Business

New training announcement! – Building Educators’ self-awareness to achieve wellness and transform classrooms

Posted on December 11, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Consulting, Trauma Informed Care

I’m thrilled to announce a brand new training that focuses on educator well-being!

If your school is looking for ways to better support the wellness of staff members, address and increase teacher satisfaction and retention or transform the culture of the building so that students and staff are happier, my newest training may be perfect for you!

A few things you will learn during this training include:

What self-awareness is and why it’s so important for educators
How self-awareness relates to wellness and classroom culture building
The ways in which our students and our classroom management is impacted by self-awareness
What collective care is and how we can use it to leverage teacher wellness and retention
Dozens of strategies for building self-awareness, both individually and collectively

This training is designed for teachers and other school staff. It can be done as a stand-alone 2, 4 or 6 hour professional development.

If you’re ready to join the thousands of educators (and parents!) who have benefited from my trainings and expertise, send me an email at alisa@akeducationalconsulting.com. Let me help you build a happier and healthier school!

Being informed about trauma doesn’t make you trauma-informed

Posted on September 19, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Consulting, Trauma Informed Care

I’ve been reviewing the Missouri Model for Trauma-Informed Schools guidance document, and I LOVE this breakdown of stages to becoming trauma-informed.

I often say that I hate the term “trauma-informed” because it’s so overused and seldom actually understood.

This is such great insight into how most schools are actually only in stage 1 – trauma awareness. Until you begin to research and implement change at the building level, and see the results of those changes, you can’t leave the first stage.

Being informed about trauma does not make you TRAUMA-INFORMED.

MAY 2024 SEL THEME – RESILIENCE & PERSEVERANCE – Picture book list

Posted on May 31, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Literacy, Parenting, Social Emotional Learning

Looking for picture books to support a lesson or discussion on resilience or perseverance? Check out one of these great titles!

What other books about resilience and perseverance do you love?

Relationship mapping tool

Posted on May 17, 2024May 17, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

This week, I talked all about the importance of connecting, and building relationships, with kids over on YouTube. One of the strategies I discussed was relationship mapping. I found this excellent tool for use by any teacher/school looking to do a more formal relationship mapping of their students.

I realize that this might be a difficult task to undertake for educators working in larger schools, but if you’re in a smaller school or up to the challenge, this tool really is fantastic and well worth the time it would take to complete.

I’d love to hear from you, if your school has done any kind of relationship mapping! How did you do it? What were the take-aways?

May 2024 SEL THEME – Resilience & Perseverance – AN INTRODUCTION

Posted on May 1, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Parenting, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

Welcome to May and our 5th social-emotional learning theme of the month! This is, arguably, one of the most important skills we can help our kids develop so get ready for some great information and strategies!

In this first week of the month, we will define our theme, discuss why it’s an important SEL skill and talk real-world application. This will serve as a springboard for the resources and other ideas I will be sharing throughout the remainder of the month.

So, let’s dive in!

What are resilience and perseverance exactly? You may not know there is a difference between them, but there is! Here’s a good starting point to use with kids of all ages. You can adjust this definition to best fit the needs of the age group you work with. I know many of these themes are pretty self-explanatory, but sometimes we just need someone else to sum it up for us!

Now that kids know what resilience and perseverance are, we need to help them understand why these skills are important and how they will be beneficial to them.

Next, we can begin connecting resilience and perseverance with kids’ real lives by helping them recognize what these skills actually look like and when they may come in handy!

Resilience is a skill that takes some time and support to fully develop. How can you aid your kids or students in resilience building this month and beyond?

Be sure to follow along all month right here on the blog, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. I will be sharing all sorts of tips, strategies and resources throughout May.

APRIIL 2024 SEL THEME – EMPATHY & COMPASSION – Strategies for parents and educators

Posted on April 10, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Parenting, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

Empathy can be a very tricky skill to build in kids. Heck, lots of adults struggle to be empathetic!

Starting early with very young kids is key. Here are three activities/strategies that can be used with kids of all ages but are particularly beneficial to younger kiddos.

Caring for Plants, Animals and Babies – Involving young children in caring for plants, animals and babies is a very effective and “entry-level” way to begin building empathy. Model and assign specific tasks to them and discuss how they are helping that living thing to survive and thrive. Have conversations around how we are all responsible for caring for other living things in the world and encourage them to think of ways they can do so. Eventually, you can take a more global perspective with this strategy by moving from them caring for siblings, houseplants and family pets to caring for these things in their classroom or school community, neighborhood or city and beyond.
Story Talk – This strategy is exactly what it sounds like – talking about the characters in a story. By discussing their lives, their problems and hardships, and how they might be similar or different from us, we can begin to open our children’s eyes to all the different types of people who share our world. Beginning to understand the concept of diversity is a critical first step toward building empathy. If the book calls for it, ask your kids or students to brainstorm ways they could help the character through compassionate acts. This is a great way to, not only build empathy, but encourage kids to take their empathy one step further by acting on it.
Walk the Line – While this activity from Big Life Journal is geared toward older children, you can certainly adjust to make it work for younger kids. The idea is to help a group of kids begin to see how others have similar experiences as them and begin to build empathy for people who seemingly “don’t have problems” or “have it easier than they do.” With younger children, simply focus on identifying the things that kids in the group have in common. This is a great first step. You can also extend this activity through a variety of writing activities that are mentioned at the article link.

