Social Emotional Learning

Teaching Kids Self-Love in the Classroom

February 12, 2018 by pathway2success 5 Comments

Today’s kids and young adults have too much negative energy all around them. Whether it is negative comments on social media, means texts going back and forth, or just overhearing the daily news, kids are drowning in negativity. With all of that considered, it can’t be said enough how much kids NEED positivity in their lives. Having a more positive mindset increases our abilities to overcome adversity, deal with challenges, and ultimately meet our personal goals in life. The good news is that kids can be taught these skills for positivity and self-love.

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Here are some ways you can teach kids and young adults self-love in the classroom:

1. Teach positive self-talk. Positive self-talk is the internal voice that encourages us, comforts us when we feel down, and pushes us to keep going. We can teach kids to use positive self-talk by practicing statements like, “I can do this,” and “I am enough just the way I am.” The more we say and practice these positive thoughts, the more we will truly believe them. It’s a healthy coping strategy that every child and young adult should have in their toolbox for managing emotions.

2. Model and teach gratitude. Practicing gratitude just means stopping and reflecting about what you are thankful for. Benefits of gratitude include improved happiness, improved relationships, developing stronger emotional skills, and much more. Take just a few minutes each morning to reflect about what you are grateful for. Teach kids to recognize when they are thankful for seeing the sunrise in the morning, having basketball practice after school, having a supportive family member, or just having a great lunch packed for the day. Whether big or small, each situation you are thankful for helps you develop your skills of gratitude overtime.

3. Encourage a growth mindset. A growth mindset teaches us that skills can be developed over time with hard work and practice. By encouraging kids to adopt a growth mindset, we help them learn they can accomplish their goals by working hard, learning from our mistakes, and pushing our way through challenges that pop up. Rather than feeling bad about themselves when they encounter a challenge or make a mistake, help kids learn that mistakes actually teach us valuable lessons. One of my favorite ways to do this is to study successful people who failed at fist but got back up. Some famous people include Michael Jordan, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling, and Steve Jobs, to just name a few. I always want kids to realize they can do anything the want if they put their mind to it.

4. Promote kindness. I love teaching kids that when they are kind to others, it actually makes them feel good, too. Once kids begin to realize this, it helps create a positive learning environment all around. Still, it takes practice! Use Random Acts of Kindness slips to have kids record when someone else is kind to them. Post these up on a special kindness bulletin board so that the kindness-giver can be recognized.

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10 Mindfulness Activities You Can Try Today

January 4, 2018 by pathway2success 1 Comment

All kids benefit from practicing mindfulness. Who wouldn’t love the kids and young adults we work with to become more focused, calm, in control, and self-aware? Mindfulness is a technique that can help teach and strengthen those abilities over time. By practicing mindfulness, people can learn to become more aware of their own thoughts, feeling, sensations, and the environment around us. It helps us to refocus and recenter on the present, rather than the past or the future.

If you’ve heard of mindfulness but aren’t sure exactly how to implement it with your learners, I’ve put together a few simple strategies you can try. Whether you are a regular education teacher, special education teacher, counselor, or parent, know that you have the power to teach mindfulness practices. You don’t need to be an expert. In fact, no one ever really “masters” mindfulness. Instead, we are all improving our practice the more we do it. Give the techniques a try and see what works for you! If you want to get started right away, consider these Mindfulness Activities or Mindfulness Activities for Little Learners.

Here are six simple strategies for practicing mindfulness with kids and young adults:

1. Mindful Coloring. You can use any coloring pages for this activity. I love to gather assorted coloring books with different themes and levels. Let kids choose their own coloring page, whether it is a page with dragons, cats, or just patterns. Give access to the coloring materials that best suit your needs. Colored pencils, flair pens, and gel pens are some of my favorites. Encourage kids to quietly color on their own. Tell them that if they’ve made a mistake, just to breathe and move on. Mindfulness is about just letting the experiences pass us by without making judgements about them.

2. Connect with Nature. Take a ten minute nature walk to help kids breathe in fresh air and experience the outdoors for a change. While you are out there, encourage kids to look around and take in the environment with their senses.

3. Dragon Breathing. A huge component of mindfulness is learning how to control our own breathing. A way to get younger kids to buy in to this is making it fun. With dragon breathing, kids will sit up straight, breathe in, stick their tongue out, and breathe out like a dragon. It might feel super silly at first, but it helps to bring the idea of deep breathing down to their level! This is a great activity to do before tests or after recess.

4. Smell the Flowers Breathing Activity. This activity combines mindful coloring and deep breathing. Introduce scented markers and explain that this is a special activity you can only do with those markers. This is an important point so that students don’t smell other markers that aren’t safe. Have students color and breathe in through their noses to smell as they go.

5. Practice Yoga. Spend ten minutes practicing some simple yoga postures, like tree, warrior, and half moon pose. If you’re not sure about how to teach the postures, you can always search for a video and play it while you practice together. I always love to end yoga practice with a relaxing pose of laying on our backs. It’s a great way to incorporate meditation, too!

