SSWN

My second item of interest is a website called School Social Work Net or SSWN that provides support, resources, and a community for School Social Workers. This website includes current research, effective interventions, useful tools for direct practice, and podcasts that discuss important topics within the school environment. Additionally, this website provides an online tool that allows for School Social Workers to track both time and data to assist in making better practice decisions, advocating for workload and role within the school, and identify needs and trends for the social services department. Both access to the website and time tracking tool are free to those who are interested in accessing this item of interest. 

The way that I have been using SSWN at Evanston Township High school is by reading current research on interventions to ensure that I am using best practice with the students on my caseload. SSWN provides school social workers with evidence based research articles to ensure that direct practice interventions are meeting student needs. For example, my supervisor and I have been utilizing mindfulness research and tools provided on SSWN for the social skills group that we cofacilitate. These mindfulness tools will be useful for the students as they prepare and complete their final examinations for the semester. Additionally, I will be using the SSW tools app next semester to track sessions with students and create measurable data. Overall, I feel that SSWN is a point of reference and community that allows for school social workers to connect with the field and find resources that are specific to schools. 

School Social Work Net fits into providing evidence-based education, behavior, and services area of the school social work practice model. The School Social Work team is comprised of licensed practitioners with years of experience in the field as well as researchers that are providing current resources on evidence based practice. SSWN works to provide school social work and mental health professionals with current tools, interventions, and research that remain within a strengths based perspective and can  be used with diverse populations. Beyond interventions and tools for practice, SSWN provides a live stream of current news that is relevant to the field and might effect current policy implementation. By utilizing SSWN, school social workers can build upon their knowledge of evidence based interventions, stay current on research and best practices, and be part of a collaborative community of like-minded professionals.

Below is the link to the SSWN website. Once again, it is free to sign up with your email and full of useful information. I hope you find this tool useful and feel a sense of community amongst fellow school social workers!


https://schoolsocialwork.net/

Boardmaker Online

The item of interest I want to share is a multi-level approach website that is mainly utilized for the special education classroom, however, offers benefits to all educators and service providers. The website is https://goboardmaker.com/. Boardmaker online is an online resource that allows you to create, search and support interventions in place through visuals. Beyond the creation of visuals, boardmaker online also serves as a gateway to other resources. The boardmaker online website provides links to additional hands on games, manipulatives and actives that are evidenced-based practices, particularly relating to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).

Boardmaker also allows you to address behavior, and mental health services in a multi-level approach from of the school social work practice mode by creating or finding documents from the website that monitor progress and evaluate service effectiveness. Boardmaker can be an assistant to collecting data and tracking student progress towards IEP goals and educational standards.

Individuals with disabilities learn and manage their world better when visual strategies are used to support their, understanding, expression, and positive behavior.  Visual strategies encourage communication, emotional regulation, learning, and independence for our students. The visuals from Boardmaker also help with organization and structure for students who either struggle with organizational skills or require organization.

I have utilized Boardmaker to create data tracking documents, behavior charts, emotion cards to help students communicate, visual task cards to keep students on track, graphic organizers, visual schedules for school and home to ensure services are being implemented in all settings, and social stories to encourage positive behavior.

Boardmaker is not free however since this resource can be used by ELL teachers and general education teachers I would highly recommend advocating for access. This resource has been used by ELL and Gen. Ed. teachers by creating word walls that are visuals cards with sight or vocabulary words to help the students create sentences.

Prices:

Personal: 1 month/$9.99, 1 year/$99, 2 years/$190, 3 years/$270

Professional: 1 Month/$19.99, 1 Year/$199, 2 Years/$360, 3 Years/$540

District: Call for pricing (800) 588-4548



Free resource that offers premade visuals: http://www.victoriesnautism.com/communication--behavioral-cues.html

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/

Social Thinking: Chicago Metro Conference

Social Thinking Conference 

April 24-26

Social Thinking presents: Chicago Metro Area Conference

April 25-27, 8:30-3:45 PM

Conference led by a speech language pathologist, Michelle Garcia Winner, will also include other presenters. Organization that helps people develop their social competencies to better connect with others. They teach different skills and strategies that can be used in the classroom, home or community centers to help students with organizational skills and social emotional learning.

What is social thinking? Social thinking is the process by which we interpret the thoughts, beliefs, intentions, emotions, knowledge and actions of another person along

with the context of the situation to understand that person’s experience.

Topics Conference will cover:

Executive functioning: Tackle Homework and classwork with these helpful strategies!

(5^th graders – young adult)

Learn organizational skills, strategies to find motivation to tackle tasks, and strategies to complete homework.

Zones of regulation: A framework to foster self-regulation and emotional control (K-Young adult)

Learn the frameworks for self-regulation and emotional control, and executive functioning. It is a cognitive behavior approach that uses four zones (colors) to help students visually and verbally self-identify how they are functioning in the moment given their emotions and state of alertness.

Helping teens prepare for the real adult world (upper elementary – young adult).

This conference focuses on helping parents and educators prepare for and learn how to respond to the transition to independence. Discuss strategies that will help individuals develop a more mature social mindset.

The frameworks and strategies taught in these courses are developed from

Using peer-reviewed research and client family values. Also, it connects to research in fields that study how individuals have evolved and developed in order to function in society like: anthropology, cultural linguistics, social psychology, child development etc. 

This conference fits in the Promote a school climate and culture conducive to student learning and teaching excellence section of the School social work model. It is allowing the enhancement of professional capacity of school personnel by providing them with an opportunity to further their knowledge on social emotional and executive functioning skills that could be applied within special education classrooms.  

Link to Brochure: Brochure