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CASEL - Leveraging the Power of SEL as You Prepare to Reopen

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CASEL - Leveraging the Power of SEL as You Prepare to Reopen

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The Center for Courage & Renewal nurtures deep integrity and relational trust, the foundation for a more loving, equitable and healthy world.

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Kansas Parent Information Resource Center

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Kansas Parent Information Resource Center

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Kansas Families and Schools Together, Inc., KFAST, a non-profit agency was established in 2006 as the Kansas Parent Information Resource Center (KPIRC). Currently KPIRC is providing family engagement support to districts through a contract awarded by the Kansas State Department Education Special Education and Title Services as part of TASN.

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KS - Measuring Social-Emotional Growth Tool Kit

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KS - Measuring Social-Emotional Growth Tool Kit

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KS SECD Standards - Instructional Examples

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KS SECD Standards - Instructional Examples

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Reopening School: What it Might Look Like

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Reopening School: What it Might Look Like

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Sponsored by PowerSchool and ViewSonic

I don't need to give you much background here: As you all know, schools have been closed worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the same way that cities are at various stages of reopening businesses, schools are doing the same thing, or at least thinking about how it might work.

We all know that unless someone develops a vaccine soon, school just can't be run the same as it was before. There's reinfection to consider, second and third waves of cases that could cause new shutdowns, and on a more distant horizon, the stark possibility that new viruses could take us down just like this one did.

I figure right now, educators everywhere are trying to decide the best course of action, or at least wondering what their district leadership is considering. Since I have access to a lot of educators all over the place, I believe the best way I can help with that process is to ask you all what you're doing, then curate those ideas so they can reach more people. So about a week ago I tweeted out a request for ideas. I got some from there, some from my own searching, and some from the legwork that Larry Ferlazzo already did on this topic.

Reading through all the proposals was overwhelming, especially when I clicked through to look at the densely-packed documents that detailed all the different distancing and disinfecting protocols that had to be considered. I would give each one about thirty seconds, and then I just wanted to run away. The words just swam together after a while. I'm guessing you may have experienced something similar at some point. I guess I just wanted to validate that for you: Yes, it's overwhelming.

So in the spirit of contributing something of value here, rather than adding to the overwhelm, I'm going to do three things.

The first part will be practical. I'll very quickly run through seven different ideas people are considering for reopening schools. I was kind of excited about one idea in particular, because it's something a little different and it might actually work.

The second part will also be practical, but more random. In this section I'll share other thoughts and ideas I've seen floating around that connect to school reopenings but aren't necessarily tied to specific plans.

The third part will be more of a pep talk. I'm not sure how much good it will do, but I want to talk a little bit about what I would be doing right now if I were a classroom teacher bracing myself for the upcoming school year. My hope is to offer something that will help you get through this.

Alrighty then. Deep breath.

Part 1: Ideas for Reopening

Before I start on all of these options, I just have to acknowledge something: All of these ideas completely suck compared to pre-pandemic life. They are depressing and repressive and in a lot of schools, not even realistic. In a post published this past week, 3rd grade teacher Paul Murphy floated the idea that reopening schools under the proposed constraints may not be worth it at all:

"Why should we assume that placing young people in an environment of masked peers whom they aren't allowed to approach will result in an improved mental state? And if adults are going to be serious about restrictions they'll have to enforce them. It's my deep suspicion that punishments for hugging friends, admonishments for encroaching on six-foot personal bubbles, vigilant surveillance of hand-washing and line spacing, daily temperature checks that send a recurrent message that everyone else is to be feared, and possible repeated school closures when someone inevitably catches the virus will not produce an atmosphere conducive to improved mental health."

I agree with him to a large extent. But I also think it makes sense to try something, to try some kind of arrangement that gets more teachers in rooms with more students at least some part of the week, because among all the lessons we've learned from this pandemic, one has certainly been that videoconferencing just isn't the same as face-to-face.

With that said, here are some ideas that look like they might sort of kind of work. This is not an exhaustive list: I saw some ideas that would only work in schools that have very low numbers-where all students return full-time but everyone just spreads out. This doesn't seem like a realistic option for most schools. I'm also not going to get into all the handwashing, disinfecting, and testing protocols, nor will this post address transportation; we'll just focus on how schools might arrange the instructional component. Also, some schools are looking at hybrid models that combine some of these solutions or set up a plan where they toggle in between them depending on how infection stats are looking in their region at any given time.

Solution 1: Alternating Days or Half Days

Schools would run A/B schedules, where some students come on A days and others on B days. Those not at school would be doing remote learning at home. Another variation of this is doing half days, like kindergarten used to be in a lot of places, where half the student population goes to school in the morning and half goes in the afternoon.

Solution 2: Cohorts

Students are put into small groups that stay together all day, thereby mixing students with each other as little as possible. For changing classes or subject areas, the teachers are the ones who would move throughout the building.

Solution 3: Selective Return of Grade Levels, Students, or Teachers

In this arrangement, a limited number of students and teachers would return to in-person schooling, while others would continue doing school remotely.

Some schools are looking at in-person instruction for kindergarten and grade 1 (to keep students on track for early literacy and math skills), vulnerable students who need more help, students without home technology, and seniors who need to be kept on track for graduation.

This idea may also be applied to certain teachers and staff members-those over 55 or at higher risk for infection may continue to teach from home while a substitute holds down the fort in the physical classroom.

Solution 4: One Course at a Time

This idea kind of blew my mind: Students stay in the same class, with the same teacher, taking a single course for a few weeks, then rotate to another course for a few weeks. So instead of changing classes once an hour, they'd change once every two weeks or so. This was shared by science teacher Sam Long on Twitter, and I think it has real potential.

Some people pushed back on this idea because they hated the thought of students sitting in the same class for so long, but if a teacher is mixing things up, delivering instruction in an engaging way, providing good breaks, and not requiring long periods of sitting, it could work.

The only thing that could still stand in the way of this working would be social distancing requirements-you couldn't have classes at full capacity. But maybe this combined with an A/B or half day schedule could be something to try.

Solution 5: One-Room Schoolhouse

In this arrangement, students would stay in one room all day, studying multiple subjects with the same teacher. This could work in some elementary schools, where teachers are already somewhat used to teaching more than one subject and only rotate for a few subjects, but again, social distancing protocols would still have to be kept, so you couldn't operate at full capacity. To make this work instructionally, teachers might need to shift to more of a Project Based Learning approach, where students are engaged in long-term projects that incorporate learning from multiple subject areas. Kids could still interact with Ts from other rooms-maybe through the phone, videoconferencing, or just by standing far apart out in the hall?-but those teachers would need more planning time to be available for those kinds of conferences.

Instruction could also be delivered in this kind of scenario via video mini-lessons. A few years ago I interviewed teachers at the Apollo School, where students spent a block of three hours each day in a combined English, history, and art class. Each teacher offered daily mini-lessons on relevant topics, and students attended these voluntarily based on their needs and projects.