6. Mindfulness 5-4-3-2-1. Use this technique to ground kids and young adults. This is an especially great activity to help kids manage anxiety or anger. Have students look around their current surroundings and find five things they can see, four things they can tough, three things they can hear, two things they can smell, and one thing they can taste. By the time they get through listing all of those, they will be more present and calm.

7. Recite Positive Affirmations. I’m a huge advocate for teaching kids and young adults positive self-talk. Not only is it uplifting, but it provides a sense of calm when students read their positive affirmations to themselves. You can use this free list of positive affirmations to have students read from.

8. Practice Guided Meditations. Have kids find a spot on a rug or yoga mat and lie down. Have them close they eyes and just breathe in and out. Read a guided meditation to help kids visualize a soothing beach or a calm walk through the forest. You can find one online or make up your own! Within a few minutes, kids will find themselves more calm and relaxed.

9. Use Breathing Visuals. Some kids and young adults need a more concrete and visual method for practicing breathing. A “breathe board” is just a set of shapes or lines that kids can follow with their fingers as they breathe in and out. Different shapes will work differently for different kids, so it’s helpful to try a few!

10. Listen to music. Play your choice of nature sounds, classical, or any acoustic music. You can play the music while kids are doing something independently or allow kids to just sit down and relax while mindfully listening to the music.

I hope you are as excited about practicing mindfulness with kids and young adults as I am! It’s a quick and simple activity you can add to your routine to help kids improve focus, develop self-control, become more self-aware, and just feel better about themselves. I have developed these activities and several more to practice mindfulness with kids and young adults. If you are interested, consider checking out my Mindfulness and Coping Strategies Mega Bundle filled with mindfulness and coping strategies resources for all ages. Feel free to share what other ways you practice mindfulness with your learners!

Why Positive Self-Talk is Worth It

December 2, 2017 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

Positive thinking is a powerful tool that can improve your health, help you manage stress, overcome challenges, and make better choices. The idea is that by changing your thinking, you can control your emotions and your actions. Positive thinking starts with positive self-talk. Self-talk is the voice in our head that goes on throughout the day. A child or young adult might think to himself, “I need to study tonight so I do well on the quiz” or “I should raise my hand and try to answer this question”. In those instances, the voice is positive and encouraging. Self-talk can be negative, too. With negative self-talk one might say, “I’m always horrible at math, so there’s no reason to even study”. Best of all, kids and young adults can actually train their brains to use more positive self-talk. Relying on positive self-talk can help in every aspect of life, including school, home, friends, sports, and everything else.

Use Positive Thinking Task Cards to help teach positive self-talk skills

Some strategies for teaching and encouraging positive self-talk include modeling it, having open groups discussions, and providing explicit practice with real life situations that come up. Try teaching positive self-talk with these Positive Thinking Task Cards. The task cards cover positive thinking, self-esteem building statements, goal setting, and identifying strengths and positive memories. One very simple activity includes turning a negative statement into a more positive one. This provides real practice in helping kids and young adults to train their brains to think more positively. Check out my blog post on how to teach positive self-talk if you’re interested on more strategies and ideas.

Let’s consider a few reasons why positive self-talk can be so critically important to kids and young adults:

1. Increases self-esteem. Positive self-talk helps kids and young adults to recognize their personal strengths and all the great things they are truly capable of. This boost in self-esteem is so critical at a young age. Kids and young adults should feel that they can are capable of anything.

2. Improves motivation. If you feel better about yourself, you’re more likely to accomplish the tasks you need to. Positive self-talk like “I can do this” and “This might be tough but I can do anything I put my mind to” are strategies that kids and young adults can use to motivate themselves even during difficult times.

3. Curbs negative emotions. By using positive self-talk, it drives the negative self-talk away. Negative comments, such as “you can’t do this” and “you are just terrible at math” really don’t help at all. Instead, positive self-talk helps refocus our thinking to make positive changes.

4. Helps with physical health. When mental health is in a positive place, your physical health often follows. Those who use positive self-talk frequently have healthier immune systems, improved sleep, and even increase life expectancy.

5. Develops resilience. All kids will make mistakes. They need to learn to get back up again after they fall! Positive self-talk promotes this type of resilience, as kids learn to refocus their thinking in times of failure. After making a mistake or confronted with a failure, kids who use positive self-talk are more likely to say, “Here’s what you’ll do better next time” instead of focusing on the negative.

6. Reduces stress. Kids and young adults need to learn how to handle stress. Positive self-talk is a strategy that they can take with them wherever they go. When confronted with stressful situations, it can be extremely important to use positive thoughts to direct your thinking and actions.

7. Encourages taking risks. When a mistake is made, kids who use positive self-talk are able to bounce back more easily. This actually encourages risk-taking and not being afraid to step outside their comfort zone.

8. Serves as a life-long coping strategy. Kids will eventually grow into adults who need to have positive coping strategies for challenging situations. Positive self-talk is a life-long strategy that can be used anywhere and anytime. It will help with friends, in relationships, and in the work place.

