Peekapak is a website that offers a selection of dedicated resources to help teach social-emotional learning across a range of student ages.

Having won multiple awards, this is a well-respected system that works with ELA and CASEL to align with curriculum. All that means this is a reliable resource that can make the lives of teachers, students, and families easier.

Thanks to a smart home and school integration system, it shrinks the gap between classroom learning and continued education outside of school hours. Consequently, teachers and family can work as a team to help students get the most rounded SEL education possible.

This guide aims to lay out all you need to know about Peekapak to see if this can work in your classroom.

What is Peekapak?

Peekapak is an online SEL toolkit that is packed with helpful curriculum-aligned resources for teachers and students from pre-K right through to 12th-grade level.

The website features resources for teachers to use with students so they can learn about topics such as empathy, gratitude, self-respect, self-regulation, teamwork, perseverance, and plenty more. Crucially, this is done in a way that allows teachers to work with the resources but also for students to work with the site directly, in class and at home.

While the website can be used independently, there are also resources for teachers and admins to monitor student progress. This can offer an at-a-glance overview of progress so as to ensure everyone receives the support they need.

How does Peekapak work?

Peekapak offers a selection of tools to teach, including video lessons, activities to be done in class, storybooks, and presentations for teachers, plus materials for tasks to be completed at home.

The site has a limited access option for free, initially, which allows teachers the chance to try before deciding if this works for them. It's then a case of signing up at the package level needed, and all the resources can be accessed and used, with students registering and signing into their own accounts.

Teachers can then monitor progress as well as have a school-to-home connection. This allows families to get involved as students work further on home-specific modules.

While there are lots of lessons and individual resources that can be used in conjunction and integrated as needed, there are also packages. The idea is to offer lesson projects that run across the schooling year, which should make it easy to teach these while adhering to ELA and CASEL guidelines.

What are the best Peekapak features?

Peekapak is really fun and features cute animal characters that appear throughout the material to give kids a consistent guide that they can relate to. This is ideal for younger children but may seem a little childish for older users. Thankfully, there are modules tailored to age and class ranges so these do adapt to suit their needs.

For Pre-K to fifth grade there are lots of fully planned lessons involving reading, writing, speaking, literacy, problem-solving, representing, and more, all aimed at working on empathy, self-regulation, and other skills. The game myPeekavile is aimed at this age range as a way to interact with the story world and these SEL concepts, with quests and activities that help kids learn in a more experiential way.

Jump to the level for grades 6-12 and the resources are CASEL-aligned, rich with reading and writing instructions. This includes real-world resources such as human interest stories as well as more age-relevant skill-building topics, including stress management, identity, and decision-making.

How much does Peekapak cost?

Peekapak offers a free trial but charges for its features.

The free option, called Basic, gets you one intro lesson on each SEL topic, one level of each unit story, and embedded teacher PD on SEL topics, plus 10 posters on each SEL topic.

Go for Peekapak Pro, at a $39 for individuals but more on enquiry at school level, and you get 15 SEL units, 10 original storybooks, more than 150 lesson plans per grade, and at-home class updates and activities for families, plus student access to myPeekaville games.

The Schools & Boards levels are charged at a bespoke price, which gets all the above plus virtual PD sessions, a dedicated "education success partner," customized packages, and discounted bulk rates.

Peekapak best tips and tricks

Take your time
While everything is laid out clearly and structured for you, be sure to listen to students' responses and work at their rate to ensure they not only understand but feel in control as you progress.

Work with home
Take advantage of the bespoke at-home link materials to get the most exposure to the SEL lessons in varying environments for the students. They may see something differently when learning at home.

Be age appropriate
Everything is tailored to the ages of students, so be aware of this before jumping ahead as this can be a process for many students and rushing may not help in the long-term.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Tools for Teachers

The 18th is National Adoption Day. Learn all about adoption with Adoption.com. The focus here is on adoption, including information about adopting a child, putting your child up for adoption, choosing a family, reunion of child and birth parent, and much more.

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“There’s no such things as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams

This Wednesday, November 13th, is World Kindness Day! The resources below will help your students understand what kindness means and why showing kindness is important to making the world a better place. The resources below allow your students to reflect on what kind acts others have show them and how this has made them feel or transformed their mood and day. The resources also help students understand that one small act of kindness, like smiling at a stranger, can lead to much larger acts of kindness. If you do not get to these ideas this week, then try an activity anytime. Teaching students how to be kind human beings is a lesson that can be taught all year long.

Ideas and Resources

• Kind Acts Take One Flyers– Feel free to download and use one of these flyers I’ve created to post on your wall for students to tear off an act of kindness and accomplish by the end of the week. You can also quickly create your own with Poster My Wall, a free web tool for creating posters and flyers.
• The Random Acts of Kindness Organization lists several awesome resources for learners including these cartoon kindness posters, acts of kindness calendars for each month, and an entire curriculum for K to 8th grade students.
• Crowdfund Campaigns- Get students to create a social media campaign for a local cause and raise the funds. This is one of the student digital missions in my book, Hacking Digital Learning with Missions.
• Today my students and I wrote letters for Veterans, soldiers overseas, and first responders as part of Operation Gratitude.  These heroes will get to open our letters and drawings and hopefully respond back!
• A Kindness Tree Project by PBS– The class creates a tree on one wall with examples, drawings, and photos of how people have been kind to them.
• Jen Wagner shares this awesome Be the I in Kind green screen project where students replace the I in Kind with a picture of themselves as part of a bulletin board.
• I love the ideas in this blog, 10 Kindness Activities for Elementary Students! Discover activities, such as a filling up a kindness bucket, resources to go along with the Make Joy Happen short video, and the Wrinkled Heart Activity.
• Check out the Acts of Kindness Lesson from Scholastic that helps students see how a small act of kindness helps their communities.
• Free Rice is a free game where students can answer trivia or multiplication questions and earn rice for hungry people around the world.
• Be My Eyes App is a free app that lets a blind person call you for help with tasks like helping locate an object in a room or car. The website has a video to demonstrate how it works. I downloaded the app and when a blind person calls me during class we can help them!
• Teachers Pay Teachers has several free kindness activities ready to print and use with learners. Some of my favorites include the Kind or Unkind Mini-Stories, Kindness Writing Sketch Note and Choices, and Kindness Bingo.
• A group of teachers and communities are also participating in #CardiganDay in honor of Fred Rogers and World Kindness Day! See the announcement here.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, a campaign founded by PACER to eradicate bullying across the country. According to statistics, 37% of children report having been bullied, but only 31% of this number reported it to an adult. The non-profit organization Waterford.org offers ways for parents and teachers to respond to and prevent this behavior.

How to prevent bullying

• Teach emotional intelligence: Teach children how to recognize different emotions or what to do when they are sad or angry. That way, when they feel overwhelmed, they learn to react in healthy ways instead of bullying.
• Address the Trauma: Bullies are more likely to have had traumatic experiences earlier in life that may factor into why they act inappropriately. Connect children who have experienced trauma to counseling resource.

How to address bullying

• Look for warning signs: If you believe a child is being bullied, talk to them in private. Some children may feel uncomfortable asking for help, so you can let them know they can come to you.
• Inform parents: If you are not the child’s parent, contact the parents of both the bully and bullied students. You can also contact school leaders (such as a school principal). 

How to Prevent Cyberbullying

• Identify cyberbullying: harassment through phone calls, texts, or online messages, online impersonation, hacking into accounts.
• Teach online safety: Show students how to keep their accounts and messages private, as well as how to block or report bullies. 

Waterford.org is a nonprofit organization that seeks to form community, school, and home programs that deliver excellence and equity for all learners.  

Discovery Education announced the addition of new assets to its digital services. New content recently added to Discovery Education’s services include: 

Resources to understand combat hatred: In collaboration with Discovery Channel’s global premiere of the six-part docuseries WHY WE HATE, Discovery Education introduces a collection of instructional resources that connect the important themes of the docuseries to classroom instruction. Available in Discovery Education Experience and Social Studies Techbook, the WHY WE HATE collection of resources includes videos focused on the origins of hate, the biology of hate, and tribalism; classroom activities; an educator guide; a family viewing guide; and related first-person video testimonies from USC Shoah Foundation's Teaching with Testimony collection. 

New MLB STEM Career Profiles: Five new STEM career profile videos are live in Discovery Education Experience, Science Techbook, and STEM Connect. The clips highlight a variety of MLB STEM careers in fields like data analytics, building construction, video production, nutrition program management, and sustainability. 

Guide to Constitution: Discovery Education produced “Constitution Day 2019: Find Your Voice” in partnership with iCivics. The event was designed to help students learn how their Constitutional rights give them a voice, how those rights are protected, and how they can use their voices to speak up about the issues they care about. The program and teacher guide are now available in Discovery Education Experience and Social Studies Techbook. 

Resources from the 9/11 Tribute Museum: Discovery Education has partnered with the 9/11 Tribute Museum to share the video testimonial series, 9/11 Personal Stories of Transformation. Available in the September 11 channel in Discovery Education Experience and Social Studies Techbook, the series profiles first responders, survivors, and witnesses to the September 11 terrorist attacks. An accompanying instructional resource guide provides lesson plans and discussion questions. 

