Collaboration between educators and parents is key when it comes to creating safe, nurturing environments for the kids within our schools - not least when it comes to helping manage their mental health and wellness. And though there is a definite improvement in the quality of connections made between many educators and caregivers, there is undoubtedly more work to be done.
Anne Moss Rogers, an author, trainer, suicide loss survivor, and one of the top motivational Mental Health Speakers for schools, joins Voices in Education to explore how both sides of the equation can make meaningful steps to improve their communication and overall student support. Anne Moss also shares her personal story as a suicide loss survivor and how that drove her to help other parents.
This special episode of Voices in Education is brought to you in conjunction with Securly Prepared: a ground-breaking digital student wellness event that offers educators, support staff, and school leaders the tools and know-how they need to make a meaningful difference for students today.
If you'd like to check out Securly Prepared, it is available here right now on demand.
Voices in Education is powered by Securly
Securly is your school’s all-in-one solution for student safety, wellness, and engagement. Securly's 2023 State of Student Wellness Report is a free-to-download paper that takes a closer look into the data and current trends surrounding student wellness. You'll learn how your school can overcome resource limitations, introduce efficient technologies into the classroom, and ultimately better support the students who need your help the most.
Download your free copy of this illuminating special report today.
Special thanks to Anne Moss Rogers
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emotionallynaked/
Anne Moss' Book Page: https://mentalhealthawarenesseducation.com/mental-health-books/
School Mental Health Programs: https://mentalhealthawarenesseducation.com/mental-health-speaker/mental-health-speaker-for-schools/
Collaboration between educators and parents is key when it comes to creating safe, nurturing environments for the kids within our schools - not least when it comes to helping manage their mental health and wellness. And though there is a definite improvement in the quality of connections made between many educators and caregivers, there is undoubtedly more work to be done.
Anne Moss Rogers, an author, trainer, suicide loss survivor, and one of the top motivational Mental Health Speakers for schools, joins Voices in Education to explore how both sides of the equation can make meaningful steps to improve their communication and overall student support. Anne Moss also shares her personal story as a suicide loss survivor and how that drove her to help other parents.
This special episode of Voices in Education is brought to you in conjunction with Securly Prepared: a ground-breaking digital student wellness event that offers educators, support staff, and school leaders the tools and know-how they need to make a meaningful difference for students today.
If you'd like to check out Securly Prepared, it is available here right now on demand.
Voices in Education is powered by Securly
Securly is your school’s all-in-one solution for student safety, wellness, and engagement. Securly's 2023 State of Student Wellness Report is a free-to-download paper that takes a closer look into the data and current trends surrounding student wellness. You'll learn how your school can overcome resource limitations, introduce efficient technologies into the classroom, and ultimately better support the students who need your help the most.
Download your free copy of this illuminating special report today.
Special thanks to Anne Moss Rogers
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emotionallynaked/
Anne Moss' Book Page: https://mentalhealthawarenesseducation.com/mental-health-books/
School Mental Health Programs: https://mentalhealthawarenesseducation.com/mental-health-speaker/mental-health-speaker-for-schools/
Adam Smith:
You are listening to the Voices in Education podcast, powered by Securly. In our third season of the podcast, we're fine-tuning our focus and shining a spotlight where we believe it's needed most, on those who've dedicated their careers and lives to education. Whether inside or outside of the classroom, we know that students need to feel seen, safe, and supported to perform at their best. But these aren't just the needs of students, they're basic human needs that apply to our educators, administrators, and school mental health professionals as well. There's a saying that you can't pour from an empty cup, well, you are invited to fill your cup here with us. I'm Adam Smith, a former teacher, mental health advocate, and your host of the Voices in Education podcast. It's my great honor and pleasure to get to sit down with educators just like you, to discuss why they chose a career in education, and how they stay the course in the face of challenges. In hearing their stories, I hope you'll come away feeling refreshed, re-energized and reconnected to your own reasons for becoming an educator. Let's hear from the voices in education.
