iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

Teachers emotionally support our kids -- but who's supporting our teachers? In this eye-opening talk, educator Sydney Jensen explores how teachers are at risk of "secondary trauma" -- the idea that they absorb the emotional weight of their students' experiences -- and shows how schools can get creative in supporting everyone's mental health and wellness.

"Addictions to electronic cigarettes are derailing the dreams of promising young athletes, leaving them struggling to breathe, keep up with their teammates and find motivation to practice.

Take Cade Beauparlant, 18, of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Beauparlant first laced up hockey skates when he was just a few years old, and fell in love with the sport. "Hockey was my life," he told NBC News.

His abilities on the ice developed rapidly. Hockey coaches and recruiters had their eyes on Beauparlant starting in middle school.

"He was such a hard-working, motivated, skillful young kid. He was our best defenseman," Paul Yameen, Beauparlant's high school hockey coach, said. "As soon as he started [vaping], everything changed."

Beauparlant said he was introduced to e-cigarettes during a sleepover with friends in eighth grade. He began "Juuling" in ninth grade, referring to the Juul brand of e-cigarettes, by far the most popular among teens.

Within a year, Beauparlant said he was "extremely addicted," to Juul pods. One pod has roughly the same amount of nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes, according to Truth Initiative, a nonprofit organization that advocates for tobacco cessation."

School children are constantly engaging with their peers on digital technology and social networking sites such as Instagram, Snapchat and Musical.ly. While it is sometimes harmful - reports of cyberbullying cases are increasingly commonplace - digital technology also comes with considerable benefits. Below are some of the top e-health tools that enable pupils, and those supporting them, to access mental health and wellbeing advice at the click of a button.

For all its many other benefits, personal technology wrecks havoc on your body. From back and neck pain to more serious issues like sciatica, you need to improve your posture before it is too late.

The most common pain points of technology are:

Sitting too long at your desk.
Slouching when you use a computer.
Using your laptop in weird positions.
Bending your neck when looking at your phone.

The good news is that technology itself has a few solutions to these problems. Programs, apps, and browser extensions can send you reminders to fix your posture, move around, or even smartly figure out when you are slouching.

There are advantages to sleeping with a robot. For one thing, it won’t kick you in the middle of the night.

It will obediently snuggle with you till you’ve had your fill. When you need your space, simply throw it to other side of the bed–with no hurt feelings. At any point, you can control the robot’s body. Is his breathing too strong? His talk too loud? All can be adjusted with a simple dial.

The best part? It doesn’t snore.

Meet the Somnox sleep robot, a football-sized companion made to help relax you to sleep. The soft-to-touch bot murmurs with a slowed breathing rhythm, subconsciously lulling users to a meditative breathing speed. It comes with integrated audio with Enya-eqsue celestial sounds and white noise, but if that’s not your bag, you can upload whatever calming audio you’d like, be it lullabies, bird sounds, or Jeff Goldblum’s voice.

A child’s wellbeing is of utmost importance and a Makerspace can be one place to assist in ensuring a child is stimulated yet feels cheery, unanxious and relaxed. The joy and happiness we have seen in our Makerspace is evident of students’ wellbeing.

Depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, narcissism — these medical conditions impact millions of people around the world, yet are often misunderstood. How much do you know about the symptoms and treatments? Want to learn more about how to support a friend in need? In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, watch these 4 TED-Ed Lessons:

“In talking to my students and their families, we’re finding that just about everybody’s been touched in some way by COVID-19, my family included,” Romano Arrabito said during a recent EdSurge webinar on social-emotional learning. As such, she’s “really trying to put the emotional well-being of these kids first,” she added.

What that looks like for Romano Arrabito, at a time when schools across the country are shuttered indefinitely, is being available, flexible and frequently online. She sends a “morning message” to her students via video every day, so that they can see her and hear her voice, and answers calls from parents at 10 o’clock in the evenings, in special circumstances where she knows the family members are considered “essential workers” and are working odd hours.

I met Brianna Sedillo when she pitched my radio station a personal perspective on anxiety, a topic that comes up over and over as teachers and parents try to support young people.

"Everything kind of started with the anxiety and depression after the passing of my grandfather," Brianna said. "He was kinda my safe space. And losing that was really big."

Brianna missed her grandfather's supportive presence acutely during her middle school years, which were difficult. Middle school can be a difficult time for anyone, but for Brianna it was particularly hard socially because her family moved several times. She had trouble making new friends and felt each change of school acutely. Despite all that, she was a good student; she made the honor roll all three years in middle school.

But everything got worse when she started at El Cerrito High School, just outside San Francisco. Brianna's feelings of isolation intensified, and her depression and anxiety kicked into high gear. She knew that she should be doing her homework, participating in class, and trying to be more social, but she couldn’t bring herself to do any of it. By sophomore year, Brianna was barely passing.

THE WHOLE WORLD is exhausted. And it’s killing us.

But particularly me. As I write this, I’m at TED 2019 in Vancouver, which is a weeklong marathon of talks and workshops and coffee meetings and experiences and demos and late-night trivia contests and networking, networking, networking. Meanwhile, I’m sick as a dog with a virus I caught from my 3-year-old, I’m on deadline for what feels like a bazillion stories, and I’m pregnant, which means I need coffee but can’t have too much, and need sleep but can only lay on my left side, and can’t breathe without sitting propped up with a pillow anyway, since I can’t safely take any cold medication.

According to neuroscientist Matthew Walker, I’m doing serious damage to my health—and life—by not sleeping enough.

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania found that limiting social media usage to 30 minutes per day can lead to improvements in well-being.

“People have the power to put this stuff away and they always have,” says Eyal. “But when we preach powerlessness, people believe that.”

What are our screens and devices doing to us? Psychologist Adam Alter studies how much time screens steal from us and how they're getting away with it. He shares why all those hours you spend staring at your smartphone, tablet or computer might be making you miserable -- and what you can do about it.

In all of my Best of the Web presentations I try to present resources for a wide variety of classroom settings and subject areas. Health and physical education resources are always included because of my personal interest in the field as well as its importance in giving students lifelong skills. Here are ten of my favorite resources for teaching and promoting health and fitness in schools.