The beginning of a new school year is filled with a plethora of emotions – excitement, stress, anxiety, anticipation, hope, nerves. This is especially true for school faculty and staff that navigated two years of uncertainty. Below is a list of resources from our Wellbeing for LA Learning Center that can help support student and educator wellbeing this back-to-school season.
1. Connected Classroom for Middle School and High School Students
This collection provides tools to support middle and high school teachers in developing student wellbeing and resilience in classroom settings. Guides to teaching key skills for emotion regulation, effective communication, goal setting, and stress reduction are also be provided.
2. Emotions and Resilience in Teaching
Educators have many roles in their students' lives. This can make the pressures of teaching even more challenging. This series of short videos highlights the stress and trauma experienced by educators and ways to support their mental health and serve as a model for students. The importance of fostering resilience in educators and supporting mental health is emphasized.
3. Introduction to Stress and Resilience
This series of short videos provides ways to support students' mental health using trauma informed practices in the classroom and emphasize the importance of modeling emotion regulation and fostering community amongst peers.
4. Helping Students Manage Stress in the Classroom
The signs of trauma and stress in youth can be difficult for others to decipher. This series displays how trauma and stress can impact the mental and physical health of students. These videos explain the importance of fostering resilience, including emotion regulation, to supporting student wellbeing.
5. Age-Based Tips and Lessons to Help Students Process Upsetting Events for Educators
When tragedies occur, students of all ages may be exposed to varying levels of information through social media, news outlets, or overhearing conversations. Educators and school staff may recognize a need to address the tragedy itself and/or the emotional impact it may have on their students within the classroom. This resource provides strategies to skillfully discuss when tragic events occur and links to additional age-based tips and resources for news and media literacy.
Printable Tools:
Approaching tasks can be difficult when anxiety is getting in the way. Having a sensory toolkit nearby can help lower levels of anxiety so that you can regroup to approach the task at hand. Use this printable tool as a guide for creating your own Sensory Toolkit organized around the five senses. This Toolkit was written by aUCLA undergraduate youth advisor and originally published on the UCLA Center for Child Anxiety Resilience Education and Support (CARES) website. Additional information about theSensory Toolkit can also be accessed here.
The day of your test is here and with it comes a good amount of anxiety. Use these tips to care for yourself when your body enters fight/flight/freeze mode and lower anxiety both immediately before and during the exam. These tips were written by a UCLA student advisor and originally published on the UCLA Center for Child Anxiety Resilience Education and Support (CARES) website. More information about the Day-of Test Anxiety Tips can be accessed here.
