Category: Mental Health

Posts in this aws Studios.art category include mental health skill building, social emotional learning / SEL, and information about resources for parents, teachers, counselors and therapists.

An Easy-to-Use Communication Resource for Parents of High School Students

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A picture of the cover of the aws Studios.art resource, The Five Basics of Parenting Adolescents Pamphlet

An Accessible Parent Communication Resource

The “Five Basics of Parenting Adolescents Pamphlet” is a handout created from the findings of “Raising Teens: A Synthesis of Research and a Foundation for Action.”  The resource is a two-sided pdf that “boils down” the research into a foldable, user-friendly, easy-to-read, and sharable pamphlet.

Make Parent Communication Easy

Importantly, one reason adults are often wary of science and research is due to the complexity of the published results. Hard to read and difficult to understand, research-based texts go over our heads and dissipate into the great beyond.  Unfortunately, this results in ignoring the good stuff or “meat” that’s there – somewhere in the muckety-muck of scientific jargon.

The “Five Basics of Parenting Adolescents Pamphlet” to the rescue!

Clearly, when it comes to information about the best ways to parent or care for teenagers, the “Five Basics … Pamphlet” delivers a concise, easy-to-read resource that can be effortlessly and discreetly accessed again and again (because, I don’t know about you, but I sure need to read these things multiple times until it sinks in)!

Teachers and Parents and Teens, Oh My!

As a teacher, it’s not always easy to connect with caregivers and parents raising teens. Establishing parent communication with them sometimes requires taking it up a notch:

  • Treat the “Five Basics of Parenting Adolescents Pamphlet” as a gift from you to them at the beginning of the school year. Make copies of the resource, fold them into the pamphlet and put it in a business-size envelope addressed to the parent (and maybe even tie it all up with a ribbon. Heaven knows anyone parenting a teenager deserves a pretty little gift just for them)!
  • Use your on-hand resources and take more of those pamphlets you folded up and put one in each teacher’s school mailbox.
  • Furthermore, you can always:
    • Send a copy of the pamphlet via email to parents.Post it on your teacher website and the school’s website.Give parents the pamphlet at parent-teacher meetings and
    • Share it with your friends and family.

Download the “Five Basics of Parenting Adolescents Pamphlet” here

Undoubtedly, if you’re a teacher, start the new school year off on the right foot! Add to your classroom management strategies and build relationships with your students’ parents with the Pamphlet. Start spreading the good word of the importance of parent-adolescent communication and its impact on teenagers’ well-being and development today!

More aws Studios mental health skill-building resources here and here.

“Freshman Success:” Creating a supportive environment for 18-25 year olds

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This image shows the cover of the Freshman Success Refresher resource for teachers, professors and parents

How “Freshman Success” Can Help You Succeed

Is your 18-year-old driving you crazy? Or maybe you’re new to working with freshmen and would like some direction. Or you’ve been teaching for a while and just need a boost to prepare for the new school year. The “Freshman Success…” resource has got you covered! This PowerPoint (ppt) presentation will get you and other teachers, professors and parents — even employers — going stronger into the new semester. With this resource, you can:

  • Learn or refresh your learning about the distinct differences between adolescence and young adulthood (18-25).
  • Build better relationships with young adults with these easy-to-use strategies.
  • Check your approach with the “Tiers of Influence,”
  • Discover the “factors of functioning” and
  • Find out how much you can influence and help during this developmental stage.

Download the resource and do it on your own time!

Though “Freshman Success” was originally developed for staff development, the resource can easily be reviewed by an individual on their own time, used for professional development or for departmental meetings.  And though information in the presentation is based on older research, even with the internet and social media, at their core, young people haven’t changed significantly in the last decade. Plus, you may think that now that your young person has reached the end of their teens, they shouldn’t need you anymore. “Freshman Success” will show you how they can still use your help and guidance.

Don’t Delay, Download the “Freshman Success” Resource Today

It’s the best way to support your older teen, freshman or college student. Plus, you’ll have fun creating the presentation’s “Recipe for Success” for them!

