Resources Empowering Educators to Talk to Students About Mental Health

 

From the Discovery Education Blog

By Jodi Doster, Science and Art Teacher, Bristol Bay Borough School District (Complete post here)

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, schools have adapted instruction to meet the challenge of continuing students’ education. As the pandemic continues, special attention needs to be paid to students’ mental health.

For some students, stress levels may be higher than normal, and mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression may also become worse. The statistics are concerning: The Centers for Disease Control reports that in the period from March 2020 to October 2020 the proportion of mental-health-related emergency room visits increased 24% for kids ages 5-11 and 31% for kids ages 12-17 compared to the previous year. While educators continue to do the essential work of teaching the world’s future leaders, there is a clear need for resources and support around mental health – and how to protect it.

The good news? There are resources available that are specifically designed to support mental wellness-focused teaching and learning. CVS Health and Discovery Education partnered to create Dose of Knowledge, an educational program empowering teachers to help students make good decisions for the health and well-being of themselves and their community.

Dedicated to Community

I really loved the ideas presented in this article (A Daily Ritual That Builds Trust and Community Among Students). Just a few minutes each day to dedicate the learning.  How would this work in your class?  This might be a great SEL application that would work with all grade levels.

Words of the Wise

In this blog post, Larry Ferlazzo shares teaching suggestions from some master educators.  The title of the article sums it up all- ‘Keep It Simple’ & Other ‘Best’ Teaching Advice From Educators. No matter what your experience level, it is worth the read.

A culture of we starts with me

A culture of us starts with me

As part of an online Microsoft class on Techquity , there was a session on becoming

a culturally responsive educator.  This slide was shared ( I added mine as a demo) as

a method to help you to get to know your students (as well as each other). 

After each student completed the slide, you could view it as a class. You could make many

modifications (fewer boxes, all images, etc) but it might be a useful tool in your classroom.

TeachersFirst and Special Topics

During a recent TeachersFirst Book Club, one session included the features in TeachersFirst.  The Special Topics page is a great place to start a search.  There are over 150 options from Art in Schools month to Writing Prompts! The material is reviewed by the team and often includes grade levels as well as any additional tools needed for the site.

Kami and the equation editor

I asked Mary Kruh and Lauren Buonpane (both from the high school) to explore the equation feature in Kami.  Below are their comments. If you would like a quick tutorial from Kami, please see the video here.

• The Equation feature is intuitive.
• If you type as you would type in Desmos or as you would type in a message where you did not have math-editing features, it reformatted the equation nicely. For example, I typed "x^2+5x=0" and Kami formatted the equation so the exponent was in the right spot, the variables were italicized, and the spacing was pleasing to the eye.
• For anyone in the math field who has used a Word document to create assignments, Kami's equation editor is very similar.   There are small if any learning curves when it comes to typing equations which is great! 
• For a teacher who teaches higher-level math, when you hit Equation and then the Pi symbol, there are many great options.
• If you hit the integral symbol, it puts in the integral symbol with spaces for the upper and lower bounds.
• If you hit the summation symbol, capital sigma appears with spaces for the upper and lower limits of summation.
• If you hit "log", "log" appears with a space for the base.
• If you hit "lim" for limit, "lim" appears with "n-->∞" underneath, but that can be edited to anything you want.
• The square root and nth root symbols work as expected as does the fraction symbol (horizontal fraction bar). A degree symbol is there, lots of Greek letters, inequality symbols, etc. are there.
• So, while we have not used Kami with my students, we know that the Kami Equation feature seems to be easy to use and has things that would satisfy teachers of higher-level math, too.

Adding timestamps to your YouTube videos

 

Here’s a short video on how to add timestamps in the description of your YouTube video. 

This will be helpful for longer videos as well as those that cover several concepts.

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Windy Hair (from a Preschool viewpoint)

 Kathleen McDade and her talented preschoolers share their artwork and their stories about their hair on a windy day.  Kathleen shared:

As you will see, we came up with very creative ideas for what happens to our hair on windy days!  Some children had their hair blow around at the beach... others were on the playground or in their back yard... some had hair that turned into a volcano.... others were on a roller coaster.... and others just said their hair went crazy in the wind!  We hope you enjoy watching this as much as we enjoyed making it!!

