Mental Health America (MHA): Teachers: Protecting Your Mental Health lists a few strategies for teachers to protect their mental health at all times, but especially around stressful/traumatic times and events:

Here are some ways for teachers to help themselves (click the article for more details and ideas):

• • Set boundaries early on - and hold them

  • Focus on what you can control

  • Move your body

  • Stay in touch with friends and family

  • Keep up with the self-care

  • Maintain reasonable expectations

Here are some way to help other teachers/colleagues:

• • Check in on each other

  • Keep each other accountable for self-care

  • Express gratitude

  • Take time to laugh

  • Pay attention to nonverbal cues

  • Lend each other support

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) tips for parents and educators to talk with children about violence suggests adults:

• • Reassure children they are safe and review safety procedures

  • Create a sense of safety by returning to normal, predictable routines as soon as possible

  • Make time to talk and listen to the concerns and feelings of children

  • Limit the use of media consumption of these events to lower their stress and to maintain balance and perspective

  • Acknowledge that sleep difficulties are common and can lead to fatigue and poor participation

The American Psychological Association (APA) has tips for managing your own distress following a mass shooting including:

• Reaching out for support from other adults (friend or professional)

• Honoring your feelings and taking time for yourself, especially if you’re experiencing personal loss or grief

• Limiting your amount of media coverage of these events

• Find ways to help in your community

*Thank you to SBCEO for these lists

Learning for Justice • Handle with Care: Supporting Young People During Crises

NCTSN • Teacher Guidelines for Helping Students After Mass Violence

iColorín colorado!: 15 Tips for Talking with Children About Violence

ADL: Empowering Young People in the Aftermath of Hate

Common Sense Media: How to Talk to Kids About School Shootings (English for now, Spanish coming soon)

Greater Good Magazine, Berkeley: Nine Tips for Talking With Kids About Trauma (English only)

Books for Littles: How to talk to kids about shootings – Picture books that help (English only)

Facing History and Ourselves: Teaching About the Ukranian Refugee Crisis

LiberatED: Discussing Putin's Invasion of Ukraine with Students

San Diego County Office of Education: Resources for Educators, Families to Discuss the Events in Ukraine with Students (English only)

Kids Health: How to Talk to Your Child About the News (English and Spanish)

UCBerkeley: How to Talk to Your Child About Current Events (English only)

Mental Health Resources for SBUSD Families

NCTSN • Compassion Fatigue & Self Care for Educators 

May was Mental Health  Month. Check out Mental Health America's Tools 2 Thrive website with a lot of printables and resources.

Managing Anxiety:

• • Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence • Managing Anxiety Around COVID-19: Tips for You and Your School Community (English)

  • Medium • Regulating Emotions in a COVID-19 World

  • Shine • Virus Anxiety Resources

Flexibility in the Midst of Crisis (via Psychology Today/Dr. Gil Noam)

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call, text, or chat in English and Spanish

• The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the United States. We're committed to improving crisis services and advancing suicide prevention by empowering individuals, advancing professional best practices, and building awareness.

SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Hotline: 1-800-985-5990 

• • From the United States and its territories, call 1-800-985-5990 to connect with a trained crisis counselor, 24/7. Spanish-speakers can call the hotline and press “2” for 24/7 bilingual support.

  • Callers to the hotline can also connect with counselors in over 100 other languages via 3rd-party interpretation services; to connect with a counselor in your primary language, simply indicate your preferred language to the responding counselor and she/he will connect to a live interpreter (interpretation in less commonly-spoken languages may require calling back at an appointed time). Learn more and download information about the Disaster Distress Helpline in 30 of the most commonly-spoken languages in the U.S.

  • The Disaster Distress Helpline’s TTY number 1-800-846-8517 is available 24/7 to Deaf and hard of hearing individuals, who can also utilize the texting options or their preferred Relay service (including 7-1-1) to connect with the main DDH hotline 1-800-985-5990, 24/7.

SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Texting Hotline:

• • To connect with a live DDH crisis counselor 24/7 via SMS, from the 50 states text “TalkWithUs” for English or “Hablanos” for Spanish to 66746. Spanish-speakers from Puerto Rico can text “Hablanos” to 1-787-339-2663.

  • Enroll in the service by texting TalkWithUs or Hablanos exactly as written. It’s important to do this before sending your first text message because otherwise the enrollment may fail, and you will not be able to speak with a counselor, or you may accidentally subscribe to another service.

  • Look for confirmation that your subscription was successful. You will receive a Success! message if it was.

  • To unsubscribe, text Stop or Unsubscribe to 66746 (or 1-787-339-2663 from Puerto Rico) at any time. For help, text Help to 66746 (or 1-787-339-2663 from Puerto Rico).

  • Standard text and data message rates will apply when texting from mobile phones. International text and data rates may apply from within U.S. territories and free association nations. SAMHSA will not sell your phone numbers to other parties.

