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30 min - 45 min Character Building 6th - 8th
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Introduction to Restorative Practices

Using restorative practices in your classroom can be a game changer for building and maintaining positive relationships with challenging students. Join us for this course where we will lay a foundation for restorative circles, where they originated, and useful ways to integrate them into your practice.

Literacy Tools and Strategies to Strengthen Executive Functioning

Executive functioning is crucial for learning and development. These are the skills that allow us to plan, focus, organize, and set and achieve goals. Utilizing digital resources with purposeful literacy lessons provides opportunities for teachers and students to develop self-awareness, organizational skills, self-regulation, planning and prioritizing. In this course, you'll learn how to incorporate executive functioning in reading and writing instruction to build life-long skills.Michele L. Haiken, Ed.D. is an educator, author, and blogger. She has been teaching for more than 24 years and is passionate about empowering 21st century learners through educational technology and literacy so everyone can reach excellence. She is the author of Creative SEL: Using Hands On Projects to Boost Social-Emotional Learning and Personalized Reading.

Advisory Routines for Community Building

In this course, we will look into how to establish a strong connection with your students and fellow staff members. We will focus on community building activities and routines to establish the basics of a positive, safe, and caring environment that is built on trust, listening, and connectedness. Join us as we explore strategies to use in your advisory class and beyond!

Creating Virtual Calming Rooms with Wakelet

Wakelet is the perfect tool for organizing content for personal and student use. In this session, we’ll explore how to use Wakelet to create your own virtual calming room that students can access with ease. Join us to learn how to add resources for meditation, mindfulness, inspiration, and so much more to your Wakelet collection. We will also discuss how a digital calming space can be a powerful resource for students, teachers, and families.

Self-Reflection Activities for Elementary Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-teacher conference season is a great time to give students activities that encourage them to reflect on their work habits, social skills, and identify some of their strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. Whether students are filling out a basic skills form or writing freely about their strengths and areas of improvement, this can free up some time for you before conferences and can be a valuable addition to your meetings with guardians. Join us to learn some ideas that will help get students reflecting!

Raising Heart Health Awareness in Physical Education

February is National Heart Health Month, and it is the perfect time to teach students about the importance of heart-healthy activities and living an overall healthy lifestyle. In this session, we will explore strategies for teaching students about Heart Health Month and showcase specific activities to get them up and moving. From yoga and meditation, to a PSA on fitness and heart health, students will be engaged every step of the way!

Enhancing Classroom Management with Classroomscreen

Are you tired of toggling between class management apps, timers, and feedback tabs throughout the day? Classroomscreen has got you covered! In this session, we will discuss Classroomscreen and all the ways it can be useful in your classroom. Classroomscreen is a one-stop shop that eliminates the need to have multiple tabs open for your LMS, class management, visual cues, etc. We will discuss the widgets available on Classroomscreen, how it's beneficial across all grade bands and disciplines, how you can customize your screens, and more!

Integrating SEL into Physical Education

How can we provide students with social-emotional learning opportunities across subject areas? In this session, we will explore the value of SEL and the importance of confidence boosting, teamwork, and relationship-building in the PE classroom. We will also discuss how you can take lessons that you already have and easily add SEL components. Finally, we will share best practices and detailed activity ideas to strengthen the mind-body connection. Join us to get your mind muscles moving!

Addressing SEL Through Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards can be powerful, eye-catching tools that communicate information and celebrate student learning. Have you ever thought about using them to help support students' social-emotional needs? Join us as we discover unique bulletin board ideas and best practices for creating boards that promote SEL, inclusiveness, and make a positive impact.

Introduction to Flip

Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is an interactive and engaging tool that is perfect for communication and creative expression. In this session, we will explore how to get started with this platform, examine several of the key features, and show you how to create fun activities for your students.

Tools to Alleviate Back to School Anxiety

Educators are key players when it comes to helping students cope with back-to-school anxiety. Join us for this course as we explore techniques for educators to recognize the signs of student distress and how to guide them through anxiety. We'll show you ways to ensure your students thrive over the course of the academic school year. You may even find that some of these strategies can help you to address some of your own start-of-the-year anxieties too!

Celebrate Student Success Using 3D Design & Printing

As educators, we wear many hats. We are listeners, planners, data collectors, and above all: motivators. In order to motivate our students, we are constantly looking for ways to celebrate their achievements. In this session, we will share ideas for designing prizes and other celebratory items to commemorate your students’ accomplishments for homework completion, attendance, and so much more!