New Google Slides Presentation tools

 

There are some new presentation tools in Google slides- the large dark bar at the bottom of the screen is gone!  Please see the video here for a brief demonstration.

SEL resources from Discovery Education

 Bridge Learning Gaps During SEL Month and Beyond

You can inspire your class to continue building SEL skills together as a team in ANY learning environment with LaGolda, an interactive, pro-social animated series + online educational program available on Discovery Education Experience. Cheer on elementary students as they explore SEL essentials with LaGolda, an awesome 8-year–old girl who travels the world making friends and learning how to overcome obstacles by successfully managing emotions. 

Lean into SEL Month in a way that helps address the challenges facing students in 2021 with a variety of collaborative, grab-and-go LaGolda resources. Incorporating SEL into your curriculum is a proven way to boost students’ overall attitudes and engagement, while increasing social skills like kindness, sharing, and empathy(1). 

Create a safe space in class for positive conversations about timely topics using hands-on LaGolda activities, which each connect to an episode in the animated series. 

• EQUITY & INCLUSION
  Do your students know what an “underserved population” is? 

• GENDER EQUALITY
  How often do students unknowingly perpetuate norms / stereotypes?

• FOOD SCARCITY
  What does food access look like in your students’ community and surrounding areas? 

SEL competency not only empowers your elementary students with greater emotional resiliency, it literally enhances overall academic outcome! Supporting students’ social and emotional development produces an 11% point gain in grades and test scores1, and SEL competency is accepted to be at least as predictive of academic and career achievement as IQ(2). 

UnitedHealthcare is committed to inspiring the healthiest generation yet by partnering with Discovery Education to make LaGolda resources available through the Discovery Education K-12 learning platform. Show students how to play the long game for a lifetime of happiness and success by building SEL essentials in any learning environment. Take your students on an uplifting animated SEL adventure today with LaGolda and friends. 

Co-Teaching is really co-planning

When I was teaching fifth grade, I was blessed to have several talented in-class support teachers.  After reading this article, I realized that if we had done a little more co-planning, we (and the students) would have had an even better experience.  Tan Huynh shares his suggestions for planning as well as implementation strategies.

Sesame Street and Autism

Sesame Street has recently shared Autism resources for both educators and caregivers/parents.  It is geared for students ages 4-6.  I recently watched the brief video on how all children are similar.  It was an interesting video that included Sesame Street characters as well as children (in various age groups).

Using the new Chrome clipboard feature

The latest version of Chrome has some interesting copy and paste features.  Please see the Tom Larsen video for the details!

Looking for a free (virtual) field trip?

While Discovery Education is my first stop on field trips (just search for field trips), this list (shared by Matt Miller of Ditch the Textbook) is another great resource.  From the Great Wall to the Great Barrier Reef (and many stops in between), there are 23 other choices.  Many contain grade-level recommendations as well as teacher guides. Where will you and your students visit?

Google ideas for poetry

While you might have seen some of these activities before, this blog post from Eric Curts is a nice overview of several Google-related poetry projects.  Please click here for the post.

Magnetic poetry online

 

At this site, younger (and older) learners can drop and move tiles to create their poems.  Please see the review here from TeachersFirst for the complete information.

Need a little poetry help?

 

Verse by Verse is an experimental Google site that channels your muses to help you write your poem. Select 3 muses (and you can also learn about them and see samples of their work) and then get started.  After you complete your first line, you three muses will offer suggestions (based on their work).  I think it would be interesting to have students start with a similar first sentence and then see what different muses suggest.  For a complete review from TeachersFirst, please click here.

Become a poetry detective

In this lesson from Scholastic, your students will be on the lookout for poetry literary devices.  Please see the review here by TeachersFirst. Suggested for grades 3-5.

April brings poetry

TeachersFirst has curated some of their favorite poetry sites- the Amand Gorman site includes hyperdocs and lesson ideas.

Jamboard and Open Middle Math

Jamboard image by Alice Keeler

Alice Keeler shares an interesting Jamboard application (and you could do it in Kami as well) for helping students work with open ended math problems.  The site, Open Middle (despite its name) has math resources for grades K-12.  

Please see her complete blog post here.

