Matching the right tool to the right goal is a major focus of my work as a tech coach. When I began in this role, I focused energy on ways to improve instruction and learning across content areas. Now I’m expanding to professionals that support students outside of the classroom. School social workers play a pivotal – and rapidly growing – role in the success of our students.
Blogs
7 Components of Effective Social Work IEP Goals (With Cindy Hall & Allison Wlhelm)
By writing clear, specific, and effective measurable goals, school social workers will be able to make data driven decisions regarding students’ needs. In addition, school social workers can monitor their effectiveness to determine if the social worker’s interventions are effective.
Icebreakers For SSW Groups
Ice Breakers are a great tool for social workers to use when developing rapport with students. These activities can be used in either individual sessions or for groups. Ice Breakers are used in a variety of settings and can be changed to fit the context they’re being used in. Using these activities during the pre-affiliation stages of therapy, there’s more of a likelihood that students will loosen up, build rapport, and show up more authentically in sessions.
Creating Your Digital SSW Office: The SSWN Interview With Bridget Hills-Yoder
This academic school year, my district is starting by doing remote learning. The day that I received the news from my school district, I tried to figure out ways to connect with students. In my search, I came across a post by Bridget Hills-Yoder. She shared on a Facebook Page by the Illinois Association of School Social Workers how to create your own digital office. After I read this post, I began to work on my own digital office and I received lots of positive feedback from colleagues. Therefore, I asked Bridget if she could kindly share further details. The interview is below:
Increase Your Child’s Independence Skills This Summer
As summer is approaching, it is important to help your children or teens to continue developing their independence skills. While your children are at school, they are constantly developing their independence skills by…
Resilient Teen During COVID-19 (Part 3)
This summer, I spent some time interviewing and listening to adolescents’ points of view regarding the Corona Virus and being students during this time. Many teens have learned to re-frame their thoughts in order to overcome adversity. It is important that parents model positive behaviors at home because children and adolescents are observing how parents react to stressful situations. Life is often full of surprises and inevitable stress, and therefore, it is a strength to learn how to become positive and flexible thinkers during adversity. Although, it’s perfectly fine to have a bad day or to experience grief when traumatic events occur; however, it is not healthy to stay stressed for a long period of time. Teens need to be taught how to reflect and handle stressful situations as they return to school (full-time back to school, hybrid, or remote learning models). Therefore, in this interview, Grace shares her thoughts and feelings about COVID-19. Grace shares how she has been resilient and what she has learned from this experience.
Resilient Teen During Covid-19
My areas of expertise have been to work with children, adolescents, and families. Most recently, many children and teens had to quickly adjust to E-learning and adjust their daily routines in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
During this time, I have been engaging in active listening to support children, teens, and families. Through this experience, I have met people who have been quite resilient because they used their protective factors to meet and exceed their expectations. A teen who I will call “Nathan” shared his wisdom in an interview. The purpose of this interview is to empower youth to proactively use their protective factors to maintain socially, emotionally, and mentally healthy.
Resilient Teen During Covid-19 (Part 2)
This blog is a follow up to the first one. In this interview, Alana will be sharing specific coping skills that have helped her to be resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cooking At Home and Improve Your Mental Health
As I spent more time at home due to COVID-19, I used this time to reflect and analyze healthy lifestyles in order to maintain a balanced mental health. More specifically, I decided to analyze my eating habits. I grew up in a household where homemade meals were cooked on a daily basis. On the weekends, my mother would take me out to eat as a treat. Because of these experiences, I learned that it is possible to make time to cook healthy meals if you make it a priority. Just like most women, my mother worked full-time at 2 different jobs, but she consistently made time to fuel her body with the right vitamins and food groups to keep herself and her family healthy. Therefore, in this blog, my mother, Maria Klimecko, shared images and recipes to provide you with ideas. Eating at home is a healthy lifestyle for many reasons.