New Conservation channel featuring resources from World Wildlife Fund: A new Conservation channel in Discovery Education Experience features videos and images from World Wildlife Fund’s collection, offering students and educators an inside look at WWF’s efforts to support conservation along six goals: climate, food, freshwater, forests, oceans, and wildlife. 

World of animal adaptations with Animal Planet: How do electric eels not electrocute themselves? Why don’t penguins’ feet freeze on ice? Why do dogs wag their tails? These questions and others are explored in the Animal Planet series How Do Animals Do That?, now live in Discovery Education Experience and Science Techbook. 

Students bust myths with MythBusters Jr.: Students will use ingenuity and STEM skills to bust myths alongside Adam Savage and six of the nation’s most talented kids in Science Channel’s MythBusters Jr. Students will tackle myths similar to those seen in MythBusters, ranging from driving, explosions, chemistry, physics, popular culture, and more. The 10-episode series is now available in Discovery Education Experience and Science Techbook. 

Overview of key financial concepts: A new series of videos for middle school students from Discovery Education and Discover Financial Services provides a basic overview of key financial concepts, including budgeting, saving, using credit wisely, and growing and protecting your finances. The Pathway to Financial Success in Schools program is now live in Discovery Education Experience.

Spice up science with new programs from the Cooking Channel: Alton Brown explores the science behind common cooking techniques like searing, baking, and frying as he prepares traditional and brand-new recipes in Good Eats: Reloaded. The series is now available in Discovery Education Experience and Science Techbook. 

Virtual Field Trip helps students develop Social Emotional Learning skills: Discovery Education, Wings for Kids, and The Allstate Foundation premiered a new virtual field trip, Bringing SEL to Life, in Discovery Education Experience. The program introduces students to the pillars of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness, and relationship skills. Student viewers meet other real-life students who share a pledge called "Words to Live By.” The program follows these students throughout their day as they explain and model how the words of the pledge help them better understand themselves, control their actions, and strengthen their relationships. 

Users of Discovery Education’s digital services can find the new content here. 

For more information visit www.discoveryeducation.com.

Edgenuity, provider of online curriculum and instructional services for the K-12 market, today announced an expanded library of Social and Emotional Learning (“SEL”) courses through its Courseware product line. 

Edgenuity added a series of SEL courses and intervention topics through the company’s partnership with online course provider Purpose Prep. Edgenuity customers now have access to six SEL courses integrated into Courseware Mental Health & Wellness, College and Career Readiness, Social & Emotional Success, Unlock Your Purpose, Character & Leadership Development and Personal Development. The curriculum addresses topical interventions for students at risk or in need of behavioral supports and intervention. 

Each SEL course aligns to core competencies outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) best practices. 

Educators interested learning more about Edgenuity’s SEL offering, can visit the Edgenuity website.

The Connections Model today launched its KidConnect Ready2Learn Curriculum, a  social-emotional learning (SEL) program that helps teachers provide instruction on the skills students need for success in school and in life. Based on the latest brain research and the understanding that emotions drive behavior, the curriculum provides teachers with the tools to help learners identify, understand, and manage their emotions. The curriculum is designed for classroom instruction across grades K-6 and includes 26 lessons centered on targeted skills. 

In launching the Ready2Learn Curriculum, The Connections Model builds upon its KidConnect Classroom App, which gives teachers the ability to intervene with individual students in the moment of a behavioral incident caused by emotional dysregulation. 

The curriculum divides the process of healthy emotional regulation into four navigable units that include the following:

• Building an emotional vocabulary by defining 16 common emotions and helping students reflect on past experiences to identify when certain feelings emerged across a variety of situations. 
• Making connections between emotions and behaviors. Students begin to build self-awareness and social awareness by working through a variety of group activities to practice identifying and controlling their reactions. 
• Learning strategies to manage emotions. Students work with each other through a variety of situations to identify off-target behaviors and provide tactics to move toward healthy, on-target actions.
• Practicing a variety of strategies and mindfulness techniques to help regulate emotions, increase self-esteem, and develop coping mechanisms.

Everyday Speech is enhancing its flagship product Social Learning Platform  with an expanded SEL curriculum, personalized dashboard, and new instructional supports.

The Social Learning Platform provides centralized access to SEL video lessons, printable activities, and online games. The enhanced online platform now includes a full SEL curriculum with hundreds of new, ready-made SEL lessons. 

The Social Learning Platform dashboard is now personalized to each educator, based on the materials they use. Educators can also create and save their own playlists of content, or they can access guided lists to help them work toward specific SEL goals.

The Social Learning Platform includes new training videos with tips and ideas from Brunell. There are also new posters and visual aids that can be printed and displayed in the classroom or sent home for skill reinforcement. 

The Social Learning Platform works on any computer, laptop, or iPad, and runs entirely in the web browser or iPad app so there is nothing to install.

Conscious Discipline, a social emotional learning program, today announced a partnership with Beijing-based Maxlink Education Group. Conscious Discipline’s line of products and practices will be fully implemented in 10,000 preschool and kindergarten sites, primary and middle school classrooms and consulting centers in China by 2029.

Co-led by Yale faculty members Dr. Walter S. Gilliam and Dr. Tong Liu, The Yale-China Program on Child Development is an international program which promotes exchange and cooperation between China and the United States in early childhood education and child development.

Dr. Gilliam and Dr. Liu will oversee the localization of Conscious Discipline publishing, curriculum, E-Course, learning materials and the trainer qualification and practice in China. The first year of the partnership will focus on translation and localization. Translations of Conscious Discipline’s textbook Building Resilient Classrooms, Baby Doll Circle Time curriculum and E-Course are currently underway.

To learn more about Conscious Discipline, visit ConsciousDiscipline.com.

Emotional ABCs Classroom

Strong learning approach to mastering SEL competencies

Pros: Well-organized and structured pedagogy for learning the first social and emotional competencies.

Cons: Some activities feel a bit unrelated to the content, and it's unclear if the program should be for whole-group instruction or independent practice.

Bottom Line: Excellent program for teaching young kids emotion identification, regulation, and social relationships.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

“The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”- Charlie Munger

The new school year is approaching fast. I will miss spending all day with my toddler, Savvy, but I am looking forward to trying new ideas with my elementary students. I work with all grades at my school and this is my second year with this group of students. I am now equipped with new procedures, web tools, activities, grading strategies, and classroom management strategies to make this an even better year than last year! I also am excited with new ways to transform the learning space and some strategies for strengthening relationships with students and their guardians.  I have taught now for over 2 decades in more than 20 countries with learners of all ages and the 10 tips below have helped me be an effective and energized teacher. I hope you will find them useful as you begin your year with new learners! Scroll down to see the infographic with these 10 tips!

Tips and Resources

• Walk in motivated– You will have the rest of the year to get bogged down, stressed, and in the dumps. What’s wrong with walking in believing you can really make a difference to your learners? Click here for resources to avoid teacher burnout.
• Engage parents– Contact parents  with positive messages about their children to let them know you believe in their children. Some great tools for engaging parents include Class Dojo (this is what many teachers at my school currently use and love), Bloomz, Remind, Class Tag, and Gsuite for Education Apps and Tools. For parent digital newsletters you can try Buncee, Canva, or Smore. Also, feel free to copy and and edit my parent newsletter as you like! I share in this post how to Find more great tips here!
• Change the classroom environment– In chapter 24 of The 30 Goals Challenge, I talk about different ways to change your classroom to enhance the learning. Take students outside, use learning stations, use mobile devices, or makerspaces. Encourage learners to take part in creating their own learning environments:
     Have them graffiti on butcher paper on the wall
     Have them post their inspirational quotes on the wall
     Have them help design the bulletin board, calendars, or your virtual learning spaces!
• Get to know your students– I teacher over 400 students and getting to know their names can be tricky. Here’s a post with great tips to learn their names and help others learn their names. It is also important students learn about each other. Digital storytelling and culturally responsive teaching is a great way to do this!
• Be preventative and proactive when it comes to classroom management– My class is full of routines, procedures, expectations, student leadership roles and responsibilities. Building relationships between students and also with me really helps maintain my classroom. Classroom management tips and strategies are discussed in chapter 19 of The 30 Goals Challenge.
• Unbind yourself from textbooks– You know what your students need to learn so feel free to pick and choose what will work in the book and try having students be the main content creators of materials. Find more than 20 strategies to engage learners with the knowledge in the textbook here.
• Build a teacher survival kit– I knew a teacher, who carried in her purse, masking tape, scissors, a small cushion ball, and other supplies for emergencies. This was her kit, which made her flexible to change her lessons or get kids moving in case of fire drills, student restlessness, etc. I talk about this more in detail in chapter 9 of The 30 Goals Challenge. Find more resources here!
• Cultivate relationships– Check out my icebreakers for children and icebreakers for teens and adults. Find plenty more get to know you activities on my Icebreakers page.
• Integrate technology effectively– Pedagogy first then technology. Find more tips on my page, Survival Tips for Integrating Technology and my post, Putting the “T” in STEM! 60+ Resources for Teaching Children with Technology! When we use technology it should:
      Support students ownership of learning
      Allow students to be content creators
      Engage and motivate students to be continuous learners
      Support effective communication, especially with peers worldwide
• Have fun!– Students should leave your class feeling that math, science, reading, writing, etc. can be fun so that they continue the exploration and learning outside your class! Check out my posts about coding, creating digital games, TPR, or using games in the classroom!