What other activities do you use to build empathy in your kids or students? I’d love to hear about them so please share!

MARCH 2024 SEL THEME – CONFLICT RESOLUTION & PROBLEM SOLVING – Recognizing, Identifying and Labeling Emotions

Posted on March 13, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Parenting, Social Emotional Learning

Today, rather than share any strategies with you (which I’ll do next week), let’s talk about the very first step in conflict resolution – being able to recognize, identify and name our own emotions, also known as having self-awareness.

Think about it. If we are unable to identify what we are feeling, as well as the cause of that feeling, it’s going to be nearly impossible to recognize in another person. This lack of self- and social awareness will make it very difficult to resolve any type of conflict that may arise.

Aside from being a critical component of conflict resolution, these emotional awareness skills are really important in so many other facets of life – from emotional regulation to advocating for ourselves.

So how do we help kids build these muscles? Here are a few things you can start doing with kids of any age (but the earlier, the better!)…

Talk about feelings openly and honestly in your home or classroom. We shouldn’t hide them or be ashamed of how we’re feeling. A safe, loving environment is a must in encouraging kids to share their feelings.
Model, model, model. Constantly talk through how YOU are feeling in different situations. Not only will you send the message that it’s ok to share their feelings, you will also be giving them the vocabulary to do so.
Teach emotion vocabulary words. Kids need to know how to label their emotions, and they need more words than just sad, glad and mad! Dig deep with them to get to the root of what they’re feeling and provide them the words until they’re able to do it on their own.
Help kids to understand that feelings are information. We have to pay attention to them to help us decipher the message. Then, we are able to begin the problem solving process.

What else is missing from this list? What do you do to build your kids’ emotional awareness muscles?

March 2024 SEL THEME – Conflict Resolution & Problem solving – AN INTRODUCTION

Posted on March 7, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Parenting, Social Emotional Learning

Welcome to March and our 3rd social-emotional learning theme of the month! This is a tricky one for many of us so buckle up for some great information and strategies!

So, let’s dive in!

What are conflict resolution and problem solving exactly? Here’s a good starting point to use with kids of all ages. You can adjust this definition to best fit the needs of the age group you work with. I know many of these themes are pretty self-explanatory, but sometimes we just need someone else to sum it up for us!

Now that kids know what conflict resolution means and what problem solving skills are, we need to help them understand why these skills are important and how they will be beneficial to them.

Next, we can begin connecting conflict resolution and problem solving with kids’ real lives by helping them recognize the many skills that are part of conflict resolution…and it’s a long list!

I know this is a tricky skill to learn, especially since many of our students are learning to resolve conflict in ways that seemingly go against everything we are trying to instill in them. How can you combat that and make these skills a priority this month (and beyond) for your kids or students?

Be sure to follow along all month right here on the blog, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. I will be sharing all sorts of tips, strategies and resources throughout March.

FEBRUARY 2024 SEL THEME – KINDNESS – TIPS & STRATEGIES FOR Teachers

Posted on February 22, 2024 by alisakaczorowski in Business, Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Care

Over on YouTube, I’ve shared two really great strategies for educators to instill kindness in students.

The first is a “take what you need” board. The idea is that you fill a bulletin board with quotes or affirmations that students can take when they are feeling overwhelmed, lacking self-confidence, etc.

To create a “take what you need” board, you first want to brainstorm the emotional supports your students may need. For instance, do you notice many students struggling with low self-esteem? Do they seem to need a reminder that they can and will rock exam week?

Once you identify several categories of supports, go in search of inspirational quotes and affirmations that may be helpful to them. Print or write them out to attach to the board. You can even color code the categories to make it easier to replenish as they are taken.

This is a fantastic idea for middle and high school educators and you can definitely get your student council or other similar club involved in helping.

Be sure all the students know about the board, where to find it, how it works, etc. Make sure it is accessible to all. You may even consider adding in some resources for students who are struggling with mental health issues or crises.

The second idea I discussed over on YouTube was a student and/or staff shout-out board. For this, you need to create a form that students or staff members can use to recognize one another. You make these forms available in a central location and have a system for them to be turned in. The forms can be attached to a bulletin board for everyone to read or can be read during morning/afternoon announcements.

This is a great way to encourage your school community to recognize the kind acts/great things happening in the building. Plus, it just makes people feel good to know they have been seen!

If you want to learn more about these strategies, head over to the following links to listen…

Take What You Need Board

Student/Staff Shout Out Board

What are some other ways you can instill kindness in your students?