9. Helps kids achieve their true potential. Kids and young adults believe what they hear and think about themselves. If they are only saying negative comments to themselves, this is the reality they will become. By teaching kids to use positive self-talk, it allows them to realize their own individual greatness. This opens the door for opportunities of growth and success down the road.

Overall, positive thinking can help you reframe your thoughts in a more positive way. This helps you control your emotions and manage the challenges you are facing. Sometimes it’s helpful to use positive self-talk right before a difficult situation, like a test or tryouts for a sport. It’s also helpful just to use positive self-talk any time, like at the start of the day to begin on a positive note. Positive self-talk is strategy for success that can be used anywhere and anytime. On any given day, kids and young adults hear a lot of negativity. They truly need reminders about positive self-talk so they can start to believe in themselves and achieve their true potential. Check out my store for more ideas and resources on teaching positive thinking skills!

Helping Kids with Social Emotional Needs

November 1, 2017 by pathway2success 2 Comments

As a special education teacher, you would think the bulk of my job would be to pre-teach and re-teach academic content, provide educational supports, assess student growth, monitor academic goals, and provide direction instruction in a number of areas. While it’s true that special educators do all of those things (and way more), we need to spend a great deal of time supporting kids and young adults with their social and emotional needs. That helped me to realize that all educators are truly critical in supporting counseling needs to the students we work with every single day. Educators are often the first adults to develop a strong relationship with kids, mentor them, listen to their dreams and fears, and help them through challenging social, emotional, personal, and academic challenges. It’s clear that all of these added responsibilities make us not only teachers, but part emotional support teachers, too.

Over my years in the classroom, the school counselors and social workers have always been some of my best allies in helping kids with social-emotional needs. Working with them and following their guidance is critical. Still, we need to be prepared to provide social-emotional supports, too.

Often teachers feel that they are not trained enough to “act as a counselor”. I hear this come up when teachers have to teach advisory periods or morning meetings. While it’s true that all educators could use lots more training in this area, we must face the facts that we are going to be around these kids much more than a counselor or social worker will be. So, even when students are receiving counseling or social work support once or twice a week, we still need to be prepared to help these students throughout their day.

Whether you are a tenured teacher with years of experience or a new educator ready to start your career, here are some strategies for helping kids through social, emotional, personal, or academic challenges in the classroom:

Share photos of yourself with students and tell them about your personal life adventures.

1. Share about your own life. My students always love hearing about the silly things my dog did, the details of my latest vacation, what foods gross me out, and the challenges I’ve overcome to get where I am. Sharing bits about your life can help kids learn to trust you and build a lasting relationship. Bring in pictures, share experiences, and just really open up about yourself. This really is the foundation to being able to open up and make positive life changes. Of course, it’s critical to keep boundaries, but kids will understand you as a mentor and teacher more when they know about you as a human being.

2. Just listen. When a student talks to you about a challenge they are dealing with, it’s important not to give advice right away or act judgemental. Just listen, nod, and validate their thoughts. You can ask things like, “What do you think you should do?” and “What are some strategies you use to deal with that?”. At the right times, it is important to give support and advice, too. But listening always comes first.

3. Get to know kids. That seems obvious, but getting to really know and understand each student as a whole child can go a long way. That means taking the time to understand their background, where they have come from, their interests outside of school, fears, dreams, strengths, and struggles. Since time in the classroom can be filled with academics, it can be helpful to start the morning with a social or getting to know you routine, sitting with kids at lunch time, and even just being visible before and after class. If you sincerely make an effort, kids will notice.

Use reflection binders to help students see their growth.

4. Help kids see their growth over time. It’s important to remind kids that you can’t reach your goals over night. I love to use student reflection binders to help show students their own progress and growth. Whether the student is working on increasing grades in an academic subject, reducing times they get in trouble, or just getting to school on time more, students love to be able to track their growth over time. This also can lead to developing specific goals that the student work on throughout the course of the semester or year. It leads to lots of deep conversation about making positive changes and how goals can be accomplished.

5. Hide your frustrations. We all get frustrated with students sometimes! When that happens, take a breath and walk away. Kids really need more positivity in their lives. By showing our frustrations, we are just making kids feel poorly about themselves instead of helping them reach their individual potentials.

6. Collaborate with specialists. If you’re having continued issues in your class with a specific student or set of behaviors, reach out to the school counselor, social worker, psychologist, behaviorist, or anyone else who might have ideas. Chances are that a colleague will have specific strategies that you can implement in your classroom right away to work on whatever you are dealing with. Also, if a counselor or social worker needs to work with your student during your time, try to be understanding of this. You are both working on the same goals together.

7. Avoid power struggles. Growing kids and young adults often use power struggles as a way to test their limits. Some kids will use them more than others, though. For example, it’s the time when you tell a student to sit down and they cross their arms and look at you. So how can you avoid these power struggles? The first way is just to give directions politely! For students with behavioral or emotional challenges, a simple, “Let’s get ready to sit down in a minute,” goes a long way. Similarly, explaining your reasoning can help, too. You might say, “Can you sit down in a minute? I’m going to teach the rest of the lesson and it helps me if everyone is seated”. If you do happen to get in a power struggle, here is a winning phrase that can stop the battle right away: “Let’s talk about that later”. If you’re needing more ideas, get a list of over 50 free de-escalation strategies you can use today.