SEL Resources

 This release from Discovery Education highlights many of the SEL resources:

Discovery Education & Partners Amplify Resources for Social-Emotional Learning

Discovery Education joins communities across the world to celebrate the importance of social-emotional learning by highlighting the new Social-Emotional Learning Center available in its award-winning K-12 learning platform. The Social-Emotional Learning Center presents a curated collection of hundreds of resources designed to support educators as they integrate SEL into core instruction and to help students develop social and emotional competencies. The SEL Center is made possible in part through The Allstate Foundation’s generous support and commitment to providing innovative SEL resources for students, teachers, and school communities.

The SEL Center resources feature Discovery Education original content, content from trusted partners like the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Inner Explorer, and Everyday Speech, as well as content created in partnership with LG Electronics USA, Wings for Kids, and RFK Human Rights. CASEL resources, including their SEL framework, support educators’ SEL implementation in the classroom. Inner Explorer provides students in grades PK-12 short, daily exercises teaching practical breathing and relaxation techniques proven to heighten awareness of senses, regulate thoughts and emotions, and develop compassion and connection. Resources from Everyday Speech include videos, activities, and worksheets encompassing multiple SEL strategies organized by each of the CASEL competencies. The SEL Center is a one-stop shop for teacher access to dynamic SEL supports and will be regularly refreshed with new resources from an expanding array of partners.

A number of the resources provided through corporate and community partners are also available to all educators and communities at no-cost, including:

Amazing Me

The Dove Self-Esteem Project and Discovery Education have teamed up to deliver the best in SEL, health, and confidence-building resources for 4th and 5th grade students. The array of new content includes 10 classroom activities, 2 new digital lesson bundles, and 2 master class videos equipping educators with the content they need to empower 4th and 5th grade students to be confident. The digital resources focus on health, social-emotional learning, and body confidence and can be found at AmazingMeSelfEsteem.com.

Discover Your Happy

The Discover Your Happy program from LG and Discovery Education equips communities with the skills necessary to reduce stress and create sustainable happiness by providing curriculum and standards-aligned resources. This year, LG Electronics USA’s Life’s Good: Experience Happiness program, alongside non-profit partners CASEL, Inner Explorer, Be Strong and the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center Greater Good Science Center, is celebrating teachers for their heroic efforts to support students during these challenging times and in particular, their focus on SEL. Together, LG, its non-profit partners and superhero teachers across the United States already have reached more than 4 million students with a science-based curriculum developed to teach happiness “super” skills to help facilitate life-long mental wellness. Learn more at learnexperiencehappiness.com.

Soar with Wings: Social Emotional Skills for School & Life

Soar with Wings: Social Emotional Skills for School & Life, powered by Wings for Kids and The Allstate Foundation, incorporates academics and fun while building social and emotional skills for students in grades K-5.

• In Your Shoes Family Activity (grades K-5): The activity provides an opportunity for families to reflect on the life changes they’ve experienced due to COVID-19 and consider how all family members have been affected in both similar and different ways.

• Focusing on Me and You Classroom Activity (grades K-2): Build social awareness and relationship skills by investigating what it means to be mindful and how the act of being present can help them better understand their own feelings and the feelings of those around them.

Teaching with Testimony

Unlock the power of testimony to counter hate with Teaching with Testimony, a program from USC Shoah Foundation and Discovery Edu

cation that uses eyewitness accounts from survivors and witnesses of genocide to empower students to find their voices and act for a better future. Learn more at teachingwithtestimony.com and engage your community with:

• Stronger Than Hate Challenge (grades 7-12): Create a poem, story, video or piece of artwork that uses the power of story to counter hate for a chance to win up to $10,000 in prizes.

Find more SEL content in Discovery Education’s K-12 learning platform on the Corporate Education Partnerships channel and the Social-Emotional Learning Center.

Self Care and Mindfulness (via Microsoft Educator)

In this blog post, Victoria Thompson shares her experience with the Microsoft Mindfulness Class.  This series of videos (sponsored by Headspace) talks about meditation as well as implementation strategies for students.  It takes about an hour to review. Headspace is offering a free account to educators.  When I got the Quiz at the end, it was a little cranky with the sign in. But the rest of the site was fine.

Formatting in Google Classroom

Rich text formatting options are now in Google Classroom! You can add bold, lists, and more!

For additional information, please see the blog post from Alice Keeler.

Adding Fonts in Google

Kasey Bell (ShakeUpLearning) recently shared a quick video on how to add more fonts to your Google projects.  Please see her video here.