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When students are struggling, it's difficult for them to learn. That's why a student's safety and support in learning is every educator's goal. But who supports educators when they are struggling?

Follett is excited to provide schools and districts with tools to support connections among students, families, and fellow educators that you can use all year long. Our tools are for all faculty and staff at your school - we know everyone needs a reminder to take care of themselves!

Below are printable activities and idea builders that will give you great ideas for what to do to focus on you. Plus, our Social and Emotional Learning Digital Catalog provides you ways to connect with your students, their families, and your peers. Scroll down to access these helpful resources and more.

Grab a free bookmark!

Habit Tracker Bookmarks

Trying to remember to look away from the computer every hour to give your eyes a break? Take stretch breaks? Drink water? Keep track of your progress daily goals with these bookmarks.
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As schools continue working through the current pandemic, lots of conversation turns to the challenges of the time and the difficulty students have experienced related to trauma. However, let's be perfectly clear - prior to the pandemic, many of our students were facing challenging and stressful home lives. As school leaders, we can instill in our staff an understanding of the importance of noticing changes in our children and working together to address these changes.

SEL Catalog

Our social and emotional learning (SEL) catalog has the latest SEL advice, webinars, author interviews, and FREE downloads. Start reading.

Address Climate and Culture

Read about steps organizations can take to improve their climate and culture in this article by educator Svetlana Popovic from Humanex Ventures. There's also a free checklist to get you started.

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Social Emotional Learning Resources for Staff

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When students are struggling, it's difficult for them to learn. That's why a student's safety and support in learning is every educator's goal. But who supports educators when they are struggling? Follett is excited to provide schools and districts with tools to support connections among students, families, and fellow educators that you can use all year long.

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Find ideas for supporting educators' social and emotional needs on our SEL for educators page. We have free, downloadable activities that you can use yourself or share with everyone.

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Find ideas for supporting educators' social and emotional needs on our SEL for educators page. We have free, downloadable activities that you can use yourself or share with everyone.

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Creating an SEL Virtual Library with Capstone Connect, Buncee, eBooks and PebbleGo! 

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Creating an SEL Virtual Library with Capstone Connect, Buncee, eBooks and PebbleGo! 

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As we open up our SEL Pop-Up Library at Van Meter Elementary, I also created a SEL Virtual Library to share with our teachers and students.

Using Buncee, Google Slides and Capstone Connect, I created this choice board filled with Capstone Interactive eBooks and...

...the Feelings and Emotions articles in PebbleGo.

If you would like to make a copy of this to use with your own eBooks and PebbleGo, you will find an editable copy here.

To share our SEL Virtual Library, I created a poster with a QR code for our students to scan with the iPads so they can easily listen and read the eBooks and PebbleGo articles.

I made a few copies to promote in our SEL Pop-Up Library and gave each teacher a copy too. I also hung up the poster in the library and a few other places around the school.

This poster is also created in a Google Slide so can be shared in Google Classroom and Seesaw. This is a super easy way to share choice boards.

Throughout the year, I will rotate other Capstone eBooks into our Virtual SEL Library. It will be a special place for our students, teachers and families all year long.

And you will find two very helpful SEL resources on Capstone's Back-To-Central site.

There is an article, 7 Tips for Managing Students' Back-to-School Anxiety and...

...Social Emotional Learning list of Capstone books and eBooks here.

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Creating An SEL Virtual Library With Capstone Connect, Buncee, eBooks and PebbleGo!

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As we open up our SEL Pop-Up Library at Van Meter Elementary, I also created a SEL Virtual Library to share with our teachers and students. Using Buncee, Google Slides and Capstone Connect, I created this choice board filled with Capstone Interactive eBooks and... ...the Feelings and Emotions articles in PebbleGo.

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Setting up our SEL Pop-Up Library with resources and posters 

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Setting up our SEL Pop-Up Library with resources and posters 

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As we kick off a new year at our school, I have collaborated with many of our teachers on their goals and dreams for the school year. One request that I have heard over and over is the need for more and more ways to tie in SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) to the classrooms and lives of our students.