If schools were to try the "one-room schoolhouse option," it may be possible to do something similar, where a group of teachers "shares" a larger group of students, but each teacher actually stays with part of the group in their classroom and students can "attend" video-broadcast mini-lessons being given by teachers in other rooms. If all students in this arrangement were working on cross-curricular projects, this could ultimately be an improvement over the kind of traditional instruction they had before.

Solution 6: Individual Learning Plans

At first, I thought this was just not realistic: The idea of creating separate plans for each student, depending on the individual situation, learning needs, available technology, and home resources seemed an almost impossible task. But I'm starting to rethink that, because it might be accomplished with maybe five or six basic plans.

So for example, you have some students who are on plan 1, which is full-time home instruction with no technology. Those students would need to be on some sort of paper delivery system and the school might need to set up weekly face-to-face meetings between the family and an assigned teacher. Other students might be on plan 2, which is full-time home instruction with reliable technology. Plan 3 might be coming to school some days. For each subject area and grade level things might need to be further individualized, but I'm realizing that while every student has different needs, there may be groups of students whose needs are similar, so these individual plans may be something that can be batched.

Still a lot of work, obviously, but maybe not as much as I initially thought.

Solution 7: Keep Distance Learning

Amid all the discussion of how to reopen, I think keeping things the way they are-with 100% distance learning-is an option. Many schools have already done a trial run and there may be some lessons that can be applied the next time around. Obviously, getting all students connected is a must, or at the very least finding good, workable ways to stay in touch without the internet, but if that's possible, it may be the most realistic approach at least for the start of the school year. Again, like all of these other options, it's not great, but at least it's a known quantity, unlike the other arrangements that could potentially result in everyone bouncing back to distance learning anyway.

Part 2: Other Considerations

These are some other ideas that have been mentioned in conversations about reopening that are worth considering, regardless of what plan you end up with:

Remediation vs. acceleration: When planning instruction for the upcoming year, the temptation may be to focus on remediation, to go back to wherever students left off before quarantine and teach from that point forward, rather than starting the new school year where you might normally start. This seems logical, but something I read the other day caused me to rethink that-an article about the lessons learned after New Orleans schools closed post-Hurricane Katrina. According to this report, schools that focused mostly on skill recovery rather than teaching grade-level content found that students were less engaged and scored poorly on tests, whereas schools got better results when they took a "spiraling" approach, where the regular content is taught on its normal schedule, and gaps in student skill and knowledge are filled in and scaffolded as needed. I don't know much about the particulars of this approach, but the organization TNTP has put together a Learning Acceleration Guide that can help you learn more. I think it's worth a look.

Getting input from all stakeholders: Schools will have the best chance of landing on a workable solution if you involve representatives from all stakeholder groups in your school community. That means while you're still in the exploratory phase, ask teachers, support staff, paraprofessionals, students, and parents for their input, then ask again when you're narrowing your options. Do this in a way that gives them time to think through the proposed ideas and space to share their thoughts honestly. And make sure there's representation from diverse backgrounds in terms of socioeconomics, ethnicity, race, and language.

Making equity and culturally responsive teaching an integral part of the plan: Any plan for reopening or re-starting school must take into account how all students' needs will be met. A lot has been written about the ways this pandemic has shone a light on existing inequities, like this piece from Dena Simmons, and working on a reopening plan is an opportunity to address those more thoroughly than they've been addressed before. This collection offers some good resources on culturally responsive teaching in remote situations.

Looping: Elementary schools may want to consider teacher looping to build on existing relationships. This is where a teacher stays with the same students over two or more grade levels, rather than students moving to a different teacher every year.

Substitute availability: Substitute teachers are being held up as key players in some proposed scenarios, but in many districts, a large number of subs may be over age 55 and could therefore be more at risk for infection.

Childcare for teachers' kids: Many, many teachers are also parents, so if their own children can't go back to school full-time, that poses a significant problem for the teachers as well.

Part 3: Facing the Unknown

Probably the only thing that's certain right now is that no one knows for sure what the next school year is going to look like. And this may very well be putting you in a state of paralysis, waiting for someone to tell you what the plan is so you can get moving with your own preparation.

Here's what I would do in your shoes:

Prepare for a full year of 100 percent distance learning.

No matter what the specific plan looks like for next year, there's a good chance that at least some of your instruction is going to be delivered remotely. Even if your school manages to get kids into the building, social distancing will likely require students to get their materials and do much of their work on devices.

With that in mind, you're going to be better off if you have shifted a good part of your instruction into an online format. Once it's there, you can still use it in a face-to-face setting; you'll just have more opportunities to interact with students in real time.

Here are some things that can help you with the process:

Now that you have a little more time, learn how to design instruction for online environments from those who have fine-tuned the process. Simply Googling "how to create an online course" will get you lots of results, and although many of these were created by people who are creating courses for profit, you can still learn quite a bit about learner engagement from them. Two other sources to check out are this article from ASCD and this one from Inside Higher Ed.

Seek out teachers who have some pieces of the remote learning puzzle figured out and learn from them. Maybe they've gotten more engagement from students than most. Maybe they're not quite as exhausted as most of your colleagues. Maybe they've had one or two "pretty good lessons" throughout this time. See what they can teach you.

Consider curricular options that are already available online. Khan Academy is definitely worth a look, and taking advantage of this as a resource doesn't mean you won't be relationship-building and supporting students; it just means the curriculum has been taken care of and put into a format that's already optimized for online learning.

Create Contingency Plans

When organizing your lessons for the upcoming year, build in contingency plans for different scenarios. So maybe you set up all your lessons for remote learning, but mark places where, if things work out to allow face-to-face teaching or even a situation where social distancing is no longer required, you could do something different, like a lab or group activity.

Give Yourself Space to Grieve

Throughout this process, it may be helpful to occasionally stop and just let yourself grieve all the incredible experiences teachers and students won't get to have right now and for the foreseeable future. Although dwelling on this for long periods of time won't be terribly useful, it also doesn't help to pretend any of this is normal. Acknowledging the loss will allow you, your colleagues, and your students to feel validated, and this could free you up to move on and do what you can under the current constraints.

Push Back on Unreasonable Expectations

Speaking of acting like any of this is normal, I get the sense that there may be some in leadership who are plowing ahead as if instruction is going to continue at the exact same level of quality as before. Although high-quality instruction is obviously the goal, sending a message that denies current challenges can crush teachers' spirits. If you happen to be working in a district where expectations are far beyond reality, push back. Find others who you can join forces with, compose a letter or a document that offers more reasonable alternatives, and present it to your administration. It can and has worked. For more thoughts on this, read my post "We're a Family" and Other School Norms that Can Cause Teacher Burnout.

One More Thing

I want to add this last thought: When you really look at this situation we're in, what makes all of this so hard to do is that we want to be together. If we were okay staying 6 feet apart for the rest of our lives, this wouldn't be such a challenge. But good teaching is an intimate experience and most teachers are at their best when they can stand close to examine student work, give hugs and high fives, have private conversations. Good teachers know how important relationship-building is to the process-not only the teacher-student relationship, but relationships between our students. Our students want to bump shoulders, bend their heads together in whispered secrets, hug each other, mess around on the playground or at the bus stop, dance and laugh together.

