Relationship building is the single most important way you can impact a child’s life. So often, kids actually can’t learn from someone they can’t connect with. I’m also convinced that building a strong relationship with a kid or young adult diminishes a huge number of behavior challenges. Many times I worked with students who were […]
100+ Free Social Emotional Learning Resources
Social and emotional learning, often known as SEL, is the process that helps kids learn critical skills, attitudes, and mindsets for social and emotional success. These skills cover five major areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and responsible decision-making. It’s actually difficult to describe in just one sentence because SEL covers everything from building confidence […]
Teaching Social Emotional Skills With a Journal
Social and emotional skills are foundational for kids to be successful in and out of the classroom. They involve everything: having a firm grasp of our values, recognizing our strengths and challenges, understanding social situations, developing strong relationships with others, managing our emotions, making responsible decisions, and so much more. Sometimes, as educator we might […]
9 End of the Year Activities Kids Will Love
The end of the year is a chaotic time for kids, but especially for teachers! During this time, it’s so helpful to have a toolbox of fun and meaningful activities for kids to complete. Many of these ideas you really can do on your own. Of course, if you’re needing ideas and resources fast, I’ve […]
25 Ways to Integrate Social Emotional Learning
Kids and young adults need social-emotional skills to be successful at school, home, and for the rest of their lives. These are the skills that help kids build confidence, understand their own strengths and weaknesses, collaborate with others, navigate social situations, develop strong relationships, and make better decisions. Without a doubt, these are critical skills […]
15 Tips for Leading a Social Skills Group
As a middle school special educator, social skills have been one of my favorite areas to teach. These skills are so important but often get left behind, especially in the upper grades. These are a number of roadblocks to teaching social skills to kids and young adults, including now having enough time, difficulty scheduling a […]
Teaching Kids Self-Love in the Classroom
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 […]
Why Positive Self-Talk is Worth It
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 […]
Helping Kids with Social Emotional Needs
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 […]
50+ De-escalation Strategies
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 challenging ways. Some examples of these behaviors might include aggressive posturing, yelling, throwing items, swearing, and refusing to […]
