Posts in Motivation
A Fun Survey Question for Educators, and Introducing "Recharge & Repair"

If you're an educator and you're heading back to some form of school — whether remote, live, or combo platter — you may have only micro-seconds to offer to social media today. And at the risk of coming across like the friend who wants one of your fries as soon as you set your plate down, I'm going to ask to borrow one so I can ask you a quick survey question — but it'll be fun, I promise!

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How the Superheroes of Special Education Are Charging Minds and Changing Economies

I start out by saying, "I wish I'd been taught in school the way Special Educators approach their work every day. And not just in kindergarten or third grade — I wish I'd been taught that way in college, too." I'm talking about the way Special Educators take on so many different roles: acting not just as instructors, but as mentors, mind-coaches, and multi-sensory mix-masters of engagement. And so much more. I'm delivering my keynote for a meeting of the New Hampshire Association of Special Education Administrators (NHASEA).

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Haircuts for Mental Health? There's More Than One Way to Tackle Stigma

What do pro basketball player Kevin Love and pro football player The Gronk have in common with actor John Hamm and Kristen Bell (aka Veronica Mars)? No, they're not launching a new morning talk show called "Love Gronk Hamm Bell," although I'd probably watch that. But they are all talking about something important — working to dispel the stigma around mental health care.

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Healthcare, MotivationTim Clue
Bullying, Broken Hearts, and the Banana Splits: How Teachers Mend What's Been Broken

I have a couple of stories to tell you about bullying and broken hearts, and the teachers who know how to mend them. But I'll start by saying bravo to Kindergarten teacher Shannon Grimm of Willis ISD in Texas, who adopted a new hairstyle in order to express solidarity with one of her students — a little girl whose cute 'do and bows had drawn teasing and bullying from her peers. 

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Talking with the Mental Health Care Bears at the AAMFT 2018 Annual Conference

There's a first time for everything. Personally, I’d never spoken to a group of 900 therapists and counselors before. Now I have. Most of us talk to therapists one at a time, if at all, and we're usually sitting down. But I just got home from doing my keynote appearance for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, at the AAMFT 2018 Annual Conference. No couch, just a microphone and my slides.

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Gap-Fillers of the World, I Salute You! (A Story from Back-to-School 2018)

You probably don't know this, but it's Gap-Filler Appreciation Day. No, don't panic — no cards or flowers required. Just a quick story from my "Back to School" tour last month. As I've mentioned before, I always look forward to going on a whirlwind tour of school districts around the country when August rolls around, meeting with teachers and administrators to help them get fired up for the new school year.

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