We still want and desperately need this connection. This physical connection. I think it's important to stop and recognize that, because it's good news.

Over the last ten years or so, as smartphones took over and we got more and more addicted to screens, we've all collectively shaken our heads at how disconnected we had become. But this pandemic has demonstrated that we weren't actually disconnected. Yes, the devices made things different, but the whole time we were still finding ways to be close, to touch each other, to share physical space. It turns out we really do need that, and I think this is wonderful news.

In 2013, Coca-Cola produced a Super Bowl commercial I never forgot. It was a montage of footage captured by security cameras all over the world, quick clips of people hugging, kissing, doing kind things for each other, celebrating together. In every clip, people are physically close together in ways that are starting to look shocking to me within our current context.

The reason that commercial was so popular then, and why it resonates with me even more deeply now is because this is is who we are, the "normal" we long to get back to. It's that longing that's making all of this so difficult. I believe we'll get back there someday, and I think we'll be much less likely to ever take it for granted again.

Until then, we do the best we can, giving lots of grace to each other and to ourselves.

Come back for more.
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Reopening School: What it Might Look Like

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Sponsored by PowerSchool and ViewSonic I don't need to give you much background here: As you all know, schools have been closed worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the same way that cities are at various stages of reopening businesses, schools are doing the same thing, or at least thinking about how it might work.

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Handout - STOIC Classroom Self-Assessment

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Teaching is one of the most rewarding professions, but it can also be one of the most stressful. CARE is a unique program designed to help teachers, other educators and administrators learn how to reduce stress and enliven their teaching by promoting awareness, presence, compassion, reflection, and inspiration - the inner resources they need to help students flourish, socially, emotionally and academically.

Cutting-edge neuroscience confirms that practicing mindfulness facilitates awareness and self-regulation and develops the capacity for a calm, focused mind - a mind with the openness, responsiveness and sensitivity for optimal teaching, guiding, and learning. For all educators, these resources can provide the inner strength to be powerfully present and emotionally responsive. As a result, educators become effective guides, and influential models of healthy social and emotional behavior.

CARE Program Design and Delivery

Based upon current research on the neuroscience of emotion, CARE introduces emotion skills instruction to promote understanding, recognition and regulation of emotion. To reduce stress, and to promote awareness and presence applied to teaching, CARE introduces basic mindfulness activities such as short periods of silent reflection, and progresses to activities that demonstrate how to bring mindfulness to challenging situations educators often encounter. Through these activities, educators learn to bring greater calm, mindfulness and awareness into the classroom to enhance their relationships with their students, their classroom management, and curricular implementation. The CARE program also promotes empathy and compassion through caring practice and mindful listening activities.

A new version of CARE has been specifically designed for supporting the personal development and leadership of principals, assistant principals and other school administrators. CARE has also been used with higher education faculty to sharpen their awareness and presence in their teaching.

The CARE program can be presented in a variety of formats depending upon the particular context. The yearly retreat at the Garrison Institutes is a four day-long experience. CARE is also provided as a series of day-long sessions over a period of months with intersession support via internet to support teachers' practice and application of new skills.

"As a teacher educator, I learned and re-learned vital knowledge, skills and attitudes for fostering social, emotional and academic learning in my graduate students, and through them to K-12 student in schools and other learning communities."

The program involves a blend of didactic instruction and experiential activities, including time for reflection and discussion. Educators who have completed the program say they found it relaxing, enjoyable and inspiring. Several educators share their experience with the program in this video. The CARE Program has supported educators in the US, Canada, The Netherlands, China, Croatia, and Germany. All training for CARE is provided by CREATE for Education.

CARE Research

With today's high levels of stress and burnout among teachers, districts are looking for science-tested ways to support their teaching staff. The CARE professional development program is proving to be an effective solution. A series of rigorous Federally funded studies has examined the impacts of CARE on teacher, classroom and student outcomes. The results of this research have been published in a series of peer-reviewed journal articles. Consistently, research has found that CARE significantly improves well-being and reduces stress among teachers who participated in CARE compared to those randomly assigned to a control group. Research findings can be reviewed at https://createforeducation.org/care/care-research/

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, a large cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in New York City recently involved 224 teachers and over 5,000 students. This study replicated previous results in teacher improvements but also demonstrated that CARE improves important dimensions of the classroom. Classrooms were observed and coded by trained researchers blind to the study aims and the teachers' random assignment. Compared to classrooms in the control group, CARE classrooms were more emotionally positive and the teachers demonstrated greater sensitivity to their students' needs. Finally CARE classrooms demonstrated higher degrees of productivity than controls. A follow-up report found that CARE teachers showed continued significant decreases in psychological distress, reductions in ache-related physical distress, significant increases in emotion regulation and some dimensions of mindfulness. Findings indicate that teachers who participated in CARE reported both sustained and new benefits regarding their well-being at a follow-up assessment almost one-year post-intervention.

These results are particularly significant for several reasons. First, the series of CARE studies all showing improvements for teachers provide clear evidence that CARE is an effective professional development program for reducing teachers' occupational stress and promoting their well-being. Second, the NYC study is the largest and most rigorous study of a mindfulness-based professional development for teachers and the first of its kind to examine intervention effects on the classroom and student outcomes. Third, the results of the NYC study showing impacts on the classroom are important because they demonstrate an important relationship between teachers' well-being and classroom quality. Finally, this study is a "proof of concept" that a mindfulness-based intervention can have impacts on both individuals and their work environment. Tish Jennings discusses some of the findings of the study and their implications here.

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Teaching is one of the most rewarding professions, but it can also be one of the most stressful. CARE is a unique program designed to help teachers, other educators and administrators learn how to reduce stress and enliven their teaching by promoting awareness, presence, compassion, reflection, and inspiration - the inner resources they need to help students flourish, socially, emotionally and...

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I don't know about you, but when I sit through a faculty meeting or professional development session of any sort, I start getting antsy by the 30-minute mark. If you can relate, just imagine how your students must feel when they've been sitting for too long. Educational brain breaks are the perfect way to help your students redirect their energy and focus when they start to fade.

I find it super-beneficial to incorporate quick mindful, physical, and mental check-ins with my students as a regular part of my classroom routine. These breaks include all types of movement, yoga and breathing exercises, as well as jokes, quick videos, and more. The activities I use have helped me throughout my lifetime, so I love sharing them with my students. Here are my favorite educational brain breaks that are sure to increase productivity and give your kids a much-needed way to unwind before the next lesson.

Mindful Educational Brain Breaks

1. Use transition times for mental check-ins

Transitions are a big part of the elementary school day. When I first started teaching 19 years ago, I was surprised by just how much time it takes to get ready for specials or to bring students back from centers. It's hard not to feel like that's lost time. That's why using transition time for mental health check-ins is such a game changer. Mental health check-ins can help students get in touch with their emotions, refresh and recharge, acknowledge and cope with negative thoughts and overwhelming feelings, and be more focused throughout the day.

2. Pretend to breathe like an animal

Source: Stephanie Sanders

This video shows students how to pretend to breath like some of their favorite animals. The snake breath involves hissing while slithering from side to side, while the whale breath has students pretend to breathe out through a blowhole! Tap into creativity by picking other interesting animals and acting them out through breath.

