With summer quickly coming to an end, it’s time to start thinking about the new school year. The smell of sharpened pencils, the perfectly arranged classroom, the hopeful buzz of possibility—it’s a fresh start for students and educators. Whether you’re a seasoned teacher or stepping into the classroom for the first time, the beginning of the year sets the tone for what&r...
April is Autism Awareness Month, a time dedicated to increasing understanding, acceptance, and support for individuals with autism. Teachers play a crucial role in creating inclusive classrooms where all students, including those on the autism spectrum, feel valued and supported.
There is some fascinating research published in Scientific Reports on the mental health benefits of seeing and/or hearing birds. Improved moods, decreased symptoms associated with depression, stress relief, and increased focus for up to eight hours after bird encounters were reported by people participating in this...
Increases focus, alleviates stress, decreases symptoms of anxiety, improves the quality of sleep, and relieves pain…deep breathing exercises provide a myriad of benefits. Breathing exercises are free, relatively easy to learn, do not take much time to complete, and can be done anytime and anywhere – including the classroom.
Deep breathing is a proactive habit that student...
Imagine trying to read a book with the letters and words seemingly jumping and dancing around the pages. Using this Dyslexia Simulator, you can experience what it’s like. Please take a mo...
As usual, the summer seems to be going by far too quickly. Even with plenty of sand left in the hourglass of summer, I start feeling the back-to-school jitters every August.
Focusing on the social and emotional learning (SEL) needs of students – as well as my own needs – has always been a helpful and comforting way for me to transition into back-to-school mode. This articl...
Happy 118th birthday, Dr. Seuss! In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2, people across the country will be celebrating by reading good books. National Read Across America Day was established by the National Education Association (NEA) in 1998 to help promote the joy of reading for children. As it turns out however, establishing reading habits early in life can provide potential lifel...
January has been proclaimed National Mentoring Month - a time to celebrate and honor educators, administrators, coaches, parents, community leaders, and others who support and help individuals reach their full potential.
Marian Wright Edelman, an American activist for children’s rights, noted, “It is the responsibility of every adult – especially parents, educators,...
Lisa Xagas, District 203 Director of Student Service, said it best, “SEL is not one more thing on the plate, it is the plate.”
We understand your proverbial plate is overflowing already. We also know how much educators value social and emotional learning (SEL), so we’ve compiled another list of teacher-recommended resources and strategies t...
My 5-year-old son, Abe (who is typically a kind boy), recently started hitting his 3-year-old brother. The physical aggression seemed to stem from impulsivity, frustration, or a combination of both. When my response of a time-out, followed by a verbal apology wasn’t working, I knew I had to figure out a different approach.
I continued with the time-out (quiet time to...
Julie lived in a small trailer home with her mother, her older brother, and her mother’s boyfriend. (Her father was incarcerated for repeated drug charges.) I was Julie’s special education case manager and teacher for most of her elementary school years. She and her brother often got themselves up and ready for school every day while their mother (who reportedly suffered from...
With the holidays coming up I thought that writing about some first-hand experiences with Title One kids and the ways they deal with the holidays should be helpful so that we can be more sensitive to their situations. Most of the time we do not know all the details...
National Bullying Prevention Awareness, Fire Prevention Week, ADHD Awareness, Dyslexia Awareness, and so much more! October is a busy month, full of valuable learning opportunities for students and educators. Provided below are some note-worthy resources and activities to recognize a few of the many events this month.
National Bullying Prevention Awareness
The first Monday of e...
This article was originally published on our blog 06-29-2018 and we think it's appropriate to revisit as September is Suicide Awareness month.
Suicide touches everyone, in one way or another. Perhaps you welcomed Anthony Bourdain into your living room by watching his p...
As defined by Understood, executive function is “The ability to organize cognitive processes. This includes the ability to plan ahead, prioritize, stop and start activities, shift from one activity to another activity and monitor one’s own behavior.”
Time management, organization, planning, paying attention,...
My grandmother, a former teacher, recently passed away (July 11, 2019) - living a full and active life of 105 years. She was my inspiration for becoming a teacher, and we had a countless number of conversations about teaching and how things have changed from then to now. (She taught in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Wisconsin in the 1930s and 194...
As teachers we’re encouraged to work together and share expertise, energy, and inspiration with the common goal of increasing student engagement and success in our schools. Research supports benefits associated with teacher collaboration including more creative and meaningful lesson plans, shared responsibility for student achievement, improved staff morale/career satisfaction, and an inc...
Responsible decision-making is the fifth of the five components of social and emotional learning (SEL). (Click on the links for teaching strategies designed to support your students with the other four components of SEL including: self-awareness,
Maintaining friendships, asking for help, working cooperatively, etc. - interpersonal skills are a critical component of the development of children. When students demonstrate strong relationship skills, instructional time increases while conflicts, arguing, and fighting decreases. Class cohesion increases self-confidence among students as they help one another and interact positively with adul...
Welcome to part 3 of our social and emotional learning (SEL) series - today’s focus: social awareness! (Head over to our blog archives for parts 1 and 2 which address self-management and
Welcome to part 2 of our social and emotional learning (SEL) series. Let’s begin with a brief review. SEL involves teaching five core competencies to students in grades K–12: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. In a recent b...
Happy 2019! Are you staying on track with your New Year’s resolutions? As I type, I have a large glass of water next to my mouse, and I am resisting the strong temptation of the remaining Christmas cookies and other holiday goodies in my pantry. After all, this blog post is about self-management, so I’m trying to practice what I preach.
As defined by the Collaborative for...
When working with students on kindness, empathy, friendship, and other positive behaviors, sometimes the characters from children’s stories say it best:
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” -The Lion and the Mouse
“If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew.” -Pocahontas
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As a teacher with summers “off”, August has always felt like a long Sunday. June is the excitement of a Friday with the whole weekend ahead. July is a Saturday with plenty of time to relax, reconnect with old friends, explore new places, and maybe catch up on DIY projects at home. As the calendar flips to August, however, the realization of - and the anxiety associated with - return...
Suicide touches everyone, in one way or another. Perhaps you welcomed Anthony Bourdain into your living room by watching his popular CNN show, Parts Unknown. Maybe your favorite handbag was designed by
Imagine coming to your neighborhood middle school one morning to find three dead bodies dumped in the schoolyard. This is exactly what students experienced one morning when coming to Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco.
As shocking as this might sound, the children at Visitacion were used to murder. Barry O’Driscoll, the school’s head of physical education (PE...