One way I can get more wonderful SEL books into the classrooms and hands of the teachers and students is through our Pop-Up Libraries throughout the hallways at Van Meter.

Our Pop-Up Libraries are bookshelves where we can set up a collection of thoughtfully curated and organized books for everyone to borrow and read as a class, use in a lesson or project, lead an important conversation, and so much more.

To start, I create a sign to share what the Pop-Up Library focus is with a few instructions for the teachers.

I put it in a clear, plastic holder to set on the shelf and then surround it with the books we picked from our library collection that fit into that theme.

As the teachers come and pick them up to use, we keep and eye on the Pop-Up Library to continue to refill with more books. When the teachers are finished using them in their classroom, they bring the books back to the Pop-Up Library.

As this is our SEL Pop-Up Library, I was super excited to use a resource from our friends at Follett to help and guide this project.

It's the SEL site within Follett Titlewave that is filled with so many resources to...

...support the whole student with SEL materials. As the site shares, Explore resources to strengthen student identity and to develop community and empathy.

...find relatable books focused around the CASEL framework, growth mindset and character education for all grade and students;

Build home-to-school connections;

Boost classroom library engagement;

Spread a love of reading with Follett's #AllBooksForAllKids;

Find Hands-on Resources that encourage discovery, critical thinking and independent or collaboration learning;

Practice through pictures with Jillian Heise's #ClassroomBookADay, and more.

You will also find a place to get FREE personalized curation help from experts at Follett when building a collection of SEL books for your school library, bookroom or classroom libraries. I just reached out to them to help us with our expansion of SEL books and materials this year.

And one last resource to mention are the VERY special SEL-themed posters that are FREE for all of us to download and print off for our classrooms, hallways, libraries and Pop-Up Libraries.

There are two sets of SEL posters...one for elementary and one for secondary. These posters will encourage and celebrate positive thinking all throughout the year.

I downloaded all of them and printed on heavy card stock paper. I laminated the posters and hung them going down the side of the Pop-Up Library book shelf. I LOVE these messages and can't wait for our students and teachers to see them too.
You will find the SEL site on Follett Titlewave here, friends. I can't wait to see how you support SEL through books and programs this year too.

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Setting Up Our SEL Pop-Up Library With Resources & Posters From Our Friends At Follett!

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As we kick off a new year at our school, I have collaborated with many of our teachers on their goals and dreams for the school year. One request that I have heard over and over is the need for more and more ways to tie in SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) to the classrooms and lives of our students.

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Social Emotional Learning Resources from Capstone

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Social Emotional Learning Resources from Capstone

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To begin our dive into SEL together, let's start with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Often referred to simply as CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning created and refined the definition for social and emotional learning shared below (CASEL, 2021):

"Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities."

Simply put, SEL is a lifelong journey of learning: how to better know ourselves and how to connect and collaborate with others to reach goals and support our communities.
CASEL Framework

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) conducts research on the benefits of SEL and how to measure SEL in educational environments. They have also created a framework with five core competencies. These core competencies include: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness.

Self-Awareness

Students demonstrate self-awareness when they understand how they feel in different situations. This can include naming their own emotions, describing what is important to them, and even identifying bias. Students building this skill can also talk about their strengths and areas where they are working to improve through the development of a growth mindset.

Self-Management

Students demonstrate self-management when faced with a variety of situations. This can include moments when they are frustrated and stressed. Students building self-management skills work on setting goals, implementing stress management techniques, and planning effectively.

Responsible Decision-Making

Students demonstrate responsible decision-making when asked to weigh options, consider different perspectives, and reflect on their role as members of a group. This can include asking students to analyze information and consider pros and cons when making decisions. Students building responsible decision-making skills can talk about the thought process behind a decision they made.

Relationship Skills

Students demonstrate relationship skills when navigating social situations that ask them to communicate clearly, work together as a team, and handle disagreements. This can include times when students use conflict resolution strategies and demonstrate leadership in a group setting. Students building relationship skills pause in a conversation to listen to their classmates and work together with students with different life experiences.