3. Do a 10-minute guided meditation

These guided meditations are educational and are perfect to use as brain breaks whenever you and your students just need to breathe. Catch your breath with any of these 20 guided video meditations.

4. Practice "focus ball" breathing

Walk your kids through the following exercise: Stand or sit with legs and feet together. Bring your palms together in front of your chest. Keep your fingertips touching as you pull your palms apart, forming a ball with your fingers. Press your fingertips together until you feel the muscles in your hands and arms activating. See if you feel your core tighten too. Now close your eyes and as you breathe in, inflate your ball, and as you breathe out, flatten the ball by pushing your palms together. (Repeat these instructions for 60 seconds).

Learn more: Mindful.org

5. Try the old ear-nose switcheroo

This is a quick and easy challenge to reset the brain. Instruct kids to touch their left ear with their right hand and at the same time touch their nose with their left hand. Then have them switch their hands and touch their right ear with their left hand and their nose with their right hand. Switch back and forth a few times. Then have them close their eyes, take a deep breath, and blow it all out.

Learn more: YouTube: Ear-Nose Switch

6. Take a yoga break

Source: The Pyjama Foundation

Inspire kids to move, stretch, and practice mindfulness with yoga. These printable yoga cards make it easy to incorporate yoga into your educational brain breaks. Each page includes a picture and description of the pose, and each page includes poses of increasing difficulty from level 1 to level 5. And don't worry, it's not a huge time commitment. The sequence on each card is designed to take only a few minutes.

7. Stretch it out

It's never a good idea to spend too much time sitting in one position. Allow kids to take a break and bring some flexibility back into their spines. Have them stand with their feet shoulder-distance apart. Put their left hand on their hip and raise their right hand overhead. Lean to the left and stretch their arm as far as they can to the left. Repeat on the right side. Then stand tall and slowly roll down one vertebra at a time until their hands reach the floor (or at least their shins). Have them take a deep breath then slowly roll back up. Repeat as necessary.

Learn more: Mom Junction

8. Focus on sound

Have kids sit quietly with their eyes closed. Ring a chime or gong. Have them listen carefully to the chime, feeling the vibration in their body as the sound reverberates and then slowly fades. Tell them to breathe slowly and deeply as they focus on the sound.

9. Do a quick mindfulness activity

Mindfulness activity cards provide great educational brain breaks. Stash a pack in your desk and pull them out whenever you need them. Each card will give a prompt for kids to try that will let them refocus and recharge. Perfect for moments when you need to bring down the energy in the room.

Buy it: Mindfulness Cards for Kids at Amazon

10. Chill out with this cross-body exercise

Have kids stand tall and cross one leg in front of the other while pressing the outsides of their feet together. Now have them cross their arms over each other at the wrists. Clasp their hands and curl their arms into their chest. Take a few breaths, and uncross and cross the opposite way for a few more breaths.

11. Float with jellyfish

When you really need to take the energy in your room down a notch, turn off the lights, set a timer, and put on a calming video. For example, Cat Trumpet put together a jellyfish aquarium video where kids will find themselves under the brilliant blue sea in the middle of a swarm of jellyfish. They'll be mesmerized by the slow, fluid motions and lulled into calmness by the soothing music.

12. Break out the hot hands

This is a good break when you sense a weariness in the air. Have kids rub their hands together vigorously until they warm up. Tell them to close their eyes and place their hands over their eyes. Instruct them to breathe deeply as they clear their minds and refocus.

13. Try cat and cow poses

Source: Flow and Grow Kids Yoga

Have kids start on all fours and then give them the following instructions to complete the cat and cow yoga poses: Place your shoulders over your wrists and hips over your knees. Arch your back to the sky and tuck in the tailbone (cat pose). Let your head fall between your arms. From there, sink the belly towards the ground, and lift the chest and chin (cow pose). Gently alternate between the two poses while breathing deeply.

14. Do nothing for two minutes

Never underestimate the power of stillness. When the energy gets a little ramped up, and it's time for the entire class to take a pause, have them drop everything and glue their eyes to the screen as you show this countdown. The gentle lulling of the waves and the sight of the sun sparkling off the water will reset their nervous system in a jiffy.

Learn More: Calm

15. Spread your wings (in slow motion)

Walk your kids through this winged movement: Sit cross-legged on the floor. Stretch your arms down by your sides with your palms facing inward toward your body. Slowly raise both arms while rotating hands forward. When your arms reach shoulder level, your hands should be facing forward. Continue raising arms, slowly rotating palms so that by the time hands are overhead, palms are facing each other. Slowly lower arms, repeating the rotation (palms facing each other, palms facing forward, palms facing sides) until they are once again resting at your sides. As you raise and lower your arms, stretch them as long as you can, as if you are scraping the sides of the room and the ceiling. Repeat slowly three times, breathing deeply.

Physical Education Brain Breaks

16. Play Silent Ball when you have downtime

You can play a quick game of Silent Ball anytime, anywhere. Play a quick three-minute game right before dismissal or before transitioning to a new activity. All you need is a small squishy ball. The rules are simple: 1) stay quiet and 2) don't drop the ball when passing it around. This activity is one of those educational brain breaks that builds a positive classroom community, fosters friendly competition, and boosts nonverbal communication. Enjoy the silence.

17. Line up in unique ways

Kids are very social and curious beings. Most of them love to chat with one another at any chance they can get. Lining up to leave the room for anything is the perfect chance for them to mix and mingle. Make a more productive use of this time by having students line up in special ways. Some fun ideas include lining up in alphabetical order by name, by birth date, or by height order.

18. Just jump!

Sometimes kids just need to bounce their energy out. Have them pretend they are bouncing on a mini-trampoline (this will keep their movement on a vertical plane instead of all over the room), and give them a couple of minutes to let loose!

19. Take a cue from the stadium

Here's one for a group of kids-start the wave! Beginning at one end of the room, kids stand up and throw their arms overhead, bringing them back down as they return to their seats. Each row follows until you reach the other end of the room. Amp it up by encouraging your kids to tap their feet or tap their hands on their legs so that they are in constant motion. This activity works great on Zoom too!

20. Stir the pot

Have kids visualize they are standing in front of an enormous cauldron. Inside the cauldron is an ooey-gooey pot of caramel. Take hold of a large stirrer and plunge it to the bottom of the pot. Slowly begin to stir in a clockwise direction. Have them use their whole body to help get a full range of motion in their wrists and shoulders. Instruct them to throw their hips into the action. After a minute or two, reverse the direction.

21. Make it rain

Conjure up a rainstorm! Sitting or standing at a desk or table, have kids tap one finger on the desk, then two, then three, then four, then their whole hand until you all feel like you're in the middle of a deluge. Work your way backward from five down to one as the storm ebbs away.

22. Energize with these

First, instruct kids to touch their left elbow to their right knee, then touch their right elbow to their left knee. Switch back and forth, going slowly at first, building speed until they are going at a vigorous pace. Next, do some windmills by standing tall with their feet shoulder-width apart and their arms stretched out. Bend at the waist and touch their right hand to their left toes, then their left hand to their right toes. Switch back and forth.

