Five Ingredients to Help Students Recover Following a Pandemic
The population of young people, ages 16 to 24, were already facing mental health problems. Now they feel delayed by COVID-19, and it has added to their anxiety levels. This…
Three Questions That Challenge Students to Lead
A few weeks ago, seven high school and college students organized an effort to get a petition signed that would create a mask-wearing policy in their city of Savannah, GA.…
What Parents and Teachers Can Do That Google Cannot Do
Many parents fret that they’re not having the same conversations with their children that they did with their parents when they were kids. Teachers fret that engaging students in the…
Five Ideas to Keep Negativity from Becoming Normal During Quarantine
Do you identify with the scenario below? The first few weeks of quarantine, your family was energized. The whole idea was novel; not having to go to work or school…
Three Myths About Leadership We Must Help Students Discard
For decades now, leadership professors and leader development specialists have categorized leadership using an uppercase letter: Leader, verses a lowercase letter: leader. This is helpful in determining how different people…
How this Pandemic Could Change School for the Better
Most of us have mourned what the COVID-19 quarantine has stolen from our teens. Less class time, more screen time, more boredom, and both students and teachers who are uncomfortable…
Five Tips for Accelerating Growth through Feedback
The ability to think about yourself from the outside in, like a camera observing from a corner of the room, is a distinctly human capacity. But unless you are actually…
The Unintended Consequences of Our Nationwide Quarantine
Most Americans reluctantly returned home in the spring of 2020 in obedience to our government’s “shelter in place” order. Tens of millions began working from home to stay safe from…
Why Social-Emotional Learning Should Be a Top Priority When Going Back to School
Tomas Macaluso is a principal at North Valleys High School in Reno, Nevada. He and his team have become passionate about establishing social and emotional learning into the 2,200 students…
Three Tools to Bring Out the Best in the Pandemic Population
We have coined a term: “The Pandemic Population.” It represents a portion of Generation Z, high school and college students who have no memories of the 20th century as the…
Why Some Nations Are Figuring Out How to Open Schools
We’ve actually heard some good news from European countries like Denmark, Germany, Austria, and Norway. These nations have figured out ways to reopen their schools, some as early as mid-April…
The Secret Weapon to Handling Mental Health Issues
The rise in mental health issues in our students today should give every one of us pause. It is astoundingly high. Anxiety and depression in high school kids have been…
Two Important Decisions School Administrators Must Make This Fall
History is full of stories of leaders who each faced a crucial fork in the road and made a courageous decision. Want a few modern examples? Admiral Jim Stockdale chose…
What Will We Remember from This Pandemic?
A few years ago, my extended family gathered for a reunion. My sisters and I reminisced about our childhoods, including vacations, past girlfriends and boyfriends, squabbles we had, you name…
Ask Don’t Tell: What We Could Learn From Gen Z During a Pandemic
I know four sets of parents who are now at odds with their young adult children. The kids are between the ages of 17 and 24. Each of these families…
How to Use Technology to Reach Generation Z When You’re Not Tech-Savvy
Due to the coronavirus, this season of life is testing all of our technological abilities. Our success in this season will be dependent on how well we adapt to the…
How to Start a Conversation About Race with Kids
I recently met with a group of teachers and parents to talk about the “Black Lives Matter” protests. Within this group, there were caring adults on both sides of the…
Educators: Five Ideas to Overcoming Burnout Without Quitting
“COVID-19 has been a blessing and a curse,” Jared told me frankly. Jared is a high school principal who finished his 20th year as an administrator this past spring. He…
Escaping the Battle of Words and Embracing the Battle for Hearts
Our world today is in combat over language. Two sides of any issue vie for the best words that make any opposing view seem, well…wrong. Everywhere we look we see…
Six Ideas for Utilizing Technology to Teach
Because of COVID-19’s impact on schools around the world, educators have had to adjust to a digital classroom. As a result, many faculty members struggled to get up to speed…
The Pandemic Population: Eight Strategies to Help Generation Z Rediscover Hope After Coronavirus
<div class="fl-module fl-module-rich-text fl-node-5f05e3510fc84" data-node="5f05e3510fc84"> <div class="fl-module-content fl-node-content"> <div class="fl-rich-text"> Tim Elmore's new book – <i>The Pandemic Population</i> – identifies eight strategies to help Generation Z rediscover hope after coronavirus. It is…
Seven Reasons Why So Many Teens Are Involved in Protests
Parents of high school students have been shocked by how many teens have leapt onto the scene with such strong emotions at the protests across America. Parents who assumed their…
Parents: How to Have Patience for Yourself in a Culture of Comparison