8. Provide structure and consistency. Many kids and young adults who struggle with social emotional challenges truly thrive on a great deal of structure. That structure might look different in every classroom or setting. It’s important to be fair and maintain high expectations for everyone. Most critically, just be there in the child’s life every day. Never give up on even your most difficult student, no matter how challenging any given day, week, or year might be. Your constant belief in them is what they need to survive and thrive.

9. Research topics. If you’re feeling uncomfortable or unsure about how to approach or discuss certain topics, feel free to research and learn from experts in the area. Don’t be ashamed that you don’t understand a diagnosis or challenge a child is dealing with. Instead, use that question to help you learn and grow! As educators, we are always learning. In an ever-changing world, it’s more important now than ever to have the best research in front of us.

For more strategies and ready-to-use ideas, check out my social-emotional learning materials. Remember that as educators, we must support not only academic, but social and emotional needs, too. Most of all, know that educators have such an important role in helping to shape the lives of kids and young adults. The words we say and the actions we take impact students in such powerful ways.

50+ De-escalation Strategies

October 15, 2017 by pathway2success 7 Comments

Being able to de-escalate and defuse situations with kids and young adults is an extremely helpful skill. Kids and young adults who become emotionally overwhelmed or irritated in a situation may begin to express their emotions in aggressive or violent ways. Some examples of these behaviors might include aggressive posturing, yelling, throwing items, swearing, and making threats. Quite often, without training, these situations become a power struggle between the young adult and the teacher. These power struggles only make the situation worse, though.

The best way to handle these types of behaviors is to de-escalate the situation as soon as possible. It’s very important to recognize that this does not mean letting the student get away with the behavior. Instead, de-escalation focuses on helping the student return their emotions back to a normal level. It is critical that the student is calm for a period of time before behavior and expectations are discussed again.

Kids and young adults with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, and trauma are just some examples of those who need these strategies utilized to be successful.

If you need further training and support in this area, consider the De-Escalation Strategies Guide that includes extensive training materials, information on Oppositional Defiant Disorder, proactive strategies, reference lists, and a quick-guide to store in a spot for use on the fly.

Also, remember to download the free printable list of over 50 de-escalation strategies. They are ideal to keep on a board by your desk, in the team room, or in a binder to bring to student support meetings. Let me add that they are not only for teachers. Parents, counselors, and administrators could use them, too!

Here are over 50 strategies and phrases you can use when de-escalating a situation:

Act calm even if you’re not.
Say, “Let’s talk about this later”.
Use humor to lighten to mood.
Lower your voice.
Give a choice.
Walk away.
Ask, “What would help you right now?”
Change the subject to a positive one.
Give personal space.
Say, “I see where you are coming from.”
Distract with a positive photo of something they like.
Show that you are listening.
Remove the audience.
Say, “I want to help you.”
Talk about something they like.
Make a joke.
Encourage the person.
Remind them of something amazing they did.
Say, “You can do this.”
Call another adult for help.
Say, “Let’s call… I think they can help.”
Be willing to find a solution.
Offer to change the way you are doing something.
Re-state what the person is saying.
Validate their thoughts.
Avoid over-reacting.
Use active listening.
Offer a solution.
Let the person talk without interrupting.
Say, “I see your point.”
Offer to take a walk with the person.
Clarify expectations.
Remind them of something they love.
Apologize for something you did wrong or the way it was taken.
Invite them to do a preferred activity.
Ask if they can explain more about how they’re feeling.
Try to understand the person’s perspective.
Slow yourself down to avoid getting worked up.
Say, “So, you’re upset because… right?”
Don’t say “calm down”.
Show empathy.
Encourage the person to use a coping strategy.
Don’t take items or personal property away from them.
Encourage the person to take a walk or get a drink.
Give the person an “out” (i.e. letting them go to another room or walking away).
Ask, “Would it help if… ?”
Keep escape routes open to the door.
Coach the person with positive remarks.
Acknowledge where you agree with the person.
Remind the person, “You’re not in trouble”.
Tell the person, “I’m here for you.”
Say, “Talk to me,” and listen.
Tell the person to take a minute to themselves.
Ignore the behavior if it’s minor.
Distract by saying, “Hey, let’s go…”
Be respectful in your tone.
“Do what works” in the moment.
Spend time debriefing after the incident to identify ways to improve.
Ask them to draw a picture of what happened.
Avoid needing to get the last word.
Just give wait time.

If you love this topic, read my post on 13 ways to avoid power struggles with kids and young adults!

