Mindful breathing is a technique that can help improve focus and restore calm into the classroom. Best of all, it’s a strategy that helps develop self-regulation skills, something that kids and teens need throughout their lives. What is Mindful Breathing? The idea behind mindful breathing is that if we can control our breathing, we can […]
Search Results for: social skills
Positive Self-Talk
What is positive self-talk? Positive self-talk has the power to build kids and young adults up. These are the positive words and phrases we say to ourselves to help us feel encouraged and empowered to accomplish tough things. Of course, it’s important to note that positive self-talk isn’t a fix for everything. It won’t magically […]
Teaching Kids To Be Self-Aware
As an educator, I always felt I knew my learners extremely well. While it is great if an educator or parent knows their kids so well, it’s actually not enough. The real magic comes when we teach kids to start understanding themselves and develop strong self-awareness skills. Self-awareness is having a strong understanding of oneself. […]
Top Websites Every Special Educator Should Know
Special educators need a pretty large toolbox of strategies and resources to support our learners. So often, our students can have significantly diverse needs and levels. On any given day, special education teachers might need to take student reading data, modify a math assessment, teach science with hands-on experiments, collaborate with regular educators, meet with […]
12 Reasons Why Special Educators are Really Superheroes
As special educators, we might not be able to read minds or fly, but we certainly are superheroes in action. Whether we are teaching a lesson or running an IEP meeting, special education teachers go above and beyond to help those in need and do what is right. Here are 12 reasons why special educators […]
Interventions for Executive Functioning Challenges: Time Management
Time management skills are essentially life skills. Kids and young adults need this skills now and in the future. All educators and parents want our learners to be able to work independently, use time well, and complete tasks on time. In order to meet these expectations, students need to learn, understand, and continually practice skills […]
Helping Kids with Feelings of Anxiety & Worry
All educators, at one time or another, are likely to work with kids and young adults who struggle with anxiety. Sometimes we know about those challenges, and other times, we don’t. As a special educator, I have spent countless hours helping students work through their worries about homework, family situations, fights with friends, high-stakes testing, […]
Interventions for Executive Functioning Challenges: Planning
Planning is a critical executive functioning skill that helps kids and young adults achieve success in and outside of the classroom. Executive functioning skills are the complex mental processes that work together to help us accomplish tasks and goals. When learners struggle with these skills, daily life activities can become particularly challenging. While all executive […]
What To Do When a Student Refuses to Work
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 […]
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 […]
