Throughout my years teaching middle school, I have had the experience of seeing many “work refusals”. These are the situations when kids, for a variety of reasons, just refuse to start the work you give them. They might shut down and rest their head on their desk or lash out in anger, shouting about how […]
Search Results for: social skills
Ways to Help Kids Boost Confidence
Helping kid and young adults build their own confidence can have significant and long-lasting effects. Confidence kids are better equipped to handle stress, more likely to take risks, feel more prideful in their work, and have increased determination to reach their goals. By helping kids build their self-esteem, we are giving kids the skills they […]
Unique Ways to Teach Coping Strategies
Coping strategies are important skills for kids and young adults to learn. These are the activities and strategies we use to help us calm down when we’re emotionally overwhelmed. We can probably all think of a few kids and young adults who need extra practice managing their emotions effectively! That’s where coping strategies come into […]
How to Make a Coping Strategies Wheel
One of my favorite ways to sneak social emotional learning into the classroom is by doing crafts. These activities can be hands-on, engaging, fun, and creative. Meanwhile, kids are still learning the critical skills they need. In particular, a coping strategies wheel is a great tool to help teach coping strategies to help manage stress. […]
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 […]
How to Build Escape Room Challenges
Escape room activities are a fun and interactive way to work on the skills kids need. My favorite part about escape room activities is that they really encourage cooperation and critical thinking skills. Kids work together and use their collective brain power to solve a variety of puzzles and challenges. When an escape room is […]
10 Reasons to Use Escape Room Activities
Escape rooms are not only the latest craze, but a tool that can help kids work towards their learning goals. An escape room is a challenge that allows kids to work together solving a variety of puzzles in order to “break out” of a room. There are different “reasons” for why kids are locked it. […]
10 Ways to Involve Young Adults in their IEP Meetings
A huge part of our job as special educators is empowering kids and young adults to make positive decisions in their own lives. One simple way to involve our students in some of those important decisions is getting them involved in their own IEP meetings. I always tell kids that they are the most important […]
50+ Free SEL Resources
Use this list of free resources to use as 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 social emotional learning supports for kids and young adults. Some of my best days in the […]
Modifications and Accommodations.. What’s the Difference?
The discussion comes up a lot about the difference between modifications and accommodations in the classroom. In the shortest terms, a modification is a significant change to the curriculum for students who are far below grade level expectations. It is changing WHAT kids are learning. An accommodation is a support or tweak to the environment […]