Games to Improve Executive Functioning Skills

October 1, 2017 by pathway2success 8 Comments

Kids and young adults need extensive practice in strengthening their executive functioning skills. Executive functions are the processes in our brains that help us accomplish all tasks from beginning to end. We use them when we plan our day, organize our materials, begin a chore, focus on important information, use our time wisely, and work through challenges until we accomplish a goal. The specific skills include: planning, organization, time management, task initiation, working memory, self-control, metacognition, attention, flexibility, and perseverance. While all kids could use extra practice with executive functioning skills, the ones who need it the most are often disorganized, struggle to finish assignments, lose items, have difficulty paying attention over periods of time, and give up on tasks that are difficult. These are the kids who could benefit the most from executive functioning skills instruction and practice.

If you’re looking for an executive functioning review game you can download and use right away, check out this Executive Functioning Challenge! It can be played as a board game with partners and small groups, or as a whole-class challenge. The game includes over 200 executive functioning cards so you can play again and again!

Simply put, executive functions are often critical to the success of kids and young adults. So, it makes sense to make practicing them fun and engaging! Games are a great way to weave executive functioning practice into your routine. You can choose to play a game on a Friday afternoon, after a big test, or as a class reward.

Here are ten games for practicing executive functioning skills:

#1 – BLURT

Skills: self-control, metacognition

How to Play: In this game, the teacher reads a definition of a word and kids have to figure out the word itself. For example, a question might be, “What is a partially dried grape?” When the student answers “raisin”, they win that turn. I like to play “around the world” style. All students will sit at desks or chairs around the room. Select two kids to play against each other and have them stand next to one another. Read the card and whoever “blurts” the answer first, wins and gets to move on to the next person. The idea is that only the kids playing can blurt out, and everyone else must have self-control, even if they know the answer. This game can also be played with your own content area questions too, which is great for a review before a test!

#2 – SCRABBLE

Skills: planning, organization

How to Play: In scrabble, kids use random letters to build words and keep score as they go. You can have students play in small groups and even partner kids together who may need extra support with spelling or language. Planning and organization is required because kids need to build off of each others’ words as the game progresses. As an extension, have kids look up definitions to the words they create or use the word in a sentence before points are scored.

#3 – PICTIONARY

Skills: flexibility, time management

How to Play: This game has students drawing phrases on paper or a whiteboard that others must guess correctly. Kids need to use time management to best draw their phrase before the time is up. This is such a fun game! I even love taking pictures of some of the drawings that are both hilarious and amazing.

#4 – DISTRACTION

Skills: working memory, attention

How to Play: In this card game, kids work on remembering numbers given to them while encountering distractions, including questions they have to answer. It is a great activity to teach about distractions that can throw us off!

#5 – 5 SECOND RULE

Skills: time management, task initiation

How to Play: Kids must name 3 things that fit a given topic. For example, kids might need to name 3 professional basketball teams or 3 pieces of jewelry. The categories differ greatly so kids have to be on their toes. As an accommodation, I sometimes play as a “10 second rule” to give kids enough time to process the question.

#6 – FREEZE

Skills: self-control, attention

How to Play: Freeze is a game where you play music and allow kids to be silly and dance. Then, at any moment, say “Freeze!” and kids need to stand completely still. It takes a lot of self-control to stop dancing to a song you’re into! This can be fun to let kids take the role to freeze the class, too.

#7 – JENGA

Skills: self-control, flexibility, planning

How to Play: In this game, kids pull blocks from a tower carefully. They must plan and be careful so they are not the one who causes the tower to fall over. This is a fun game because everyone likes to see towers get knocked down sometimes!

#8 – BRAINTEASERS

Skills: perseverance, flexibility

How to Play: Brainteasers are drawings and words that have a special meaning that kids must figure out. For example, when “man” is written on top of “board”, it means “man overboard”. These type of brainteasers are a great feat in perseverance and flexibility to figure out. They are great for a morning meeting or “do now” when kids walk in the door to start their brains off strong.

#9 – CHESS

Skills: planning, flexibility, working memory

How to Play: Chess requires kids to learn specific rules for different pieces and then use those skills to take out their opponent. This game requires a tremendous amount of planning, flexibility, and working memory to think through your moves ahead of time. It is also a great option when you need a quiet game.

#10 – SODUKU

Skills: perseverance, working memory

How to Play: Sodoku is a math puzzle game that allows kids to use critical thinking skills. Each grid has the numbers 1-9. Each row and column must add up to 9 separately, so the numbers need to be arranged correctly. Incorporate this activity for kids to work on in small groups or just for a fun challenge.

I have always loved using games to teach and support critical skills in the classroom, so I put together some games for social emotional learning skills! This set consists of five games focusing on executive functioning skills, social problem solving skills, empathy, social language, and more. You can really maximize learning time in your classroom by making “break time” skill-focused, too!

If you find yourself needing lessons and materials for direct instruction of executive functioning skills, consider this Executive Functioning Bundle. It teaches all ten executive functioning skills, study strategies, and SMART goals with enough materials for the entire year. You really cannot teach or practice EF skills enough!

