Audience: Educator

Stressed Students need SPACE to Thrive

The 10-month sprint of academic and co-curricular activities that we call the school year can overwhelm even the most well-adjusted students. In fact, high achieving

Messages Matter

I believe that what we say and how we say it matters, and that we need to provide more stories of ways that students can succeed that aren’t within the conventional norm.

Summer Camp: A Unique Environment for Social and Emotional Learning

In fall 2015, Challenge Success launched a research-practice partnership with three northern California camps.  These camps believed deeply — like many of you — that summer camp provides kids with long-term benefits and essential learning experiences, but they wanted to better understand if and how this was true.   

All Stress is Not Distress

At Challenge Success, we sometimes get the question: can’t some forms of stress be okay, or even helpful for students?

Class Rankings

Denise Pope shares why eliminating class rankings can reduce undue student stress without decreasing engagement.

Don’t Forget To Bring a Doorstop

The most important piece of advice my oldest daughter and I heard when she was packing for college was: Don’t forget to bring a doorstop.

Year-end Student Awards and Assemblies

Several administrators at a recent conference asked my opinion on year-end student awards and assemblies. At their schools, they typically rewarded students who had straight A’s or who had GPA’s above a certain cut-off point.

HAPPINESS WITHIN REACH: The Open Secret

“I want to be happier. I just don’t know how.” In my work as faculty, presenter and leadership coach, I hear this confession from adults, 18-80. We live complex, stressful and often disconnected lives, often bombarded by media that convinces us that buying all kinds of stuff will make us happy, beautiful, successful, prestigious, and even more loveable individuals. Sometimes it does, in the short run. The real problem, however, is that this media-created trance can blunt our quieter universal quest for deeper joy and kindness. But there is very good news. Deep happiness is within reach.