Calm Guided Meditation

Calm is a guided mindfulness and meditation app that can be used in a lot of different ways.  Each day has a daily calm that provides the user with a focus on how to be more mindful and helps guide the user into recognizing times that cause stress.  Most of the meditations are about 10 minutes but you are able to find ones that are shorter or longer depending on your needs.  There are also different programs for things like sleep, anxiety, stress, self-care, focus, etc.  There are different practices that last between 7 to 21 days that focus on different needs as well which I thought could be helpful for a student or an educator who might be facing certain challenges.  Other features include music that is calming or energizing that lasts a few minutes or over an hour, a collection of sleep stories to help individuals with anxious minds work on their sleep hygiene, and short stretches and yoga moves to help relax the body.  

I believe this practice would be helpful to use in sessions or groups with students because it has been shown to be effective and is fairly simple to practice.  It helps with feelings of disappointment or overwhelming experiences.  Mindfulness has been used with students with ADHD and Autism as well as anxiety, depression, and behavioral challenges. Mindfulness can be used as an empowerment tool for students and help them regulate emotions and build resilience in tough situations.  The creators of Calm state that using mindfulness can help students regulate emotions better, be more alert during learning, have better attention to the task at hand and respond better to the needs of other students. The application has a seven-page instruction manual on how to implement this practice in a school setting as well.

This website has a few options for access, one is limited access which is free to all users.  The second option is that an individual can pay for an annual membership of $59.99 or a lifetime membership for $399.99.  However, there are two options for school social workers, you can sign up through calm health and get a free yearlong subscription for being a social worker or you can sign up through calm schools and get a lifetime membership for free, you just have to get approved.  It can be accessed through your computer, android, or iPhone.  

You can access this website by downloading the app on your iPhone or Android, or by going to: www.calm.com 

Love is Respect

https://www.loveisrespect.org/

My first item of interest is a website that focuses on relationships. It is part of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. This website has resources and information that are helpful to students or families that are suffering from domestic violence or relationship abuse. It can be used as a psychoeducational resource to educate teens or families on intimate partner violence. It can also be used to supplement an intervention with a student using the information and downloadable materials. There are different printable resources such as quizzes and surveys that can be helpful in analyzing relationships. It is a great resource to use in high schools with students who do not quite understand healthy and unhealthy relationships or cannot determine if their relationships are healthy. The site also includes links to blog posts that discuss personal stories and advice to those who might be in similar situations. Love is respect also includes videos that can be helpful in teaching teens about relationships and abuse. There are resources as well that can help you determine what steps to take if you or a loved one is experiencing abuse. The site also has resources that provide legal information, such as what to do if you are an undocumented immigrant and do not know your rights. It also provides information on LBTQ relationships and also becoming an LGBTQ ally. The site also provides an “ask an advocate” option in which you can call the number posted on the site, text, or use the chat. I have used this site in one of my groups to help educate students on healthy relationships and who you can contact if you think you are in an unsafe relationship. The site includes even more information that what I have stated, and it is an extremely useful resource!

            As previously stated, this resource can be used for psychoeducational purposes. It worked great in my group for at-risk high school freshmen. Resources from the site sparked much conversation and got the students to want to learn more about healthy and unhealthy relationships. Psychoeducational information is a great way to help students understand a topic that they may be struggling with. This resource can also be used individually with students or their families to help intervene in an intimate partner violence situation. It is especially useful for understand the first steps to take when you are the victim of IPV. I also think it is a great support piece because the blogs and other posts share personal experiences of the authors and it lets the student or families know they are not alone in their situation.

TherapistAid

My first item of interest is a website called TherapistAid that provides mental health professionals with worksheets, interactive tools, guides, videos, articles, and products such as card games, books, and much more. When visiting the website, mental health professional can use filters based on demographics including children, adolescents, and adults as well as specific topics that they are looking to address. The topics that are covered with the tools provided include anger, anxiety, art therapy, CBT, communication skills, DBT, depression management, education, emotion regulation, goal setting, grief, parenting and behavior, positive psychology, relaxation, self-esteem, stress management, substance use, and values.