Infographic

Challenge: Try these ideas in your classroom and share your tips with us in the comments!

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Peekapak

Complete SEL units in a neat and tidy package

Pros: Thorough lesson plans use a variety of approaches to get kids engaged in the material, and the game is a perfect complement.

Cons: Adding the game almost doubles the price, so it may be a tough sell for teachers.

Bottom Line: Detailed social and emotional learning lessons provide teachers with almost everything they'll need to spark positive character development and reflection in their students.

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

At this year’s ISTE conference, three sessions had the words “social-emotional” in their titles. This isn’t an overwhelming number by some standards, yet it’s more than in the past, when the word “emotion” was a rare term at a conference all about technology.

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is earning its “buzzworthiness,” as research shows it to be a prime consideration and priority when designing for effective learning. And ISTE, a conference well-known for its tech leadership, is leading the charge in promoting SEL integrated with tech. For example, one of this year’s sessions featured coding training combined with fostering social-emotional skills, another highlighted engagement-driven social-emotional learning for greater inclusion and well-being in schools, and a third promoted using collaborative tools and multimedia, including music and video, to incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) in the modern tech-rich classroom.

I came to ISTE to present a series of talks about mindfulness and learning, to co-lead a preconference workshop and featured session about virtual reality and presence, and to debut my book, Mindful by Design. To me, technology facilitates learning, and aspects of mindfulness and SEL are foundational. Everything is connected in a learning community, and educational technology is, of course, part of the picture.

During the conference, as I met more and more people who joined ISTE for empathy-infused themes, including storytelling, sketch-noting, visible thinking and SEL, the thought dawned on me: could it be that “edtech” is becoming a redundant term? Should it just be “learning?” After all, technology is ever-evolving and is becoming a seamless part of learning worlds as it focuses more and more on what is holistic and human-centric. Tech conferences (including ISTE, right at the forefront) seem to be shifting to embrace what’s been known since Piaget, Dewey, Minsky, and Papert proclaimed it: community and belonging make a difference, and in learning worlds, it’s all about projects, passion, peers, and play. Tech is a natural part of this, as is the social-emotional. We build meaning through a connected experience, and that connection happens inside and out.

At ISTE, the connections were palpable and emphasized the “whole learner”—in fact, ever since ISTE rolled out the updated student standards, which include attributes like “Global Collaborator: I strive to broaden my perspective, understand others, and work in teams effectively using digital tools,” and “Digital Citizen: I understand the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world,” it’s been clear that empathy, self-awareness, and social-emotional skills are foundational values. In these standards, the ISTE executive board has made them visible. SEL is something that can and should be fostered at every level of education.

The question in my mind soon became not if or why SEL is being integrated into tech and learning, but how is it being interpreted and used? And who is leading the charge?

I soon found solidarity, discovering that third SEL-focused session at ISTE, led by Tamara Fyke, a creative entrepreneur who founded the organization Love in a Big World in 1996. Fyke came to ISTE to show how multimedia (namely music and videos) gets students thinking creatively and collaboratively. She says prioritizing SEL is vital to learning, as it “helps kids identify what is going on in their heads and in their hearts, so they can use their hands to build up and not tear down.” And, when SEL is partnered effectively with technology, the two amplify each other. “Like arts and games, technology can provide a microcosm of the real world for kids where they can practice their SEL skills,” Fyke says.

As I then led sessions about mindfulness, SEL, and storytelling (and some VR, too) with a group that included IT directors, curriculum developers, administrators, teachers, and others, it became clear that everyone is using tech in some way—and most are extremely motivated to use it in the best way possible, in their environment, with their communities in mind. It’s social, and it involves emotion as well as a design thinking skillset, with empathy for the user experience prioritized. I would certainly call that being Mindful by Design.

Exploring ISTE reinforced my view that this new prioritization is happening across edtech, from apps to learning platforms. From well-established Goliaths to startup Davids, the scene is starting to feature SEL in a major way.

Here are four standout examples from the ISTE expo you might not have heard of (yet):

1. Mind Yeti is a mindfulness app conceived in the innovation lab of the nonprofit Committee for Children, a leader in social-emotional learning. Mind Yeti’s product development team, which includes seven PhDs, developed the app based on current research. “SEL skills are best learned when dialog is part of the learning process,” says Polly Stansell, VP of Product. “Deeper learning of SEL skills happens when they’re explicitly and directly taught. We’ve seen some promising results when children are able to practice the skills that they’ve learned in either immersive environments or through games that allow them to practice executive function.”

2. An AR app from Finland called 3DBear is taking SEL to new levels through its innovative use of storytelling. Founder Jussi Kajala says they were inspired by Minecraft Education, also a Finnish invention, which helped to level the playing field but lacked interaction with the environment. 3DBear helps kinesthetic and visual learners flourish in the classroom, he says, by giving students a chance to tell stories in AR and represent emotions. The mission is to turn every child into a maker and designer able to visualize their world and solutions to problems. 3DBear earned an ISTE19 “Top Pick in Learning” award from Common Sense Media and has announced a partnership with the Digital Citizen Institute.

3. Wabisabi is a program designed to capture evidence of learning at every step of the journey, with formative digital tools, resources for portfolio work, assessments, and more. Founder Lee Watanabe-Crockett describes how the company is true to its name: “Wabisabi embodies the essence of a learner’s journey. At its core, it’s about growth and transformation, but also about learning from mistakes, adapting to uncertainty, and dealing with change. Our mission is to help teachers and learners leave the fear of imperfection and finality in learning behind. … Nothing is permanent except change.” The company is redefining pedagogy through “brave conversations” about values and meaning, both within and beyond traditions of learning, to create a growth mindset.

4. Kiddom is a platform that’s designed to help teachers save time, connecting schools from bottom-up and top-down, using data and research as a guidepost. Because Kiddom is interdisciplinary, SEL is interwoven into its fabric. Kiddom includes resources to ensure teachers know how to incorporate SEL. As Chief Academic Officer Abbas Manjee says, “As technology gets smarter and continues to empower us, the future won’t depend on students learning how to code or take AP calculus.” Students need to learn instead “how to solve complex problems with empathy and sound decision making. We need to work on fusing SEL skills into ‘professional’ skills and then drop the label.”

It’s not just views about SEL that are changing—the tenor of the entire approach to edtech is changing. As we enter an age of robust artificial intelligence that’s able to partner with humans, increasing productivity and performance through the automation of tasks and replicable processes, the emphasis in education focuses more and more on our ability as humans to give information context and meaning. We need to build and innovate with keen perception, ingenuity, and compassion. Why shouldn’t SEL be top priority in education? The fact that ISTE and other organizations recognize and encourage SEL as a necessary component of education is ushering in the next era of learning. The coming fifth industrial revolution will be one of building meaning as we integrate digital materials with purpose. As ever, the heart leads the way.

Caitlin Krause (@MindWise_CK) is a former teacher and curriculum designer who now runs the consultancy MindWise. She is the author of “Mindful by Design,” with resources and a global community online at caitlinkrause.com.

“Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”- Mattie Stepanek

Relationships are the most important factor in your effectiveness as a teacher and your student’s success! Knowing students and them confiding in us and working with us and their peers helps us figure out their interests, strengths, insecurities, struggles, and passions. It doesn’t matter how behind your students are, strong bonds lead to student success. Building relationships is continuous but you don’t have to dedicate hours of your curriculum. The following teambuilding and get to know you activities often take less than 5 minutes and have helped my students build strong bonds with each other and me! See illustrated examples in the slideshow.

Fostering Peer-to-Peer Relationships in the First 5 Minutes

We must also continuously foster peer-to-peer relationships. I teach multiple grades in elementary and I have noticed how mean students can be to each other, especially since they are used to trash talking each other in video games they play daily. I do a lot of team building within the first 5 minutes of class. Students follow a procedure where they walk into my classroom and sit down on lined duct tape and prepare for the warm up.

• When I notice a class especially mean to each other I explain to them, “Most of you are going to be in classes together over the next 5, 6, 7 or more years so you might as well learn how to get along and help each other. Life is hard enough without friends to get you by.” Then I will divide them in pairs or small groups of 3 and ask them to invent a handshake/dance in pairs before they are dismissed to their seats.
• Sometimes I divide the class in 2 lines across from each other and walk them through high fiving each other as they say, “GG, good game, great work” or other nice comment. We do this after a discussion about being a great team player.

More Get to Know You Activities

• Copy my Get to Know You Bingo handout to print and edit here. This is the one I plan on using during the first week of school.
• This is the digital Get to Know You Bingo for 1 to 1 settings. It is more colorful. Feel free to edit the colors and clipart.
• Find tons of get-to-know you activities and icebreakers I’ve created here.
• These are get-to-know you activities specifically for young learners and children.
• These are get-to-know you activities for teens and adults.

Challenge: Do a teambuilding or get to know you activity at least once a week to continue cultivating relationships! Some of these take 5 minutes or less.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

What does it mean to be a good friend? How can you make new friends? What are some things a friend shouldn’t do? All these questions and more can be answered by clicking through this interactive site. Try it out on July 30th for the International Day of Friendship.

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

Aperture Education has created the Educator Social-Emotional Reflection and Training (EdSERT) program, professional development designed to help educators build their social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. 

