I don't know why but stress eating is a thing people do (I know I do!) or use food as a reward for things go well. Even in our own classrooms, when it's a holiday we have a party with treats or some teachers give candy as prizes. I wonder how we can reframe how we think of food, especially in the classroom.

"Just relax" is something we tell kids, but kids know that. They need to know how they can relax and what specifically what to do. Especially for our students who need more cues to do a task, telling them to relax won't help them. You need to tell them exactly what they they need to do or give them strategies to use.

Reframing one's worries in a positive way is a great way to look at worries. Worries will occur but if you look at them in a different lens that it actually has benefits, it will make one make it seem less of a negative behaviour.

The idea of just writing a list of fears, erases some of the fear in the activity alone. Just like writing down a list of all the things you have to do allows you to have a sense of accomplishment.

So many things can contribute to anxiety. How do we prevent children from experiencing traumatizing events that can create anxiety in them but at the same time allow them to live life and explore the world on their own?

I like this quick guide they have on each separate disorder. I wish they had a chart that consolidates it all together in one place for all of the disorders.

Hoarding is something I've always thought just to affect adults. It's good to know that it occurs in children as well, and that it runs in families. So if we know a parent has a history of hoarding, then we can watch out for it in their child.

These things aren't covered by our insurance, but should be especially when it is stemmed from a disorder that is real and affects many people! Our insurance in general needs to be more inclusive to meet the various struggles people have.

So then if someone is having a panic attack, they are just supposed to tell themselves that it will end and ride it out? I would find that tricky and just panic more if I was having one.

This is similar to Social Thinking's strategy of thought bubbles (Winner, 2019). I think it is especially helpful for younger students to physically see the thought bubble and express not only what they are thinking but what others around them are thinking too. It's such an abstract concept that this visual allows them to understand it easier.

References

Winner, M. G. (2019). Teaching through thought bubbles and speech bubbles. Social Thinking. https://www.socialthinking.com/Articles?name=teaching-through-thought-bubbles-speech-bubbles

Also, anxiety can sometimes stem from the parents and their family life. How can parents support when they may have anxiety as well?

This is a tough conversation to have with parents and families. I can imagine it being similar to a conversation with parents and families regarding a student have a learning disability or cognitive delay. Families most likely won't want to hear what you, as the educator, will have to say as they may be in denial at first. How can we make this conversation with parents less stressful for both parties?

Although they emphasize that people who struggle with anxiety reach out for help, it's important that we recognize that they won't ask people if they don't have anyone they can trust. This is why we as adults who work with children of various ages need to be at least one adult in our student's lives who they can trust and feel safe to confide in.

I think that combining the tools for similar anxiety problems makes it less overwhelming for the person struggling to identify which one to work through first. This allows them to see commonalities and use common techniques to help manage similar issues.

I appreciate how the "Building Your Bounce" video explains how we can't dictate what will happen in our lives, such as bad events but we can change how we react to it and overcome it.

It would be interesting to see the statistics to see how more resilient children are when they have a resilient teacher and vice versa.

Perhaps this an area one of us could do for our thesis?

This might be more useful for most of us school aged teachers! I also signed up for this.

The fact that they were able to list all the parts of their curriculum and back it up to different quality literature shows that this program is researched and evidence based. I think we need to check all programs we try and bring to our classrooms and see if they are evidence based, and if not, think twice before using them.

I like how the website organizes the resources by age. It allows viewers to easily look at the age category they are looking for and then just focus on that section.

I appreciate the variety of professional development. There are online options and in person options, different lengths, and different focus areas. There's something for everyone depending on what you need!

Is there a Canadian version of this website? Or do they ever provide training and professional development events in Canada?

I know some of you mentioned that this website seems to be geared towards younger children and not the children and teenagers that you currently teach. I found the Aperture Website to be more geared for K-12.

The word "dedicate" is an accurate word to describe those who work with children. Our work with children isn't just a job, it's almost like a devotion of our time, efforts, and I would almost go to say lives. People who enter into these career paths should really be prepared to have this dedication, but unfortunately people go into this profession for other reasons and children don't get the support they need!

