Educator Resources

Adult SEL

Developing your self-care habits + helping your teams collaborate effectively.

A Slice of SEL Podcast

Our own podcast, created to support local educators with self-care and all things SEL.

Be Good People Curriculum

Our locally developed K-12 SEL curriculum.

Behavior Basics

How to break down behavior and understand why it's getting "better" or "worse."

Correction & Discipline

Helping students keep their mistakes small, learn from them, and make things right.

Data

Using data across the school building to help us make effective decisions.

Diversity

Helping all students feel welcome and appreciated for what makes them unique.

Engagement

Generating intrinsic motivation by fostering belonging, investment, and autonomy.

External SEL Curriculums

SEL curriculums (and story books!) published outside our districts.

Integrated SEL Instruction

Recognizing and refining how we're weaving SEL into academic instruction.

Mental Health Support

Self-harm and suicide prevention + facilitating students’ access to mental health providers.

Partnerships

Promoting student voice + working with families and the community to support SEL.

Rules & Reinforcement

Clearly communicating behavior expectations and acknowledging when students meet them.

Tier 2 Interventions

How to run "plug and play" interventions, match students with the right one, and know how well it's working.

Tier 3 & SpEd Interventions

How to adjust and intensify the "intervention recipe" when our standard approaches aren't enough.

The Big Picture

A classroom lens: What does SEL look like from the perspective of a classroom teacher?

This is a version of the same document, but it includes resource links to help you dig deeper.

A school-wide lens: What does SEL look like from the perspective of a leadership team?

Want to stay in the loop?

We created a mailing list to provide educators with instant updates about this website and the resources hosted on it (e.g., the Be Good People curriculum). If you'd like to join, click here and then click "Ask to join group." If you'd prefer not to join, you can always check our updates log below.

Click to open a log of website updates.

July 2021

  • (7/16/21) Community building activities (two truths and a lie, would you rather, icebreaker questions, etc.) added to all of the Tier 1/Core Edition Be Good People curriculum pages. As explained in our scheduling guidance, this is one of the activities that many of our schools — particularly secondary buildings — are including in their tier 1 instruction schedules (rotated with Be Good People lessons, extension activities, and teaching rules/routines/PBIS expectations). The community building slide decks include hundreds of discussion questions, and they're split into 4-question "packs" in order to fit into a 15-25 minute morning meeting/advisory/homeroom, etc.

  • (7/16/21) Additional activity options were added to the same tier 1/Core Edition Be Good People pages. These were originally designed with interventionists in mind and featured with the Intervention Edition of Be Good People, but several of our schools — particularly elementary schools — were interested in offering these at tier 1 as a resource teachers could use on days where a formal SEL lesson isn't scheduled (e.g., as a building we teach our Be Good People lesson on Monday during morning meeting, and during morning meeting later that week a teacher might read and discuss one of the decision-making scenarios with their class).

  • (7/16/21) Numerous aesthetic and navigational improvements have been made to the SEL website, including a simplified home page and adding a link index to the footer. The footer index gives people one more way to easily jump around the website.

  • (7/16/21) Across the website, we've improved the button format by using more colors and icons to help people quickly understand what kind of content is being linked to (e.g., websites, documents, videos, podcasts, etc.). For example, check out to the student resources page.

  • (7/16/21) A button menu was added to the top of the Calming Strategies Toolbox pages. Visitors can click those buttons to quickly jump between the pages in the toolbox. We're very excited that this will make it even easier, particularly for students and families, to explore the Calming Strategies Toolbox.

  • (7/16/21) The educator section of the website has been re-shuffled. Quite a few of the pages you'll see once you follow that link were previously clustered onto a single website page, and we wanted to spread the content out to give each topic more room to breathe.

April 2021

  • (4/19/21) In the Intervention Edition of Be Good People, "In this lesson..." preview slides were added, which replace the previous learning target slides. Because of this added detail early in the lesson sequence, a slide with all of the skill steps written out was moved from before the "Why?" section to the beginning of the "How?" section.

  • (4/12/21) In the Core Edition of Be Good People, role play reflection questions were removed from the "Activity" section and "Skip to end" buttons were added to all the practice scenario slides.

