Teaching Empathy and Other Social Skills Resources

Taken from Easy Peasy Kids
{Building Empathy in Children: Do you have kind eyes?}  

I'm struggling with this in my classroom this year.  It's tricky to teach kids how to be empathetic.  It's not that my students aren't loving, caring kids.  They are, and they do show it.  But we are also having a really hard time being helpful and supportive and encouraging to each other.  We are very caught up in ourselves and not thinking about other kid's feelings and personalities.  

We can talk about this all day long, and they can give me all the "right" answers.  They can figure things out and tell me how someone is feeling and what they can do.

But when they see a fellow student struggling in class, or someone that is a little different, or they think something that someone said wasn't correct, they suddenly forget everything we've talked about.

I love this video from RSA that shows how to show empathy.

As usual, I've searched my classroom and scoured the web to find resources I could be using.  Here's a few that I'm particularly fond of...

Second Step

My school got the {Second Step program} a few years ago.  It's a super program for bullying prevention and social skills.  I haven't pulled it out in awhile because the edition we have has extremely dated photos.  Like black and white photos from the early 90s, complete with scrunchies, white washed denim, and stirrup pants- and not the cool kind (is there a cool kind?.   Let's just say that what I have looks nothing like the above picture.  My students just do not relate to the pictures.  But the scenarios are wonderful and have led to a ton of excellent discussions in my classroom in the past.  I think it's time to dig it out again and give it a shot.  Or invest in the newer edition which I'm assuming has much better pictures...because I really do like what the program teaches.

SuperFlex

Of course, there are other programs out there as well.  This year, our resource room has started using the {SuperFlex program} from Social Thinking with our K-2 kids.  You can attend training and buy the books to help use the program in your school or classroom.  The students learn about different characters that reflect social skills or social difficulties, and then show students how to interact with each other.  Here's an example: {The Un-Wonderer}.  It's really cute and a great way to get students to see traits in each other.

Pinterest (the go-to resource)

Of course I've scoured Pinterest for lessons on {Empathy}.  I'll be trying a few to see how they work for us.

Other Web Resources: PDFs

{Put Yourself in Someone Else's Shoes: Building Character}

An amazing 45 page online teachers guide with activities and lessons for teaching Empathy to kids.  Awesome.

{Kid's Health Empathy Lesson} 

{Edutopia Project Happiness: Empathy Lesson} 

  

How do you show students the real life instances when empathy is needed without embarrassing someone else in the room by making them an example?

            

Happy Teaching! 

Educational technology: Friend or Foe?

This is mostly just...observation.  I don't know, maybe you run into this at your school as well.

I'm Miss B, and educational technology is my friend.  Sometimes people can yell "Help Desk!" in our hallway and I come running.  This is how I feel:

I love helping and teaching how to use a computer and new hardware, software, and programs.  It can also be really time consuming for me and I don't get paid for the hours of help I am providing.

I've heard so many questions...here are a few:

"I scanned this in.  How do I make changes do it?"  (You can't change the hand written page you scanned in... you will need to rewrite it and rescan it in)

"How do you scroll down on a laptop?"

"How can I find the file I just saved?"

"How do I use that program?  I always type it in an email and then copy and paste it to Word."

"I pressed a button and now my computer screen is huge.  How do I change it back?"

I've had a few problems that I don't have the answer to, but mostly I'm able to help out.  Even if I know the answer or can fix the problem, I'm still learning from them.  I've learned that everyone has different ways to find things.  There are so many ways to get one task accomplished.

However, it does make me think we have a problem here.  Hopefully not just in my school.  Our teachers can't find their files.  They don't know the different between a .docx and a .pdf.  They don't know how to use the hardware they've been given to do their job.  Is it their responsibility to find a class to take or teach themselves, or should that be something we teach our teachers?  I don't know.  I'm asking.  

I had a class a couple years ago that was so excited about the Microsoft Surface and Windows 8.  They loved the commercial....remember this?

They were talking about what they wanted for Christmas and someone said they wanted Windows 8.  "It's so cool!"  I was intrigued.  You want an operating system for Christmas?  That's cool.  I went along with it.  

They kept talking about it, so I finally chimed in and said something like "It would be awesome if we had Windows 8 on our computer so that we could use it on our SmartBoard!"

Confusion.  

"We could use Windows 8 on our Smarboard?"

"Of course."

"Can you click the keyboard onto it?"