Hello, and welcome to a very special episode of the Voices in Education podcast. I'm Adam Smith, your host for Voices in Education, and I can't wait to share these inspiring conversations with you all. But, before we get into it, I want to make sure that you don't miss out on a single episode. Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe to the Voices in Education podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts from. To wrap up our third season of Voices in Education, we're teaming up with Securly as part of their ground-breaking digital student wellness event, Securly Prepared. An event that offers educators, support staff, and school leaders the tools and know-how they need to make a meaningful difference for students and for themselves today. If you'd like to check out Securly Prepared, it is available right now on demand. Just go to www.bigmarker.com/securly/securly-prepared, or by following the link in our episode description.
Joining me today is one of the three educational experts that featured on the Securly Prepared panel, Anne Moss Rogers. Anne Moss is a mental health motivational speaker, author, trainer, and suicide loss survivor. In 2015, the tragic suicide of her young son, Charles was a turning point in her life. Through her own personal experience of loss, and working her way through this devastating time, Anne Moss uses her authenticity and know-how to teach and support others. Now, as an expert on emotional wellness, suicide prevention, and postvention, as well as youth mental health, she speaks at conferences, universities, schools, and workplaces to help better equip her audiences, fill their hearts with hope, and ultimately save young lives. Anne Moss, welcome to the Voices in Education podcast, it's an honor to have this chance to chat with you today. How are you?
Anne Moss Rogers:
Good, and thank you so much for putting such a laser focus on youth mental health, and of course, the health of our administrators and our educators as well.
Adam Smith:
Your role, it has many facets, and for any of our listeners that maybe aren't familiar with you or your work, I would love to know, what does a usual week for Anne Moss look like? What would you do on a week-to-week basis?
Anne Moss Rogers:
Wow. So, I plan out with my assistant what goes on social media, what needs to be done. For example, tomorrow, I'm going to PTA meeting, and I actually have a local school client now, and I will be promoting parent series. So the wellness coordinator at this school is doing a parent educator series and I'm doing the one on youth mental health and suicide prevention. Then I fly to Florida, and I speak at Florida State University, and actually, they're just a place where a coalition is meeting, and they are having their annual suicide prevention luncheon. Then I'll fly back...
So, I'm usually going out doing things, or participating in podcasts, news interviews, panel events like the Securly one. Really getting out there and talking about youth mental health, and talking about really small changes. Because changing education takes a long time, but what small things can you try now to see how that works for you, and how it works for your students and your teachers? Basically, I want the three sides of the education triangle, parents, students, and educators, and I'm including leadership in the educators, I want that whole flow and I want everyone to know their role and how they can be part of the solution.
With the parenting, I'm going to give them tips on what to look for, but I'm going to end with non-parenting tips, on teaching kids how to code. And they walk away so happy and content because they know there are things they can do and they're much simpler than they thought. And I like to end on a positive, hopeful note and give people those solutions, the takeaways, the things they can take home and actually try.
Adam Smith:
Yeah. Well, the positive and hopeful element is something that really appeals to me personally. The Voices and Education podcast really, although we do share some sadder stories and those sorts of things, what we want to leave our listeners with is that sense of hope, and some practices to try, some ideas, and maybe some renewed energy. And I think, obviously, I watched you on the Securly Prepared webinar, and if there's one thing you've got, it's this lovely positive energy. Where, we are talking about something serious, and there's no getting away from that, but there's no reason that we shouldn't come away from conversations about suicide, about student mental health, there's no reason we shouldn't come away from that feeling ready to take it head on and make a difference. And I love that that's what you're doing with your day-to-day. You are going out there and trying to make that difference. Do you have what you would call an ultimate goal? Is there this objective in mind that that's what you are working towards? Is there something like that?
Anne Moss Rogers:
Well, since 2010 I've been focused on youth mental health. Back then, no one would even let me in the door.
Adam Smith:
Oh right. Okay.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And they would hire me to come speak about social media, that was my specialty, and digital marketing, but for youth mental health, I wasn't getting any traction.
Adam Smith:
It's really interesting how that's changed. Yeah.
