Social Emotional and Mental Wellness Resources
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
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The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) widely used framework identifies 5 core competencies:
PARENTS
Parent Toolkit- Social & Emotional Development (English/Spanish)
http://www.parenttoolkit.com/topics/social-and-emotional/social-and-emotional-development?lang=en
As part of the public media mission to ensure all kids, regardless of their capabilities, have access to continued free educational resources at home, PBS SoCal | KCET, in partnership with LAUSD and in collaboration with California PBS stations, are offering broadcast programming and accompanying digital resources that adhere to California’s state curriculum to provide continued at-home learning.
https://www.pbssocal.org/pbs-news/at-home-learning/
Heart Mind Online (for Families)
https://heartmindonline.org/resources/for-families
Inclusive Teaching (9-12th)
Personal Identity Wheel
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/2017/08/16/personal-identity-wheel/
Social Identity Wheel
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/2017/08/16/social-identity-wheel/
The Spectrum Activity, Questions of Identity
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/2017/08/16/1213/
EASE
Employee Assistance Service for Education (EASE) is available to employees and their families by Baldwin Park Unified School District through the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
ClassDojo is a free online-based SEL program that gamifies building a positive classroom climate and is used by many teachers and schools: https://www.classdojo.com/
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (RAK) provides free, downloadable evidence based SEL lesson plans: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/for-educators. This curriculum features complete developmentally appropriate, standards-aligned lessons for grades K-12 with handouts that teach kids important social and emotional skills. Many of these resources can be used by parents and guardians in the home.
Special Enrichment and Learning Using Technology
Here are a few free online resources that can be sources of enrichment and learning activity:
Visit a Virtual Theater
Metropolitan Opera nightly encore shows
Visit the Stars
Virtual National Parks
The great Wallace Stegner once called America’s national parks “the best idea we ever had”. Equal parts meditative and mind-blowing, these magnificent wildlands somehow make us feel our most humbly—and gratefully—human. They’re our gift to ourselves and our truest escape, whether for a solitary hike or an eight-person family vacation.
And though, for now, we may not be able to visit them in person, we can remember past trips and look forward to future visits with these breathtaking virtual tours, some led by rangers—others self-guided. So set aside your puzzle-making and your Netflix queue and get back to nature (from a distance) with these 5 digital national park tours. I encourage you to watch them with your family and share with your friends, then talk about which park you would like to visit and why.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Things to Do As a Family Without Technology
Nature walks (chatting, collecting rocks and leaves, looking for bugs)
Board games
Inventing our own games
Puppet shows
Making up skits
Active games (e.g., Frisbee, lawn darts, croquet, basketball in the drive way, Four Square, Hopscotch, running through obstacle courses the kids set up, touch football)
Playing an instrument, singing
Arts & crafts projects
Putting on a play
Journal/diary writing
Outdoor water play
Indoor Hide and Seek
Bird watching
Build a birdhouse or birdfeeder
Cooking meals together
Jigsaw puzzles
Taking a walk
Establish an exercise routine
Picnicking
Bike riding
Doing volunteer work (e.g., raking an older neighbor’s leaves)
Caring for a pet
Playing board and card games
Looking through old family albums together
Taking fun family photos and videos
Baking cookies together
Make chalk pictures on the sidewalk.
Making pizza from scratch
Trying new food
Building a snow or leaf fort
Playing games such as 20 questions, Simon Says, Charades
Doing a Treasure Hunt
Plant some seeds or a tree
Organize your house, room, junk
Throw out old stuff
Clean house
Phone friends/relatives
Read (books, magazines, graphic novels, etc.)
And remember it’s not about just doing for kids; it’s about doing with kids; learning with kids; learning from kids; and kids learning from each other.
STUDENTS
It all began with student voice. As part of the Emotion Revolution, a collaboration between the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Facebook, and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, tens of thousands of high school students were asked how they felt in school and how they hoped to feel.
Activities (Emotions, Connected & Supported, Safe & Comfortable)
https://inspiredstudents.org/activities/
ACT Youth Network: Got Stress?