Aperture will host a free webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on July 30, 2019, to share more about EdSERT and offer insight and strategies to support educator social-emotional development.  To register, visit http://bit.ly/2YlOFjV. The webinar will also be available on-demand. 

EdSERT includes:

• An administrator guide with recommendations for implementing EdSERT and tips for incorporating SEL into staff meetings or in-service training sessions.
• Educator competency guides which offer a self-reflective assessment, a personal planning tool and strategies aligned to the self-assessment.
• Professional development that features eight competency-specific modules and an overview module, along with nine recorded webinars.
• An online supplemental resources portal.

EdSERT, which will be available for the 2019-20 school year, can be used as a standalone program or as a supplement to an existing SEL curriculum. It focuses on promoting the same eight SEL competencies included in Aperture’s DESSA Comprehensive SEL System: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, goal-directed behavior, personal responsibility, decision-making and optimistic thinking.

At ISTE 2019, Classcraft will premiere the trailer for “Classcraft: Season 1,” an episodic adventure designed to engage and motivate students by harnessing the power of storytelling. Classcraft, a Google for Education Premier Partner, provides tools to measure and promote student motivation that are used by more than 5 million students and educators.

Classcraft: Season 1 is a part of Classcraft’s new “Story Mode,” which is designed to help teachers improve student engagement, foster a positive school climate, and promote social emotional learning (SEL) through a series of ready-made stories set within the Classcraft world.

Classcraft: Season 1, which explores themes of self-discovery and the value of human relationships through a year-long adventure story, will premiere during Back to School 2019. New episodes will be released each month. 

At ISTE 2019, Classcraft will officially unveil its all-new Ambassador Program. Classcraft Ambassadors are a group of passionate teachers inspiring and supporting other educators with Classcraft, from their schools to communities all around the world.

Educators interested in sharing their Classcraft story, connecting with other educators, and helping Classcraft have a deeper impact for the millions of students using it are invited to submit an application or visit Classcraft at ISTE Booth #2030 to learn more.

For a complete guide to Classcraft’s activities at ISTE 2019 — including speaker sessions, a Nintendo Switch giveaway, and the Classcraft AR Experience, view our ISTE round-up announcement.

Earlier this year consultant and author Torri Wright, reached out to share her new podcast, See Beyond Behavior. Are you following along with me on social media or on my email list? Then you know that podcasts have been front of mind for me this spring. As both a consumer and creator, this medium is powerful for learning and sharing.

I’m always excited to connect with educators who are passionate about topics I’d like to learn more about. Torri’s podcast covers a range of topics related to her expertise as behavior specialist. She was kind enough to answer a few questions about her work and new podcast. At the bottom of the article I include a handle of links. So you can check out the See Beyond Behavior podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

What was your inspiration for starting your podcast?

I started the podcast because I wanted to reach a larger audience and start conversations about areas of interest that otherwise may never talk to one another. For example, the world of education rarely sits down with case managers from the state for kids with disabilities, yet they serve the same child/family. Rarely, do we hear about pediatricians sitting down and talking with behavior specialists or school psychologists.

The hope was this podcast would open a door to breaking down silos that have been long-standing, limit our potential as a community and create unnecessary barriers and tensions. Let’s hear what others think, collaborate and then go back to our workplaces with new perspectives and topics to share that otherwise may not have crossed our path.

In a world where we are struggling to meet the needs of so many, we need to find ways to build community and this was our small way of attempting to build a safe and accepting tribe.

What do you hope educators will take away from listening to your podcast?

I hope they find our podcast to be a great resource for insight, perspective shifting and hear other people’s journey. As a previous educator, I can recall just how amazing it was to work on a team, collaborate with my fellow colleagues and enjoy the camaraderie. They were like a second family.

Yet I do not recall going out of my way to hear more and understand what other professionals outside of education thought or what families were really going through. This was not because I did not want to, I did not think to. With a podcast bringing so many together, there are some amazing conversations bound to unfold.

Would you recommend a specific episode for someone just finding your podcast?

I think Episode #4 Parenting a Child w/ Challenging Behavior (“Carole’s story”) is pretty powerful. Episode #2 covers trauma-informed case in schools offers an opportunity to understand how things are shifting in the way we see the behavior.

How can educators use your podcast for discussion groups or PLCs?

Each episode will either have a dialogue with professionals, parents, or individuals who experience a world with a disability, therefore the insights within each of these episodes will offer a fresh perspective and open up dialogue into best-practices, building communications and relationships with families, and thinking outside of a current structure.

Connect with See Beyond Behavior Podcast

If you’d like to learn more about Torri Wright and her new podcast, you can follow along on Twitter (@TorriWrightSPED). Or check out one of these podcast links listen on iTunes, listen on Google Play (Android), or listen on Spotify!  

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, Speaker, and Curriculum & EdTech Consultant. She is the author of Tasks Before Apps (ASCD) and #FormativeTech (Corwin). Visit Monica's site ClassTechTips.com for more ideas on how to become a tech-savvy teacher.

Nearpod today launches its Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) supplemental curriculum to support safe learning environments. Built from the framework by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and developed in partnership with Common Sense Education, the new curriculum is a K-12 solution to facilitate students’ SEL competencies and integrate character education. 

With this launch, schools and districts can increase the integration of SEL skills into core classroom learning. 

The content covers a wide range of SEL topics, including: 

• SEL Competencies features lessons that include direct instruction in and practice with self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making.
• SEL in Digital Life, created in partnership with Common Sense Education, helps students apply SEL skills to their online lives, promoting integrity, self-control, humility and courage.
• Growth Mindset Practices develops crucial skills such as responsible risk-taking, metacognition, thinking flexibly and persistence.
• Lifelong Learning Strategies focuses on goal setting, balancing obligations, time management and critical thinking.
• SEL Moments encourage teachers to incorporate social and emotional learning into their daily or weekly routines, with mini-activities that can be a part of any lesson.

The new SEL program features over 130 ready-to-run lessons, with plans to continue expanding the supplemental library for back-school with more opportunities for direct instruction in and integration of SEL competencies.

Districts can utilize Title IV funding to support a well-rounded education with Nearpod’s SEL curricula. Administrators, principals and teachers can access free sample lessons and explore the new program here. 

As the number of English Learners (ELs) continues to grow in schools across the United States, educators are optimistic about the academic potential of these students, but they still see room for improvement – and they clearly indicate that some classroom approaches and resources are more effective than others: 

• Teachers and administrators alike find adaptive learning technologies to be the most effective resources for EL instruction.
• Teachers and administrators report interactive classroom games and collaborative group work to be the most effective approach to EL instruction.
• Audio-visual resources were reported to be the most widely used classroom instructional tools, used by 77 percent of teachers and 76 percent of administrators, followed by adaptive learning technologies and free online educational resources. 

These findings come from McGraw-Hill Education’s second annual English Learners report, which surveyed more than 460 teachers and administrators in K-12 schools across the United States to examine their opinions regarding English Learner (EL) instruction. Other findings include: 

• 69 percent of administrators and 65 percent of teachers report that conversations about immigration impact their school/classroom environment, and educators overall indicate that discussions around immigration are more prevalent than those about other social issues, including healthcare, climate change and gun violence. 
• 77 percent of teachers and 81 percent of administrators agreed that social and emotional learning challenges presented a significant obstacle to effective EL instruction. 
• More than half of teachers and administrators report that EL enrollment in their school or district has increased in the past five years, and almost a quarter report that it has increased significantly.

Thanks for check out my #MakerspacesAtoZ blog series.  In case you missed it, you can catch my previous posts here: 

A:  Aspirational

B:  Boring

C:  Combinatory

D:  Disobedient 

E:  Enterprising

Thank you to all those who shared their thoughts about those posts using the #MakerspacesAtoZ hashtag.  Thank you also to those who shared their thoughts about Letter F words there, as well.  Letter F words shared included Flow, Fail Forward, Fulfilling, Fun, and more!  Be sure to check out the hashtag to see them all!  So many great Letter F words!

Letter F for me, represents Fundamental.  

I recently came across a blog post written by the amazing Mark Sparvell, in which he used the phrase, "Fundamental, not ornamental."  Anyone who knows my work, knows why this phrase would resonate with me in terms of makerspaces.  My work has never been about the ornamental "stuff," it has always been about the research, the philosophy, the pedagogy related to creating these unique learning environments. (To be honest, this has not always been easy, since some seem more enamored with the ornamental "stuff").  This isn't the only reason I appreciated Mark's post though.  Mark used the phrase, "Fundamental, not ornamental," in referring to social-emotional skills and the potential role technology can play in augmenting, extending and enhancing them.  I follow Mark on social media and his work in Social Emotional Learning (SEL), in addition to this blog post, has inspired me to think deeply about SEL and makerspaces.  It is his work that led my team at Hands-On Coding to launch a #MindfulCoding challenge for this year's Hour of Code. 

SEL and makerspaces is not an entirely new concept, in fact, I recently discovered that it was written about by Jackie Gerstein here, however, it was Mark's blog post that got me thinking about the meaningful, impactful connections between the two.  I think connections between SEL and makerspaces will push some maker educators outside of their comfort zone, but I also think that exploring all it can be, will impact our students in profound ways.  It is an area I will be exploring much further and doing lots of work in, so stay tuned! 