Digital Memory Books for SEL

As the school year comes to a close, students have had countless memorable experiences. Why not help them reflect and process events by creating memory books? In this course, we'll show you how your students can create digital memory books to capture their favorite moments.

Developing Check-In Systems for Older Students

Developing age appropriate check-ins can be a challenge for educators working with older students. However, carefully crafted check-ins can bring middle and high school classes closer together. You may even find that they can help to improve students' well-being! Join us as we explore resources for designing morning, mid-day or afternoon check-in systems to monitor student behavior and assist you with planning the next steps for success with these students.

Virtual Calming Rooms

Note, this course was previously aired but because of its popularity we are running a recording of this session live at this time. The presenter will not be able to address your questions, but our Professional Development team members will be in the chat box to answer any questions you have. This session can also be found in our Course Library by searching the same title.

In times of stress, it is important to have outlets and coping strategies. This is often managed with calming techniques, mindfulness, and dedicated spaces for relaxation. What happens if your students are not physically present in school? In this course, we will go over how to offer social and emotional support and build emotional management skills in your students, whether you are teaching traditionally, hybrid, or remote. Digital calming spaces can be a great resource for students of all ages.

Using Nearpod for Brain Breaks

As educators, we know the value of brain breaks. They allow our students to recharge and get moving. Nearpod adds interactivity to our instruction and provides students with meaningful and engaging tools to keep them motivated. Join us as we discuss tools such as VR field trips, polling, collaboration features, and more for effective brain breaks.

Social and Emotional Learning with Pear Deck

Pear Deck is a Google add-on that allows us to transform Google Slides presentations to enhance student engagement and lesson content. Social and emotional learning is an essential part of our daily instruction and it's necessary to provide opportunities for this type of learning throughout our instruction. In this session, we will explore the pre-made social and emotional learning templates available on Pear Deck, and discuss the benefits of check-ins throughout academic lessons. Join us for some unique, ready-to-go SEL lessons!

Self-Assessment and Monitoring Confidence Levels Using Nearpod

Nearpod is a powerful tool for engaging your students in learning. Join us to discuss the benefits of using Nearpod for self-expression. We'll explore quick self-assessments and self-monitoring activities, discuss how to add assessment and critical thinking opportunities into our lessons, and walk you through the steps for including polling and open-ended questions to get students to reflect on the learning process.

Student Mental Health with GoGuardian

Understanding your students' mental health is critical for their education. GoGuardian can be a useful tool to help you understand how your students are doing by looking at student trends, observing digital behaviors, and connecting with students who may need more support. Join us to see how you can use the features of GoGuardian to check in on student wellbeing.

Social Media in the Classroom

Social media is an effective tool for opening up communication between teachers, students, and parents worldwide. Join us as we discuss the best practices for implementing popular social media networks into your classroom. We’ll also show you how to use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to grow your own education- focused network. Let’s explore how to communicate with our students and engage them in learning through social media!

Creating Virtual Calming Rooms

In times of stress, it is important to have outlets and coping strategies. This is often managed with calming techniques, mindfulness, and dedicated spaces for relaxation. What happens if your students are not physically present in school? In this course, we will go over how to offer social and emotional support and build emotional management skills in your students, whether you are teaching traditionally, hybrid, or remote. Digital calming spaces can be a great resource for students of all ages.

Getting Started with Blogger

Blogging is an accessible method of writing and communicating to a wide audience. Join us for this session as we explore Blogger, a platform that allows you to publish and share your own blogs. We will explore the basics, and then talk about how to get started with content creation, and how to engage students across grade levels and subject areas.

Social and Emotional Learning for Re-adjusting to the Classroom

We all know this school year will look different from any year prior. For many students, this will mean a return, or perhaps even a partial return, to the classroom after months of learning remotely. In this course, join us as we discuss the challenges that students might face, and how we can best use social and emotional learning concepts to help students re-adjust to the classroom.

Exploring Social-Emotional Learning Through Games

Looking for a unique way to teach social-emotional learning skills to your students? Games are the perfect way to get your students thinking and expressing themselves creatively! In this session, we’ll talk about the benefits of using games to teach your students a range of social-emotional concepts. We will then dive into specific games and lesson activities that can be shared with your students. Join us as we explore emotion management and social support games that can be done in the classroom or at home!