23. Make X's and O's

Walk kids through the following exercise: Sitting in a chair with your feet on the ground and legs together, curl your body into your lap, folding yourself into a tiny O shape. Next, open your arms and legs wide, forming an X shape with your body. Pull back into an O shape, then back out to an X shape. Repeat three times.

24. Energize in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Get hearts pumping with a quick sequence of exercises. Call out five actions for your students to do as quickly as they can. For instance, five jumping jacks, four push-ups, three sit-ups, two squat jumps, and one tree pose.

25. Take a cruise on an imaginary skateboard

Have your kids line up next to a wall and place one hand on the wall. Tell them to plant the foot closest to the wall and swing the other leg, as if pushing off the ground on a skateboard. Start slowly, with tiny swings, moving up to power pushes. Repeat on the other side.

26. Take a break to groove

Music is a great way to reset the mood in a room and raise the energy level. Put on a fun song and have a 30-second freestyle dance party. Here's a big list of school-appropriate songs for kids.

27. Or take it to the next level

Teach your kids the steps to popular dances such as the Cha-Cha Slide, the Macarena, or the Kidz Bop Shuffle.

28. Ramp up with a round of cherry pickers

This easy activity will get your students' hearts pumping and give their brains a boost. Have them jump up off the ground, then down to the floor into a push-up position. From there, instruct them to hop their feet up into a frog position, then pop up to a standing position.

29. Clap on, clap off

When you say "clap on," kids clap their hands vigorously together. When you say "clap off," they stop as quickly as they can and freeze. Or follow along with this a fun video.

30. Skip it out

When the energy is fading and kids need to get their blood flowing, put on a peppy song and pull out the imaginary jump ropes. Have kids skip or jump rope in place until the song ends.

31. Make like a blender

Tell kids it's time to make fruit smoothies. Ask them to pretend they are in a blender and they are strawberries (or blueberries or bananas, etc.). Dramatically pour orange juice or yogurt into the air in front of you. Tell kids when you flip the switch that they need to wiggle and jiggle (separately, not together) until they are each individually blended up. Start with a slow speed, moving up to medium speed, fast speed, and finally turbo speed. And then reverse it! Start at turbo speed and go back to slow speed.

32. Celebrate with a silent cheer

This activity is perfect for the end of an activity or a sustained amount of work time-especially for kids who are learning remotely. Let kids stand up and silently cheer and gesture in celebration. How animated can they get?!

33. Do a full-body workout

This kid-friendly exercise video is great for your body and brain! Kids can follow along through a set of workout moves that will get their blood pumping.

34. Play popcorn

Students will all be sitting in their chairs, and at any time, a student can jump up and say, "Pop!" Once they do, that student remains standing. If two students pop up at the same time, everyone takes their seats, and the game starts over. How quickly can the entire class pop without having to start over?

35. Hit the wall

Pushing against a solid object is a good way to displace extra energy from your body. Have kids stand facing a wall with their arms stretched out in front of them, palms on the surface of the wall. Push the wall away with all their strength for a count of ten. Relax for five seconds, then push again. Other activities they can do at the wall include calf stretches and wall push-ups.

36. 3, 2, 1 blastoff!

Instruct kids to stand and then squat down with their hands on the ground in front of them. All together, count down 3, 2, 1. When you get to zero, they should push up like a rocket, jumping as high as they can-letting all of their energy burst from their center.

37. Quick as a snap, wink

This is a quick and easy refocusing activity. Tell kids to snap their left fingers while they wink their right eye. Switch to snapping their right fingers while winking their left eye. This activity is particularly effective for younger learners who may find both activities challenging.

38. Balance break

A great way to get kids out of their chairs is to practice balance. Have them hop on one foot. Then up the ante by having them stand on one foot and bend their other knee out in front of them.

39. Tabletop push-ups

Kids can use their desk, a chair, the side of their couch-anything really. Have them place their hands on the table and focus their eyes in the center, moving down slowly and pushing back up.

40. Try some facial gymnastics

Have kids get their silly on for 30 seconds. Tell them to wiggle their eyebrows up and down as fast as they can. Then try to raise one eyebrow at a time.

Mental Brain Breaks That Are Educational

41. Take a comedy break

Comedy is a great release when the atmosphere is feeling a little intense. Show a funny video clip or have kids volunteer to tell a joke or pose a few silly riddles. We have compiled a number of jokes by theme on WeAreTeachers for kids of all ages for guaranteed laughs. For example, your students will love one of our most recent additions, 34 Cat Jokes for Kids. From there, you can find dog jokes, seasonal jokes, food jokes, and much more.

42. Share fun facts

In addition to joke compilations, we have plenty of fun fact lists on our site with themes that will thrill your students. Plus they're an educational way to teach your students new information during brain breaks. Get started with these fun feline facts to accompany the jokes above. Meow!

43. Practice another language

Source: startasl.com

Teach your kids the alphabet in sign language. Use brain breaks to practice by singing the ABCs while signing the letters. Then practice vocabulary words by spelling them out loud while signing the letters.

44. Find out how it's made

Remember that classic Sesame Street video about how crayons are made? We watched in awe as crayons rolled off the assembly line, wrapped in paper, and then slipped into those familiar cardboard boxes. Kids today are just as fascinated by how things are made! Here are our favorite videos about how things are made-from fireworks to LEGO.

45. Take a doodle break

According to researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, downtime is essential for brain health. Kids need time for their growing brains to integrate and process the vast amount of information they receive each day. In other words, it is actually beneficial to give our kids time to allow their minds to wander. Try this: Set a timer for three to five minutes and let kids silently doodle with pencil and paper or a dry-erase board and marker while soft, calming music plays in the background.

Learn more: Sage Journals

46. Try a directed-drawing activity

Directed drawing activities walk your students through the process step-by-step so anyone can create their very own masterpiece. Teachers can lead the session by drawing on the whiteboard or chart paper while students follow along. Even better, there are plenty of videos on YouTube that lead the lesson, giving you a little break too. We have done the work and gathered some our favorite free directed-drawing activities for kids. Grab your favorite art supplies and get creative!

47. Gather your favorite GIFs

Make a slideshow of your favorite GIFs and have your kids act them out. Funny animals are a good place to start!

48. Find the object

Kids don't even have to get out of their seats for this one, but they can! Have one student start by finding an object and saying, "I see something beginning with the letter [fill in the blank]." The first person to guess the item correctly gets to choose the next object. This can be a fun one to play on Zoom too! You can have kids add in additional clues to help.

49. Clap for a little call-and-response

Pep things up with a little call-and-response clapping. It's simple to do and is often used in the classroom to get students' attention. Simply clap out a pattern that your kids will repeat back to you. Switch out the pattern a few times until everyone is focused and engaged. Alternatively, try a vocal call-and-response. Sing out a few riffs and have kids echo the tune back to you.

50. Color yourself mellow

Even grown-ups have picked up on the coloring craze as an excellent way to calm down and zone out. Put on some nice mellow background music, set a timer, and pass out some of these free mandala coloring pages.

