{"id":106,"date":"2025-05-01T23:08:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T03:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/?p=106"},"modified":"2025-05-01T23:08:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T03:08:39","slug":"where-im-at-on-our-final-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/2025\/05\/01\/where-im-at-on-our-final-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Where I&#8217;m at on our final day."},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">So where am I at? I tend to write my blog posts the night before the next session. I think it helps me get excited about the upcoming day and more than likely also has to do with having a full plate these days. Part of my own wellbeing journey includes trying my best to maintain a healthy work-life balance. It&#8217;s not always easy, but I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m in tune with how important it is to prioritize.<\/p>\n<p>My final How might we question is a return to a previous one&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-28hm0o m_8bffd616 mantine-Flex-root __m__-\u00abrec\u00bb\">\n<div class=\"css-1w7b7da\">\n<p>\u00a0How might we move towards building a collection of resources for students to reflect upon and self-regulate their well-being as needed depending on their age and stage?<\/p>\n<p>My motivation for this focus stemmed from a key observation in my work with students: well-being needs are highly individualized and rarely fit into prescribed windows or approaches. Students require different supports at different times, and a one-size-fits-all approach to well-being often falls short of meeting their diverse needs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This focus aligns directly with The York School&#8217;s mission &#8220;to nurture curious learners to become globally minded leaders with integrity and purpose.&#8221; I believe that for students to develop into such leaders, they must first have the tools to understand and regulate their own well-being. Self-awareness and emotional regulation are foundational to developing the integrity and purpose our mission emphasizes.<\/p>\n<p>As part of my Action Plan journey, I joined the Wellbeing and Belonging Committee at The York School, taking an active role in addressing student well-being at an institutional level. Our first major initiative was working with the team to create a Respectful Discourse Toolkit designed to help both staff and students engage in difficult conversations.<\/p>\n<p>The toolkit provides comprehensive resources including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A decision tree for navigating complex discussions<\/li>\n<li>Five criteria for identifying challenging conversations<\/li>\n<li>Guidelines for facilitating sensitive topics<\/li>\n<li>Strategies for both redirecting problematic discussions and deepening productive ones<\/li>\n<li>Techniques for emotional regulation and reflection<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This resource is grounded in The York School&#8217;s core values of curiosity, challenge, and community, supporting students in developing critical thinking skills while fostering a culture of respect and belonging. By teaching students how to engage thoughtfully with diverse perspectives, we&#8217;re nurturing the curious, globally minded leaders our mission envisions.<\/p>\n<h2>What I Learned<\/h2>\n<p>Through this process, I&#8217;ve come to understand that well-being resources must be flexible enough to meet students where they are, while providing sufficient structure to guide meaningful engagement. Creating safe spaces for difficult conversations is a fundamental aspect of supporting student well-being, as it empowers them to process complex emotions and diverse perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also seen how well-being initiatives directly support our mission of developing leaders with integrity and purpose. Students who can navigate challenging conversations with respect and openness are better prepared to lead in our complex, interconnected world.<\/p>\n<h2>Resources to Share<\/h2>\n<p>The Respectful Discourse Toolkit represents our first step toward building a comprehensive collection of well-being resources. It includes structured questioning techniques, discussion protocols, and reflective practices that equip educators to navigate complex conversations with intentionality.<\/p>\n<p>These resources help create learning environments where students can develop the curiosity and global mindedness our mission emphasizes, while practicing the integrity needed to engage respectfully with different viewpoints.<\/p>\n<h2>Big Takeaway<\/h2>\n<p>It is important for staff to feel supported when having difficult conversations.<\/p>\n<p>It is important for students to have these difficult conversations.<\/p>\n<p>It is important for parents to be aware of these protocols.<\/p>\n<h2>Lingering Questions<\/h2>\n<p>As I continue this work, I&#8217;m curious about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How can we further tailor well-being resources to different developmental stages while maintaining our focus on developing leaders with integrity and purpose?<\/li>\n<li>What additional tools might complement our discourse toolkit to further support our mission?<\/li>\n<li>How can we measure the impact of these resources on student well-being and their development as globally minded leaders over time?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>When can I sign up to be a coach again? \ud83d\ude42 Looking forward to run it back again next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So where am I at? I tend to write my blog posts the night before the next session. I think it helps me get excited about the upcoming day and more than likely also has to do with having a full plate these days. Part of my own wellbeing journey includes trying my best to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-session-four"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}