Author: Michael Kelly

SSWNETWORK Forum: Getting Real About Educator Mental Health

Posted by Michael Kelly | Jan 20, 2020 | Reflections on Practice, Resources We Love, Tools for Practice | 0 |

Whether you’re a school social worker or a teacher, you’re in a very important line of work responsible for the education and well-being of our youth and our collective future. Of course, doing this work involves a lot of stress and likely poses daily challenges for us that can start to build up if we don’t make a conscious effort to maintain our mental health. This week on SSWN and SSWNetwork, we will provide suggestions and examples for improving your own mental health and supporting the growth of a school staff’s well-being, breaking down the barriers getting in the way of implementation, and research on the topic to illuminate the realities of mental illness and self-care.

SSWNetwork Forum: How Are SSW Making SEL Work In MTSS?

Posted by Michael Kelly | Jan 12, 2020 | Interventions, Resources We Love, Tools for Practice | 0 |

As we move into our first week of 2020, it’s week #4 of our SMHAPP SSWNetwork Takeover! This week I’m thrilled to welcome Kara Kroculick and Jennifer Ferguson, members of the 4th Loyola SMHAPP cohort, who will be leading discussion and sharing resources about the topic of SEL and MTSS, and how school social workers are designing and implementing SEL interventions across the 3 tiers of MTSS .

2020: The Year of Open-Access Research on SSWN (Updated)

Posted by Michael Kelly | Jan 1, 2020 | Research That Matters, Resources We Love, Tools for Practice | 0 |

We’ve talked a fair amount over the years at SSWN about “open-access” (OA) but starting in 2020, we wanted to focus more fully on OA and how we’re working with individuals & partner organizations to create and share the most SSW-related OA content we can. We kick off this new decade with a brief introduction to OA, some details about OA resources we’re developing at SSWN, and introduce a powerful documentary on OA that you can watch and share with your colleagues, “Paywall: The Business of Scholarship.”

SSWNetwork Forum: “Oh, You Work With THOSE Kids?” SSW Working in Alternative Ed Schools

Posted by Michael Kelly | Dec 15, 2019 | Reflections on Practice, Research That Matters | 0 |

Loyola SMHAPP student Lisa Baker writes: This week we will discuss perceptions of alternative education schools and its students. I want to explore the idea of implicit/explicit biases and the stigma toward alternative education students. Throughout the week, I will post questions, ideas, and links to resources about various aspects of alternative education designed to make people think about their own biases or attitudes toward alternative education as well as those of others within the educational setting and the community. I am also interested in raising awareness of how biases and the stigma alternative education students face affects their emotional well-being.