51. Try a brain-break spinner

One way to make sure educational brain breaks are effective is to change up activities. Check out these online movement spinners for Wheel of Fortune-type games that help you add variety to brain breaks!

53. Would You Rather?

Students of all ages love participating in Would You Rather? videos, which can be found all over YouTube these days. Each video is approximately 8 minutes long, and students are given two scenarios where they choose which one they would rather participate in. Topics range from food items to activity choices to places to visit and more. As students choose the scenario, they move to either the right or left side of the room. Students then perform 30-second rounds of a specified exercise before repeating the process with another choice. Some of our favorite Would You Rather? channels include PE with Mr. G, Phonics Man, and Fix and Play. Students love when their teacher participates with them in the fun!

Learn more: PE With Mr. G

52. Write it out

Don't underestimate the power of journaling or creative writing. Give your kids a 5- or 10-minute break to open up a page of their notebook and write about anything they'd like. They don't have to share it with the class or do anything else with it; just use the quiet time to focus on something they love and want to write about.

Educational Video Brain Breaks by Grade Level

54. Brain-break compilations by grade level

If you are looking for a sample of brain breaks suitable for your students by grade level, look no further. We have created separate links of 25 videos each for individual grades at the elementary level. Go down the list and find your favorite!
Kindergarten Brain Breaks First Grade Brain Breaks Second Grade Brain Breaks Third Grade Brain Breaks Fourth Grade Brain Breaks Fifth Grade Brain Breaks
What educational brain breaks do you love? Share them in the comments!

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Quick, easy educational brain breaks that will help students re-energize, refocus, and give their brains a much-needed boost.

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Local high school creates calming room, sparks conversation of mental health with students

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Teachers and counselors at Maize South High School want to help students take a mental break from stress.

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KS SECD Standards - Student Growth Measures

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KS SECD Standards - Student Growth Measures

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CASEL - Three Signature SEL Practices for the Classroom

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CASEL - Three Signature SEL Practices for the Classroom

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Tool 3 Signature SEL Practices for the Classroom (2)

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Hello and welcome! I’m so glad you are here!

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The Assessment Guide provides several resources for practitioners to select and use measures of student SEL, including guidance on how to select an assessment and use student SEL data, a catalog of SEL assessments equipped with filters and bookmarking, and real-world accounts of how practitioners are using SEL assessments.

To access the Assessment Guide, please complete the following form.
Your information will not be shared and will be used for continuous improvement of the Assessment Guide.

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The Assessment Guide provides several resources for practitioners to select and use measures of student SEL, including guidance on how to select an assessment and use student SEL data, a catalog of SEL assessments equipped with filters and bookmarking, and real-world accounts of how practitioners are using SEL assessments.

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Screening and assessing for trauma symptoms, especially in regard to determining how trauma affects healthy functioning, are essential in determining a child's overall social and emotional well-being. Children usually present to a child welfare agency as a result of a specific incident of maltreatment. For effective case planning and treatment, it is critical that child welfare practitioners be aware of the child's history, including the child's cumulative trauma experiences, in order to ensure a holistic, trauma-informed approach to the child.

Developing the capacity to screen and assess for trauma in the child welfare system can also address broader policy considerations. The 2011 Child and Family Services Innovation and Improvement Act, for example, requires states to include in their health care oversight plans a description of how they will screen for and treat foster children for trauma associated with maltreatment. Consequently, it is very important that an agency's plan address emotional trauma for children involved in the child welfare system. States should consider integrating trauma-informed screening and assessment toolsinto their daily practice and carefully consider selecting tools from the wide variety available that meet their specific needs.

As appropriate, trauma assessments should be completed, initially and on an ongoing basis, to determine whether treatment strategies employed are effective and to plan further treatment.

Trauma-Informed Screening and Assessment Tools

There are distinct differences between trauma screening and trauma assessment tools. Screening tools are brief, used universally, and designed to detect exposure to traumatic events and symptoms. They help determine whether the child needs a professional, clinical, trauma-focused assessment. Functional assessments are more comprehensive and capture a range of specific information about the child's symptoms, functioning, and support systems. A trauma assessment can determine strengths as well as clinical symptoms of traumatic stress. It assesses the severity of symptoms, and can determine the impact of trauma (how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors have been changed by trauma) on the child's functioning in the various well-being domains.

If properly trained, the frontline caseworker within a child welfare setting can administer a screening tool when a child initially enters the system. Information obtained from that screening can help the caseworker determine whether a more comprehensive trauma-informed assessment is needed. If the initial screening indicates that additional assessment is needed, the child can be referred to a mental health practitioner for a trauma-informed assessment. This will provide the agency and caregiver with a fuller understanding of the child's needs and behaviors; guide the treatment plan; and determine a trauma-focused, evidence-based intervention that will stabilize and help the child heal.

Selecting a Tool

When selecting a tool, factors to consider include how well it meets the needs of the target population and fits within the agency's service delivery system. There are also properties specific to each tool that must be considered. As part of any selection process for a trauma-informed screening or assessment tool, the National Child and Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) recommends examining these specific properties:

Validity - the degree to which the tool, including each of its specific items, accurately accomplishes its purpose, or whether the tool measures what it is intended to measure

Reliability - the degree to which the tool is consistent across time and different raters

Standardization of Norms - a process in instrument and measure development that allows for comparisons between data from the screening/assessment tool with general populations of the same age group

In addition to the screening tools and functional assessments summarized in the links below, there are also other assessment models/tools available. These trauma-informed screenings and assessments are similar to other types of assessments in that information is gathered as early as possible or on an ongoing basis from multiple sources such as the child, caregiver, and provider. However, they differ from traditional types of assessments in that they differentiate trauma effects from mental health disorders, which will be a critical factor in assisting child welfare practitioners to choose an appropriate course of treatment.

The NCTSN Webinar speaker series, Screening and Assessment for Trauma in Child Welfare Settings ( Link), contains valuable information about trauma-informed screenings and assessments. The series contains several modules focused on the rationale for and utility of screening and assessing for trauma, specific tools and measures for conducting screening/assessment, the application of this knowledge and these tools within the direct as well as the systemic levels of child welfare systems, and important developmental considerations for screening and assessment. Note that you may have to create a free account on the NCTSN website to view this speaker series.

Additional sites with information about trauma-informed screenings and assessments are located on the Additional Resources page of this module.

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Screening and assessing for trauma symptoms, especially in regard to determining how trauma affects healthy functioning, are essential in determining a child's overall social and emotional well-being. Children usually present to a child welfare agency as a result of a specific incident of maltreatment.

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Tools for Assessing Social and Emotional Learning in Schools

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Tools for Assessing Social and Emotional Learning in Schools

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Self-Assessing Social and Emotional Instruction and Competencies

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Self-Assessing Social and Emotional Instruction and Competencies

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Technology Tools to Enhance School-Home Connections

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Technology Tools to Enhance School-Home Connections

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Guidance for Trauma Screening in Schools 

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Guidance for Trauma Screening in Schools 

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Guidance for Trauma Screening in Schools (1)

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Why Should I Use the DESSA?