Anne Moss Rogers:
It's really evolved, and I'm thrilled to see that it's now become this big subject. It took a while, I'm obviously not-
Adam Smith:
It took too long. You've made an interesting point, and you've given me a nice segue into our next section here, which is, we like to dig into our guests reasons for being in education, or reasons for supporting education and those sorts of things. We look at the why. And you've just mentioned there, 2010, that you were trying to get into schools to speak about youth mental health even then. So, I would love to go back for our listeners because your story is, it's a heart-breaking one, but ultimately an inspiring one, and one that I think people across all of education can take something very meaningful from.
So, you do some incredible work now as we've just discussed, and there's a moral to your story, that such great hardship and grief can still lead to something incredibly productive, and I'd even say life-changing. So, if you're happy to, I'd love to go back even as far as 2010, and understand how you went from not being allowed in those school doors, then this life-changing event, and now, how you are, where you are today. So, if you wouldn't mind, I would love to share that with our listeners.
Anne Moss Rogers:
Sure. So, 2010, the first real memory of Charles is him standing as a sophomore on homecoming court, being escorted by his favorite teacher, Ms. Fretwell. I am not escorting him because my [inaudible 00:08:59] was asked to escort my older son who was a senior. And he actually won, which was a shot, because it was my younger son, the one who died by suicide [inaudible 00:09:13] the funniest, best popular kid in school. Richard was a strong introvert, but he had introduced this video series that just blew up, it was so popular. So Charles didn't win that year, his brother did, but it was not long after that where I just noticed all this drug use, and a real change in his personality. I had seen changes before, I brought them up before, we had talked about them, there was some ADHD and all that. He would end up being diagnosed with depression once we sent him to Wilderness, and that wasn't plan A by the way, we had just run out of local resource. He goes to therapeutic boarding school.
He comes back, he becomes addicted to heroin, and he goes through that whole process, ends up in a recovery house, and he relapses right away, and he ends up back into detox. I'm thinking everything's great, he walks out, and for two weeks we don't know where he is. I heard from him once, his dad heard from him once, there were a couple of text messages, and then the police meet us in the parking lot of a restaurant, and they tell me, "Your son is dead." I'm sure it's an overdose because he's been addicted to heroin... We found out, we barely knew for 30 days. And the policeman says, "It's a suicide, and the method left no question." And that was this extra twist of a knife. And I was like, how can I not know that my son, the funniest, most popular kid in school, struggled with all this pain?
And at the time, I'm like, there were no signs. But later, looking back, I would see all these really, really obvious signs that are just like, to me, today, neon signs. I'm like, I have got to educate other people, other parents, other people to recognize these signs because they are invitations the person struggling wants to tell. Now, it's not just suicide, they could be struggling with a number of things, they want to talk about it.
Adam Smith:
Yeah.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And we need to be ready to allow them to feel heard. Because what we often do when somebody tells us something, is that we start fixing it. And that's not what people need initially, they need to feel heard, and our kids especially, need to feel heard. My son needed to feel heard, and I didn't know those signs. So, during the pandemic, or right before the pandemic, Wiley Publishing approached me about writing a book for teachers. And my first thought is, well, I'm not a teacher, I don't know. So I reached out to Dr. Kimberly O'Brien, I said, "Are you interested in doing this with me?"
And she goes, "Well, neither one of us is teachers," and I said, "I have an idea, I think we interview leadership, we interview teachers, we interview school counselors, and we use our knowledge and our data and we put it together that way." And it worked out beautifully. So, it started to get on the roll, the book came out, and that started getting into more schools, and then somebody who knew somebody, and there was a suicide at this college, and I would speak to the parents and the faculty and the students... Again, that triangle.
Adam Smith:
Yeah.
Anne Moss Rogers:
We got to get the parents, we got to get the students, and we got to get the educators. Lots of times we want to leave one side of that triangle off, and the one that's often left off is the parents.
Adam Smith:
Yes, definitely.