50+ Free Counseling and SEL Resources

September 1, 2017 by pathway2success 13 Comments

Use this list of free resources to use in counseling and social emotional learning activities to help you work with kids and young adults. As a special educator for 10 years, I can say without a doubt that we need more counseling and social emotional learning supports for kids and young adults. Some of my best days in the classroom involved collaborating with the school counselor, social worker, and school psychologist to create lessons and activities for our kids. Whether you are a school counselor, outside therapist, psychologist, social worker, or special educator, many of these resources might be able to help you as you work with kids. Free resources include printable materials, websites, Pinterest boards to follow, apps, and videos.

– Free Printable Resources –

1. 100 Free Coping Strategies List – A 2-page printable with 100 coping strategies.

2. Social Scenario Problem Solving Task Cards – Task cards that highlight social scenarios and situations for kids to solve.

3. Growth Mindset Task Cards – Task cards that help teach hard work, persistence, grit, dedication, and a positive mindset.

4. 101 Free Positive Affirmations List – A 2-page printable list with 101 positive statements for kids to read.

5. Mindfulness Breathe Boards – Two free printable breathe boards to help focus on deep breathing techniques.

6. Think Feel Act Worksheets – Free worksheets to help explain the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

7. Power of Yet Posters – Three simple posters that encourage hard work and dedication.

8. Free Overcoming Adversity Activities – Worksheets and lessons to help kids and young adults overcome challenges and adversity.

9. Free Coping Strategies Notebook – Use this resource to help kids set up their own individualized coping strategies binders.

10. Mindfulness Coloring Pages – Free mindfulness coloring pages with positive sayings.

11. Daily Planner Page – A few simple pages to help keep you on track for the day.

12. Middle School Keys to Success – Worksheet and activity to help kids succeed at middle school.

13. Conversation Starter Cards – Mix of questions regarding self, home, friends, school, family, and more to get to know kids.

14. All About Me – Free 1-page worksheet for kids to share interesting facts about themselves.

15. Free Divorce Worksheets – Information explaining what divorce means for kids and families.

16. What Pushes Your Buttons: Anger Triggers – Checklist of possible triggers for anger.

17. Anger Management Worksheets – Printables including anger trigger worksheets and an anger log.

18. Free Positive Posters – Set of 8 simple posters to help encourage, calm, and soothe kids.

19. Break Cards – Three sets of break cards that encourage kids to take breaks in positive ways.

20. How Big Is My Problem? Task Cards – Task cards that help kids determine how “big” each problem is in a variety of scenarios.

21. Life-Skills Discussion Checklist – Checklist to survey young adults and help determine areas to talk about for support.

22. Free Executive Functioning Workbook – Guide and workbook to help teach kids executive functioning and study skills.

23. Self Esteem Bookmarks – Bookmarks for kids to color while helping them learn positive self-talk and a growth mindset.

24. Counseling Planning Forms – Free worksheets to help you organize and plan counseling sessions.

25. Gratitude Activities – Worksheets and activities to help focus on gratitude and positive thinking.

– Free Apps –

26. Headspace: Guided Meditation & Mindfulness – This app provides meditation exercises with a coach that helps you learn as you go.

27. The Mindfulness App – A mindfulness app that helps you become more present in your daily life with guided and silent meditation sessions.

28. Aware – This app leads you through daily mindfulness meditation techniques, including energizing activities and breathing practice.

29. Stop Breathe & Think: Meditate – Tailored to your specific emotions, this app helps you take a break and reduce stress through meditation.

30. MyCalmBeat – This app provides training and practice in slow, deep breathing for stress reduction.

31. Breathe – An app that assists in controlling your breathing.

32. Gratitude Journal – This app helps you focus on the positive by identifying what you are thankful for each day.

33. Pacifica – Stress & Anxiety – Tools for mindfulness, meditation, relaxation, and health/mood tracking.

34. Affirmation Reminder – Select from a list of positive affirmations or make your own to add as reminders.

35. ColorMe – Free coloring app to help reduce stress.

36. Relax Melodies – Free app with white noise and calming sounds for sleeping and meditation.

Free Websites

37. The Calm Clinic – Website with articles specifically focused on anxiety.

38. National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens – Lots of free resources and information for parents, educators, counselors, and teens themselves.

39. Love Is Respect – Website that teaches young adults about health relationships.

40. PsychCentral – Detailed information, resources, and articles on a number of mental health disorders and disabilities.

41. American Psychological Association – Large assortment of free information on topics and latest research.

42. College Board – Website to help young adults, parents, and counselors navigate through college decisions.

– Free Videos –

43. Creating a Coping Strategies Notebook

44. School Counselor Office Must Haves

45. Developing a School Counseling Program

46. Clipboard Progress Monitoring

– Pinterest Boards –

47. Counseling & Mental Health for Young Adults

48. Child Anxiety

49. Guidance, Counseling, & Social Work

50. Therapist Community Board

51. Coping Strategies

52. School Counseling

I hope these free resources and materials are helpful to you and the kids you are working with! If you are looking for even more resources, consider checking out all of my free and paid resources in my store here.