Free 24/7 Crisis Text Line (not specific to Disasters/COVID-19, can text about any crisis)

• • Text: HOME to 741-741

LGBTQ Youth Hotline at 866-488-7386

Translifeline at 877-565-8860

Child Abuse/Child Welfare Services at 800-367-0166

Elder Abuse/Adult Protective Services at 844-751-6729

Heartmob • Online Harrassment Resources and Support

• Santa Barbara County Department of Behavioral Wellness, Crisis Response & Service Access Line  1-888-868-1649

• Safe Alternatives for Treatment of Youth (SAFTY) SAFTY 1-888-334-2777

• Cottage Hospital Emergency Room- Psychiatric Services, West Junipero St. and, Castillo St, Santa Barbara, CA 93105  805-569-7210

• SB County Behavioral Wellness Crisis Services, 315 Calle Del Remedio Suite B Santa Barbara, CA  93110 805-884-6850

• Standing Together to End Sexual Assault at 805-564-3696

• Domestic Violence Solutions Crisis Hotline at 805-964-5245

• SAVE is available to provide assessment and referral services for a variety of issues, both personal and job related. Services are free and strictly confidential. Staff and family members are eligible for up to 3 sessions per person, per issue through SAVE. 805-962-5387

Holistic Wellness Practices: a collection of mindfulness resources that help people tap into the wisdom of their own body, mind and spirit from our Youth Outreach Worker, Ismael Huerta

All ages:

• On our district iPads in Self Service, there are two mindfulness apps that students can download, both with free programming:

  • Smiling Mind, a free app where there are activities specific to age ranges

  • Calm, an app that has some free programming (and also a paid option), here is some info they have for educators

• Meditation Apps for Kids: a list of meditation apps for kids via Common Sense Media categorized by age and compatible devices

• Apps to Help Keep Kids Focused: a list of focusing apps for kids via Common Sense Media categorized by age and compatible devices

Elementary:

• Mind Yeti (elementary): mindfulness videos in English (YouTube, Vimeo) and Spanish (YouTube, Vimeo), free, no login required

• Cosmic Kids Yoga (elementary): YouTube station with videos for mindfulness and yoga for kids 3+

• GoNoodle (elementary): Website for “gym” time and movement, family account doesn’t require login, educator account requires login. If you search for “Spanish” in the search bar, there are a few videos in Spanish. You can also click on some of the English videos in the bottom right hand corner where there’s a gear, then the button that says “CC” for Spanish subtitles.

• Little Renegades Free Classroom Mindfulness Exercises (elementary): A free download of mindfulness activities to do with your class

• 10 Mindfulness Activities

• Mindful Schools: Free online mindfulness classes that you can watch. Parents can enter their email to get instructions but the instructions are also on that screen, so no sign in necessary. Geared towards K-5.

Secondary:

• Finding Focus (for high school and older): UCSB training program to increase focus and stress management, free, English only, sign up with invite code: 4BUH91LA Curious? Watch the trailer. 

Obviously, many SEL activities cannot be implemented online. But, there is a lot that can be! First, think of how you can integrate the SEL competencies into your daily lessons. How can you have students thinking, writing, and talking about self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. CASEL also has a write-up of COVID-19 specific guidance. 

If you want one suggestion as a starting point for integrating SEL intentionally into your remote learning, it should be manageable to integrate CASEL's 3 Signature Practices into each class. 

1.  How can you start each class with an inclusive and welcoming activity? How can you use an activity/question a day to check in with students, learn about how they’re doing amongst all of this change, learn more about students to maintain relationships while we are all apart, etc. You can pull questions from this list of questions specific to remote learning during COVID-19 (in progress), list of questions or circle questions. 

2. What engaging strategies and brain breaks can you use to anchor learning and reinforce SEL? 

3. How can you end each class with an optimistic closure to support forward-thinking? Read the CASEL doc for more examples and ideas!

NEW SEL Lesson Plan Template (download and it is a fillable PDF)

NEW GGSC at Berkeley • SEL Asynchronous Mini-Course

NEW GGSC at Berkeley • SEL Resources to Support Antiracist Learning

100+ Free SEL Resources and Printables (mostly geared towards TK-8)

Inside SEL COVID-19 Resources - List of resources, blog posts, and guides to help students and adults cope during this difficult time.

Social Emotional Learning in the Online Classroom: A blog post about how to integrate SEL into online teaching. Mostly specific to teaching English online but some of the tips can apply across subject areas.

SEL Resources on the RA website on the Collective

ASCD • Why We Can't Afford Whitewashed Social-Emotional Learning, and follow up article in EdSurge • Dena Simmons: Without Context, Social-Emotional Learning Can Backfire

Student Wellness Ideas mostly geared towards secondary, but can be pulled from to give ideas to elementary families as well

“Circle” questions specific to COVID-19 to be used in forums or virtual class

Virtual Relationship Building Idea Bank takes the ideas from our in-class relationship building activities and modifies them to work on Zoom. Also includes new games and brain breaks for remote learning.