Anne Moss Rogers:
So the school and the students, we're going to do this, and the parents are over here going, what's going on? Some are not able to be as involved, but a lot want to be.
Adam Smith:
Yes.
Anne Moss Rogers:
How can we help them do that?
Adam Smith:
It's interesting that you echo this, because I learn so much on this podcast, and I speak to superintendents, I speak to school counselors, I speak to regular, in the classroom teachers, and everyone in between. Many of them are parents. And what's so interesting about what you've just said there, about that connection and leaving one of the sides off, is that from the educator's perspective, they sometimes suggest that some of the parents do not want to involve the schools in the personal goings-on. The private goings-on within their children's lives, or just within the bigger family life. And then equally, I think there are some educators, it's fair to say, that don't always as actively involve the parents as maybe they should. Or maybe those connections or those systems aren't in place to allow those conversations to happen in a organic way or in a frequent way.
And this ties in beautifully with some of the things that you were sharing during the Securly Prepared webinar. Many of your comments were about creating connection, about creating a culture where everybody feels, not only that they can contribute, but that they should. So, I would love to just maybe start there, and as a follow-up to that webinar. What have you seen out there in schools, where this is working? What advice would you give to educators listening to this podcast? How can they create those better bonds with parents so that there isn't that missing link, we're not missing that communication line? What could you give to our listeners?
Anne Moss Rogers:
So, it does depend on [inaudible 00:15:22] where you are, because one size doesn't fit all. But I think the first one is to respect their traditions. Understanding that if you serve a Latin American culture, we need to have back to school night where grandma can come too. So maybe you need to provide translators, maybe you need to provide childcare. So, by doing things like that, by having somebody who speaks Spanish at your event, you are saying, without saying, we care about you and we want to include you. We want you to feel like you belong here. I loved what Jessica Goldman, who is now a PhD, and I interviewed her for the book, she was at the time working for a school in New York, and she would bring in all 1800 freshmen parents, and she would say, "You're regularly going to get communication with me about tips, you're going to get calls about your kid's mental health," she said, "that is my focus." So she normalized that conversation.
Adam Smith:
Right.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And that's what we need to do with parents, we need to normalize that conversation, start it from the beginning. And then, I helped a school out in, I think it was Michigan, create this little counselor's corner, where they shared one tip every month. So it was this long.
Adam Smith:
Nice. Yeah.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And then, one teacher, we worked together, and we end up doing more comedy around it, made it funny, and then that way people really got engaged with it.
Adam Smith:
And what I really love is what you said there about it is so different case by case, maybe it's difficult for the parents to actually get into the school physically. During the Securly Prepared webinar, Dr. Robert Avossa mentioned that now we've got things like Zoom, or any of these online video functions, or whatever it might be, parents don't actually even need to be there in person, we can still engage with them digitally, and that's helping the cause because communication is so much better. I'm sure, again, going back to 2010 and your personal story, communication between schools and parents then was not where it is now.
Anne Moss Rogers:
No.
Adam Smith:
If there is one benefit of the pandemic and the remote learning that was created, or the hybrid learning, it's that we can now... A lot of these schools have in place systems to be able to have communication, even if the parent cannot be there physically. And that can only be a good thing, right?
Anne Moss Rogers:
Oh yeah, it totally forced them. I really think the pandemic put the foot on the accelerator for youth mental health. That's where I saw the biggest change. Even before then it was fits and starts, and I'm still hitting a lot of roadblocks, especially with suicide prevention. Because you've got older administrators in a lot of cases, who are like, we can't talk about that. Or there's always... And that's not all fair, but I do run into that on occasion.
Adam Smith:
Yeah, of course, of course.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And difficult place to be, but it's also a wonderful place to be, because now I'm seeing superintendents and leaders, like Dr. [inaudible 00:19:06] and Dr. Avossa, just take charge and really embrace this, and have solutions for it, and have data for it. And I wasn't seeing that, even five years ago. [inaudible 00:19:22] probably doing the same thing, but now it's broadcasts. I've met you, I've met them, I know what they're doing, and that really gives me so much hope too, to see the leadership buy-in because none of this is going to come together without that leadership buy-in. We can no longer say, well, I'm risk averse, therefore I'm not going to step into the circle. Let me tell you, you are a lot more likely to get in trouble if you do nothing.