  • (4/5/21) We've created a separate Core Edition of Be Good People with lessons designed to fit into 20-25 minutes, the typical allotted instructional time that schools have available at Tier 1. All of the materials you're familiar with continue to be available, and we're now referring to them as "Intervention Edition" to make the distinction clear. They will continue to support Tier 2, Tier 3, and SpEd interventionists. This video explains more about the new Core Edition, as well as providing guidance for developing a unique Tier 1 instructional sequence.

March 2021

  • (3/23/21) Smiling Mind released a major app update.

  • (3/23/21) New basics of behavior video added to that page that explains that content in video form.

  • (3/23/21) Four new A Slice of SEL podcast episodes about pre-correction prompts, praise, time/energy management tips for educators, and emotional intelligence tools/visuals (e.g., Yale's Mood Meter, Zones of Regulation, etc.).

February 2021

  • (2/22/21) New A Slice of SEL podcast episode about setting up rules that work for you and your students. Whether it’s bringing rules to a single classroom, co-developing rules with students, sharing rules across a school (e.g., PBIS), they cover it and talk pros and cons of each approach.

  • (2/15/21) Mindful STOP poster (page 2) added to the Calming Strategies Toolbox. "Mindfulness" might sound fancy or intimidating, like something you have to set aside time to do, but this poster shows how you can have a "mindful moment" — literally a moment. It's simple, easy and could help anyone: students, educators, and families.

  • (2/15/21) New A Slice of SEL podcast episode where our team shares many examples of how to build students' Responsible Decision Making skills during academic instruction via integrated SEL instruction.

  • (2/8/21) New A Slice of SEL podcast episode where our team shares many examples of how to build students' Relationship Skills during academic instruction via integrated SEL instruction.

  • (2/1/21) New A Slice of SEL podcast episode where our team shares many examples of how to build students' Social Awareness skills during academic instruction via integrated SEL instruction.

January 2021

  • (1/28/21) Added to Universal SEL Toolkit: Equity, Diversity, and Human Rights Lesson Plans A 12-lesson sequence created for secondary students by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Downloadable lesson slides, worksheets, videos, etc. — everything is prepped.

  • (1/25/21) New Headspace Guide to Meditation (8-episode Netflix series) linked from Parent, Student, and Educator pages.

  • (1/25/21) SAMHSA Treatment Locator added to Mental Health Services page. This allows you to search for mental health providers by ZIP code, city, etc.

  • (1/25/21) New A Slice of SEL podcast episode where our team shares many examples of how to build students' self-management skills during academic instruction via integrated SEL instruction.

  • (1/18/21) New A Slice of SEL podcast episode about integrated SEL instruction. Our SEL team chats about many examples of how teachers can build students’ self-awareness skills during academic instruction.

  • (1/14/21) New video: Educator Self-Care Resources on the Cross-District SEL Website. The first 5 minutes explain chronic/toxic stress from a biological perspective and emphasizes that "self-care is not selfish." The second half walks through various resources on the website that are meant to support educators. This video was put together for a training in one of our districts, and it could be used in other districts via a synchronous training, asynchronous email/newsletter push-out, etc.

  • (1/11/21) New A Slice of SEL podcast episode about empathetic listening techniques (AKA "listening with intention," "compassionate listening," "active listening"). This skill set is foundational — if we want teachers, paraprofessionals, etc. to be able to navigate conversations with students about tough topics, be "support people" for students (or colleagues), have successful 1:1 corrective chats with students, etc. this is a listening skill set they need.

  • (1/7/21) Two 2-minute videos added to the Challenging Talks page that help parents know how to talk to their children about COVID-related financial stress and coping skills, respectively.

  • (1/7/21) Added to Universal SEL Toolkit: Top 10 Tips handout and two videos (one for educators and one specific to school-based mental health professionals) all on the subject of supporting students with grief and difficulty adjusting during the pandemic. To access, click the link > open dropdown > look for ★ that indicates COVID-19 specific resources.

  • (1/7/21) Added to Universal SEL Toolkit: Video added that helps peer leaders know how to respond to peers in distress. To access, click the link > open dropdown > look for ★ that indicates COVID-19 specific resources.

  • (1/7/21) Life Kit: Parenting podcast added to General Parent Resources page. They just released a relevant episode: "What to Tell Kids When the News is Scary."

December 2020

November 2020