Research-Based: The DESSA is both nationally standardized and norm-referenced, with a standardization sample of n=2494. In addition, it exceeds the recommended standard for rater reliability and assessment validity. For more specific information, visit our DESSA 101 page.

Progress Monitoring: In addition to the full, 72-item DESSA and 43-item DESSA-HSE, the DESSA-mini (a shorter, 8-item assessment) can be used to monitor your students' social and emotional development throughout the school year, providing actionable data to steer quality SEL intervention.

CASEL Aligned: Aperture Education's 8 social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies are directly aligned to the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning's (CASEL) highly-regarded five SEL competency framework.

Multi-lingual: The DESSA and DESSA-mini are provided in both English and Spanish, serving all raters - including families - who may not speak English as a first language.

Personalized Use: Along with access to the DESSA, DESSA-HSE, and DESSA-mini, users also have access to the full suite of growth strategies and foundational practices, as well as 24/7 system support and a team of dedicated implementation personnel. This ensures that each users experience is efficient, yet personalized.

Safe and Secure: See our Privacy Policy for a full statement on our commitment to safe and secure data collection, including adding our signature to the Student Data Privacy Pledge.

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The Devereux Student Strengths Assessment A standardized, strength-based measure of the social and emotional competencies of children in kindergarten through 12th grade. FREE Webinar Watch this free, on-demand webinar from co-author of the DESSA, Paul LeBuffe. In this session, Paul walks us

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Focusing on a child's strengths, the SEARS can be used with children and adolescents who exhibit a variety of clinical problems or who are at high risk for developing such problems.

Features and benefits

Includes separate assessment forms for children (ages 8 to 12 years or Grades 3 to 6) and for adolescents (ages 13 to 18 years or Grades 7 to 12), as well as teacher report forms and parent report forms. The forms may be used for any combination of student, parent, and teacher assessment.

All forms measure common constructs (e.g., self-regulation, responsibility, social competence, empathy), but also include items designed to capture the unique perspective of the rater. Items are phrased as desirable positive characteristics.

Test structure

Separate short forms (12 items each) are also available. SEARS short forms best reflect the global construct of social resiliency measured by the full-length rating forms and require very little time to administer. They are practical for repeated assessment (i.e., progress monitoring) or class- or school-wide screening of students.

Available in Spanish

SEARS Parent Forms, including the Rating Booklet, Summary/Profile Form, and Short Form, have all been translated into U.S. Spanish. This product uses English norms only.

Scoring program available

The SEARS-SP offers Score Reports, Progress Monitoring Reports, and Integrated Score Reports and can be used with both long and short forms.

Kits

SEARS Long Form/Short Form Introductory Kit

includes SEARS Professional Manual, 25 SEARS-C Rating Booklets, 25 SEARS-A Rating Booklets, 25 SEARS-P Rating Booklets, 25 SEARS-T Rating Booklets, 25 SEARS-C Summary/Profile Forms, 25 SEARS-A Summary/Profile Forms, 25 SEARS-P Summary/Profile Forms-English & Spanish, 25 SEARS-T Summary/Profile Forms, 25 SEARS-C Short Forms, 25 SEARS-A Short Forms, 25 SEARS-P Short Forms, and 25 SEARS-T Short Forms; Spanish Parent Rating Booklets sold separately

Manuals, books, and equipment

e-Manuals are limited to a single user and device. Please see our FAQ before ordering e-Manuals.

Forms and booklets

Software *

Available on PARiConnect

SEARS i-Admin (price per use; minimum order of 5)

i-Admins provide on-screen test administration, either in your office or remotely. Purchasers should own the SEARS Professional Manual or purchase it before use. Reports must be purchased separately.

SEARS Score Report (price per use; minimum order of 5)

Score reports provide scores and profiles based on response data from an i-Admin or a paper-and-pencil assessment.

SEARS Integrated Score Report (price per use; minimum order of 5)

Compares scores and profiles of adolescent assessment of self-concept and that of the teacher or parent.

SEARS-SF i-Admin (price per use; minimum order of 5)

i-Admins provide on-screen test administration, either in your office or remotely. Purchasers should own the SEARS Professional Manual or purchase it before use. Reports must be purchased separately.

SEARS-SF Score Report (price per use; minimum order of 5)

Score reports provide scores and profiles based on response data from an i-Admin or a paper-and-pencil assessment.

*Requirements

This software requires Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10, an NTFS file system, a CD-ROM drive, and Internet connection or telephone for software activation.

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social emotional assets resilience scales

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Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales (SEARS) | PAR

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Focusing on a child's strengths, the SEARS can be used with children and adolescents who exhibit a variety of clinical problems or who are at high risk for developing such problems. Includes separate assessment forms for children (ages 8 to 12 years or Grades 3 to 6) and for adolescents (ages 13 to 18 years or Grades 7 to 12), as well as teacher report forms and parent report forms. The forms may be used for any combination of student, parent, and teacher assessment.

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The SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) is a brief and efficient tool for universal screening of student risk for social-emotional and behavioral problems for students in Grades K through 12.

Behavior and academic success are intimately connected and need to be intelligently addressed together. The SAEBRS is grounded in this conceptual model, which specifies that school success is predicated not just upon academic achievement, but also success within multiple inter-related behavioral domains. SAEBRS may be used to evaluate students' overall general behavior, as well as risk for problems within the following specific types of behavior:

Risk for Social Behavior Problems: Student displays behaviors that limit his/her ability to maintain age appropriate relationships with peers and adults.

Risk for Academic Behavior Problems: Student displays behaviors that limit his/her ability to be prepared for, participate in, and benefit from academic instruction.

Risk for Emotional Behavior Problems: Student displays actions that limit his/her ability to regulate internal states, adapt to change, and respond to stressful/challenging events.

Screening may be conducted up to five times per year with individual students, or across a classroom, grade level, school or district. Screening is completed in approximately one to three minutes per student using an iPad, Chromebook, desktop or laptop style device.

Individual Screening: By evaluating in which of the three specific domains (i.e., academic, social, or emotional) a student may be at risk, educators may determine what type of supports are most appropriate and which problem behaviors should be prioritized through intervention. For instance, if a student is only at risk for emotional problems, than a school may decide to target the student's emotional behaviors via the application of social-emotional learning programs.

Student Self-Screening: The mySAEBRS tool allows students to self-assess their social, academic, and emotional behavior with a simple, brief, online interface.

Group Screening: SAEBRS data is also useful in program evaluation, and in determining how groups of students may be best supported at Tier 1. For instance, data showing a significant percentage of students are at-risk in Social Behaviors could be used to indicate whether a school should invest in the support of teacher classroom management practices given the prevalence of social behavioral concerns across numerous students.

Screening is typically completed in one to three minutes by the student's teacher via an online rating scale of 19 items. Results are electronically stored and results are instantly available.

Reports are available at the individual student and class levels to evaluate student performance against local norms and cut scores corresponding with varying levels of performance on criterion gold standard behavior rating scales.