Adam Smith:
It's so true, it's so true. You mentioned data a minute ago, and I think it's so interesting to consider where we were even a decade ago. Because Securly has only been around for, I think it's just under 10 years now, and initially it was all about students safety, physical safety, or online safety. Keeping kids safe in that very, I guess quite thin way, as in, just making sure they don't see the things they shouldn't or watch or read the things they shouldn't. But yeah, we started to realize, I guess in the same way many of these school leaders are starting to realize, that's great foundation, but then how do you then find the other things that are causing children distress? The other things that are sending them down the slope? And how do you get ahead of that? And the answer is data, in the exact same way that you would look after physical health by having checkups, and looking at the signs.
Are they sleepy? Are they more angry than usual? Or agitated than usual? That's a physical outward sign of, potentially, an illness, but is it a physical one, or is it now some sort of mental struggle, a wellness issue? And it's so lovely that that is now, as we say, for the most part, being picked up by so many schools and districts. Because they understand it's just as important, if not maybe more important, because some of these things can lead to these other things, like you mentioned, about drug addiction and those kinds of things, a way of trying to cope that then actually creates an even bigger problem. And the sooner we can get to the crux of the problem, the better I think.
Anne Moss Rogers:
So, I wanted to touch on something you said. If you want to know if you've got struggling students in the school, ask the school nurse. She's the one that sees those kids who are struggling emotionally too. Yeah, they're coming in with physical ailments, but I knew the first name of every school nurse of every school Charles ever attended, and that's where it started. I've got a headache, muscle aches, and they're real, because he is tightening up so much.
Adam Smith:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And having the data, because we can't keep our eyeballs on all these kids.
Adam Smith:
No, no.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And we're in a data-driven society, we need that to be part of the solution. So, that's a whole new triangle. You've got people who are willing to listen, people who are watching, we need something else there to keep up with all that. I have stories in the book of software that sweeps Google, that found somebody that put in a white font, they're going to kill themselves, and they were able to intervene. Nobody, no human would've ever been able to see that-
Adam Smith:
Well, that's it.
Anne Moss Rogers:
... these software programs. Yes, they're so important.
Adam Smith:
That's what Securly do now. We have our Securly Aware that is, it's an AI that is monitoring what the students are typing, whether it's in white or gray or green or whatever color they're writing in, across the digital world. Because you might be able to intervene in the past with people passing notes or conversations kids are having, but when it's silent and it's on the computer, you can't always find that. And again, Securly Aware will flag to the teachers or to the nurses or whoever it is that the school wants to be monitoring these things, it will flag any cases that are worrying, anything that is becoming an issue.
If it's low level or it's something else, it recognizes that that's not a concern, but when there is these building concerns, it allows the teacher or the educator or whoever it might be to put their attention on that student then. So, when they need that help, you are there, and you're not preoccupied with something else. And you're so right, it's about knowing who to help when, and who to give the lion's share of the attention to at that moment to make a difference.
Anne Moss Rogers:
But it's going to show pattern.
Adam Smith:
It does, it absolutely does.
Anne Moss Rogers:
It's going to show patterns. Because lots of times, if you take yourself out of one environment and you look at something like that... And that's what I used to do with advertising data, I would go to the stats. And all of a sudden I would see patterns and new trends. And you can detect that. I knew years ahead that children who were living with autism, or on the spectrum, or neurodiverse, were at higher risk of suicide. Because they were reaching out to me. I thought everyone knew that. And now there are a lot of studies, but I remember the first time I brought it up, and, oh, there's no data to support that, and I'm like, wait a minute, those are the parents and those are the kids who are reaching out to, I know it's a problem. And then a year later the data would come out to support that.
Adam Smith:
Yeah. And I think it's heartening for me to be able to see that the data is now being considered, in the same way that regular observations are in the classroom. I think it's just so crucial.
