{"id":55,"date":"2014-12-24T19:06:48","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T19:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/?p=55"},"modified":"2014-12-24T19:06:48","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T19:06:48","slug":"the-happiest-season-of-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/2014\/12\/24\/the-happiest-season-of-all\/","title":{"rendered":"The Happiest Season of All"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Untitled\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Christmas season always presents a bit of a dichotomy. Musical Christmas classics that are on repeat tell us it is the \u201chap- happiest season of all.\u201d<\/a> Yet, the chaotic flurry of stressed, impatient shoppers in malls and grocery stores leading up to December 25th<\/sup>\u00a0(and shortly thereafter), suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n

This Christmas \u2013 after being sent a link to a popular and provocative TedTalk by Shawn Achor<\/a> on positive psychology \u2013 I\u2019m pausing to reflect on happiness<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In his talk, Achor posits:<\/p>\n

If you can raise somebody’s level of positivity in the present,\u00a0then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage,\u00a0which is your brain at positive\u00a0performs significantly better\u00a0than it does at negative, neutral or stressed.\u00a0Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise\u2026 If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully\u00a0as we’re able to work harder, faster and more intelligently\u2026 Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you’re positive,\u00a0has two functions.\u00a0Not only does it make you happier,\u00a0it turns on all of the learning centers in your brain\u00a0allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this is true, I cannot imagine a more important task for an educator than to foster happiness in schools, such that students experience the happiness advantage. If happiness is achieved, surely the other key objectives\u00a0of education will follow. The question is\u2026 how do we do it?<\/p>\n

What practical strategies can teachers employ to practice positive education<\/a>? <\/em><\/p>\n

How can teachers help students to flourish? <\/em><\/p>\n

Is it possible to measure happiness (and its impact)?<\/em><\/p>\n

While I do yet have a precise action plan in place, I know that these are the questions that will drive my inquiry and planning forward.<\/p>\n

Next steps? A little holiday reading (\u201cFlourish\u201d by Martin Seligman<\/a>), and Twitter-stalking (#positivepsychology<\/a>). Any other suggestions are welcomed and most certainly appreciated!<\/p>\n

Happy Holidays!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Christmas season always presents a bit of a dichotomy. Musical Christmas classics that are on repeat tell us it is the \u201chap- happiest season of all.\u201d Yet, the chaotic flurry of stressed, impatient shoppers in malls and grocery stores leading up to December 25th\u00a0(and shortly thereafter), suggests otherwise. This Christmas \u2013 after being sent … Continue reading “The Happiest Season of All”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,16,13,14],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-plan","tag-flourish","tag-happiness","tag-positive-education","tag-positive-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/allisonharding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}