How to Teach Positive Self-Talk

June 15, 2017 by pathway2success 11 Comments

Self-talk is the inner voice that goes on inside our heads throughout our waking hours. Positive self-talk is when we talk to ourselves in a reassuring, kind, and more optimistic way. It’s the difference from saying to yourself: “I’m an idiot, I can’t believe I failed this math test” or “I’m disappointed in how I did on the math test but I’m going to talk to the teacher and study more next time”.

Positive self-talk can have a big impact on how we think and feel. Over time, engaging in more positive self-talk can help reduce stress, improve self-esteem, increase motivation, inspire productivity, and improve overall mental and physical health. Educators, counselors, and parents can have a huge role in helping kids and young adults develop a greater voice for positive self-talk.

Here are six strategies that educators and parents can use to teach and practice positive self-talk with kids and young adults:

1. Model positive self-talk. Practice using positive thinking skills aloud when talking about yourself and others. A simple way to start is with positive thoughts in the morning such as, “Today is going to be a great day” or “I’m ready for whatever the day brings me”. It’s helpful to highlight the positive, even in difficult situations or setbacks. After a bad grade on a test, you might talk with the child to say, “It’s one bad grade and you’ll be okay. You can learn from this can get better next time. The most important thing is that you try your best”. Similarly, give genuine compliments to others freely and encourage seeing the bright side of things. That type of optimism is often contagious.

2. Create a list of positive self-talk statements. Use this free list of 101 Positive Thinking Affirmations to help kids and young adults read through a list of positive self-talk statements. Kids can select from the list or come up with their own to create their own personalized list of ten favorite statements. Having a pre-made list can be helpful to start discussing exactly what positive self-talk sounds like.

Free list of 101 positive thinking affirmations

3. Discuss the benefits to positive self-talk. Be open about what self-talk is and how it helps. Kids, and especially teens, might be skeptical about why they should change their thinking at first. Many psychology and self-help resources online can be worth reading and discussing together. Also know that practicing self-talk out loud might seem silly at times, but you have to change your words before you can really change the silent thinking in your head.

4. Incorporate crafts as a way to remember positive self-talk. Creating simple crafts with positive self-talk can be a great way for kids and young adults to learn positive self-talk. Best of all, kids can keep their craft for times when they need extra support. They can use it to help them start the day on a positive note or when they are feeling anxious, stressed, sad, or angry. You can create crafts on your own or find sample crafts to use. The craft below is a Positive Self-Talk Flower Craft that is easy to make and small enough to bring anywhere.

Use crafts to teach and practice positive self-talk

5. Practice changing negative thoughts into more positives ones. You can do this with made-up examples or real-life situations. Using an example like, “I only did well on this test due to luck”, challenge kids and young adults to turn the statement into a more positive one. Also, when a kid or young adult brings up a negative thought, encourage him or her to change it to positive self-talk.

Use positive thinking task cards to reinforce positive self-talk

6. Talk about real life challenges and situations. Talk about the challenges kids and young adults are going through and how they feel about those situations. This can be done in small groups, 1:1, or even in larger groups. Ask questions like, “What can you learn from that situation?”, “What could the positive to that be?”, “What did you do right?” and “How could that help you for the future?”. Try to focus on the positive, what went right, and what can be learned instead of dwelling on the negative. Setbacks and failures are great times to use positive self-talk because they are the prime time for feeling down. Use these real-life situations to show how positive self-talk can help you get back up again when faced with a difficulty or disappointment.

Remember that you don’t need to be a counselor or psychologist to practice positive self-talk with kids and young adults. It’s true that anyone can teach and practice it. The ultimate goal is for kids and young adults to develop a stronger sense of self-confidence, allowing them to become more independent and reach their individual potentials along the way.

How to Create a Coping Strategies Notebook

June 1, 2017 by pathway2success 6 Comments

A coping strategies binder is a resource to help calm kids and young adults who are feeling angry, anxious, sad, or stressed. Within the binder, kids add coping strategies that work best for them, such as listening to music, drawing, practicing yoga, or using positive self-talk. Those really are just a few out of many coping strategies that can work for kids. The pages in the binder can include pictures, drawings, or steps to help remind them about the strategy. Best of all, the binder can be housed at a calm down center. Kids can also create duplicate binders to keep in specific classes, the office, the counseling area, or even at home.

If you already love this idea and want an easy way to get started right away, check out my Coping Strategies Notebook. It includes pre-made coping strategies notebook pages for over 20 strategies, such as listening to music, chewing gum, taking deep breaths, writing in a journal, and so much more. If you are working with older students, consider the Coping Strategies Notebook for Middle & High School.

Whether you choose to purchase a pre-made notebook or make your own, coping strategies notebooks can be a great tool for teachers, counselors, administrators, and even parents.

Here is how to make a coping strategies notebook:

1. Gather 1 binder for each student who will be making a coping strategies notebook. While it is possible to have one classroom coping strategies notebook, it’s best for each child to have their own. The reason for this is so that each child or young adult can select their own individualized coping strategies to add into the binder.