This section of ACT for Youth's website for young people helps youth explore the purpose of stress, stress signals, coping strategies, and ways to reduce stress.
KidsHealth: The Story on Stress (Kids' Pages)
Written for elementary school age youth, these interactive web pages provide information and guidance on how to identify stressors and cope with them. The website is supported by the Nemours Foundation.
KidsHealth: Stress and Coping Center (Teen Pages)
Written for adolescents, these interactive web pages provide information and guidance on how to identify stressors and cope with them.
MINDFULNESS TOOLS & EXERCISES FOR STUDENTS
Mindfulness is defined as “increased, purposeful, nonjudgmental attention to the present moment." Mindfulness training has been used in the medical field to reduce stress and anxiety and has become increasingly popular with large companies and organizations, including Google and the United States military. More recently, mindfulness-based strategies have been promoted as a helpful tool for educators seeking to improve students’ educational experiences and cognitive and social-emotional development, which can lead to better academic outcomes.
Below are a series of resources to learn more about mindfulness. They have been prepared and made available by other organizations. We provide them here as they may be useful for practitioners, however please note that all content is the property of and reflects the beliefs of the authoring organizations.
3 Fun Mindfulness Games for Kids
ClassDojo’s Mindfulness Activities
Four Simple Exercises to Strengthen Attention
25 Fun Mindfulness Exercises for Children and Teens
Multimedia Resources for Introducing Mindfulness in School
Mindfulness for Teens has free audio and video recordings of practices appropriate for introducing mindfulness-based exercises to teens: http://mindfulnessforteens.com
Well-Being and Social-Emotional Learning Resource Bank
Emotional intelligence, well-being, resilience, connection, and kindness are skills that can be taught and developed over time—with practice. Below are a series of research-based resources to support daily efforts to develop these vital human capacities inside and outside of the classroom.
CASEL SEL Resources during COVID-19 (Parents and Educators) https://casel.org/covid-resources/
Well-Being, SEL, and Mindfulness Courses and Practices: Resources for Adults and Teachers
- Greater Good in Action (GGIA) collects the best research-based practices for a happier, more meaningful life—and puts them at your fingertips in an online format that's easy to use: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/.
- Free 8-Week online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Course (with Certification): http://palousemindfulness.com/index.html. MBSR is the most studied and empirically supported secular mindfulness program in the West. Find schedules or in-person MBSR classes near you here: http://www.mbsrbc.ca/pages/classes.htm.
- The Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA provides a variety of meditation types and lengths for an introduction to meditation that you can practice on your own: http:// marc.ucla.edu/mindful-meditations
- Center for Investigating Healthy Minds UW-Madison has created a Well-Being Toolkit with practices they have found in their research to support both physical and mental health: https://centerhealthyminds.org/your-well-being-toolkit
- Free resources designed by teens, educators, and SEL experts to create more positive school climates and foster greater wellbeing in schools: https://inspired.fb.com/
Well-Being, SEL, and Mindfulness Research and Information
- The Collaborative for Academic and Social-Emotional Learning (CASEL) is the clearinghouse for SEL research, policy and practice information: http://www.casel.org/
- The Science of Happiness: Learn science-based principles and practices for a happy, meaningful life: https://edx.org/course/science-happiness-uc-berkeleyx-gg101x-4
- Free Yale University course on the Science of Human Emotion: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8KFFkNhID4Y&list=PLh9mgdi4rNewieO9Dsj- OhNBC9bF4FoRp.
- Free Online Course on the Science of Meditation: https://coursera.org/learn/science-of- meditation
- America Mindfulness Research Association (AMRA) – Great resource for latest research; sign up for their monthly research roundup email: https://goamra.o
Resources for Youth and the Classroom
Well-Being, SEL, and Mindfulness Practices and Programs
- GRITX.org is a Young Adult and Family Center is located on the campus of the University of California at San Francisco. Their mission is to provide adolescents and young adults with the highest levels of mental health care, so they can become their most authentic selves, with a love of life and a deep connection to others and the world around them. We inspire grit, teach them how to find resilience, and to tell their own stories, their own way. The interactive website Gritx.org allows you to discover, explore, and get support.