The way that I have been using TherapistAid at my internship with Evanston Township Highschool is for the formation of groups and the content being covered throughout group sessions. Each full time social worker and their interns are responsible for creating and facilitating a certain amount of groups during the school year. I have used both the tools available at Evanston in addition to TherapistAid to help create an online resource center for social workers to use. Social workers can go to this shared web page and look up the topic they are covering in group. Once they search for the topic and click on that folder, there will be a list of resources provided which includes worksheets, curriculums, videos, interactive games, and much more. For example, I will be cofacilitating a group that focuses on social skills for students considered high functioning who have IEP goals that indicate a focus on communication and positive socialization. By filtering the demographic and specific topic, I can use TherapistAid to pull worksheets and activities that will assist students with increasing social skills.

TherpistAid fits into providing evidence-based education, behavior, and mental health services portion of the school social work practice model. In its mission statement, TherapistAid states “it is dedicated to helping mental health professionals improve their craft by providing free evidence-based education and therapy tools. Our resources are created with clients in mind, which means avoiding jargon, and creating tools that are not only useful in theory, but in practice” (https://www.therapistaid.com/about). By using TherapistAid, social workers and other mental health professional can provide multiple examples of evidence-based practice materials that meet the clients where they are at as well as remains within a strengths based approach. These tools can also be used to monitor group and individual progress to assist in evaluating the effectiveness of services being provided to students.

Below is the link to the TherapistAid website. It is free to sign up with your email and easy to navigate. I hope this will be useful during your internship and beyond!

https://www.therapistaid.com/about

https://www.therapistaid.com/

Win-Win Discipline Model

My first item of interest is one that is used throughout my internship to help create structure for our students. Thomas Jefferson Junior High School in Woodridge, IL, where I intern, is a PBIS school. At Jefferson, we use a Tier 1 intervention for discipline when working with our students. The discipline model that we use is called Win-Win Discipline and was created by Spencer Kagan, Ph.D. This discipline model encourages collaborative learning and takes the power struggle that often occurs out of the discipline process.

The Win-Win Discipline model has four sections and is set up like the graphic below. There are four types of classroom disruptions that are identified as ABCD within Win-Win Discipline. These disruptions are identified as Aggression, Confrontation, Disengagement, and Breaking the rules. Breaking the rules is listed last and the disruption is only labeled as so if it does not fall within the other three categories. Win-Win encourages us to look past the disruption to see why a student is being disruptive. There are 7 positions as to why a student would be disruptive. The student may be disruptive because they are: attention-seeking, avoiding failure, angry, control seeking, bored, energetic, or socially uninformed. These 7 positions help us to understand how to meet the student's needs. We are able to better understand a student’s needs through Win-Win’s 3 pillars of letting students know we are on the same-side through conversations, creating collaborative solutions with the student who caused the disruption, and helping the student gain learned responsibility through teaching them positive ways to get their needs met and to take ownership of their actions. Win-Win Discipline is built on a foundation of engaging in the prevention of disruptive behavior, engaging at the moment- of- disruption where we identify which of the 7 positions the student is in and decide how to respond in a mutually beneficial way through language of choice, and through follow-ups where we check-in, process and help the student understand their behavior and how to correctly and positively get their needs met in the future. This foundation helps to limit the number of disruptions that occur within the classroom.  Win-Win Discipline takes practice, especially when working through the conversations to have within the moment of disruption.

The Win-Win Discipline Model fits into the social work model under the area of promoting a school climate and culture that is conducive to student learning and teaching excellence through the collaborative learning that takes place between the school administration, staff, and students and can be used at all grade levels. This discipline model helps to eliminate the power struggle that often occurs in conflict resolutions in the classroom where one side has to lose. Win-Win Discipline promotes student engagement and ownership in creating a classroom and school environment which is not only inviting but also conducive to encouraging everyone to actively participate in their learning.