Now that's something that's probably foreign to a lot of adults. Most adults weren't really taught how to be resilient and may not even know where to start. This site is an effective resource that we need to start sharing with others.

I just signed up. I think this is a great way to stay up to date on the latest evidence based practices and to make sure your promoting resilience in your classroom in effective ways!

As the article indicates, there are unfortunately more students experiencing childhood trauma, especially at a younger age and more incidents of behaviour because of this. However, the implementation of the DECA has allowed teachers to understand how to assess and teach their students better and thus feel better supported and more confident in teaching their students.

I wish they would also have have these types of resources and workshops in other provinces (like Alberta!). Does anyone know of anything similar to it here in Alberta?

As much as it is important to share resources and tools on anxiety, personal experience and stories are crucial in making more people aware of it. The more other people can connect with others who are experiencing the same thing as them, the more people will realize they are not alone in this and then will be able to open up. I like how there is a range of people too that were so brave to share their stories. From celebrities to psychologists and ordinary people. It shows that anxiety is something real that all types of people face!

This is an easy sheet to send home to parents if you work with younger kids that helps promote positive parenting practices. It allows families to self-assess what they are doing and to work on 1-2 things they can change. I also like how they respect families by saying there are no right answers.

I love how the site is called for "resilient" children. It frames it in the positive rather than in the negative. They could have said for children with challenging behaviour, but rather they stated it in a way that shows these students' strengths.

The DCRC's Five Step method aligns with Gresham's assessment process of "screening, identification and classification, progress-monitoring, intervention, progress-monitoring, and evaluation of intervention outcome decisions" (2018, p.35). They both require a screening process where information is collected, and then an assessment step where a child is identified and classified as having a social skill deficit or not. As well, both have a plan development and implementation phase and the crucial evaluation phase to see if the intervention was successful. Seeing how similar the DCRC is to Gresham ensures educators that it is an evidence based practice that could be used in the classroom.

References

Gresham, F. M. (2018). Effective interventions for social-emotional learning. The Guilford Press.

Unfortunately, it is the students who don't have their families involvement in their lives who need it most. How can teachers engage parents and families who don't come to parent-teacher nights, meetings, and don't respond to your requests to talk about their student? What can we do, as teachers, that we actually have the power of changing at school when the students are with us?

I appreciate how the video explains that FLIP it is "all that is old and good wrapped up in something we can remember" (Devereux Center for Resilient Children, 2012). I find that I attend sessions on how to deal with students who have challenging behaviours and then I come back doing nothing because I'm so overwhelmed. I love the acronym and how easy it is to use.

References

Devereux Center for Resilient Children. (2012, September 13). FLIP it: Transforming challenging behavior . Webinar [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5TViZp2KwM&feature=youtu.be

As much as this website does have free resources, such as articles, blogs, assessments, and some videos. I find it frustrating that when I click a link for a poster or assessment a lot of the time it leads me to a product I have to buy. I find a lot of this website is selling me resources that I and the school don't have the budget to order.

How do we ensure children don't "lapse" when they seem to be coping well and managing their anxiety? Should we be continuously monitoring students or have certain check in dates and times?

Definitely something worth sharing with staff at my school, especially teachers who are just starting out in the profession. I like the idea of avoiding perfectionism and making realistic and attainable goals. I think we put too high standards on ourselves to be the best that we become too critical of ourselves that we fail to see all the wonderful things we've already done. What is one thing you are proud of (work or not work related)?

I found I wasn't really worried about the Coronavirus until someone was telling me about all the things that happened today, so I started searching news articles and looking at social media. That definitely made me start to stress, but I like how this page gives specific ways to make us less anxious about it. One of the ways is to seek reputable sources. Similar to when we write papers we have to use credible sources, so I think that it's important (with all of the news going on) that we only share news that come from the sources mentioned in this article and to not fixate on it -as that doesn't alleviate the stress!

Love how that there are many ways for people to volunteer and be a part of making anxiety more aware and seen in society. When in comes to volunteering, this isn't really a place most people think of to individually volunteer or as a group, so if anyone asks me, I'm going to refer them here!