DISCOVER: Self-Care Toolkit, Catch Your Breath, Skills Studio, Self-Interview
EXPLORE: Sketchbook, Journal, Grit Xpeditions, and coming soon Grit Stories
Tools for Kids - Visit the KidsHealth.org website and click on the "for Kids" dropdown menu to explore topics including Feelings, Relax & Unwind Center, and many more.
Tools for Teens - Visit the KidsHealth.org website and click on the "for Teens" dropdown menu to explore topics including Mind, Stress & Coping Center, and many more.
- Edutopia is a comprehensive online platform that shares current best practices, lessons, media, and strategies of what works in K-12 education: https://edutopia.org/about.
- ClassDojo is a free online-based SEL program that gamifies building a positive classroom climate and is used by many teachers and schools: https://classdojo.com/
- The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (RAK) provides free, downloadable evidence- based SEL lesson plans: https://randomactsofkindness.org/for-educators. This curriculum features complete developmentally appropriate, standards-aligned lessons for grades K-12 with handouts that teach kids important social and emotional skills.
- The Mood Meter is an research-based SEL application to build greater emotional awareness and regulation in teachers and students: http://ei.yale.edu/mood-meter-app/
- Inner Explorer program is a series of 5-10 minute audio-guided mindfulness practices. Daily practices teach students techniques to handle negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, anger and more. PreK-12. https://innerexplorer.org/
- MindYeti is a free online mindfulness platform and mobile application for kids made by the creators of Second Step (The Committee for Children): https://mindyeti.com/sessions
- Mindful Teachers offers free tips and activities for implementing developmentally appropriate mindfulness practices in the classroom: http://www.mindfulteachers.org/
- Mindfulness for Teens has free audio and video recordings of practices appropriate for introducing mindfulness-based exercises to teens: http://mindfulnessforteens.com
- Paid theory-based and research-supported mindfulness and emotion skills training program for teens: http://learning2breathe.org/
Well-Being, SEL, and Mindfulness Information and Assessment
- Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Resource Finder: http://www.selresources.com/sel- resources/sel-apply-resources/. The Resource Finder provides a variety of resources to help you learn about SEL, to apply teaching methods, and to assess your
- Heart-Mind Online is an online-based resource portal to social-emotional learning lessons, practices, and information: http://heartmindonline.org/.
- The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a free questionnaire that measures five core areas of early child development that are known to be good long-term predictors of adult health, education and social outcomes: http://earlylearning.ubc.ca/edi/
- The Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) is a free questionnaire that asks children in Grade 4 and Grade 7 how they think and feel about their experiences both inside and outside of school, which is strongly linked to well-being, health and academic achievement: http://earlylearning.ubc.ca/mdi/
- The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) was developed to help teachers improve what matters most in the classroom—the interactions that drive learning and development: http://teachstone.com/classroom-assessment-scoring-system-class/
Supporting Learning and Well-Being During the Coronavirus CrisisThe Greater Good Science Center send their heartfelt support to you and your loved ones—including your students—during this extraordinary moment in time.
It’s no surprise that teachers across the globe are rising to the occasion and educating their students, whether connecting online, sharing activity packets, recording read-alouds, or inventing other creative teaching methods—while taking care of their own loved ones and trying to stay healthy.
Because that’s what teachers do—and we acknowledge you with gratitude and awe.
In support of your efforts, they have compiled Greater Good in Education practices and other resources that offer ways to address student and adult anxiety in this time of uncertainty, and that cultivate our human connection through kindness, compassion, and other prosocial qualities.
As educators we know that classrooms in the future may look back at this time and wonder what it was like to live through this. May the memories brought forward be filled with those moments where we took care of each other—and may those moments become not just memories, but our new reality. For more educator, parent and student resources https://ggie.berkeley.edu/school-challenges/supporting-learning-and-well-being-during-the-coronavirus-crisis/?_ga=2.168068263.744707567.1591317064-1510607096.1591317064#tab__1
Employee Assistance Service for Education (EASE) is available to employees and their families by Baldwin Park Unified School District
through the Los Angeles County Office of Education.