Now it was my turn to be confused.  Click the keyboard onto the board?  That doesn't make sense.  Plus it would just look silly.

The problem was, they had no idea that Windows 8 and the Surface were two different things.  Part of this was the way Microsoft marketed the product, but part of it was because although these kids have grown up with computers and know how to get around a computer program, but they don't actually know how it works.  They haven't been taught.  

Naturally, we stopped and had a conversation about computer hardware vs. software.  Once I started talking, I realized how much they didn't know.  And oddly, how much they did at the same time.  My students and I teach each other how to do things on the computer all the time.  Where did you find that button?  How did you get it to do that?  I think it's important that they see me learning how to use these things, too.  

In my experience, many teachers aren't really able to explain it either, through no fault of our own.  These things change fast and it does take constant learning to keep up.  Luckily, I like that part.  

We tend to find what we like, create it, and then keep it to grab every year.  Is that easy?  Yes.  Is it effective?  Usually.  Does it save us time so that we can do other parts of our job (paperwork, grading, finding the counselor to discuss an issue, call parents)?  For sure.  But technology doesn't work that way.

I love using technology as a tool in my classroom, and I wish we had more of it in the classroom so that I could start using it and continue learning.  There are so many great teaching tools out there, but schools have to have the means to acquire them.  But even if schools have great resources, they are only as good as the teachers using them.  I've found that teachers, at least around where I'm living and working, can find technology to be really overwhelming and confusing.  Not just seasoned teachers, but newer teachers as well.

I don't have an answer.  I don't even really have a problem, just an observation. I have ideas.  I think we should be taking more time to teach and train teachers.  I'm sure some districts do much better than others.  I really feel like there should be educational technology classes (emphasis on the plural form) required for a degree in education.  

I find it exciting.  There is nothing better than getting new gadgets, figuring them out, and sharing them.

Last week I had my students take part in the {Hour of Code}.  It was awesome, and I've got a few that are hooked on it right now.  Some found it hugely frustrating and didn't want to continue when it got "hard".  But those that enjoyed it have really taken off.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to try the {Hour of Code} yourself and have your students give it a shot.  Very cool learning.

Happy Teaching!

Holiday Gifts Part 2: Co-Workers, Administration, & Support Staff

In order to prevent a ridiculously long list of what I do for gifts, here's part 2 of yesterday's post.  My team, administration, and support staff are so super important that I need to be sure to include them in my holiday gifting. 

I try to hand these out before the last day before break.  That's because the last day before break is pure craziness and then I forget.  If I hand them out a couple days earlier, then I can ensure that they got their gift, plus take it off my list of things to remember to do. 

Gifts for Co-Workers: 
Party Supplies + a treat

We don't do tons of gifts for each other throughout the school year.  It just gets to be a lot to remember, and expensive, and then you feel obligated, and we just don't.... but I always do something for them before our break.  I truly enjoy teaching with these ladies and am so lucky to be on a 4th grade team with them.  

This is probably my favorite gift to date... party supplies.  It's so useful, and I love a gift that is useful.  I can also do my shopping at the after Christmas sales and get things at an amazing price (I love a good bargain!!).

Here's what I have for this year:

One set of paper plates

One set of matching napkins

One matching tin

I filled the tin with some holiday treats and wrapped it up.

Administration and Support Staff Gifts: 
Chocolate Kahlua Cake

I realize these two catagories have completely different jobs in our building, but for gifting purposes, I give them the same thing.  Chocolate Kahlua Cake.  It's delicious.  

Who knows...maybe grab yourself a glass of something while you're baking.  Tis the season.

Here's the recipe for {Kahlua Chocolate Cake}.  My batch this year was serious business.  I handed it out with a tag that said something like "Maybe don't eat this at work unless it's a really rough day".  

I had a weak moment and also picked up this charming little holiday cactus.  I think I'll give it to the school nurse... unless I keep it for myself!

Now the trick is getting it all to school.  Plus your teacher bag (you drag that back and forth every day, right?).  And your computer.  Probably your lunch, too.  With keys in hand.  

I have learned from the best (Hi, Mom!) and pile everything in a laundry basket for easy transporting. 

What do you do for your all your school holiday gifting?

Happy Gifting!

            

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Holiday Gift Ideas (Part 1): Students and Parents

It's almost the end of the quarter for us, which means grade cards.  I'm spending my days working on grades and rounding up a list of late work, and generally just working through my list of things to do.