Please view the graphic and the PowerPoint below for a further explanation of Win-Win Discipline.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RCt_Qu-9fz4uSQav3qKFK6RNasyMeybQeZ9HyUfXKFA/edit?usp=sharing

Social Emotional Learning books (Pre-K- 5th grade) and questions

My first item of interest is a list of books for friendship skills, bullying anger management, acceptance, adversity, divorce, changing families, feelings, and emotions. This list of books is a useful tool for implementing a social-emotional learning (SEL) lesson. Each of these books illustrates powerful messages and are separated by theme and grade levels.

I decided to share this book list because it helps with effectively applying the knowledge, discussion, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions by using the narrative approach. By using this technique, it will motivate the children to learn, use their critical thinking skills; ability to connect and reflect from the book. It may also help students express kindness, empathy, and cope with challenges that they are currently experiencing or have in the past.

In the context of my internship at District 104, my supervisor and I plan to use this list of books as guidance when planning our SEL lessons. This serves as a great tool because we can share with teachers and parents to help them talk about specific topics. This list of books is appropriate for grades Pre-K - 5th grade.


I have attached the documents of the list of books and questions to ask to promote social-emotional learning. I hope this is helpful to you! Here is the link from where I got the list of books: https://pin.it/jwvwckyxxedljz

Brene Brown's BRAVING Acronym- The Seven Levels of Trust

My first item of interest is Brene Brown's BRAVING acronym for the seven elements of trust.  According to Brown, trust is made up of many small elements which are seen in day to day interactions.  The seven elements of trust can be broken down into boundaries, reliability, accountability, vault, integrity, and nonjudgement.  These seven elements are further broken down during Oprah's Super Soul Podcast, where Brene Brown is a featured guest.  During this episode of the podcast, Brene Brown speaks in depth about each of the seven elements.

In the context of my internship at Wheeling High School, my supervisor and I have been using the seven elements of trust with students every day.  This acronym serves as a great tool for helping students evaluate the relationships that they have, differentiating between friends who can or should not be trusted, and how to be a good friend to others.  In addition, we have used this acronym as an opportunity to teach the importance of being present for and trusting oneself.  We have experienced an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from students in regards to this tool.  This is incredibly valid and applicable to the lives of middle and high school students.

Attached is a link to the podcast, and a pdf of the acronym.  I have the acronym printed and displayed in my office.  Feel free to do the same!

https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BRAVING.pdf

Link to the podcast via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX7pxiwzSzQ

Joshin App

Joshin is a first of a kind disability care app that is at your fingertips. One of the components of the school social work model focuses on maximizing school-based and community-based resources. The Joshin app is a great resource for parents who are looking for caregivers who have credentials and experience in working with children with special needs. This on-demand care app was created by twin sisters who took care of their brother with special needs, named Josh. In 2010, they started Josh’s place that provides holistic care and homes for adults with disabilities. Throughout the years, they’ve seen a lack of childcare services available for children with special needs. So they created Joshin, which is an app that connects families with children with special needs to professionals who have experience in special needs. This includes special education teachers, social workers, nurses and therapists. It was reported that “the majority of Joshin users use it for respite or before and after-school care and daily living skills development” (Chicago Parent Staff, 2019). 

The Joshin app is easy to use as the user needs to download the app, build an account with their care plan and hourly rate, and then book a care date with their desire caregiver. The caregiver will then be notified of the request and accept or decline the offer based on the care plan and hourly rate. I believe that this app would appeal to the families in my school district who come from upper middle-class backgrounds. Since I’ve been interning at my school, multiple parents have reached out requesting for referrals to other types of extra services within our community. Families can set their hourly rate that they would like to offer the caregiver, which makes this service available to a broader socio-economic population. Joshin also provides an opportunity for school social workers to seek side jobs after school or during summer breaks. This is a great way for social workers to help the special needs community while gaining personal experience. The Joshin app is a great innovation example and tool that social workers could also help create to enhance our communities and clients.

Chicago Parent Staff. (2019). On-demand care app launches for special needs families. Retrieved from https://www.chicagoparent.com/learn/special-needs/on-demand-care-app-launches-for-special-needs-families/?fbclid=IwAR1XImQfETgt62q-AXBOCOWw3NRAK940_0tvK10kH2uXd3N1Qoxm1BZSJtc