Education Resources Blog

At a time when our world and nation are struggling with division and conflicting ideology - empathy and compassion are important concepts to teach our future generations, so they can make the world a better place than how we leave it. Emotional intelligence, or understanding your own emotions and the emotions of those around you, is an important skill to develop and refine. The middle school years, where students are rapidly developing their sense of self, are obviously an important time to provide tools and exercises to work on this skill. In these social-emotional learning activities, designed for students in grades 5-7 and customizable for the needs of your classroom, students will view photo examples and answer discussion questions to recognize emotions in others. Created in partnership with Cathy Henry, educator and founder of The Curriculum Corner and Free Word Work, these activities will explore empathy, emotional regulation strategies, problem-assessment, and more.

Real-world-application learning is where learning takes real flight! We're so proud when our students master a concept, but even more proud when they can apply it to their everyday lives. In this lesson plan, designed for students in grades 3-6 and created in partnership with Cathy Henry, educator and founder of The Curriculum Corner and Free Word Work, students will study, plan, and create their own restaurant menus based on their own family foods and cultural traditions - plus create and solve multi-step math problems in "running" their restaurant. They will use creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills - making this a very useful interdisciplinary activity!

In the 1960s, The Beach Boys scored a hit with the song, Be True to Your School about being proud of the school you go to and defending it to others. Are you proud of the school you represent? School pride might come from belonging to a group, or defending your choice to go there, but pride can run deep within the culture. When you build a culture of kindness, you're building a community of pride stemming from everyone feeling safe, involved, and supported. With this in mind, we partnered with Cathy Henry, educator and founder of The Curriculum Corner and Free Word Work, to create this Building Community With Kindness Lesson Plan for K-8 teachers. It is designed to help students and staff work together to build classrooms of individuals that strive to help others and spread kindness throughout their schools and communities.

What does a compliment cost? Nothing! When you give someone a compliment, not only are you making them feel better, you get a little happiness boost from the good deed as well. Teaching our students about spreading kindness is an invaluable life lesson, and this activity is an easy, fun way to do it!

When big feelings take over, it's tough to take a step back before exerting an emotional response to a perceived issue. As students learn and grow in their social-emotional development, the best help we can provide as educators is giving them the tools and tips necessary to work through these big feelings in a productive way. As adults, we have all heard the "count to 10" or "sleep on it" suggestions to prevent reacting irrationally when we're angry, but there are lots of coping mechanisms that are great calming techniques. And because many students are visual learners, and repetition is key for retention, we've got some visuals for you!

Regulating emotions is tough - for all of us. And understanding (and accepting) what's in and out of our control is a powerful tool to help. In our students, learning to control feelings is an important lesson that will guide them through decision-making, personal relationships, and cause-and-effect consequences - both now and throughout their lives. And because we at VariQuest want to continue to help you fill your teacher toolbox with valuable learning - and in this case, social-emotional learning - supports, we've designed this fun coloring activity as a picture diagram of recognizing things both in and out of an individual's control - to help with this learning process!

Here at VariQuest, many of our education consultants were once teachers themselves, and all of them have credible voices that they bring to the table thanks to their backgrounds. Not only that, but almost all of our employees in every department are well-connected in the education world - through family, friends, or the wonderful educators our children are taught by, in their schools. And we know that every educator has a unique story to share, and deserves as much support as we can give them. Recently our Director of Sales, Jason Butts, sat down with his friend Anna, a Moderate-to-Severe High School Life Skills Special Education Teacher at Prior Lake High School in Minnesota, to learn more about her unique story.

Do you love listening to podcasts in the education space? Are you looking for more information and resources on Social-Emotional Learning and Teaching in schools? We've got something great just for you! The Common Ground Education Podcast, hosted by Charles Barr, a licensed social worker in the state of Illinois with 15 years of experience in serving schools, is focused on progressive education, mental health resources and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Its goal is to provide needed information to professionals in the educational domain. Recently our very own expert Education Consultant Howard Shaw, a 20-year teaching veteran, sat down with Charles to discuss his experiences in the classroom and school community with developing a supportive social-emotional learning environment, and how visual aids are important in these programs to reinforce and help students.

Reflecting on, and regulating emotions is a life-long learning process. Even as adults in the age of discussing the "Karens" - we all need to remember to take a moment to stop and think about how we're going to react to a problem, before our reaction becomes the problem. In an elementary classroom with lots of different personalities and energy levels, students may be working on the lines between "tattle-tale", needing an adult to help, or critical thinking to calmly solve problems on their own. In this realm of social-emotional learning, we've once again partnered with Cathy Henry, educator and founder of The Curriculum Corner and Free Word Work, to create this How Big is My Problem? lesson plan for elementary teachers to help students look at problems and regulate how they would (or should) react. By encouraging thoughtful reflection and practicing scenarios, students can begin to see how things might upset themselves and others, and how they can find their own solutions to many everyday issues.

We can't control our feelings, but we can control how we act on them. For students learning this concept as they grow socially and emotionally, this means not only recognizing feelings, but understanding what causes them, and how the same scenarios may impact others differently. Because social-emotional learning for elementary students is such an important part of their learning and development, we've again partnered with Cathy Henry, educator and founder of The Curriculum Corner and Free Word Work, to create this Emotion Meter Lesson Plan Activity Booklet to help students identify and express their feelings in a healthy way to nurture growth not only emotionally but academically as well. By creating a supportive environment for group discussion and sharing, you'll create that sense of community every teacher hopes for in the classroom.