On my school list- the bolded gifts are included in today's post:

*Finish grades; get list of late work to collect

*Complete gifts for students 

*Gifts for my fourth grade team

*Gifts for the office, administration, school nurse, school counselor, and our classroom aides

*Finish gifts for parents from me (a card)

*Prepare gifts for parents from students

I absolutely love gifting.  With my list above, that means 20 student gifts, 2 team gifts, 5 office/admin gifts, and 5 support staff gifts.  The money adds up fast.  Here's what I do and how I keep it affordable for the holidays.  Mostly, coupons and shopping a year ahead of time at after-Christmas sales.

I always hand gifts out a day or two before break to ensure that everyone gets their gift and I don't forget anyone.  Also, last year we had a snow day on the day before break so everyone was in a tizzy about not handing things out earlier, but I was all done!

Student Gifts: 
Name Magnets

I have done the same gift for years now.  Kids love things with their names on them, so I make wooden letters with their names and added some magnets to the back.  Most of them end up keeping it on their desk for the remainder of the year.  On the front end, this was a little more money, but since I've done it for years now, I have leftovers that I can use from year to year.

I don't wrap them.  I used to, but after you watch 25 kids tear through the wrapping and then leave it on the floor for you to pick up later, you just kind of give up on making it look all pretty.  The kids just don't care how much effort you put into the wrapping.  So I stopped wrapping them.  I have never heard a complaint and it saves me a lot of time. 

What you need:  

Wooden letters- I get these at Hobby Lobby (2 for $1.49- used to be 2 for a dollar but they upped their price).  Grab a 40% off coupon each time you stop in to make it more affordable.  Now that I've done this for years, I raid last year's left over letters before I make a trip to the store, that way I only end up spending about $10 on letters per year.  

Spray Paint- I have tons of this at home, so I just use whatever color I already have

Paint Pens- Unfortunately, I do have to re-buy these each year because they dry out.  Again, grab a coupon as you run out the door.

Magnets- I get one pack of 50 and wait for the best coupon I can (usually 50% off).  

I tend to stop in and pick up something when I'm out in about throughout the year so that I can use coupons on everything.  Then I'm also not doing all my running around the week before break when there are so many other things going on.

Parent Gifts from Students: 
Cinnamon Ornament

These smell so darn good.  I made up the "dough" the night before and rolled it out and stored it in gallon baggies in the refrigerator.  It was really helpful, except that I didn't make it thick enough and had to reroll it in class again.  If you roll it between saran wrap, it is much easier and way less messy.  That way, all we did at school was cut our shape, let it dry out, and tie on a ribbon.

Here's the recipe: (with Elmer's glue so that they stick together better than mine did...)

Cinnamon Ornaments
1 cup ground cinnamon
3/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbs glue

Mix all ingredients together for 2-3 minutes.  Add more cinnamon or applesauce depending on texture- too much cinnamon will make the "dough" crumbly.  

Roll out dough between two pieces of saran wrap to about 1/4 inch thickness.  If you want to let it sit overnight (and be ready to go the next day!) then put the flattened saran wrap dough in gallon baggies and stack them on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator overnight.  

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, using a toothpick to make a hole at the top.  

You can leave these out to dry for 3-4 days or back them at 200 degrees F for a few hours.  

Tie on a ribbon and you're done!

We will wrap them and take them home on the last day before break.

Parent Gifts from Me (and the class): 

Picture Holiday Card

This is pretty straight forward.  At the after Christmas Sales, I find 2 packages of cards with picture holders for dirt cheap.  Every year, I hand out Santa hats and we take a class picture.  I send it to Walgreens (with, you guessed it, a photo coupon code).

We have a card signing party and all the kids sign the card.  I write on them before I mail them out.  I teach at a parochial school, so sending out a Christmas card is not a problem.

I give the kids the job of stamping their cards, addressing them, and putting on return address labels.

So you probably read "I hand out Santa hats" and about fell out of your chair.  If you've ever had lice in your room, you are probably cringing at the idea.  I do give students the option of bringing their own hat on picture day.  For those that don't have one (or forgot!) I hand out hats, give a speech about not sharing things that go on our head, and take our picture.  Then I collect the hats, put them in a big plastic bag and tie it up to kill those little suckers (if we have any, of course).  I just assume all kids have lice.

Here's a {silly book full of facts} about those gross little critters.  Are you itching yet?  I'm sorry.

I've never had anyone come back to school with lice after using my Santa hats.  But if it scares you, you can do this instead:  

Image from Paper and Cake Etsy Store.  Click on the link for this product!

