calm-a-llama

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Anxiety-Strategies-Workbook-3515127

My first item of interest is the Calm-a-Llama workbook.  The workbook is based on mindfulness practices and teaches students how to better cope with stress and emotionally self-regulate.  The reason why I like this workbook so much, is because it guides students and helps them develop coping skills that are effective for them.  The book first starts out with a ther-llama-ter, which is a rating scale that kids can use to help them identify what they are feeling.  The colors on the ther-llama-ter go from green to indicate calm to red to indicate out of control.  ON the side the student is supposed to write coping skills that they will use at every level to help them from going to the red zone.  I think that this is a solution focused, strengths based approach because the student picks out what they are going to do at every zone and during this lesson, students are also taught how to identify when they are escalating.  The workbook also has a weekly tracker where students can self-report how they felt during the week which can be useful if this is incorporated into a BIP or an IEP.  Additionally, the self-report part of the work book can be used to track data at different parts of the day and in different settings as well. The workbook also teaches students how to use mindfulness based deep breathing to help calm themselves down when they are started to feel like they are escalating.  The workbook also addresses grounding techniques and helps the student through the grounding process. Another nice part of the workbook is that it comes with a mini-social story that students can use to prompt the use of their workbook.  The workbook is meant to be used with a younger population, but I have used parts of the book with my high schoolers and they have loved it.  Mindfulness based interventions are also evidence based and this workbook can be used with students that are struggling with anxiety or incorporated into the social emotional curriculum.  

school refusal and anxiety

My second item of interest, is taken from a presentation from the IASSW conference.  The presentation was sponsored by AMITA Health and it first provides framework for understanding a trauma informed focused. As the presentation goes on, it gives interventions to use for students that are high anxiety and that are refusing school.  One of the highlights of the presentation is a slide that contains a chart that students can use to rate their anxiety and then list coping skills that they can use to bring that anxiety to a lower level.  The anxiety rating scale is out of 10 and I thought it was neat that this chart also contained physical symptoms.  I feel like whenever I have worked with students that have anxiety I do not think I’ve focused on the physical symptoms of the anxiety.  I think that helping students identify any potential triggers. I think that explaining students how anxiety can impact their physical bodies is also a good psychoeducational tool to have.  The presentation also explains the impacts of the downstairs and upstairs brain and how each part can impact an individual’s behavior. Trauma impacts the downstairs brain by overdeveloping the areas that are primarily responsible for keeping us safe and alive.  The whole presentation also provides interventions that we can use in the school setting to accommodate students with anxiety or that are refusing schools.  It breaks down interventions from the macro levels to the micro levels as well.

Setting SMART Goals

For my second item of interest I have chosen this lesson put together by a school counselor on setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Timely) goals. This activity is more geared towards older students in middle or high school. This activity can work with individuals, small groups, or big groups. The activity shown was conducted with a classroom of 8th graders. The counselor broke the activity down into three days with different focuses but it can be tailored to fit the amount of time you have and according to what you want to focus. This approach to setting goals has been tested a professor of psychology and proved that writing down goals and having actions steps that follow are important for achieving the goals. The first link gives a short explanation of the goals that you can have students write down without using any worksheet.



Quick Explanation


Goal Setting Activity

Goal Setting Problem Solving Tier 2

For my item of interest, I have chosen a tool that my supervisor and I use when co-leading our male Tier 2 groups. This group is for males who have indicated need for additional educational support to improve school performance. This can also work with female students as well. We use a goal setting problem solving approach weekly during their lunch through the means of a worksheet. The worksheet is broken down into four main sections: Short term goals: goals they want to accomplish within the six weeks’ frame. Long term goals: goals after high school. Third section are the obstacles that get in the of accomplishing the short term goals. Lastly plans of action, this is where as a team we brainstorm ways for that student to succeed with accomplishing their short term goals for that week. This allows for open dialogue to be held within the group. After six weeks we evaluate where the student's grades started to where their grades ended up, after the goals in placed. And if they may benefit with more sessions. 

Social Stories

https://carolgraysocialstories.com/social-stories/what-is-it/

My item of interest is Social Stories. My supervisor asked me to start writing some stories for one of the student's on the case load with autism. The goal for this particular student was helping him to understand how to work with others. However, social stories can literally be used for anything social skills related. It is a great tool when you need to appropriately introduce students to concepts they are unfamiliar with. I think it is very beneficial for the elementary/ middle school age, but of course can be used for high school age students as well.  The website does give several examples of social stories, which I found helpful when writing my own. The topics the website has examples on are, safety, tragedies, discovery of self and others, and advanced concepts like stereotypes.