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

 7 Mindsets 

Thought-provoking structured program simplifies SEL skills 

Pros: Incredibly detailed and organized lessons help students dig deep.

Cons: Can be repetitious, and for the price, the lack of a student progress dashboard is disappointing.

Bottom Line: If teachers take advantage of the extension activities, students can get great in-depth instruction and practice in SEL skills needed for life. 

Read more here.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

 By Common Sense Education 

Before educators can help students get to the learning, we must first ensure we help students feel good about themselves. Educators can help students with this by providing Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to help them cultivate feelings of peace, satisfaction, calm, positivity, kindness and happiness.

EFT, often referred to as tapping, can provide the tools kids need to get through emotions like stress, anxiety, sadness, fear, or shame without letting them get out of hand. Educators can now easily bring this to the classroom with a new book called, “A Garden of Emotions: Cultivating Peace through EFT Tapping.” It features 10 affirmations that teachers can use with their students. Each affirmation has a description as well as a QR code with a video session by leading EFT Tapping expert Brad Yates.

[Podcast Playlist for Innovative Educators]

The ten special kid-designed video sessions address the following emotions:

— Having a Good Day

— Kindness to Self: Empathetic, Forgiving

— Kindness to Others: Dealing with Shame, Bullying

— Relaxing: Dealing with Anxiety, Stress

— Focusing: Getting the Wiggles Out

— Letting go of Fear: Being Brave and Smart

— Calming Down: Getting over Anger, Rage

— Feeling Good Again: Getting over Sadness, Grief

— Being Positive: Dealing with Disappointment

— Accepting Imperfection: Feeling Good Enough

Getting Started

After reading the book to herself first, the teacher may choose to read the children’s part of the book to students starting on page 12. Each section has beautifully painted illustrations that accompany each of the ten emotions. When students are introduced to each emotion, in the future, they can have a say in which session they may want to follow.

The first video session on “Having a Good Day” is a sensible one to start with as it has more general tapping phrases that will apply to the whole class. Some days, perhaps after recess or before an assessment a session on “Focusing: Getting the Wiggle Out” will make sense.

Evidence Based

Teachers will want to let parents and administrators know that tapping has been used and tested in the classroom. The research and evidence shows it is an effective tool for resilience, self-regulation, trauma and stress-related disorders. It is also ‘promising’ for depression, well-being; phobia, panic, and anxiety; and ‘unspecified’ and other mental health disorders. It is also something that parents may want to do with their children. The videos can be opened on any device and also saved for instant access with or without the internet using the free Stkr.it app.

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several books and her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.

"There’s no such things as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams

October is National Bullying Prevention month. I like to focus on getting students to spread kindness and feel the benefits of being kind versus being mean to others. Many children play social games, such as Roblox and Fortnite, and experience cyberbullying much more than we did in the past. Many students have shared with me their experiences of others being mean, trash talking, or cursing at them during the games. Many of the children don’t realize the impact of their reactions or words on others. To help students reflect more on how their words and actions impact others our objective this month is, “How to be kind online and offline!” Below are some resources and ideas related to this theme so you can challenge your students to choose to be kind online and offline.

Ideas and Resources

Kind Acts Take One Flyers– I’ve posted these flyers in my classroom to provide some suggestions on how students can be kind to their peers within the school. Students can choose (not required) to tear off one of the ideas and commit to completing that act within the week. Feel free to download and use any of these flyers (V1, V2, V3, V4). You can also quickly create your own with Poster My Wall, a free web tool for creating posters and flyers.

Common Sense Power of Words Video– Students really loved this video about what to do when you’re bullied during a game. The video lead to powerful sharing and discussions with my elementary students about trash talking and bullying online. I followed up with student pair sharing on ways to be kind during a game, especially when we win. Children suggested sharing victory dances, asking to play again, reviving someone, saying, “GG!” (Good Game), or sharing their points or rewards. The classes also wrote kind messages on a poster.

Common Sense Curriculum– The Digital Citizenship lesson plans and resources by Common Sense are full of engaging ways to get students to reflect on the choices they make online. The lesson plans come with Google Slides you can edit, objectives, and reflective activities and handouts. For example, my students used the Power of Words handout to give advice to someone being bullied in a game.

A Kindness Tree Project by PBS– The class creates a tree on one wall with examples, drawings, and photos of how people have been kind to them.

[14 Back to School Tips and Tons of Resources!]

Free Rice– When students finish their work they have a list of typing games or educational websites to visit listed on our class website. This month students also have Free Rice as one of their options, which is a free game where students can answer trivia or multiplication questions and earn rice for hungry people around the world. So many of the students are choosing to play FreeRice during their free time instead of the other games. Some have told me they even do it at home and show their parents!

Be My Eyes App– I downloaded this free app to help blind people with real world problems they face and keep it on in case we get a call during class. I showed students the website’s video and explained how the app gives us the opportunity to help others. The students are so excited some had their parents download the app. Some asked if we could call and just randomly help.

Digital Compass Game– This is one of the games my older students can play to help them evaluate real situations they will face when navigating the web and joining social networks. Students have to choose what they will do for a character facing the situation then see the outcome of these choices.

Cool School Game– For elementary students. Children go into this school and help the children settle conflicts and keep the peace.

Citizen Science Projects– This is one of the student digital missions in my new book, Hacking Digital Learning with Missions. Students can help scientists and researchers with their quests to archive history or gather data to help find solutions to real world issues. Find projects for students to support any curriculum at SciStarter.com and Zooniverse.org.

Crowdfund Campaigns– Get students to create a social media campaign for a local cause and raise the funds. This is one of the student digital missions in my book.

• Check out these crowdfunding websites- DonorsChoose, PledgeCents, ClassWish, Adopt-a-Classroom, and Digital Wish.
• Find some great examples of students crowdfunding in this article.
• Check out this crowdfunding guide by Edutopia.

Create a Book to Help Others– Find free web tools and ideas here on how students can create a digital book to help others.

If you like these ideas, take one of my courses or check out my books. Ask me about training your teachers, ShellyTerrell@gmail.com!

Challenge: Challenge your students to spread kindness and reflect on how their words and actions impact others.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Florence

Incredibly relatable story about navigating adult love and life

Pros: Great artistic design, approachable interactive pages, and engaging dramatic effect.

Cons: Since it's not designed for education, some mature content might require guidance to process.

Bottom Line: This heartwarming game helps kids empathize with the highs and lows of romantic relationships.

[Minecraft: Kids Learn 21st Century Skills While Building New Worlds]

Read more.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

Smiling Mind

Quick and easy meditation practice for busy classroom live

Pros: Integrates daily meditation into a classroom routine and lets kids to choose when and where they want to practice.

Cons: Creating an account requires a student or parent email address, and it's not possible to disable the social network options.

[Online Game Lets Kids Solve Social Problems, Practice Skills]

Bottom Line: This easy-to-follow meditation program can help reduce stress and support social and emotional learning.

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

For most of us we have just two options when it comes to group photos. Say cheese is the standard. Okay, be silly, is next. Second grade teacher Shira Moskivitz has figured out a way to make boring class or staff photos a thing of the past. She has come up with dozens of other picture prompts teachers can use to make this year's class photo stand out.

#NYCSchoolsTech Superhero Trainer Team

Check out the funny face picture list below and find the prompts you think your class would like best.

[#BacktoSchool List No No #1 - Graphing Calculators]

- super hero
- favorite food
- someone else pretending to be an asparagus (or other veggie) and you eating them
- pet peeve
- surprise kiss (not necessarily at a professional function but...)
- sleeping
- favorite animal
- spell your name (first initial, or name of event/location)
- evil villain
- mad scientist
- supermodel
- body builder
- soldier
- slow motion run
- wind blown (there's a hurricane and you're being blown off the stairs/chair/etc)
- The Macarana
- Gagnam Style
- Thriller
- Robot
- sad
- nervous
- angry
- that kid...
- bored
- surprised
- one person is "it" and everyone looks at/points to him/her without them knowing
- serious
- hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
- Mona Lisa
- Edvard Munch’s, The Scream
- riding a roller coaster
- playing basketball/baseball/soccer/hockey
- fake fight with neighbor
- group high five
- too cool for school
- salute
- ballerinas
- hold as many/big objects in your hands as possible (bonus if they're relevant to event/location)
- poker face
- strange object on your head
- pour water on one unsuspecting member of the group as you take the picture
- boy band album cover
- hug someone else/ group hug
- karate pose
- touch someone else's head
- swimming fish
- cowboys
- point at someone random within (or outside) the picture

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several books and her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.

Zoo U

Research-based social game has terrific assessment potential

Pros: Engaging animations, positive reinforcement, and rich assessments boost kids' social problem-solving skills.

Cons: Some kids may lose focus while completing the baseline assessment, but it's worth the time put in.

Bottom Line: A powerful and focused social problem-solving game designed to reach kids who need direct instruction.

Read more.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

StudySync® is launching SyncBlasts™ to support social studies and science teachers as they help students build essential skills.

SyncBlasts connects social studies and science curriculum to the daily lives of students. Lessons illuminate connections between content standards and the contemporary world, and the SyncBlasts platform allows teachers to leverage the power of social learning in a safe environment.

[The Real Way to Avoid Hearing from the Same 26 Facebook Friends]

SyncBlast is available in multiple Lexile®-levels and scaffolds and includes hundreds of articles and videos that are aligned to social studies and science content standards. In addition, StudySync publishes new SyncBlasts each school day.

