Laura is a former school psychologist passionately trying to bring social-emotional learning to every student at every tier. Click here for hands-on resources for the classroom and counseling.
By Laura Driscoll | Social Emotional Skills
A foundational part of social emotional learning is developing a student’s feelings vocabulary. When they can name how they feel, then they can begin to handle those feelings. Check out these 10 activities to help elementary students build up their feelings vocabulary. 1. Feelings Check-InAdding a feelings check-in to your daily routine will teach students:To […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Behavior , Teacher Consultation
Getting a classroom of students and or even one student to follow expectations is not an unfamiliar challenge. It is necessary for every teacher to have a bag of behavior strategies to pull from. Nevermind the stickers, the velcro charts, or the punch cards, a simple phrase can help clearly communicate expectations to students. Say […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Group Counseling , Individual Counseling
As a school counselor or psychologist, it is necessary to have activities that are ready to go that can be used in individual counseling for a variety of referral reasons. Luckily, CBT activities are a great fit for school counselors looking for effective approaches. Here are 7 of my go-to CBT strategies to use in […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Group Counseling , Individual Counseling
Students can get stuck in a rut overreacting to small problems again and again. You’ve done size of the problem lessons, but in the moment students often have a hard time telling the difference between big deals and little deals.When we talk about the size of a problem, we often don’t look at what caused […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Individual Counseling , Social Emotional Skills
We can all get a little down on ourselves from time to time. Negative thinking can cause us to feel sad and angry, feel bad about ourselves and others, avoid activities, ruin relationships and more. Our brains also tend to dwell a lot more on those negative thoughts than the more helpful positive ones. Kids […]
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By Laura Driscoll | SEL Teaching Practices , Social Emotional Skills , Teacher Consultation
Group work can feel like students splitting up work and completing the task in parallel. We all know there is so much opportunity for rich interactions in group work and a chance for students to learn to work well with others and collaborate. The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders found 10 key social emotional […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Behavior , Social Emotional Skills
Calming exercises for kids are best when they are simple and engaging. While we can fill up baskets with calming tools or teach students yoga poses, it’s even better to start with the easiest strategy: breathing. Let’s start with simple belly breathing and then move on to some fun variations.Why Deep Breathing?Deep breathing tells the brain […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Social Emotional Skills
SMART Goals are an incredible tool to teach students when they are setting goals. Well, that is if they do anything with them. Sometimes, we set goals with students and then let them collect dust on the shelf. We all know that with our own goals, we have to track them and keep our focus […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Behavior , Social Emotional Skills
Self-regulation helps students know how they feel and know how to handle those feelings so they can manage them. During a school day, self regulation activities for kids can make all the difference between a hectic hot mess and a couple bumps in the road. Picture being able to handle a student on the verge […]
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By Laura Driscoll | Group Counseling , Individual Counseling , Social Emotional Skills
When times get tough, we all really make sure to prioritize self care and reinvest in healthy habits. HAHAHAHA. Just kidding, we keep pouring from an empty cup, eat ice cream for dinner and ignore self care til our eyes start twitching. I know it’s not just me. And kids are no different. When the stress […]
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