SEL Practices and Activities via Greater Good in Education from UC Berkeley, many that can be adapted for remote learning, can be sorted by grade level and length of activity

SEL Resources: A variety of SEL resources via Common Sense Media

This website, Wide Open School, is from Common Sense Media with resources for many areas, not just SEL. It is currently in English but there is a section for "English Language Learners" for Pre-K-5 and 6-12 that links to resources for Spanish-speaking families, although it's not the same activities as the English page.

Sources of Strength SEL activities for home learning

• Examining our biases with the Implicit BiasesTest: 'Gay - Straight' and 'Transgender People – Cisgender People' IATs, and setting goals/actions; more self-work

• Bias Makes LGBT Equality Tough to Teach, Learning for Justice

• Safe Space Toolkit  (Check Yourself, pg 7), GLSEN

• Accepting Adults Reduce Suicide Attempts Among LGBTQ Youth – The Trevor Project

Factors to Consider That Impact Teaching

• Just the Facts: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel

• Creating Gender Inclusive Schools  (film), gender spectrum

• Tools for Equality and Inclusion, Human Rights Campaign

• Myths About Gender, Gender Spectrum

• Gender Support and Communication Plan for Schools, Gender Spectrum

Analyzing if the resources we choose and the curriculum design are windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors

• We Can’t Just Teach About Heroes and Holidays and Call It Culturally Responsive, Zachary Wright

• A Tool for Selecting Diverse Texts, Learning for Justice; and more here

• Developing LGBTQ-Inclusive Classroom Resources, GLSEN

• Creating an LGBT Inclusive Curriculum: A Guide For Secondary Schools, Stonewall Education for All

• • Glossary of Terms, Human Rights Campaign

GLSEN:

• • Pronoun Guide

  • Pronoun Resource

  • Support Safe Schools and Transgender Youth

  • Supporting LGBTQ+ Students of Color and Black, Latinx, AAPI, Native

  • Ready, Set, Respect: Elementary Toolkit and more

Learning for Justice:

• • LGBTQ Best Practices (classroom info starts on page 22)

  • Let's Talk! guide for facilitating critical conversations

• Santa Barbara Pacific Pride Foundation, Youth Programs

• PFLAG Santa Barbara; Our Children Guide; and Safe Schools

• UCSB Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity

• Pronouns Matter (comprehensive site about pronouns), My Pronouns; and more

• The Gender Wheel Curriculum, by Maya Gonzalez

• The Gender Unicorn and the Gender Elephant, Trans Student Educational Resources

• LGBT History and Why it Matters, Facing History and Ourselves

• History Un-Erased: Intersections and Connections Digital curriculum for K-12 schools

• Inclusive Curriculum Lessons, GLSEN

• Changing the Game: Resources for PE teachers, coaches, and athletic directors, GLSEN 

• Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Resources, GLSEN

• No Name-Calling Week: lessons on addressing name-calling and bullying, GLSEN

• American Library Association’s Rainbow Book List

• LGBTQ Heritage, National Park Service

• Gender Inclusive Biology

• Classroom Posters & Signs: Gender Inclusive Signage, gender spectrum; One World Posters & Know The Difference Poster, Learning for Justice; Social Justice Posters, Amplifier; Syracuse Cultural Workers

• Gender Inclusive Booklist, The Gender Inclusive Classroom

• Brick by Brick: The LGBTQ Advocacy Curriculum, National Women’s Law Center

• Resources For Your School - Gender and LGBTQ Inclusive Resources, Welcoming Schools

• LGTBQ Youth & Schools Resource Library, ACLU

• LGBTQ+ Collection, Teaching Books

• Educate and Celebrate, Classroom Resources

• Celebrate LGBT Pride Month With Perspectives!, Teaching for Tolerance

PRESCHOOL - 2ND GRADE:

• And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson, Video; Guide

• My Rainbow, by Deshanna Neal, Video; Guide

• Phoenix Goes To School, Video

• When Aidan Became a Brother, by Kyle Lukoff, Video; Guide

• Sparkle Boy, by Lesléa Newman, Video; Guide

• Call Me Tree/Llámame Árbol, by Maya Christina Gonzalez, Video; Guide

• Red: A Crayon's Story, by Michael Hall, Video; Guide

3RD - 6TH GRADE:

• Stonewall: A Building, An Uprising, A Revolution by Rob Sander, Video; Guide

• PRIDE: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, by Rob Sanders, Video; Guide

• George, by Alex Gino, Video; Guide

• Julián Is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love, Video; Guide

