• Staff Interviews – Alan Wong, Facilitator

    May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month and we asked several of our Sound Discipline colleagues to share the stories of their family heritage and the people who have inspired them. Thank you Alan for sharing this inspiring story of your family!   What is your heritage? I am a mixed-race person of […]

  • Orcas in the C’s at Lakeridge Elementary

    For so many schools, it has been a tumultuous two years from school-on-a-screen to in-person learning. This is definitely the case for Lakeridge Elementary in the Renton (Washington) School District. For new 1st graders, school was in constant transition. Starting kindergarten on Zoom, they learned what it meant to be part of a classroom community through […]

  • An Easy Way to Reduce Stress and Strengthen Relationships in Your Family

    Want to play? What? Too busy doing important things to play? It turns out (check out this research), play is extremely important – for just about everyone and everything, but especially for learning and developing children. But why? Stress: It turns out play reduces stress (and therefore) facilitates learning. We know stress lowers the amount […]

  • The Surprising Benefits of Play in the Classroom

    “Play is a strategy for learning at any age. While older students and their teachers might have more curricular demands than younger students, playful learning still has an important role to play…” – Project Zero Researcher Mara Krechevsky, Harvard Graduate School of Education After years of pandemic disruption, are we feeling pressure to catch students […]

  • Developing Firmness Tools for Educators

    When we can respond to students in ways that are both connected and firm, both adults and students benefit. But how do we do that? Children need compassion and boundaries, connection and high expectations – at the same time. But many of us did not grow up with this model, or learn it in our […]

  • Developing Firmness Tools for Parents

    Kind compassion and grounded firmness are critical to effective parenting. If we can do both, our parenting takes on a strong even keel, so that in stormy times or calm, we know we are getting where we want to go with our children in a way that has direction and purpose. Both parents and kids […]

  • The Mindful Mentors Project in Tukwila School District

    The Mindful Mentors Project, in the Tukwila School District, brings together teens and third graders to connect as mentors and mentees, who engage together in learning about social emotional learning, mindfulness, and movement. Partnering with the students on this project are Thrive Centered (formerly Thrive Yoga), an organization that centers embodiment and provides somatic-based SEL […]

  • An Interview with Tonya Wilson

    “It would be easy for someone to have looked at my mom’s life and to look at all effort expended on her behalf as wasted resources.” – Tonya Wilson, from her 2015 TEDx Talk Cracked Sidewalks   On March 15, 2022, from 12-2pm PST, Sound Discipline is hosting our next We Belong & Matter Community […]

  • Celebrating Black History Month with Tymmony Keegan

    Tymmony Keegan, 10th Grade Humanities and Black Studies Teacher, Cleveland High School What is your current position? I am a teacher at Cleveland STEM High School in Seattle Public Schools. Previously I was a teacher at Dimmitt Middle School in the Renton School District – which had been great and I wanted new challenges. I […]

  • Lakeridge Elementary’s Journey

    What is it like to transform a school into a place where all young people feel they belong, they matter, and they can grow as learners? Lakeridge Elementary, in the Renton School District, has been on just such a journey. In the spring of 2020, while navigating remote learning during school closures, the skilled Lakeridge […]