If you would like more information, check out the resource’s description here and don’t forget to tell your friends. They will need “Freshman Success” too!

click here for your “freshman success” resource

The “Power of Permission” Slip™ – a Mental Health, Social Emotional Learning Resource Every Teacher Should Have

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Unlock Mental Health and Empowerment

When handing out the “Power of Permission” Slip™ you may notice a collective sigh of relief. Along with a room full of relaxing shoulders. Giving people permission to practice positive, safe, and healthy self-empowering behaviors is powerful. It reminds recipients of their obligation to their mental health and social emotional learning. Instead of the inhibiting mantra “How dare I?,” the “I owe it to myself” self-care refrain empowers.

What is the “Power of Permission” Slip™?

The “Power of Permission” Slip™ is a small, 3” x 8” slip that gives the recipient permission to do something that would improve their mental health. The small and easy-to-give resource generates transformative feelings and change. It’s an easy way to make someone’s day – giving them “permission” to do that thing that keeps them from feeling good.

Give students the power of permission slip for their mental health and social emotional learning

Solves Mental Health and Social Emotional Learning Problems and Enhances Learning

The …Slip solves the problem of people feeling they shouldn’t or can’t do something. But, if done, it would improve their mental health and social emotional learning. The “Power of Permission” Slip™ is a simple prompt, a mild nudge that motivates inaction into action. The resource enhances learning by making the connection of getting or giving permission. This allows the practice of a positive mental health skill. It is also a great behavior management tool.

But what about…

Don’t worry that it’s simple. Be glad that it is and it works! There’s not much to understand. Fill in the recipient’s name on the …Slip or have them fill in their name and either suggest something they need permission for or have them come up with their own. The “Power of Permission” Slip™ can be given over and over again. There is no limit to how many times someone has received a …Slip.

Features include:

  • The simple, all-inclusive permission slip is all done for you, just print out, cut out, hand out, and start making your students’, staff’s, family’s, friend’s, or even YOUR OWN day! Yes, you can give yourself permission! It’s the best kind.
  • The “Power of Permission” Slip™ gives its providers easy access to providing their constituents with joy and builds trust and relationships. What could be better than that?

The “Power of Permission” Slip™ is FREE!

To celebrate the remodel of my Teachers Pay Teachers aws Studios Store, I am giving away The “Power of Permission” Slip™ for free!  Once you receive it, make a lot of slips because once you start your students, staff, family, and friends will beg for more!

My Future Story Documentary, a fun and inspiring goal setting and planning activity

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A Favorite Goal Setting Activity

A picture of the My Future Story Documentary goal setting worksheet

One of my favorite mental health/social-emotional learning activities I developed is “My Future Story Documentary.” It teaches a goal setting and planning skill I wish I had learned when I was in grade school.

My Future Story

Back then, my future story was to sing, dance and act on stage. My mother pointed out New York City was probably the best place to pursue these goals but she didn’t think I should go. In her mind, NYC was a scary place and that was enough to stop me from moving forward with my idea.

In the “My Future Story Documentary” goal setting resource, one crucial step is for the “filmmaker” to identify their “Supporting Film Crew.” These are friends, family members, teachers, coaches, and clergy, etc. who support the maker’s future story, an important part for turning dreams into reality. And, like in my case, they may not always be a friend or a family member.

An aws Studios.art illustration of a adolescent ballerina - if only they had a goal setting activity like My Future Story.

Goal Setting and Support

My mother (whom I love dearly) may not have embraced my dream, but Marion, her best friend, did. Marion, who herself dreamed of performing and later became an award-winning ballroom dancer, noticed my talent. Though, I never shared my dancing and acting dreams with her. The “My Future Story Documentary” activity prompts students to identify supportive adults and share their dream with them.

It’s tough when immediate family are unable to be supportive. Nevertheless, there are many success stories where dreamers found support elsewhere.

Get the “My future story documentary” activity here!

Now as a picture book author/illustrator and mental health curricula supplier (with no regrets!), my supports are everywhere —family, friends, and colleagues — and it’s great!

What about you? What is your success story and who was your supportive “crew?”  

Give them a shout out in the “Comments” below!

You May Need Permission to Practice Mental Health

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You have my permission to practice mental health!