Anne Moss Rogers:
They got to work together.
Adam Smith:
They do. It's the triangle you keep referring to. It's making sure that every aspect of the school system is connected because then you're not missing one of the biggest red flags, or you're being communicated to about those flags when you need to know. And I think it's great to hear from you that you are starting to see that being adopted as well in that broader way.
Securly:
The Voices in Education podcast is brought to you by Securly. Since 2013, Securly's sole mission has been to support student safety and wellness. With more than 15,000 schools worldwide already choosing to bring Securly into their school communities, we are creating a clearer picture of what young people are struggling with each and every day. With this data, we are able to more effectively target and implement support, and we want to share that information with as many educators like you as possible. The 2023 State of Student Wellness Report is a free to download paper, that takes a closer look into the data and current trends surrounding student wellness. You'll learn how your school can overcome resource limitations, introduce efficient technologies into the classroom, and ultimately better support the students who need your help the most. Download your free copy of this illuminating special report by visiting hs.securly.com/report. That's hs.securly.com/report today.
Adam Smith:
Anne Moss, I'd like to move on, we end all of our podcasts by asking the same three questions to our guests because we like to end on some advice, and just some positivity, I suppose, as well, to wrap things up. So, we've talked about a lot of the challenges that are being faced in schools, but what do you think the biggest challenge is that educators face today when it comes to supporting their students' wellness?
Anne Moss Rogers:
I think it's making school feel like a safe space. I think that has become an enormous challenge because emotionally healthy kids need to know that their school is a safe space. And both physically and emotionally, and that in the last few years has become a real challenge. And we have some answers to that, but implementing it, it's a lot of pressure on administrators.
Adam Smith:
It certainly is. And as you say, I've spoke to quite a few superintendents who I think are absolutely addressing that, and they can see that that is a rising concern and something that they need to [inaudible 00:27:50]. I couldn't agree with you more, to be honest. So for any of our listeners who are educators, I would love for you to give, something you can say to any of them, maybe they're struggling right now, we hear a lot about teacher burnout and those kinds of things. So, for anyone who is feeling that way right now, or even for parents who might be feeling that way, what's one thing you'd like to say to them?
Anne Moss Rogers:
I think that for anything that we feel stress and burnout about, I think you've got to really focus on your own self-care. And that might mean stepping out of it, or stepping into a different role for a while. You can ignore that and keep pushing yourself through it, that isn't the solution. And allowing and being vulnerable with your students, you got to figure out a way to tell them that is allowable. But I know a teacher, when she does need that emotional break, or she was involved in too many things at the school, she was a softball coach, she was this, she was that, and she had to go tell her students, I had to give up something I love today because it was too much, I can no longer be the softball coach. I am going to be involved in a smaller role, but I can't do it all, I'm starting to burn out.
And I can't do that... She lives with bipolar disorder, and her students know that, she's told them, she's been allowed to admit that, and she's a very spoken advocate on that. What's beautiful about that is because she's been so vulnerable and so open, when students are struggling, they will talk to her. They listen to her. They show up in her class, sometimes when they do not want to come to school, if they know that it's her class they'll miss, they show up.
Adam Smith:
That's amazing. Yeah.
Anne Moss Rogers:
And so, she's modeled that, and I think modeling that and showing that... Explained that I lost someone, I went to support group, because I wasn't managing that loss very well. So you are modeling to the students it's okay to ask for help. It's okay not to be okay. And you're explaining to them, I need a little grace right now. I may need a little bit of help and support, and maybe that's a time when the teacher says, I need some help and support right now, is there anybody in here willing to do that?
Adam Smith:
It's probably-
Anne Moss Rogers:
So I think showing that vulnerability.