Social Awareness

Students demonstrate social awareness skills when they show empathy and concern for others and take on someone else's perspective. This can include understanding the norms of a situation based on context and understanding how systems and organizations function. Students building social awareness skills have a deeper understanding of their community, including the diversity present in different situations.

How Can I Support SEL in the Classroom?

Social and emotional learning can take place within individual classrooms and benefits from the support of a school and district commitment. A commitment to social and emotional learning asks stakeholders to establish a mission and create opportunities for students to explore SEL competencies.
Setting an intention should include:

Carving out time for planning

Allocating time for reflection

Providing opportunities for feedback

The activity ideas in our SEL Guide are designed to help you incorporate SEL skills within traditional learning experiences, such as time allocated for English Language Arts instruction during a literacy block. Each activity has suggested resources for student readers from the Capstone Connect library and PebbleGo Health. Try incorporating multimedia with a creation tool, like Buncee, in with your SEL activities to spark students' creativity.

Children's books, like these recommended Capstone picture books, can be wonderful resources in your SEL tool kit to help build and reinforce important social emotional learning skills, from identifying and processing emotions to developing empathy and embracing different perspectives. Our picture books are great read-alouds to share with children to develop these crucial SEL skills.

There are so many ways to incorporate Social Emotional Learning practices in your school. Collaborate with your peers and customize to meet the needs of your students. The growing body of research clearly shows SEL's impact on student's academic achievement and mental and physical health, setting them up for success in and out of school.

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To begin our dive into SEL together, let's start with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Often referred to simply as CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning created and refined the definition for social and emotional learning shared below (CASEL, 2021): "Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development.

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Feeling down and want to boost your positive emotions? Or maybe you want to cheer up a colleague or a student who may be feeling blue. Let's explore some of the ways we can de-stress and enjoy calm.

Compare the above sound to others featured in this blog entry. Which is more calming?

What the Brain Says

To lift yourself out of a funk, you have to cultivate certain emotions. You can train your brain to not jump to sad emotions or fear. Instead, you can teach yourself to interpret bodily reactions to circumstances. This could mean focusing on positive emotions.

One way to do this is to have experiences that help you make sense of the immediate future. As appears in this National Public Radio (NPR) article, you can change your perceptions:

"Your brain uses memories from the past in order to create the present," says Barrett. "It's bringing knowledge from the past to make sense of the immediate future. This, then, becomes your present."

Neuroscientists call this "the predictive brain." "You can, in fact, modify what you feel in very direct ways," she says.

The end result of this is that you can rewire your brain, developing emotions now that you want to have in the future. When you start to have a negative emotion, you can then replace it with a positive one.

To do that, you will want to explore different apps and websites that can assist you in rewiring your brain.

Tool #1: NPR's Joy Generator

Use the free Joy Generator to "boost happiness by taking time for small moments of delight." The Joy Generator makes it easier for you to do this. It does this by offering random experiences, such as listening to the call of the wild, and more.

Tool #2: Anti-Stress Sounds

Did you know that eustress is good stress, while distress is bad stress? You can dispel some distress by the sounds you listen to. Here's are some anti-distress sounds you can put on when looking to cut stress:

Also, don't be afraid (if you have Amazon Echo) to invite Alexa to play soothing Relaxing Sounds. The collection includes a variety of sounds that can help mitigate stress.

Tool #3: Restful Websites to Help You De-Stress

Try Pixel Thoughts to identify stressful thinking that is plaguing you. It follows a simple recipe:

Breathe in

Breathe out

Listen to a series of calming statements

As it does this, the stressful thought appears to shrink on the screen as you watch and a calming tune plays in the background. The idea is that your stress disappears as the image of the sun shrinks.

Did You Know?

TCEA offers a virtual yoga course to help you relax. Register now for TCEA's Cultivating Calm, an online, self-paced course.

