when the bus arrives at school in the morning or in the afternoon after everyone has boarded but before the bus leaves the school.
2. Student mentors: One of the most effective ways to help students regulate their negative emotions is to provide leadership opportunities. Bus drivers can show older students how to act as mentors for younger students—the mentors can model how to take deep breaths (focused attention practices) and help younger students with redirecting negative emotions through a healthier channel such as drawing, coloring, or creating a new solution to any problem the younger students might have.
3. Catch me! Drivers can “catch” students doing or saying something kind. Notes of gratitude, messages of noticing, and stickers contribute to students’ feelings of purpose and connection.
4. Thumbs up, thumbs down: Each morning and afternoon, students can check in with drivers to share how they’re feeling through a quick thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or neutral show of emotion. This is a great way to check in and notice patterns while creating a connection.
5. Little breaks: The driver can play calming music, or the driver or a student can lead call-and-response songs. And Friday celebrations are a nice short break as well.
6. Bus newsletter, website, or a social media outlet: Share news with parents and educators to recognize the familial tribe of connection on the bus in this group of students and transportation leader.

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Vanity Fair- How the Weekend’s Biggest Music Festival Wound Up in Utah

groadmin — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 06:00:00 +0000

here will be rock stars at the LoveLoud festival this Saturday. It’s a modern-day music festival, so there will probably be flower crowns, too.
And, perhaps unlike most modern music festivals, there will be a lot of Mormons. Hosted at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, LoveLoud is the brainchild of Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds, who this year started a foundation of the same name. Having grown up in a conservative Mormon community in Las Vegas, Reynolds wanted to bring a festival celebrating L.G.B.T.Q. people to a state densely populated with Mormons, one of the most conservative religious groups in the United States and one in which two-thirds of people oppose gay marriage.
Reynolds wants his foundation, and the festival—which will feature Imagine Dragons, Neon Trees, Krewella, Nicholas Petricca of Walk the Moon, and Joshua James—to reach Mormon families, like his own, who might otherwise never talk to their kids about L.G.B.T.Q. issues.
“More than the event itself is the conversation about it,” he told Vanity Fair in a phone call. “Parents and kids sitting around the dinner table and the kids say, ‘Hey, mom, I want to go to this festival.’ And the parents say, ‘Hey, let’s talk about what that is and what that means.’”
Reynolds, like many Mormons, grew up believing that being gay was a sin. Though he still identifies as a Mormon, he’s had his own differences with the church, including being kicked out of Brigham Young University as a freshman after admitting to pre-marital sex. Reynolds eventually came to think differently about L.G.B.T.Q. rights, and realized he had to become more vocal about being an ally. In 2012, when Glee featured his song “It’s Time,” sung by Blaine to his boyfriend, Kurt, Reynolds said he received messages from L.G.B.T.Q. Glee fans, who thanked him for his music but who assumed he did not support them because of his religion.
“I realized I had to speak out; it was heartbreaking to get all these e-mails,” he remembers. “I’ve been given an opportunity to have this incredible voice. Am I going to spend my life hiding behind it, or am I going to spend my life doing something about that?”
Reynolds began the LoveLoud Foundation earlier this year; in June, Reynolds performed at the TrevorLIVE event during Pride week in New York City, raising money for the organization that supports L.G.B.T.Q. youth. But with the LoveLoud festival, which benefits The Trevor Project, Encircle, GLAAD, and Stand4Kind, he’s bringing this activism back home. Reynolds says that though he still disagrees with some of his family members on major issues, several will be in attendance on Friday, including one uncle, who is gay and Mormon, and moved out of the country years ago when he didn’t feel accepted in his community.
“I was able to invite him to LoveLoud, and it was a really big thing for him and for me to be able to have him around,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds notes that the leading cause of death for Utah teens is suicide. Last September, when a 19-year-old committed suicide, Jason Christensen, a then candidate for Utah State Senate, condemned the teen in a Facebook post, per The New York Daily News. He wrote that he hoped God had mercy on the teen for “the sins of homosexuality and the sins of murder.”
“It felt like a lot of unnecessary guilt looking back on it,” Reynolds said about his own experience with the church. “That already opened up my heart to people who are feeling guilty of religion. To times that by a million is to be an L.G.B.T.Q. child in a home who’s told that their most basic instinct or sense of being is wrong or flawed or sinful.”
For Saturday’s festival, Reynolds said he hopes that even people who stand by the church’s beliefs on gay rights “leave their opinions at the door.”
“I would hope that people realize that it’s not an attack on an organization,” he said. “It is an invitation for our community to come together and listen to our L.G.B.T.Q. youth who are often not heard, whose voices, for whatever reason, especially in an orthodox community, go unheard.”