I'll post Gifting Part 2: Administration, team teachers, and support staff tomorrow!

Happy Gifting!

Random Acts of Kindness

"As educators, we remember and honor our fallen colleagues and their students from Sandy Hook School.  We honor them each day in our classrooms in which we continue their dream of teaching our children.  We honor their memory with our service.  Join with teachers everywhere in committing random acts of kindness to show our love for Sandy Hook."

Random Acts of Kindness; pass it on!

Math Challenges and Activities for High Level Thinkers

It's that time of year.  No, not the holiday season; although I'm ready for that except for the whole shopping thing.  This picture showed up on my Bing Dynamic computer wallpaper yesterday and I had to take a picture.  Christmas on the beach?  Yes, please.  It's a windchill of one here so this image was dreamy.

It's actually that time when I've finally figured out my students and I feel comfortable with my ability to tackle their needs and help them out.  It takes awhile.

This doesn't mean I didn't know my students back in September or October.  It just means that now I really know them.  I know how they learn.  I know what makes them tick.  I know how to approach new concepts.  I know what kind of interaction they can handle as a group versus individually.  We're finally there.  ...And now there will be a 2 week break.

Every class has it's fair share of students who need extra support and those who, without fail, will fly through everything you can possible hand them and will come running back with "I'm finished!  Now what can I do?".  It is really it's own element of teacher torture.  Wasn't that enough?  What do you mean your'e finished already and it's all correct and you want something else to work on?  My goal is always to find the greatest possible activity that requires the most possible effort on their part and the least possible time on mine.  Mission: Impossible.

So I set out to figure out what my few high level thinkers can work on in their extra time or center time in my classroom.  I'll admit I have a special place in my heart for these guys.  They are just so much fun to work with.  I gathered some of my favorite resources- unfortunately not all these are free this time around, but I threw a few in- and put them together to demonstrate how I attempt to challenge those kiddos in my classroom.  We only have two classroom computers right now, so tablets and apps aren't quite in our realm of possibilities at the present moment.  I'm sure they will make their grand entrance here in the near-ish future.  I can't tell you how many times I've wished I could bring something up on a tablet and hand it over to them to work through!  (not in a "here's some busy work" kind of way, but in a "this is amazing and you will learn so much" kind of way)

It's a work in progress, as is any teaching endeavor.  I never feel like anything is quite good enough, but that's what keeps me on my toes.

And if you're like me and you truly love the nerdy stuff (I do!), then you can skip to the bottom and check out the free online informaion I found about gifted and talented students and how teachers can meet their needs.  Otherwise, on to the good stuff...

**These are just websites, products, resources and ideas that I love; not paid endorsements!

{SET puzzles}
It's a card game, too, if you care to purchase it.  Otherwise head over to the New York Times SET puzzle page and have them try the puzzle of the day for free.  It changes daily and is a great brain puzzle.  I usually pop it up on the SmartBoard or hand over my tablet for some quick solving.

{Zupelz and Origo Think Tank}
Each grade in our school got a free set of these this year.  A relative of a parent is an Origo rep and got them for us.  They win, because now I'm writing about how much I enjoy it...

I am loving {Zupelz}.  I even contemplated purchasing my own set (they were $99.99, but are currently clearanced for 30% and are $41- super tempting).  It's a bit pricey, yes, and there's also an online (less expensive) version.  The box set is a set of 100 number puzzles for students to solve.  I have them use dry erase markers or put them in SmartPals.  I have two this year that have worked through the fourth grade set already and even finished the fifth grade set.  Now they are working on making their own puzzles.  It's been excellent!

If you have 72 seconds, you can check it out in their video.

We also have the {Think Tank} problems- two boxes total.  They are hard!  It's really great for self-motivated learners.  They work through those on notecards and turn them in to me and the problems get progressively harder.

{Crypto Challenge}
I love this game and actually went ahead and made my own Crypto Challenge "boards" to hang in my classroom and change out weekly.  I find it really difficult to do, which only makes my students love it more.



{Ten Marks}
I love Ten Marks.  I even blogged about them {here}.  I used it a bunch last year because I had a really high group of boys.  I had them working a grade level ahead on their math skills and it was the perfect way to push them further with their math skills.  They would all grab laptops and get working, and if they had a question they asked each other and figured it out.

This can also be used for those students that need extra help.  Plus it gives you data!  Bonus!