Edgenuity, provider of online curriculum and instructional services for the K-12 market, today announced a partnership with online course provider Purpose Prep to make social and emotional learning available to more students.

Through this partnership, Edgenuity will offer schools and districts immediate access to three new social and emotional learning courses:

• Personal Development
• Character and Leadership Development
• College and Career Readiness

Additionally, Purpose Prep’s tech course, “Introduction to Today’s Technology” will be made available. Each course is aligned to core competencies outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of their own personal development.

[20+ Emoji Activities and Resources for Teaching Math, Science, and English]

Parents, teachers, and school administrators are in agreement about the importance of measuring students’ soft skills like critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork, according to a new report commissioned by NWEA, provider of K-12 education assessment, and conducted by Gallup.

[Where to Find & Curate OER Resources]

The report, “Assessing Soft Skills: Are We Preparing Students for Successful Futures?” includes findings from more than 4,000 parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents.

Key findings of the survey are below. The full report is available at https://www.nwea.org/resources/gallup-report-assessing-soft-skills-are-we-preparing-students-for-successful-futures/.

The Importance of Developing and Assessing Nonacademic Skills (Section 1)

• Over eight in 10 teachers (83%), parents (82%), superintendents (82%), and principals (83%) say it is equally important to assess both academic skills and nonacademic skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, and creativity
• Only about one in 10 teachers say that the formal and informal assessments used by their school to gauge nonacademic skills measure them “very well”
• When asked to describe what type of nonacademic skills schools should teach, interview respondents replied with a wide variety of life skills ranging from character development attributes to interpersonal soft skills to functional life skills (Appendix A)
• Although a majority of stakeholders believe it is very important for schools to measure nonacademic skills, many interview respondents said that those skills should be developed at home

Parents Perspectives on Schools, Assessments, and Students’ Future Success

• More than 60% of parents agree (27%) or strongly agree (34%) that their child is learning the necessary skills in school that will make their child successful in the future
• More than 60% of parents agree (27%) or strongly agree (34%) that their child is learning the necessary skills in school that will make their child successful in the future
• Only one in five parents (20%) say that assessments their child takes in school measure “very well” whether their child will be successful in college
• When asked to compare the quality of their K-12 education with their child’s education, over half of parents (52%) say the education their child is receiving is better than the education they received; just 22% said quality was worse

Time Spent Taking and Communicating About Assessments

• While a majority of teachers and administrators say that too much time is spent on assessments, a majority of parents (59%) say students spend just the right amount of time or too little time taking assessments (Section 3)
• Most (52%) teachers say that just the right amount of time is spent communicating assessment results to parents while a plurality of parents (46%) say that teachers spend too little time communicating results to parents (Section 4)

Dark Cave

One of the most common things I have heard from business owners about high school students is the lack of soft skills they possess. The technical skills are there and they can learn, but it is difficult to teach the soft skills. The issue is not specific to high school students, but in the tech world, that generalization has been there for many years. The dark caves stories that make up an IT shop exists for a reason, many are like that. If you only know that your help desk ticket goes into a secret cyberspace and eventually someone assists without any human contact, is a giveaway that your IT department is operating under the dark cave model. This model does not promote soft skill expectation or development.

Tech Savvy?
Make no mistake, hard or technical skills are necessary to keep any environment running smoothly for the end users. Problem-solving, project management, coding, and technical writing are all important hard skills that make this possible. Under good leadership, mentoring, and training, these hard skills can be learned by a motivated person. The question becomes can someone be taught the soft skills necessary to balance and provide the best customer support possible to the end user? In January this year, LinkedIn released the "The Skills Companies Need Most in 2018-And The Courses to Get Them". Top four soft skills include leadership, communication, collaboration and time management. According to LinkedIn, 57 percent of leaders say soft skills are more important than hard skills, makes sense in a customer service focused environment.

[Computer Science For AZ?]

Organizational Chart We know the dark cave model does not work in today's world, but what organizational structure best works for an IT department to provide the best end-user support with customer support as the ultimate goal? If we are working to shed the stereotype of the dark cave, then our IT team needs to be visible and accessible to the end users. So where do we start with setting the customer service expectations desired?

Job Description
When researching job descriptions recently for technicians that are in the field with our end users I noticed that technical skills are still the priority. It was not until I searched for "customer care representative" that I found the soft skills listed on job descriptions that are needed for any technology department to be successful. If we are going to set an expectation that relationships are the number one priority for our teams, then soft skills should be on the top of any application.

• Positive attitude
• Build and maintain positive relationships with students, staff, and stakeholders
• Go the extra mile to engage end users
• Greet customers warmly
• Customer orientation and ability to adapt/respond to different types of users
• Resolve end-user issues via an in-person visit, phone, help desk, or email, based on the individual needs of the user

Get Out
It is not a new concept that creating an environment that places end-user support at sites, allows access and relationships to develop between end users and technical services support. Knowing that shoulder to shoulder support is nearby is comforting for those that still feel they are not good with technology and at the same time gives the early adopters a place to bounce ideas and be innovative knowing someone has their back when needed.Soft skills and relationships are not an option, they are key to a successful customer care environment. Take the time and step out of the dark cave and look around, you may find it is a great place to be!

cross posted at jcastelhanothisandthat.blogspot.com

Jon Castelhano is the Executive Director of Technology for Gilbert Public Schools in Gilbert, Arizona. He serves as an advisor to the School CIO member community, a group of top tier IT professionals in schools across the country who understand and benefit from news and information not available elsewhere. Read more at jcastelhanothisandthat.blogspot.com

Aperture Education, provider of social-emotional learning assessments and interventions for students in grades K-8, is launching a high school version of its system. The Devereux Student Strengths Assessment-High School Edition (DESSA-HSE) provides a tool to help educators, parents and out-of-school-time organizations measure the social and emotional competencies of students in grades 9-12.

[Back-to-School Tips: Setting a Positive Tone From Day One]

Aperture Education will host a free webinar at 3 p.m. EDT on Aug. 30, 2018 to discuss the development of the DESSA-HSE, how it is different from the K-8 version of the DESSA, and the importance of social-emotional learning programs at the high school level. To register for the webinar, “Bringing SEL to the High School Level with DESSA-HSE,” visit https://goo.gl/BqwMN2.

DESSA-HSE is aligned to the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) SEL framework. Educators can use the assessment data to identify students’ SEL strengths and areas in which they may need additional support. Schools, districts and out-of-school-time organizations can also use the data to measure the effectiveness of their SEL programs.

McGraw-Hill Education and Sesame Workshop today announced an agreement that will bring research-based Sesame content and expertise into pre-kindergarten (PreK) and elementary school classrooms across the United States. The first integrated program will incorporate social emotional learning skills like empathy, self-awareness and resilience into McGraw-Hill's Wonders literacy programs for PreK and elementary students.

Building on the Wonders program, the enhanced curricula will guide teachers and parents as students learn, offering multiple levels of learning and support; all curricula will be bilingual in English and Spanish. In the co-branded PreK-Grade 1 programs, students, educators and families will experience Sesame content incorporated holistically in a variety of ways, including:

• Circle-time videos and lessons starring Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird and other beloved Sesame friends that will connect social emotional learning to literacy skills.
• Teacher's resources to help educators guide their students to connect social emotional learning skills to real-world situations.
• Weekly parent newsletters – translated into ten languages – that extend learning into the home with videos and activities for families to use together.

Available now for reviews and adoptions nationwide, the K-Grade 5 curricula will start appearing in classrooms in the 2019-2020 school year. The PreK curriculum is currently under development. For more information on the Wonders program, visit mhereadingwonders.com.

7 Mindsets, the national leader in mindsets-based social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and activities, today announced a new portal to house its curriculum and SEL facilities for teachers to use. The portal makes the platform more accessible and adaptable, and provides an easier way for teachers to connect with their students.

[How do educators help students build important workplace skills while becoming better global citizens?]

With the addition of the teacher portal, 7 Mindsets has added the following features for elementary, middle, and high school:

· Curriculum for staff meetings;

· A parent portal with best practices, dinner table conversations about 7 Mindsets, newsletters, sample presentations, community best practices, and more;

· A resource hub, which includes a library of SEL media based on the book The 7 Mindsets;

· Self-paced professional development;

· A list of 10 core competencies; and

· The Leadership Zone training platform, which included tools for principals and teachers.

Educators who are interested in learning more can sign up for a demo here.

Kai's Clan is a coding platform that tasks students with solving real-world problems. What's different? Students can collaborate with other students from across the globe. With a camera pointed at a map showing the location of Kai's Clan robots, students can work together using Blockly or JavaScript to solve challenges in real time.

What's special: Most coding tools are for individual students, or have students work together on projects in the same physical space. With Kai's Clan, team-building is built in to the learning process. Being able to share data with other classrooms makes for authentic critical thinking and ups the ante for innovation in a coding tool. While this all sounds great, there's a serious investment to get all the robots, sensors, maps, and cameras.

