Ways to Help your Child Survive your Divorce

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJuly 16, 2016April 30, 2022 Counselors, General Interest, Overcoming obstacles, Parent-Teacher relationships, Parenting, Parents, Social and Emotional Growth alerting schools to divorce, divorce, maintaining boundaries during divorce, respecting spouse during divorce, supporting children through divorce Leave a comment

Beyond damage control… Here are some tips to reduce the stress and anxiety you children may experience during and after your divorce. • Maintain a civil relationship with your spouse* during the divorce and afterwards. Treat each other with tolerance and respect. • Don’t badmouth your spouse to your kids regardless of your feelings for him…

Presentation: Motivating the Unmotivated

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 25, 2016June 1, 2022 Avoiding power struggles, Building responsibility, Classroom management, Counselors, Creating community, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Feedback and encouragement, Increasing Positivity, Learning styles, Motivating cooperation, Motivating your kids, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Recognition and reinforcement, School climate, Social and Emotional Growth, Win-win authority classroom climate, consequences, difficult students, effective instruction, motivating students, reduce indifference, student engagement, student success, unmotivated students Leave a comment

Getting past defenses, disinterest, and disengagement Presentation by Dr. Jane Bluestein Of all the challenges teachers face, the one mentioned most consistently over the years has been, “How do I engage kids who aren’t motivated and just don’t care?” Few things are more frustrated that having your planning and enthusiasm met with groans, shrugs, or eye…

Starting Over is Not Failure

By Dr. Jane BluesteinMay 2, 2016April 30, 2022 Counselors, Educators, General Interest, Overcoming obstacles, Parents, Perfectionism, Self-care and Inspiration, Social and Emotional Growth accomplishing goals, accomplishment, adversity, completion, fresh starts, goal-setting, growth, moving forward, new day, optimism, perfectionism, persistence, rebounding, resetting goals, resolutions, setbacks, starting fresh, starting over, trying again Leave a comment

Beginning a new year. Or a new day. Note, May 2, 2016: I started this post on Feb. 8, 2014 and, like many things I started during the time I was working on the perfectionism book, lost track of it before I finished. I think the idea of coming back more than 2 years later…

Increasing Success for ALL Students

By Dr. Jane BluesteinMay 1, 2016April 30, 2022 ADD/ADHD, Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

Strategies for changing or maintaining the students’ level of alertness and attentiveness There will be times when your students are starting to drift off or glaze over but you need their attention for a few more minutes before the bell rings. Or they come in all wound up and you need them to settle down…

Ways to Build Tolerance and Respect for Diversity

By Dr. Jane BluesteinMay 1, 2016April 30, 2022 Counselors, Creating community, Culture and Community, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Parents, Problem solving, School climate, Social and Emotional Growth, Tolerance and Respect acceptance, appreciating others, appreciation for diversity, classroom social dynamics, friendship skills, leadership skills in children, opportunities for service, respect, respect for diversity, respecting differences, social competence in children, social interaction, sociograms, status among students, student social behavior, teaching tolerance, tolerance Leave a comment

Practical strategies for positive change • Pay attention to peer-to-peer interactions. Increase awareness, advocacy, and a willingness to take immediate, positive action (regarding how kids treat one another). • Advocate for the underdog. Encourage kids to connect with children who seem isolated. Emphasize the value of inclusion. • Interrupt any instances of meanness, name calling,…

Fear, Stress, and Learning

By Dr. Jane BluesteinApril 19, 2016April 30, 2022 Body and Brain, Counselors, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Parents, School climate, Teaching anxiety and learning, brain-compatible learning, classroom climate, cortisol, downshifting, emotion and cognition, emotion and retention, emotional safety, fear and cognitive functioning, fear and learning, fight or flight, learning and survival, learning and the brain, stress and learning, stress and memory, stress and student behavior, stress hormones, survival vs. learning Leave a comment

Obstacles to the learning process Excerpt from “Learning and the Brain,” chapter 4 of Creating Emotionally Safe Schools by Dr. Jane Bluestein © 2001, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL. This excerpt was extracted from the manuscript for this book and may be slightly different from the actual printed copy. The entire bibliography of Creating Emotionally Safe Schools is available on…

Motivation vs. Manipulation

By Dr. Jane BluesteinMarch 1, 2016May 1, 2022 Feedback and encouragement, Motivating cooperation, Motivating your kids, Parents, Recognition and Reinforcement, Recognition and reinforcement, Teaching authority relationships, autonomy, choices, i-messages, manipulation, motivation, obedience vs. cooperation, people pleasing, positive consequences, praise, purpose, recognition, reinforcement 2 Comments

There is a difference You see the kids on task and behaving, and it’s natural to want to reinforce what they’re doing. By the same token, the kids who are dragging their feet or not doing their work (or chores) may need a bit of a fire lit under them. There are positive and effective…

Presentation: The Perfection Deception

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 28, 2015May 2, 2022 Counselors, Creativity and independence, Cultural Changes, Educators, General Interest, Gratitude and inspiration, Health and Safety, Overcoming obstacles, Parents, Perfectionism, Presentation, Presentation for educators, Presentation for parents, Presentation- general interest, Relationships, Self-care and Inspiration, Taking care of yourself abandonment, attachment, authenticity, compensation, culture, emotional safety, health, healthy striving for excellence, image, inner critic, media, mental health, overcommitment, perfectionism, physical health, relationships, self-acceptance, self-care, suicide Leave a comment

Why trying to be perfect is sabotaging our relationships, making us sick, and holding our happiness hostage Presentation by Dr. Jane Bluestein Perfectionism may sound like a good thing, but it’s entirely different from the more realistic and achievable healthy pursuit of excellence. Working diligently toward improvement, learning, and growth is also far less destructive (and…

Book: The Perfection Deception

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 27, 2015April 27, 2023 Books, Counselors, Cultural Changes, Educators, General Interest, Gratitude and inspiration, Parenting, Parents, Perfectionism, Relationships, Self-care and Inspiration, Taking care of yourself attachment, authenticity, bodily harm, body dysmorphia, compensation, culture, eating disorders, emotional safety, health, healthy striving for excellence, image, inner critic, mental, mental health, motivation, overcommitment, perfectionism, physical health, relationships, self-acceptance, self-care, suicide 4 Comments

Why trying to be perfect is sabotaging your relationships, making you sick, and holding your happiness hostage. Have you ever: * compared yourself to others and seemed to come up short? * felt like no matter how much you did or how hard you tried, it wasn’t enough? * set unrealistic, even harmful standards for…

Bibliography for The Perfection Deception

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 5, 2015September 25, 2016 Bibliographies, Counselors, Educators, General Interest, Parents, Perfectionism, Recommended Reading, Teacher Appreciation 1 Comment

Resources for Bluestein Perfectionism Book Note: The following list includes the resources cited in the book, The Perfection Deception. Contributions are identified as obtained through email, written correspondence, personal messages, posts or comments on social media, telephone conversations, or face-to-face interviews or conversations between March 2013 and June 2015. This list does not include individuals…