Exercise should be something we enjoy and not something we are forced to do, or else it won't be sustained. This is why I think it's crucial that we teach students a wide range of physical activities during physical education, so they can find something they have an interest in. Often, children don't like exercising (and adults too!) because they don't like running or playing gym games since that's all they've ever learned at school but if you expose them to other activities like dancing or yoga they'll find something they like and hopefully carry on outside of school!

I think using prescription drugs are often the first solutions to helping with anxiety and mental illnesses. I appreciate how this page offers strategies opposed to just prescribing medicine and they are things that make our lives more balanced (eating well, sleeping enough, drinking water, and exercising).

This is a surprise. I mostly hear we should get 6-8 hours, and even with that I don't think most adults and teens get that much sleep!

This is an easy to use (just have to press play) and free resource to offer parents. Parents struggling how to build their child's resilience can check one or more of these videos out. The problem is how do we offer it to parents without making them feel like we are judging their parenting?

What do we do if we don't have the support of families? Are there any strategies we can use to invite families to be more active? Would an event day for families be something that could be an alternative as well?

This is exactly what Greene says to do in Plan B. Adults need to spend time listening to the student, or in this case observing the student, to see what their concerns really are (Greene, 2016). They then need to spend less time trying to come up with a solution before they even truly know the real problem (Greene, 2016).

References

Greene, R. W. (2016). Lost and found: Helping behaviorally challenging students (and, while you’re at it, all the others). Jossey-Bass.

If we spend more time and resources supporting children at a younger age, then less time will be needed to retrain their thinking and dealing with problem behaviours that occur as teens and adults. However, what do we do after they've received all this intervention and still need support?

Not only will this help a child who has low protective factors or high behavioural concerns, this can also be helpful for students who have cognitive delays or difficulty processing information. Breaking a task into small steps is something we all should do. We shouldn't just assume a child can do all the steps in a task with one direction. After all, don't we forget steps when having to do a task too?

Social and emotional learning (SEL) skills shouldn't be something that is done to complete Health curriculum requirements. SEL should be something that is integrated and modelled by the teacher throughout their day. As Lindsey Minder modelled in the Edutopia (2019) video, the most authentic way for students to develop their SEL skills is by educators using their own personal experience with their own emotions.

References

Edutopia. (2019, January 14). Teaching self-regulation by modeling. Website. https://www.edutopia.org/video/teaching-self-regulation-modeling

The universal strategy of making students feel safe and secure echoes Rundell's (n.d.) relational care ladder basic need to have organization, safety, and regulation in their lives. It is helpful especially for students who have experienced trauma, but it is also helpful to the other students who haven't. Everyone needs to know what to expect and when there is structure, there is safety, which is one of our most basic needs as humans (Rundell, n.d.).

References

Rundell, F. (n.d.). Trauma: Its neurological impact on the brain, the mind, and relationships with Frida Rundell, Ph.D of the IIRP [Video]. Retrieved from https://instantteleseminar.com/Events/113208006.

Teaching resilience, in my opinion, is even more important to do at a young age. If a child can learn to recover quickly from adversity with the problems they face at an early age, the easier it will be for them to adapt and face challenges later on in life.

It's so important that when obtaining information on a child, there is more than one adult that is being asked. Assessment is more accurate when we have representation of how that child is at home, school, or in activities they participate in after school. Sometimes children are different versions of themselves at school then at home, so this helps to obtain a clearer picture.

This saddens me, specifically for students who are in foster care or do not have a stable and loving home life. Often too, these are the students who experience anxiety. How can we expect students in these types of family situations feel safe and encouraged when their home life is what is adding to their anxiety or is the cause of it?

I have a student who is like this and who is so afraid to answer questions or speak up out of fear that he'll make a mistake. It soon led to him starting to say he wanted to kill himself and would break down in tears over smaller problems. I talked to his mom and she had mentioned that she was being really tough on him at home with his schoolwork and that she assumed his lack of skills and effort was due to his laziness. We then talked about how perhaps at home, he just needs to take a break from academic work and just enjoy time with her instead of adding to his pressures of trying to do well. I found that he has stopped saying these comments to himself. However, now I'm thinking I need to watch for the other signs of anxiety and maybe have a conversation again with his mom.