• This Day in June, by Gayle E. Pitman, Video, Guide

• They She He Me: Free To Be!, by Maya Gonzalez and Matthew SG, Video; Guide

• Antonio’s Card / La Tarjeta de Antonio, by Rigoberto Gonzalez,  Video; Guide

• It Feels Good To Be Yourself; A Book About Gender Identity, by Theresa Thorn, Video; Guide

SECONDARY:

• On Coming Out TED Talk Playlist

• Newsela Text Set: A Mile In Our Shoes: People Who Are LGBTQ+

• Newsela Example Lessons: 

  • Challenging Gender Norms

  • Introduction to Intersectionality

  • Systemic Silencing

  • Stonewall

  • LGBTQIA+ Artists

• Celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month, Learning for Justice

• The Acronym and Beyond, Learning for Justice

• Stonewall Documentary, The Center

• Explore the Stonewall Monument, Virtual Tour

• Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall, Smithsonian

• Who's Streets? Our Streets! Queer History of Streets of New York: A virtual walk through the streets

• Quist App: Daily Queer History: Daily LGBTQ+ history app 

• Queer Kids Stuff: YouTube Channel for Kids

• Brainpop: LGBTQ+

• OutWords: Stories of LGBTQ+ Pioneers

• Gender Spectrum Groups, free online groups for pre-teen and teens

• Queer Portraits in the 19th and 20th centuries, by Michele Rosenthal 

• Queer Kids Stuff, Videos

For teachers

For families

INAUGURATION RESOURCES:

Facing History • Reflecting on Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb" 

NYTimes • Lesson of the Day: Amanda Gorman and ‘The Hill We Climb’ 

C-Span Classroom • Lesson Plan: 2021 Joe Biden Inauguration Viewing Guides 

POST-NATIONAL VIOLENCE:

NCTSN • Teacher Guidelines for Helping Students After Mass Violence 

NASP • Talking to Children About Violence

Posted on or after 1/6/21:

KQED Mind/Shift • How Difficult ‘Day After’ Discussions with Students Can Help Them Process the Present and Prepare for the Future 

Facing History and Ourselves • What Happened at the US Capitol and Why?

EducationWeek • How to Teach the U.S. Capitol Attack: Dozens of Resources to Get You Started

NEA • Talking to Kids About the Attack on the Capitol (English/Español)

Beyond the Stoplight • Resources for Teachers on the Days After the Attack on the U.S. Capitol (Addressing Racism)

Facing History and Ourselves • Responding to the Insurrection at the US Capitol 

Teaching Tolerance • Leading Conversations After the Insurrection in Washington D.C. 

Peardeck • Templates for discussing hard topics (copy into Google Slides)

 MANAGING ELECTION STRESS:

Folder of resources (PDFs below...note that some are from other districts and may list resources that aren't local and/or available to our staff)

Psych Alive • Control What You Can 

Psych Alive • How To Stop Anxiety

KQED • Random Soothing Content to Ease Your Election-Week Stress 

New York Times • Election Distractor 

TALKING TO YOUR STUDENTS:

Teaching Tolerance • A Historic Election 

Teaching Tolerance • What Will You Do On Wednesday? 

Teaching Tolerance • Teaching Digital Literacy this Election Season 

ADL • Talking with Young People After the Election 

NPR • Now Is A Good Time To Talk To Kids About Civics (specific to parents)

KQED • How to Talk to Your Kids About the Election (specific to parents)

As we approach Winter Break, we wanted to thank you for your perseverance this school year as we continue to navigate these challenging times together as a school community. We have learned about the importance of staying healthy, collaborating with one another, and keeping our loved ones close. In order to continue to support our students and families during the Winter Break, we have put together some resources that we hope you find helpful: 

• Our incredible students and art departments, along with our school-based therapists from Family Services Agency (FSA), have put together this message of hope, help, and strength for our community. Please watch and enjoy!  (Español)

• Together with Meghan Kooyman, a school-based therapist with CALM, we have made a bingo card of safe ways to have fun, be well, and celebrate over the break. Please check this out! (Español) 

• For more ideas on how to keep our bodies and minds healthy, please see our Health & Wellness Resources page on our district website. (Español)

• If you need mental health assistance during the winter break, please contact:

• ACCESS (Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness 24/7 Crisis and General Help Line, (English/Spanish) at 1-888-868-1649. The ACCESS team can complete a quick assessment and determine the resource that is available during the break to meet individual needs.

• SAFTY (8:00am to 8:00pm) 1-888-334-2777 

Thank you for your continued support in keeping our community safe by adhering to the guidance we have been asked to follow:

• Stay home as much as possible

• Limit contact to those in your household

• Remember to wear your mask

• Practice healthy hygiene

• Stay home if you are sick

• Keep your distance from those outside your bubble

Wishing you all a peaceful, joyful, and restful Winter Break. We will see you in 2021. Happy New Year!