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Entertainment Tonight- Julianne Hough ‘I Know What I Stand For’

groadmin — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 06:00:00 +0000

Julianne Hough got emotional on Saturday while introducing Imagine Dragons at the LOVELOUD Festival, as she opened up about the importance of acceptance and standing up for what you believe is right.
The Dancing With the Stars judge took the stage in her home state of Utah, getting candid about her own past struggles with using her platform to speak out for others.
“Here’s my honest truth: Being a public figure and to use my voice has always been hard for me, because I don’t always know how to express how I feel or what I believe in,” Hough said, as her voice began to crack with emotion. “And the pressure to be politically correct has always weighed on me.”

“Unfortunately, at times, that has caused me to distance myself from a lot of important issues. Especially when they don’t necessarily affect me directly,” she continued. “There’s a great saying, ‘If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.’ Well, I can tell you, I am so happy that I know what I stand for.”
The 29-year-old professional dancer began to cry as she explained that “spreading joy and love is a mission I take very, very seriously. With all the chaos that is in the world today, the idea that we all need to love loud had never been more relevant or more needed.”
The sold-out LOVELOUD Festival, which welcomed more than 17,000 attendees, benefitted GLAAD, The Trevor Project, EnCircle, and Stand4Kind. The musical event aimed to raise awareness about the issue of teen suicide, especially among the LGBTQ community, and to promote love and acceptance among all people.
Among the groups that performed at the concert were Neon Trees, Krewella, Nicholas Petricca of Walk The Moon, and Imagine Dragons, whose frontman, Dan Reynolds, was instrumental in creating the event.

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B Space and Beauty Against Bullying

groadmin — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 06:00:00 +0000

We are excited to be partnering with B Space and Beauty Against Bullying.
They are running a month long fundraiser at B Space for the month of Sept. They are making a difference in all students lives. Thank You B space! Everyone be sure to schedule your B Salon service for Sept. If you have not tried B Space you will not be disappointed, they are amazing.
B Space 2315 S Highland Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84106

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LDS Church issues statement of support for LGBTQ concert event @stand4kind

groadmin — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 06:00:00 +0000

We are so proud of the LDS for taking a stand for ALL. We want to thank the LDS Church!
SALT LAKE CITY — A first-time music festival aimed at supporting LGBTQ youth charities will bring several big names to Orem later this month and now has a statement of support from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The LoveLoud Festival will be held Aug. 26 at Utah Valley University’s Brent Brown Ballpark and will be a homecoming of sorts for Imagine Dragons and Neon Trees, two bands whose paths to stardom began in Utah.
They will be among those to perform at the event that will also feature words of support from NFL Hall of Famer and former BYU quarterback Steve Young and “Dancing With The Stars” judge Julianne Hough who are lending their voices to what organizers hope all in Utah can champion: support for youth.
“We applaud the LoveLoud Festival for LGBTQ Youth’s aim to bring people together to address teen safety and to express respect and love for all of God’s children,” says a statement released by the LDS Church. “We join our voice with all who come together to foster a community of inclusion in which no one is mistreated because of who they are or what they believe.”
The statement continued: “We share common beliefs, among them the pricelessness of our youth and the value of families. We earnestly hope this festival and other related efforts can build respectful communication, better understanding and civility as we all learn from each other.”
The event is the brainchild of Dan Reynolds, lead singer of the Grammy Award-winning band Imagine Dragons, who was seeking a safe place to put differences aside between the LGBTQ and faith communities to promote love and acceptance of LGBTQ youth.
“LoveLoud is about is bringing our community together to talk about how we can love our LGBTQ youth, how we can make them feel accepted and loved within the community so that these suicide rates drop,” Reynolds said, noting the increased risk of suicide among LGBTQ youth and others who feel bullied or marginalized.
All proceeds from the event will go to the LoveLoud Foundation, which supports the Utah charities Encircle and Stand4Kind, as well as two national charities, The Trevor Project and GLAAD.
Event organizers have worked for months to try to provide an event that can focus on the common good of helping youth in a safe environment void of divisive politics. Event organizer Lance Lowry emphasized the “need to make a safer community.”

Last day to get your tickets for $11.00 Use the promo code STAND4KIND Loveloudfest.org

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We had an amazing school Year!

groadmin — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 06:00:00 +0000

We respect and value each other, thrive on our diversity, and work with partners to leverage our global strength in making a difference for all students. We have amazing results because of our team and everyone who is helping to take a #Stand4kind Thanks @foreignfiguresofficial @5050bmx @JeanieCisco @Clintpulver @BenKjar @BrentBurnham @chrisHollyfield & the team

Thanks @lukasgraham & @rosalindwiseman for speaking at our Leadership event. Making a difference and standing 4 kind.

We will see you next school year!!

B Kind

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