2. Have students design a cover page for their binder. This is important to help kids take ownership of their individual binders.

3. Explain and discuss coping strategies. You can use a free list of 100 coping strategies or develop a list of your own.

4. Identify specific coping strategies that will work for the child or young adult. It’s great to let kids choose their own strategies, but an adult might need to guide kids, too. You will probably have a good idea about what will work best for the student and the setting.

5. Create one notebook page for each strategy. Use this free Coping Strategies Notebook Sampler to print a coping strategies template page, along with sample cover pages. Have students list the steps for performing the coping strategy. It’s helpful for students to take this time to think about how the strategy will help them, too.

6. Take time to practice each strategy. It’s critical to practice coping strategies when the child is calm, so that they can use the strategies in times of stress. While practicing, you can even take a picture of the child performing the coping strategy and add it into the binder. For example, if listening to music is a strategy that helps, take a photo of the child listening to music with headphones on. Print it and add it right to the notebook.

7. Continue with several coping strategies that may work for the student. It’s great to try a variety of strategies so see what works best for each individual student. It’s very important to note that what works well for one child may not work well for another.

8. Keep the binder in a calming zone or place the child can go during times of anger, anxiety, or stress. Encourage students to use the binder to remind them of their strategies when they are feeling upset or stressed.

To get started right away, try this Free Coping Strategies Notebook Sampler with sample pages you can fill out and use with your students. If you need pre-made coping strategies notebook pages and differentiated materials, consider the Coping Strategies Notebook for elementary kids, or the Coping Strategies Notebook for middle and high school kids. Both the elementary and middle/high school versions include everything a counselor, teacher, or parent needs to implement a coping strategies notebook of their own.

10 Truths Kids with Disabilities Should Know

May 1, 2017 by pathway2success Leave a Comment

As a special education teacher, I see kids with all types of disabilities and learning challenges. Sometimes, we are so busy teaching and working on critical skills that we don’t spend enough time talking to kids about their actual disabilities. By starting to talk to kids about their disabilities, we can empower young learners to understand who they are and give them confidence to achieve their greatest goals. Here are 10 Truths Kids With Disabilities Should Know:

1. You are unique. You have your own learning profile with individual strengths and weaknesses. That is true for every person, whether they have a disability or not. Learn to embrace your strengths while always working on your challenges along the way.

2. Your disability is just one piece of you. You are not a “disabled person” but “a person with a disability”. It is just one part of who you are. You have many other strengths and positives that shine through each and every day that are bigger parts of you as a person. While your disability is important, it is just a part of you and not the whole thing.

3. You are your best advocate. You know yourself best. You know what you need to do your best and what will help you to accomplish a task. With that, you’ll need to stand up for yourself at times and make sure you get those things. Sometimes it will be easy to get what you need and other times you may need to fight for it.

4. Many people around the world also have disabilities. About one-fifth of the world’s population have disabilities. That is over 100 million people. You are not alone.

5. You won’t outgrow your disability, but you will develop strategies. As you learn and grow, you will learn strategies to help you cope and compensate for the challenges you deal with. These strategies will help you become a stronger person. While you can’t “outgrow” your disability, you can most certainly get better at dealing with the challenges it brings.

6. Some people still do not recognize or understand disabilities. While many people have knowledge about disabilities, there are still many who do not. Some misconceptions about disabilities still exist. Remember not to take this personally. Instead, use it as an opportunity to educate others.

7. Not all parts of your disability are bad. Many times, a disability helps to highlight or bring forth other strengths inside of you. Kids and young adults with ADHD, for example, are often very creative and innovative. They are known to think outside the box. Those with autism can be known to have a particular attention to detail like no one else. Kids with learning disabilities may have a special drive and determination, able to overcome the biggest challenges. Others might have lots of empathy or compassion. Those are just a few small examples. Simply put, there are positives to each disability, so make sure to find yours.

8. Everyone has challenges. When you have the label of a disability, it’s easy to feel different or singled out. Keep in mind that everyone experiences difficulties and challenges in some form, whether or not they are labeled as a disability. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean someone else isn’t struggling. We all have challenges we deal with every day.

9. It’s okay to be open about your disability. Keeping disabilities secret and hidden have created a feel that they are taboo or bad. When you are ready, it’s okay to open up to loved ones and friends about your disability. The people who care about you will understand and can be there to listen when needed. Take your time and share at your own pace, but when you do finally open up, it’s going to set you free a bit.

10. You can be anything you aspire to be and more. Hold on to your hopes, goals, and dreams. You are a unique person who is capable of anything. Believe in yourself, work hard, and you can do anything in this world.

Get the FREE printable “10 Truths Kids with Disabilities Should Know” and use it today! It includes a reflection sheet for kids and young adults to reflect upon the 10 truths. It would be a great activity in a resource class, small counseling group, or just at the beginning of the year.

I am a special education teacher who loves working with kids and young adults with disabilities. Consider checking out some of my free and paid resources for kids with special needs here at my store.

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