It’s national “May is Mental Health Month” and what better time to take a mental health day! Plus, you could use the national celebration and month-long recognition of mental health as an excuse to take your deserved, though often neglected, time off! But for those of you who may need permission to practice mental health, I have a free Gift Certificate for you!

Get Your Free Gift Certificate

While in my studio the other day, I spied a Christmas present I made a few years ago for my work colleagues. And I thought how it’s also a perfect mental health activity especially in honor of the national recognition month.

I am giving everyone who subscribes to my free blog a free downloadable aws Studios Gift Certificate! This certificate entitles each holder “permission to” practice mental health such as doing something they might need permission from someone else to do.

Remember permission slips we needed from our parents to go to an away game on the bus or to a doctor’s appointment during school hours? My Gift Certificate is like that except you don’t need your parents! I am giving you permission to do mentally healthy things for yourself.

So, like taking a mental health day, some people may need this type of “permission” to encourage them to follow through and take a day off. By taking a mental health day, you are practicing good mental health and taking time to focus on your social and emotional well-being.

Of course, the aws Studios Permission Slip is good for anything you may need to give yourself an extra healthy nudge like taking a nap in the middle of the day, or not going through with something you really don’t want to do. There are numerous things we can give ourselves permission to do.

What will you give yourself permission to do? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for spending time at the Studios and don’t forget to get your Gift Certificate!

A Fun and Easy Way to Support “May is Mental Health Month”

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Supporting “May is Mental Health Month”

When I’m not working on a picture book or this blog, I am playing with my granddaughter, socializing with friends and family or participating in outdoor activities like kayaking and biking with my husband. Like many people, I have a “health” app on my phone that tracks the number of “steps” I take in a day. But it always frustrated me with its inability to track non-stepping activities like kayaking and bike riding.

Our kayaks on the Myakka River in Florida

A good tracking app with “challenges”

A few years ago, a friend and avid cyclist suggested I use Strava. Strava is an app that has the ability to track time and miles for just about any activity which, when I’m not taking steps like walking or jogging and doing non-stepping activities, I like. Strava also offers users “challenges.” These are opportunities for users to best their personal record while boosting motivation and goal attainment (a mental health skill)!

A great “May is Mental Health Month” partnership

So, it was nice for me as a mental health educator and a member of Mental Health America’s Advocacy Network to see that MHA is partnering with Strava for their May is Mental Health Month campaign.  Mental Health America is the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit addressing mental illness and promoting mental health. To raise awareness, MHA is partnering with L.L. Bean in the L.L. Bean Feel-Good Challenge on Strava. If all challenge takers spend a combined 500,000 hours participating in outdoor activities during the month of May, L.L. Bean will donate $50,000 to MHA for their advocacy efforts.

Go Outside

Strava challenges are fun and easy. The app takes care of all the tracking and lets you know when you have completed the challenge. It then provides an overview of your activity such as the number of miles and time spent.

For me, the L.L. Bean Feel-Good Challenge on Strava hits all the right buttons – promoting mental health, being active outdoors and participating in a Strava challenge!

There couldn’t be a better May is Mental Health Month activity for me! I hope it can be yours too!

Click here to join me in this fun challenge and support mental health!

Strong Suits™: A Game to Boost Social Emotional Learning

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Making Social Emotional Learning Fun

 Strong Suits™, a game for communication skills, engages young players in a fun card game. In it, participants identify and communicate their strengths, personality, and individuality.

In addition, this quick and easy game builds mental/social-emotional health skills. These communication skills include self-confidence, resilience, self-knowledge, self-respect, and the respect of others.

The game, designed for 2 or more players, works well played at home or in groups in the classroom. Along with its ability to work for camps and after-school programs.

This image shows an abstract illustration of a diverse group of people with different interests and vocations. Because groups are often diverse, a game for communication skills is not only engaging but critical.

Get Strong Suits™ in the new aws Studios Store!