I remember overhearing a dad talk about what he’d just done for his children. Actually, he was bragging about what he’d done for them. This man just returned from a…
How Three Young Leaders Went Beyond Boasting and Posting to Hosting
As sad as they are, I find that treasures often emerge after a tragedy. That’s exactly what we’ve seen in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder at the hands…
How to Help Generation Z Break Free from the All-or-Nothing Mindset
Have you noticed what’s happening around our country? Psychologists call it all-or-nothing thinking. It’s when a person assumes certain things like my life is either awesome or it’s terrible, my…
Five Ideas to Overcome the Challenge of Virtual Learning This Fall
Most of us weren’t quite sure what would happen when the nationwide quarantine was mandated and both parents and their kids found themselves attempting to work from home. What we…
How to Stop Being a Control Freak with Your Kids
I just spoke to Sharon, a mom who is now teaching her three kids at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first few days were novel and even fun. The…
How Our Parenting Has Changed Over the Years
A hundred years ago, we read stories of how families were larger, how kids were to speak only when spoken to, and how parents enjoyed a more influential voice in…
An Astronaut’s Advice on Living in Isolation
People across the world are now adjusting to life in social isolation thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak. In this episode, Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak share six practical tips from…
Four of the Best Ways to Make the Most of This Season
I love remembering the story of two young men who both contracted the deadly disease, Polio, almost a hundred years ago. One man became understandably bitter over his prognosis. He…
Five Changes Schools Plan to Make This Fall
At Growing Leaders, we have the privilege of interacting with lots of school administrators, athletic directors, and department heads. Obviously, with such a strange spring semester behind us, these leaders…
Six Metaphors to Build an Incubator of Peace for Your Kids
A little while ago, I heard about a news report that gave me pause. ABC’s Good Morning America team interviewed the Chief of the New York Fire Department who said…
Interview with a Recent High School Graduate
Teens today have lost part of the typical American experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Proms and sports seasons were canceled, graduations went virtual, and the past few months have…
Life Skills: The Class Some Students Are Asking for
After teaching the art of communication to some high school seniors, I turned them loose to apply what they’d learned. In groups of three, students stood up front to speak…
Pre-Order – Professional Development Digital Subscription: Habitudes for COVID-19
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Growing Leaders is excited to announce the release of a new bundle of <em>Habitudes for COVID-19</em>. Each Habitude conversation is designed to be a r</span>esource for teachers to…
Seven Practical Strategies to Talk About Mental Health with Your Kids
Even though mental health issues are on the forefront of our minds today, the topic still carries a stigma for many. Talking about depression can be hard. Trina, a sophomore…
How Schools Can Practice Good Timing This Fall
Did you notice that people experienced an ebb and flow to their emotional state since we were all quarantined in March? I sure you did. At first, we were refreshed,…
Video Games and Smartphones: How to Help Your Kids Manage their Free Time
The rise of screen time as a result of COVID-19 has now been well documented. While being at home on a screen is much better than being out and potentially…
Survey Says: Teachers and Parents Will Handle the Fall Differently
Here are some icebreaker questions for you: Why have people today felt the need to: Hoard toilet paper at the grocery store? Keep their automobile gas…
How Often Should We Talk About the Pandemic With Our Kids?
When my kids were young, our family witnessed the Columbine High School shooting (a campus massacre killing 15 people and injuring dozens more) and the September 11th terrorist attacks (where…
An Insightful Conversation on Race, Injustice, and Equality
In this unique episode, Tim Elmore interviews three incredible black men and women about what is happening in our country as a result of the George Floyd murder, its impact…
Students Who Invest Their Time Instead of Wasting It
Every one of us has a choice to make when it comes to our time. And since most of us have more time on our hands these days, it’s important…
Five Brilliant Leadership Lessons From the Protests in Louisville
One of the most moving stories emerging from the protests against police brutality, and on behalf of George Floyd (and others) who’ve been victims of racists cops, was a story…
What Kind of Leadership Do We Need?
As the founder and CEO of Growing Leaders, I look at the world through a leadership lens. I believe leadership matters. Moments of crisis amplify the need for good leadership.…
How Do We Respond to the George Floyd Murder?
In light of our sad and emotionally charged world right now, I felt it would be good for us to “push pause” and post a timely piece on today’s protests…