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The SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) is a brief and efficient tool for universal screening of student risk for social-emotional and behavioral problems for students in Grades K through 12. Behavior and academic success are intimately connected and need to be intelligently addressed together.

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The BERS-2 measures the personal strengths and competencies of children from three perspectives: self, parent, and teacher.

Features and benefits

Examines the child's interpersonal strengths, functioning in and at school, affective strength, intrapersonal strength, family involvement, and career strength.

Designed to be used in school settings, mental health clinics, juvenile justice settings, and child welfare agencies, the BERS-2 can be used to identify a child's strengths and weaknesses for intervention, target goals for IEPs and/or treatment plans, document progress, and help collect data for research purposes.

Four sets of normative data are provided-two for the teacher report (one for children with emotional and behavioral disorders; one for children without emotional and behavioral disorders), and one set each for the self and parent reports.

Test-retest reliability was excellent for all three forms; content validity, criterion validity, and construct validity all were examined and provide evidence that the BERS-2 is a valid measure of behavioral and emotional strengths.

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Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale, 2nd Ed. (BERS-2) | PAR

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The BERS-2 measures the personal strengths and competencies of children from three perspectives: self, parent, and teacher. Examines the child's interpersonal strengths, functioning in and at school, affective strength, intrapersonal strength, family involvement, and career strength.

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Trauma-informed SEL is an approach to fostering youths' social-emotional development with practices that support all students, but is particularly inclusive and responsive to the needs of children and youth who have experienced trauma. This approach calls for creating reliable learning environments where students who have experienced adversities and trauma

feel supported and connected;

are welcome to explore their strengths and identities;

can exercise their agency;

can develop meaningful, positive relationships with adults and peers; and

have access to the mental health supports they need.

Learn More about Trauma-informed SEL

Below, you can download our Trauma-Informed SEL Toolkit - a 120-minute professional development session designed for educators seeking research-based strategies to create a healthy classroom environment for students who have experienced adversities and trauma.

Why Download the Trauma-informed SEL Toolkit?

The research-based toolkit is rich with resources to explore, strategies to implement in the classroom, and prompts for reflections aimed at facilitating educator learning and engagement with the material. The toolkit includes:

More information about trauma and how it impacts students' success;

A range of strengths-based strategies educators can integrate into their classroom;

Overview of secondary traumatic stress and strategies for educator self-care;

A list of research articles, papers, and videos for further review; and

A facilitator's guide (including an abbreviated guide for a 60-minute session).

The download link includes a multimedia presentation, a three-page overview handout, and a brief facilitator's guide.

Trauma-Informed SEL Webinar & Accompanying Slides

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A full recording of our Trauma-Informed SEL Webinar is located below! What is Trauma-Informed SEL? Trauma-informed SEL is an approach to fostering youths' social-emotional development with practices that support all students, but is particularly inclusive and responsive to the needs of children and youth who have experienced trauma.

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Download this Adult SEL Toolkit with our top resources for strengthening adults' social-emotional learning and measuring teacher readiness around SEL.

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Access hundreds of resources that promote student SEL and skill-building with Panorama's Playbook. Every resource in Playbook aligns to the topics on Panorama's SEL assessment so that educators can identify next steps and take action.

Playbook provides actionable resources created by successful educators or a trusted, expert partner, including: Second Step, Move This World, inspirED, Transforming Education, Character Lab, Teaching Tolerance, Diversity Talks, and Open Circle.

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Social Emotional Learning Assessment | Panorama Education

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Access hundreds of resources that promote student SEL and skill-building with Panorama's Playbook. Every resource in Playbook aligns to the topics on Panorama's SEL assessment so that educators can identify next steps and take action.

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Teach Kids to Manage Big Feelings Through Effective Social Emotional Learning

Over 80% of U.S. public schools reported in 2022 on the negative impact of the pandemic on child well-being and self-regulation. Kids are:

Struggling to manage their feelings and mental health

More disruptive in the classroom

Needing additional social, emotional, and behavioral support

(source: National Center for Education Statistics)

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The Zones of Regulation is a complete social-emotional learning curriculum, created to teach children self-regulation and emotional control.

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Mindfulness & School-Based Yoga Tools - TASN

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Mindfulness & School-Based Yoga Tools - TASN

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The latest edition of The Morning Meeting Book preserves the essential content and guidelines for each of the four components that have helped thousands of elementary school teachers launch each school day with Morning Meeting. It also contains updates and a new format designed to meet the needs of today's educators.

Promote positive connections, academic growth, and productive behavior by starting each school day with Morning Meeting. Give your students a consistent time and place to gather, explore and practice social skills, build a sense of community, and prepare for the day of learning ahead.

The latest edition of The Morning Meeting Book preserves the essential content and guidelines for each of the four components that have helped thousands of elementary school teachers launch each school day with Morning Meeting. It also contains updates and a new format designed to meet the needs of today's educators.

The 4 th edition of this comprehensive, user-friendly book includes:

A full-color interior with photographs, icons, charts, and color coding to help you easily navigate the book's content

Expanded implementation guidance, including suggestions for resolving common Morning Meeting stumbling blocks

QR codes that connect you to videos of Morning Meeting in action

Online planning guides and other digital tools

A multitude of ideas for each component, from the tried-and-true to the new and innovative

A new chapter devoted to harnessing the power of the Morning Meeting structure to build community and foster connections outside the classroom setting

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Promote positive connections, academic growth, and productive student behavior by starting each school day with Morning Meeting.

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New From the Question Guys. Chat Pack contains 156 cards, each one featuring a question that's guaranteed to get people talking like nothing else can. Pull out a card and watch the fun begin! Ideal for: Dinner Parties, family gatherings, car trips, hostess gifts, business meetings, and classroom activities. Some Samples: If you could have 50 pounds of anything other than money, what would you want most of all? If you were on an African safari, what would you absolutely have to see for your trip to be complete? If you had to change your first name, what would you choose as your new name? For ages 6 to 106.

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Chat Pack: Fun Questions to Spark Conversations

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New From the Question Guys. Chat Pack contains 156 cards, each one featuring a question that's guaranteed to get people talking like nothing else can. Pull out a card and watch the fun begin! Ideal for: Dinner Parties, family gatherings, car trips, hostess gifts, business meetings, and classroom ...

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Engaging Families in Continuous Learning

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Engaging Families in Continuous Learning

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Engaging Families in Continuous Learning

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CASEL Guiding Questions to Promote Equity Using SEL

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CASEL Guiding Questions to Promote Equity Using SEL

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CASEL guiding questions to promote equity

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SEL and Equity Leadership Beliefs and Actions

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SEL and Equity Leadership Beliefs and Actions

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New KSDE Bullying Prevention Guidelines KCA_KSCA Conference Final

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Denise Kahler, DirectorCommunications and Recognition Programs

dkahler@ksde.org
(785) 296-4876

Ann BushCommunications Specialist

Communications and Recognition Programs
abush@ksde.org
(785) 296-7921

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Denise Kahler, DirectorCommunications and Recognition Programs dkahler@ksde.org (785) 296-4876 Ann BushCommunications Specialist Communications and Recognition Programs abush@ksde.org (785) 296-7921