Other tools with potential

Here are some other tools that caught our eye for trying something different in their field. They may not be for every educator, but one might just be the hidden gem you've been looking for:

• ClassHub: Any 1:1 classroom is gonna face some challenges managing devices and distractions. ClassHub provides live device monitoring, showing teachers a live feed of every screen and allowing them to send alerts, push content, or even lock devices down. Of course, whether this is the right way to deal with these problems is another issue.
• Meet the Teacher: In edtech, we've found that it's better to home in on one key feature than to try to be everything to everyone. Meet the Teacher seems to think so as well, offering a classroom management tool that focuses solely on setting up parent-teacher conferences. But is it useful enough to be worth the price for schools?
• EdgeMakers: While companies like IDEO and institutions like Stanford's d.school have been exploring ways design thinking can help students tackle the tough challenges of the future, EdgeMakers claims there's no other innovation-focused curriculum on the market quite like theirs. After taking a look at it on the show floor, we just might agree.
• Polyup: "Modding" is a term often used in reference to video games, but the makers of Polyup have created an app for students to "mod with math." What you're really doing is modifying expressions, functions, and algorithms to solve a series of puzzles. Students in grades 3-12 can tackle everything from order of operations to calculus.
• Substantial: Each year students spend some time in the classroom with substitute teachers. Instead of losing out on instruction, Substantial has plans to provide schools and educators the data and coaching they need to make the sub experience more efficient. It's a lofty goal, and since there are very few tackling the problem, we hope they succeed.
• GoGo Brain: Teachers know that metacognitive and executive function are essential to student success; however, there aren't many tools out there that focus specifically on these skills. Enter GoGo Brain, which offers a range of Pre-K-5 games that challenge students' working memory, self-control, focus, and direction-following.
• Words Liive: While it's still in beta, Words Liive has tons of potential. It's unlike anything we've seen before, helping teachers create culturally relevant, timely, and relatable ELA and social studies lessons and assessments connecting and comparing pop culture like hip-hop lyrics with literary texts.

This article was previously published at Common Sense Education.

Tanner Higgin is director of education editorial strategy at Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

A new Cisco corporate social responsibility (CSR) educational initiative introduced at ISTE, Global Problem Solvers: The Series (GPS: The Series), helps educators like Edgar Ochoa, a history teacher at the Roosevelt Elementary School District, introduce middle-schoolers to in-demand skills like complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, and coordinating with others while emphasizing social consciousness, entrepreneurship, and the potential of technology to accelerate impact. Watch the video.

I have been teaching Social Studies for 18 years and have found a natural place for me in my classroom is the “sage on the stage” when really for my students I think it is best for me to be more often a “guide on the side.” With this in mind, I have been trying to take myself away from the front of the classroom and shifting to supporting student learning. This decision is driven by my understanding of both educational pedagogy and a paradigm shift in knowledge acquisition in our digital age.

Tangible, applicable learning experiences are necessary to support sustainable skills and knowledge for our students. Educating students in an increasingly Google-able world, means shifting our fact-recall focus to experiential learning. Experiential learning occurs when learning experiences are designed to foster context-based empathy. Empathy is defined as the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. Teaching empathy is rapidly being recognized as paramount in preparing students for the world that awaits them. Leveraging the engaging structure of simulations and games to achieve instructional goals can prove a powerful medium in experiential learning.

[Using Geo Skills and Experiences in Exploring Empathy #edtech]

Simulations have always had a positive impact in my classroom. For years I have led students on historical-context-based adventures to colonize the New World, travel the Oregon Trail, and fight in the Civil War. The teachable moments in these experiences continue to be both widespread and poignant. Together, my students and I discuss multiple perspective around the same events, basing our discussions around their personal experiences during game play.

The interesting thing I have found about the best games are that they are not designed for education. Non-education games have proven to have the most impact with my students. Each fall we form small teams (2-3 people) to play Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization (https://goo.gl/DPv2Nc) against each other (see image: https://goo.gl/4JeSrV).

Our ten linked computers allow for a competitive, history-rich experience around the colonizing of the new world. From this one experience, I will lead student discussions around imports and exports (mercantilism), taxation without representation, indentured servants, slavery, and the difficulties in declaring independence. My students base their comments on their experience as they are similar or different to the historical record.

In a Google Classroom question posed to my students about taxation and independence, I received many excellent responses, one student stated:

“A country would want to declare independence because they want they might not like the king taxing them and would like to make their own laws and rules, and do their own stuff, kind of like an edgy teenager. Most of the kings that owned the colonies were greedy and taxed a lot, and some of them didn’t even let the colonists vote for the laws. They also had to still honor the monarchy, even if they hated the monarchs. The king was also the only way for the colonists to get money, causing an unwanted bond between the colony and the monarchs. Eventually the colonists snapped. Independence was difficult to achieve because the kings and queens wanted to keep taxing the people so much that they would do anything to keep them part of their colony, even start war. They would leech off of the colonists until they dropped, and feel no sympathy. Another reason that independence was hard to achieve was that not all people were for independence. This means that some people from even the town trying to achieve independence would be fighting for the kings and queens.”

Other students would echo these sentiments and wrote about colonies not wanting to be under control by the king because of the extra taxes they have to pay. One student stated, “One example is when the King wanted to raise our taxes from 19% to 24% which was ridiculous, however, if we didn’t we wouldn’t be able to trade tobacco.” Further, students addressed the difficulties of becoming independent by expressing that not all colonists had a positive opinion toward independence because they were still loyal to their country and king and that to persuade them would take printing presses and newspapers, which were difficult to build.

These responses were all prior to our any class content on the British Colonies and illustrate an empathic understanding of the colonial experience. When we discuss taxation without representation students will understand the dissatisfaction of the British colonists at a whole new level.

The increased motivation and engagement of my students toward the content that I teach has led me to search for more game-based experiences. It has become clear to me that game-based learning can increase student empathy toward historical content. Through this emotional, empathetic connection my students appreciate the experience of historical peoples which breathes life into our shared past.

Further readings from my blog:

Empathy https://goo.gl/mN6TDX

Civ IV setup https://goo.gl/2FtfGx

cross posted at micahshippee.com

Micah Shippee, PhD is an out-of-the-box-doer, a social studies teacher, and a technology trainer. He works to bridge the gap between research and practice in the educational sector. Micah explores ways to improve motivation in the classroom and seeks to leverage emergent technology to achieve educational goals. As an innovative "ideas" person, Micah likes to think, and act, outside the box. Micah is motivated and energetic, taking a creative approach towards achieving goals. As an Educational Consultant, and Keynote Speaker, he focuses on the adoption of emergent technology through the development of an innovative learning culture. Micah believe that innovativeness is the pedagogy of the future.

Empathy is defined as the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. Teaching empathy is rapidly being recognized as paramount in preparing students for the world that awaits them.

Thom Markham blogged “As social-emotional learning becomes more necessary to help students navigate life and work, empathy is getting more popular by the day, for good reason: Empathy lies at the heart of 21st-century skillfulness in teamwork, collaboration, and communication in a diverse world.” (Mindshift 2016).

As a Social Studies educator, I am constantly working to make content relevant, tangible, and relatable for my students. My students do not easily identify with the level of human achievement demonstrated by historical figures who overcome massive obstacles…. massive when you consider their context. This post is a short review of my attempt to provide my students with an experience to allow them to empathize with such obstacles.

In our class study of the explorers in the Age of Exploration, we have discussed the 21st-century, Google Earth-mindset, where we have a more complete view of the earth and therefore we have a harder time recognizing the significant actions of historical figures who took “risks” to explore places deemed dangerous and at the edge of the earth.

I explain to my students that they need to understand the historical views of the earth like a video game’s “Fog of War.” The Fog of War can be found in strategy games like “Sid Meier’s Civilization” and “Empire: Total War”which all have a map that contains blacked out content (fog) over other players or areas which remain unexplored. As you play these games, traveling into the fog, you reveal the map. This mimics the experience of the early explorers who had no idea what they were sailing into, or off of.

Our video game discussion appeared to create a few ah-ha moments around the classroom, but is this empathy? Not quite…

I wanted students to understand… to feel, the difficulties of navigating and the huge accomplishments of early explorers. The next step was to try navigating. We grab a class set of clipboards and compasses and journeyed outside to the school soccer field to attempt to navigate.

The compass activity we used had students start at a point on a line, navigate three sets of directions/distances and hopefully return somewhere back on the line. Each attempt in the activity looks something like this:

Starting point 4

Go 81 degrees for 73 feet

Then 312 degrees for 100 feet

Then 168 degrees for 80 feet

Record the marker closest to and in your line of travel.

Prior to starting the activity students were given a brief review of how to use a compass and measure distances through pacing. Overall the activity was rife with failure (as expected). Students reflecting on the process stated:

“I thought it was going to be way simpler than it actually was.”

“the compass activity did not go as planned but it was still pretty fun. I felt confused because we kept going the wrong way.”

“I felt adventurous”

“it was a very interesting activity but also very hard to be a navigator.”

“The compass activity was hard, and I did not get any right, I felt that it was hard and no easy at all.”

“The compass activity was a challenge and we ended up not even being close to where we were supposed to be. I thought it was fun but hard.”

“The compass activity went well, and was fun and stressful at the same time.”

The reflective “feelings” of these students illustrate the point: Empathy for students is a powerful tool for understanding and valuing human achievement. The students reported a solid connection with the difficulties of navigation.

Clearly, this activity is a mere snapshot in time. The consequences of the achievement and the character of the those that are successful are very important conversations to have with students in this process. Further lessons should examine empathy in the people most impacted by explorers and navigators… indigenous populations around the world.