{Tangrams Questions}
Ok, so this one is a bit pricey at $38 for a binder of tangram shapes.  What makes it different is that it's not just shapes to make.  Each page has questions that go with each shape to add an extra element of strategic thinking.  For instance, it might have students make a square using 5 tangram pieces, then with 4 pieces, and then with 3.  I pop these in my SmartPals and they are off.


{Chocolate Caper} and {Math One Hour Mysteries}
Love.  It.  The Great Chocolate Caper has been one of my favorite things to do with higher level math students.  It took a few weeks, but it was so much fun.  We developed our chocolate recipe and it was stolen.  *gasp*  We solved puzzles and collected clues along the way to find our thief and in the end we adjusted our recipe to feed all of us and attempted some chocolate making.  Key word here was attempted.

Math One Hour Mysteries (there are at least three different books) are great deductive reasoning mysteries that take considerably less time than the Great Chocolate Caper, so if you're looking for an activity for a 30 minute or 60 minute class time, these are a better choice.


{Math Challenges and Logical Thinking Problems} for gifted students
The entire book divided by age level and FREE!  Brain teasers and logical thinking problems for students.  YAY!

{The Infinite Cat Project}
How do you keep a student busy for hours on end?  I vote for the {cat game}.  I could probably play for hours so I don't bring it up too often.  Sometimes at indoor recess to keep things interesting and to to get us thinking strategically.  The goal is to get the cat trapped inside a cage of dots, but every time you click a dot, the cat moves a dot.  Try to play just one game.  I bet you can't.





Here's the nerdy stuff...
{Gifted and Talented Students} - An amazing resource from the Department of Education in Australia.


What do you use in your classroom to keep your high ability group engaged?

            

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Do More Shopping!!!! Cyber Monday!

Is your holiday shopping complete?  Mine is oh so close to being finished!  I popped up to school today to clean up from the Thanksgiving disaster I left for myself and to prep for the upcoming 2 1/2 weeks we have before break.  I'm feeling better about tackling everything we need to get through in the next couple weeks.  Sometimes an hour on Sunday is so worth it to feel prepared for the week!

You know what I was just thinking....  What if for holiday gifts for teacher friends, I bought a TpT product and 2 more licenses (half price, heyyyy) and then printed and sliced and diced and used that as my gift to some of my co-workers.  Now I'm on a mission.  Wouldn't that be awesome to receive?  I already have gifts for this year because I'm a buy-ahead-of-time kind of girl, but I'm totally storing that idea for later... maybe for birthdays?  St. Patrick's Day?  Tuesdays?

Cyber Monday is probably one of my favorite days of the year and it is tomorrow!!!  I don't even buy that much, I just like to see what kind of deals I could get if I were going to buy things.  Who knows, maybe this year I'll find a few things I can't live without (see above idea).  I always do!

Typically I don't like to have posts that only feature my tiny store, but TpT is joining in on all the cyber sale fun for Monday AND Tuesday!  A bunch of teachers are taking part in the sale, and everything in {my store} will be 20% off plus TpT's additional 8% discount so go knock yourself out with great deals!  Be sure to type in the promo code CYBER to get your full discount!

Here's a few of my best selling items that you can find on sale.  I've included my commentary for your reading pleasure...or you can ignore it and just click on the picture to check it out yourself.
I'm not offended.

Be sure to leave some feedback after you purchase or use a product (from anyone!).  

Leftovers Division Math Game:  If you're looking for a math division game that you don't have to change every week, but still keeps your students engaged, then this is a great center activity.  I leave it out for weeks and don't think twice about it.  Use the greatest/least score spinner to keep students guessing the winner all game.  I'm thinking about adding work pages for division using the Common Core rectangles (I'm not sure what you call them).  Thoughts?  Does anyone use those?

Retirement Booklet: One of my best selling products- a booklet to put together for a retiring teacher.  It is excellent to keep on hand and pull out for those whole class gifts!  

Place Value Bulletin Board Set: This might be my favorite, most useful, and least expensive if you use a CPU (cost per use) approach to buying things like I do.  

Guided Reading Flip Chart Resource: This sits at my guided reading/math table to use as a quick strategy reference guide instead of storing large chart paper anchor charts.

See below....

Measuring Angles Scoot: Another of my best sellers- use as a center or as a scoot game for measuring angles.

For those of you in the parochial schools, here's my Beatitudes lapbook and poster set:

             

Happy Teaching!