Adam Smith:
No, it's so true. One of my other podcast guests, Julie Norman, introduced this curriculum in the UK, where, her motto was that everybody in the school should be learning about sense of self, sense of others, and sense of the world. And she really promoted this... What you've just said, ultimately. If a teacher is having a bad day, they come in and they let the students know, I'm not in the best place today, and so I apologize if at any stage I'm short with you, I just want you to know now it's not you, it's not you that's caused this, I'm just going through a thing. And again, when you model that, because we're all human beings... Yes, we all, in our roles at work, we all act a certain way or we put on certain hats. I'm podcast hosting right now, and the way I'm speaking to you is maybe not how I would speak to my friends here, but at the same time, I like to bring an authenticity because I care about this and I'm passionate about it.
And I think if you can find that balance, because you're right, the teacher can't come in her slippers and a dressing gown, and having not maybe presented herself in a way that is within the school parameters, but she can admit, I'm not at my best today. I would like to be at home in my slippers and dressing gown, but I'm not, I'm here, and I just need you to know that. So I think that's great. And yeah, your advice about, absolutely, if you need to step back from something just for a day, a week, whatever it might be, you absolutely should because then you can bring your best-
Anne Moss Rogers:
Or they can tune into this podcast and listen to your melodious voice.
Adam Smith:
I'll absolutely take that. Yeah, I like that a lot. I'm going to put that on the posters I think. That'll be good. Right then, last question, and again, we love to end these on a positive. So, what's one thing that's giving you hope about the future of education? Because there are a lot of challenges, but then there are so many lights at the end of the tunnel, as it were. So, what is giving you hope about the future?
Anne Moss Rogers:
It is seeing leadership caring about this subject. Actually seeing them speak out in public, this is what we're doing. I didn't see that in 2010, and I am seeing it now, finally, and I'm loving it, and I'm drinking it in, and I'm watching it, and I'm writing it down, and I'm sharing those ideas. That's what gives me hope, is that it feels like, okay, now we're all in, the parents, the students, the educators, and the leadership. That's the piece we really needed to happen, and I'm seeing it happen, so it is happening. It's not happening fast, but it doesn't need to happen fast.
Adam Smith:
No, I think I would rather it happen at the right pace so that it's implemented correctly, we build these foundations as sound as we can. But no, you are so right.
Anne Moss Rogers:
Right, just try one thing, try one activity in your classroom to build that connection. And see how it goes.
Adam Smith:
Yes. Absolutely. Well, Anne Moss, I'm afraid we have come to the end of our chat today, but I've had a great time and I think we've shared some incredible insights, ideas, and practices and those sorts of things. But, if any of our listeners would like to find you after this podcast online, or be able to check out your books and those sorts of things, where can they find you?
Anne Moss Rogers:
Mental Health Awareness Education, and if you look up my name, Anne Moss Rogers, you should be able to find it. And if you click on books, then I have a library of three books. I'm a writer. I've written a lot of books, I've written two books, and I've written a ton of eBooks. [inaudible 00:34:27] and spotting signs of depression, ones that you don't usually read about.
Adam Smith:
Definitely. And I recommend all of our listeners to check that out, definitely. Whether you need them now or you think you might need them in the future, absolutely check those out. That does bring us to the end of today's special episode of the Voices in Education podcast, in partnership with Securly Prepared. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave a rating and a review to help other listeners like you find the podcast. And be sure to check out the on-demand replay of Securly Prepared over at www.bigmarker.com/securly/securly-prepared, or by following the link in our episode description. We'd also love for you to continue this conversation over on our social channels. You can follow us on Twitter at Securly, over on Instagram at Securly Inc, or on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/securly. I look forward to seeing you all there. Be sure to check out the other two special episodes as well as the entirety of this eye-opening third season of the podcast.
And, as always, I want to remind you that your own mental health and wellbeing, as Anne Moss said, it's just as important as your students' wellness. It's okay to reach out, it's okay to ask for support, and it's definitely okay to take some time for yourself. Thank you for everything you do for our young children, for all the work that you do, and the dedication, because it doesn't go unnoticed. Keep up the amazing work and we'll see you soon.
Thanks for tuning in to the Voices in Education podcast, powered by Securly. For more episodes and additional details about the podcast, visit www.securly.com/podcast.