Tool #4: Virtual Drawings and Paintings

I have always heard that painting can relieve stress. You get lost in the swash of colors and gradients. The following two websites make virtual painting so much easier. Now, before you stress out over the word "painting," relax. This is not about being Van Goh, but rather about losing yourself in the wash of colors that appear on screen. They are all under your control.
Make your own creation now on your iOS device ($2.99).

Tool #5: Bird Songs

There's nothing so relaxing as bird song in the background. Put this on, even if you are listening to something else (e.g. Zoom call, podcast). It is incredibly calming. I found myself relaxing one morning at work when I found that, by accident, I had left bird song on an open browser tab. Combine those sounds with BeeGees' How Deep is Your Love, and you may slip into a coma of good feeling.

What are some ways that you use nature, sounds, or art to boost your brain with positive emotions?

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Feeling down and want to boost your positive emotions? Or maybe you want to cheer up a colleague or a student who may be feeling blue. Let's explore some of the ways we can de-stress and enjoy calm. Compare the above sound to others featured in this blog entry.

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The Mindful Librarian episode, of the FRL Podcast series, is full of great ideas for libraries and schools

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The Mindful Librarian episode, of the FRL Podcast series, is full of great ideas for libraries and schools

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Picture Books for Social Emotional Learning and Special Topics

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Picture Books for Social Emotional Learning and Special Topics

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You will find the Padlet filled with these books here.

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Support your students' social and emotional learning as they navigate the digital world.

Technology impacts students' social and emotional well-being, from how they express themselves to how they communicate with friends and family. With the right support, students can learn how to integrate technology into their lives to promote their well-being and be a positive influence in their communities.

We created this resource center to give you everything you need to implement SEL in digital life in your school or classroom. Here you'll find CASEL-aligned quick activities, family conversation starters, and professional development resources, all of which align with the core themes and lessons from our free K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum.

See the resources here:

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SEL in Digital Life Resource Center | Common Sense Education

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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The Novel Effect app has soooo many great picture books with accompanying soundscapes that support SEL!

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The Novel Effect app has soooo many great picture books with accompanying soundscapes that support SEL!

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The Novel Effect app responds with interactive music and sound effects, creating magical moments when you read aloud with a child.

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The Novel Effect app follows along with interactive music and sound effects, creating magical moments when you read aloud with a child.

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Tracy uses this morning meeting slide to spark amazing and important conversations every morning.

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I took this idea from Pernille Ripp so I want to make sure to give her credit. I got a 3 drawer plastic bin cart from Target for like $14 and am filling it with items student might need thought the day- like pens,pencils, notebooks, spray deodorant, hair ties, lotion, bandaides in different skin colors, tampons, pads, liners, protein bars. etc.

I have put a post out on my towns Buy Nothing group and people have been helping me with supplies. But I am also purchasing some items myself.

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I made these and plan to give each of them one for their students. If a student is struggling and needs a few minutes they can come to the library and relax & calm down some.

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Whether you head back to school in August or September, these Epic reads can help you get the year started off on the right foot. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is important to thread throughout your morning meetings and content all year long, but it can be especially beneficial to highlight in those first few weeks of school. A focus on SEL can help you establish relationships with students, help them feel seen and heard, and affirm the variety of feelings and personalities within the classroom. If you have an account, make sure you have logged in before you click on these book covers. Each one will open a book for you to read with your class. I've put themes/topics under each book cover to help you select which one feels right for the discussion you want to have with your class on a particular day. Remember to always vet your resources before introducing them to students. You want to make sure the content and length of the story is developmentally appropriate for the age group you work with at school. Make a copy of the editable Google Slide , or download a clickable PDF .

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Whether you head back to school in August or September, these Epic reads can help you get the year started off on the right foot. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is important to thread throughout your morning meetings and content all year long, but it can be especially beneficial to highlight in those first few weeks of school.

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I created an area in my library which has two couches, a bean bag chair a community member donated, and two tables. In the area I found some mindfulness books and inspirational books at 5 Below and put them out for the students. They can read them there or take them home& return them when they are done. They don’t even need to check them out. I also got some pillows at goodwill that have the sequins on them that change color.