1. Thom Markham’s Mindshift article

cross posted at micahshippee.com

Micah Shippee, PhD is an out-of-the-box-doer, a social studies teacher, and a technology trainer. He works to bridge the gap between research and practice in the educational sector. Micah explores ways to improve motivation in the classroom and seeks to leverage emergent technology to achieve educational goals. As an innovative "ideas" person, Micah likes to think, and act, outside the box. Micah is motivated and energetic, taking a creative approach towards achieving goals. As an Educational Consultant, and Keynote Speaker, he focuses on the adoption of emergent technology through the development of an innovative learning culture. Micah believe that innovativeness is the pedagogy of the future.

Skill Champ

Foundational-skills-practice tool supports specific learning needs

Pros: Adaptable activities with multiple themes and backgrounds engage students with focused interests.

Cons: Data is not recorded long-term, which may not be helpful for educators looking to track extended skill development.

Bottom Line: Well-designed tool for targeted foundational skills practice.

Read more here.

[Autism Skills App Aids in Achieving IEP Goals]

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

Articles complaining about kids today aren’t too uncommon. Making the rounds is this article that asks, “WHY ARE KIDS IMPATIENT, BORED, FRIENDLESS, AND ENTITLED?”I couldn’t disagree more with most of the answers among which include delay gratification, limit technology, and the very worst of all, “Teach your child to do monotonous work from early years as it is the foundation for future ‘workability.’”

Here are some other ways to respond to kids today.

What do you think? Which of these suggestions might work for you?

Lisa Nielsen writes for and speaks to audiences across the globe about learning innovatively and is frequently covered by local and national media for her views on “Passion (not data) Driven Learning,” "Thinking Outside the Ban" to harness the power of technology for learning, and using the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. Ms. Nielsen has worked for more than a decade in various capacities to support learning in real and innovative ways that will prepare students for success. In addition to her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, Ms. Nielsen’s writing is featured in places such as Huffington Post, Tech & Learning, ISTE Connects, ASCD Wholechild, MindShift, Leading & Learning, The Unplugged Mom, and is the author the book Teaching Generation Text.

“Great classrooms are characterized by positive, open relationships, mutual respect, and a shared responsibility for the learning process.”- Robert John Meehan

School tragedies occur way too often nowadays. Often we find the students at the center of these tragedies didn’t feel they fit in. I know a bigger issue lies in dealing with mental health, but I also know too many classrooms do not help their students build relationships with each other and the teacher. Relationship building is an ongoing process. It means taking the time to engage all students in fun activities where students get to know each other. It also means pairing and grouping students effectively to accomplish meaningful activities where they can appreciate each other’s skills.

In my classes we do this by doing the following:

• Several fun get-to-know you activities
• Regular online discussions and backchannel chats
• Cooperative Learning activities such as expert groups and the Frayer model of students teaching each other
• Peer feedback and evaluation of each other’s work
• Publishing student work and getting them to comment on each other
• Ongoing community activities in our online classroom to support the community building activities in our physical classroom
• Effective pair work and group work

I tell my students at the beginning of the year we are a community and not a classroom. I also tell them that chances are they won’t succeed in college without friends and peers who support them and motivate them when it gets tough and it will get tough. This past week in my students’ journals several wrote about the friends they meet with and study with in our English class. I was so happy to read this, because I know that the effort to build a community is working.

Building a community and working on relationships is the “extra” I do. It isn’t part of my curriculum and not many professors take the time to do this. I feel it’s important and I’ve seen struggling learners exceed time and time again because they have the support of their peers. Part of the learning journey is ensuring our students have the support they need. I’m one teacher with hundreds of students each year. There is no way I can provide each the support and feedback to help them throughout their journey. If my learners can help each other then they have helped me be a much better teacher.

In my blog and in my books I continually share lessons, templates, activities, and resources to help you transform your classes into communities. Make it a goal to make room for relationship building. Cyberbulling and bullying has definitely impacted our learners. It’s time every student no longer feels alone.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is an education consultant, technology trainer, and author. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

I’ve had several recent conversations with friends, educators and non-educators, about discomfort. Many of them were driven bt the news of a school pulling “To Kill A Mockingbird” because it made kids uncomfortable. My Goodness! And, all of these conversations revolved around today’s students and how education treats them in regards to their discomfort. For whatever reason, fear of lawsuits, not enough resources to deal with the parent complaints, wanting desperately to be “short term liked” by the student, or whatever else it may be… education has fallen down the slippery slope of helping students avoid discomfort. It’s not the students’ fault...they’re kids! We cannot expect them to know how good discomfort is for them and their future self. Yet we help them avoid discomfort as if THEY know what they need. We allow them to blame outside forces all too often by turning verbiage into a perpetrator that we call a “trigger word”. Our focus has shifted to the outside force instead of building capability to deal with it inside the impacted person.

We are the adults and WE should know that real life will make us uncomfortable, no matter how smart we are or how well our intentions may be. Life WILL force us into uncomfortable situations and the only way to better deal with it is to engage with discomfort as often as possible when we are young and DO have support to help us learn how to deal with it instead of avoiding it. As educators, we need to model this for our kids. We have amazing opportunities for improving our craft, all around us. Implementing new instructional models, technology, structures, grading practices, etc.. can be scary and will be uncomfortable. Being able to model this for our students is a huge teaching tool we can and should leverage to help them prepare for real world discomfort as opposed to assisting avoidance.

So, how do we help kids “deal with it” once we commit to refraining from helping them avoid it? I think there are a ton of different frameworks that can work. Different people have different ways of talking about facing discomfort and tackling it head on. But, I don’t think this is a “one and done” topic for anyone. Like staying healthy, it’s a lifestyle approach that needs to be constantly fed. I feed my skill in dealing with discomfort with these three simple (it has to be simple if it’s gonna work for me) moves that I believe are simple enough to use with kids as well:

Find The Funny

There is comedy in discomfort! Having the ability to laugh at reality is a crucial life skill, even though sometimes the laughing is at one’s own self. One of my biggest areas of discomfort used to be the “awkward silence”, especially when in groups. For me, I spent a LOT of my life uncomfortable with the absence of sound. About 10 years ago, I was attending regular meetings led by someone who was magnificent at creating awkward silence. I absolutely hated it at first. Then a co-worker (also in regular attendance of those meetings) said to me, “You ever look around the room during the awkward silences? It’s hysterical.” That right there cured my discomfort with awkward silence...for good. If we can help kids find the funny in discomfort, we can help them laugh and laughing cures quite a bit of things...even discomfort.

Own The Squirm

A good chunk of my discomfort comes from trying to hide it from others. I’ve found that I can usually cut (if not eliminate) discomfort in half if I can conjure up the energy to make it known, to everyone involved, that I’m uncomfortable with something. Simply pushing out the words, “Holy cow, I’m so not comfortable with this right now” does wonders for me and the anxiety that buddies around with discomfort. If we can help kids own what makes them squirm, we can help them rid some of their nervousness that hinders their performance during uncomfortable situations.

Go Alone

Finally, the coach in me wraps up with “Practice Practice Practice”. Getting better will not just happen, especially when under pressure, even if we know about tips and tricks. Les Brown says “If you do what’s hard, life will be easy.” So, I do things that are hard to get better at doing things that are hard. I am constantly finding ways to put myself into uncomfortable scenarios that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t truly matter. I do triathlons for two equal reasons: 1. To stay healthy 2. Because it makes me better at being uncomfortable. Triathlons and the associated training are my way of practicing being uncomfortable, by myself, in low stakes settings. If I suck at it, nobody knows or really cares. It allows me to find the funny by laughing at myself when I vomit in the middle of a run. It allows me to own the squirm by talking to other racers about how nervous I get at the start line. I’m not saying that we should all be long distance racers. But we can all help kids find something to do on their own that initiates the practice of getting better with discomfort in situations where screwing up won’t have life altering impacts.

So, next time a kid (someone else’s or our own child) starts squirming, complains of discomfort, let’s help them through it instead of getting them out of it!

Sean Crevier is a Technology Integration Coach and Business Teacher at Vernon Hills High School in Illinois. He is a TEDx Organizer, Chrome Classroom Certified, FlipClass Certified, and Google Certified Teacher. Read more at busedcrev.blogspot.com.

Three Aperture Education customers have been selected to receive multiyear grants from The Wallace Foundation as part of the foundation’s Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative. The initiative supports partnerships between urban school districts and out-of-school time organizations to help children develop skills such as self-control, teamwork, persistence and goal-setting.

A total of six grants were awarded. Each grant is shared by a school district and an out-of-school time organization. The three Aperture customers to receive grants were:

• Big Thought and the Dallas Independent School District
• Denver Afterschool Alliance and the Denver Public Schools
• Prime Time Palm Beach County and its partner, the School District of Palm Beach County

School districts and out-of-school time organizations in Boston; Tacoma, Washington; and Tulsa, Oklahoma also were awarded grants.

In the first year of the initiative, each district/out-of-school-time intermediary pair will share grants ranging from $1 million to $1.5 million. The grant recipients also receive additional support such as inclusion in a professional learning community, regular convening with other cities in the initiative, supports to integrate and apply SEL data to continuous improvement systems, communications counsel, and other technical assistance provided by national experts.