Watching this video, I love how that the first tip is to build student's resiliency by assuring them they are enough and they can just be who they are. They don't need to be anyone else but themselves. Also, I like the third tip of teaching students that "all feelings are ok". This is what I always tell my students. I tell them that it's ok to feel different feelings but it's what we do with them and how we treat others when we feel those feelings that matter. I like how this video adds children being able to talk about their feelings at a young age, so that it carries on to adulthood.

With social media's heavy presence in our lives, people's "perfect" lives are usually what is depicted on their posts. No one wants to showcase their struggles or their problems, but that's problematic when people compare their families, teaching, and life to what they see on other people's social media. I like how these articles, such as this one, are raw, authentic, and real. They acknowledge that no one is perfect and we don't need to be, but here are some ways we can be better!

Now that I've realized my own social and emotional skills are lacking, as evidenced by my repetitive use of deep breaths to model to my students, this is a great place to begin to assess what my individual strengths and weaknesses are. If we are going to do these with our students, we need to begin with ourselves, so we know how we can better help them. I love how it is only three pages and easy to print out and use!

This should be the requirements for all assessment tools used in the classroom for students. They should always be evidence based and already tried and tested to be effective with students, not just something found off the internet or social media. As well, assessments should be practical and easy to use for the adults using it, or else it won't be a sustained tool used.

This was super helpful to me as all my life I've always thought I had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) because when reading the "What do 'Compulsions' Look Like" section, every single one of those related to me. People around me too would even joke about my compulsions, because I would do things such as not go to bed in my dirty clothes and do things in a certain way out of fear something bad would happen if I didn't. However, it was reassuring to see that one has OCD if it significantly affects their life and takes up most of their time, which in my case it doesn't. I am still unclear as to how to seek for help if someone has OCD or if there is anything to help someone who may deal with some form of OCD.

This is similar to the idea mentioned in the video "Teaching Self-Regulation by Modelling" where the teacher, Lindsey Minder models her recognition of her emotions and how to deal with them (Edutopia, 2019). She does it so effectively that she doesn't need to teach a separate lesson. Since she has lots of tools in her toolkit on how she is able to self-regulate she can teach that to her students. However, what if a teacher doesn't have strong social emotional skills? I tried modelling this week how I feel frustrated when students talk while I'm talking and that I need to take a few deep breaths to relax, but after doing it a couple of times, I realized I didn't have any other strategies to deal with my frustration. So I, as the teacher, need to improve my social emotional skills too if I want my students to improve theirs.

References

Edutopia. (2019, January 14). Teaching self-regulation by modeling. Website. https://www.edutopia.org/video/teaching-self-regulation-modeling

Having a work life balance is something I know teachers struggle with, myself included. Especially in the first few years of teaching where you feel as if you're just trying to survive. However, if we don't take care of ourselves then we won't be able to be the teacher that our students deserve. How do we make time for ourselves, when we need to meet endless demands of lesson/unit planning, assessments, meetings, and still be engaged with our students?

I love the idea of having an app that not only is evidence based but also free! People are always on their phones, so for adults who struggle with anxiety or just need help ways to create peace and decrease worry in their life, this is a great way to remind people to just pause and take time for themselves.

It's unfortunate but in university, I had zero courses that taught me how to recognize anxiety in students. With all the information on this website alone and with it affecting up to 20% of children over a lifespan, it's crucial that educators are aware of this topic. Perhaps a solution to this would be having a course on anxiety alone in university (recognizing it in students and adults, strategies, resources)?

These students who struggle with anxiety but may not physically appear as if they are, are the ones who worry me the most. Others often assume because they are doing so well on the outside that they aren't struggling. Then often, they crash when the pressure gets too much. How can we ensure that no student gets forgotten especially if it's not as obvious?

Even as an adult, I tend to avoid things that have caused fear in me before. For instance, I have a fear of driving in the winter and on the highways because I witnessed a very bad crash a few years ago. So since then I avoid highways when the roads are really bad so I don't have to face my anxiety, but it's interesting to see that actually driving on them is what will make my anxiety goes away. As an adult, this is a scary concept for me, so I can't imagine how more difficult this would be for children. I'm wondering how we can ease children into situations that they fear and how we as adults can model that for them?