The Intersect between Apathy, Ikigai & a Non-Cognitive Needs Survey

I had a great time chatting with THE Charle Peck this morning about apathy, critical conversations, and meeting the needs of our students and school professionals for her podcast: Thriving School Community. I won't dive into our whole conversation here, but I will say that our discussion is one that is worth listening to and sharing with your school administrators.

I shared a few references and tools during our conversation so I wanted to take a moment to highlight them here. We talked about "Ikigai," a term I learned about during the ASCA 2020 National Conference. This term stuck with me then and has been something I have been studying and implementing in my life and with my students for the last few years. The Japanese term translates to mean "the happiness of always being busy," and reminds me a lot of logotherapy, which I am very fond of--but I don't practice with students. :) What I can tell you is that these books I am holding in my photo help me to develop practices that can help students discover their ikigai and give them a sense of purpose for each day. Helping a student discover their ikigai can play an important role in their health and longevity--ultimately battling apathy now and throughout their lifetime.

I also typed a Google Form to collect Non-Cognitive Needs data from teachers to better inform my practices. I learned about the assessment from this resource. You can access a copy of my Google Form here or print the needs assessment from here.

Grab your copy of the Ikigai Book here and the Ikigai Journal here. Here is quick link to the Data book.

Do you have effective tools or practices to combat apathy in your school environment? Please share them in the comments to continue the conversation.