Help us celebrate! May 2024 is our one-year anniversary of becoming BELONG Partners!

  • Listen to Build Connection with Your Kids

    Even at the best of times, when we are balancing work, our households, and activities, it is difficult to make the time to connect in a meaningful way with our kids. Now, of course, we add remote school, working from home, and staying safe, and the difficulty is even greater. Yet, connection is key to […]

  • The COVID One-Year Mark: Let’s not go back

      We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate, and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits […]

  • Including Student Voice in Transition Planning

    Education is undergoing another major transition. There are voices of power from state governments, districts, and school administrators attempting to balance pandemic safety needs and the learning needs of youth. All stakeholder voices should be heard in the planning and reimagining of education, including students’ voices. Students have a unique perspective on classrooms, schools, and […]

  • Teacher Panel Shares Experience Transitioning to Hybrid and In-Person Learning

    “Nothing is going to be perfect, and that’s o.k.” When Sound Discipline convened a group of educators to discuss the transition to in-person learning, this is how Christine Mooney, the Principal of Redwood Elementary School, opened our discussion. Redwood Elementary is in Grants Pass, Oregon. They started the 20-21 school year with grades K-3 in […]

  • A Trauma-Responsive School Transition – Resources for schools shifting to hybrid or in-person learning

    Many schools and districts are planning and preparing for a transition back to some form of hybrid/in-person learning. In our conversations with school administrators and staff, we are hearing the need for practical and useful resources and ideas to help respond to these transitions. In response to our conversations with you, we are creating and […]

  • Transitioning Back to School: Redwood Elementary Shares Their Experience

    “Nothing is going to be perfect, and that’s o.k.” This is how Christine Mooney, the Principal of Redwood Elementary School, opened our discussion in a Zoom event on February 11th about their school’s experiences with transitioning from in-school to distance learning and back again. Several teachers, Lisa Jaraslow, Annie Blanchard, Crystal Pump, Lorelei Dean, and Missy […]

  • Black History and Belonging in School

    When we say, “what if every child knew they belonged?”, what exactly do we mean?   Recently, I explored this question over Zoom with Dr. DeLeon Gray, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Education Equity at North Carolina State University and a leading researcher on the intersection of race, belonging, and motivation in school.   […]

  • Dimmitt Middle School Core Values: Equity and Community

    The article about Redwood Elementary staff sharing their experience shifting to in-person and hybrid learning is here.   Dimmitt Middle School has been a partner of Sound Discipline for over five years, and we are excited to feature them this month as our Sound Discipline Inspiring Story. In a recent Education Week article, Arianna Prothero stated […]

  • Black SEL Leaders Emphasize the Importance of Equity

    Stressors on students, educators, and families this past year have highlighted how children cannot learn until they feel safe, connected and know that they matter. Before academics, we must focus on the well-being of the whole child. As part of Black History Month, we are sharing social emotional learning (SEL) resources written by Black leaders […]

  • How Parents Can Move Forward After an Unprecedented Year

    Last year our worlds changed almost overnight, and we found ourselves working from home or maybe out of a job. We were thrust into the role of teacher and unable to access the supports we were used to: friends and relatives were no longer able to step in to help for fear of COVID spread, […]