Other social emotional learning activities and games currently on the shelves at the aws Studios Store:

  • “Circle of Community™” – a fun team-building activity that works well with groups or teams. The activity presents well in the classroom or in the home! “Circle…” shows teams/groups how to work together. This includes keeping conflict to a minimum. This gives groups/teams a better chance of reaching their goals or going for a win.
  • “Reframe It™” is a fun game that builds empathy and an understanding. In particular, it does this exploring child and parent behavior or why kids and parents do what they do! The engaging and interactive game offers players a chance to think about modifying their reactions to challenging behaviors. And it offers ideas on how to alter the environment for more positive behaviors. In addition, this game for Parenting Educators and their parent groups works with pre-teens and teens.
  • “DIY Hardcover Picture Book,” on how to craft your own hardcover picture book.

To purchase this and other activities and a game for communication skills and social emotional learning at the aws Studios Store, you will need to make a FREE Teachers Pay Teachers account. Anyone with a FREE Teachers Pay Teachers account can purchase materials at the aws Studios Store!

And be sure to Like the aws Studios Store, give me a Rating or Review or Ask Me a Question! Check it out here!

Reduce Your Anxiety and Boost Your Mental Health: New SEL Resources

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NOW OPEN! The aws Studios Store!

Parents, grandparents, teachers and educators!

You can count on the effectiveness of the SEL resources in the aws Studios Store! As a mental health educator and curriculum developer, hundreds of students, young and old tested and approved my activities and curricula.

Furthermore, I am excited to provide you with my most popular SEL resources and curricula.

Check out my new store here!

SEL resources currently on the shelves at the aws Studios Store:

“Circle of Community™” is a fun team-building activity that can be used with any group or team, in the classroom or in the home! “Circle…” shows teams/groups how to work together, keeping conflict to a minimum giving groups/teams a better chance of reaching their goals or going for a win.

Picture shows cover of one of the SEL resources at the aws Studios.art Teachers Pay Teachers Store
Another picture from an aws Studios.art SEL resource in the TPT store

“Reframe It™” is a fun game that builds empathy and an understanding of child and parent behavior or why kids and parents do what they do!

The engaging and interactive game offers players a chance to think about ways to modify their reactions to problematic or challenging behaviors and offers ideas on how to alter the environment for more positive behaviors.

Particularly, this game is for parents, Parenting Educators and their parent groups. In addition, it plays well with pre-teens and teens.

“DIY Hardcover Picture Book”:

A one-pager on how to craft your own hardcover picture book. Great for art class! Plus, it’s a FREE download.

Picture from an aws Studios.art picture book used for an SEL resource art project

To purchase the resources at the aws Studios Store, you will need to make a FREE Teachers Pay Teachers account. Anyone with a FREE Teachers Pay Teachers account can purchase materials at the aws Studios Store!

Like the aws Studios Store, give me a Rating or Review or Ask Me a Question! Check it out here!

Swept into Mental Illness? Assess Your Mental Health

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Beware the media!

aws Studios is all about helping you have mental health! Saturated with issues of “mental health,” the media is often reporting on mental illness and its treatment,  not mental health. At large, the focus on anything related to mental health is actually a focus on the “downstream” area of mental health – the place where mental health becomes illness requiring treatment. At aws Studios, the focus is upstream, on your mental health skills not mental illness!

Upstream? Downstream? What Does it Mean?

This image of a river running in front of a mountain illustrates the public health concept of catching health problems early - upstream - before they become more dangerous and costly downstream.
From the NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, Albany, NY circa 2011. Artist unknown (if it’s yours, I’d love to know and give you credit)!

In explaining the overall health of people in a community,  this parable about a river “slowly filling with drowning people” (representing illness) is often used. Due to their overwhelming numbers, many are unsavable. They are the end of the river, in the “downstream.” By taking a look “upstream,” we can see what is getting them into the water unable to save themselves in the first place — do they need lifejackets or, better yet, swimming lessons or a fence to keep them slipping into the river, etc.?

If we use this parable to represent mental health, there are actions that, for the most part, could prevent “overwhelming numbers” of “drowning people” or mental illness. For some, mental illness is inevitable due to genetics. But for most, mental illness can be prevented and reduced or “cured” for those experiencing its symptoms. The upstream area of mental illness includes acquiring and maintaining the skills associated with mental health and implementing and enforcing policies that support both mental health and skill building.

How are Your Mental Health Skills?

The skills of mental health or social-emotional learning include self-management, relationships, and resource management:

Self-Management:

is the development of self-awareness and self-management skills such as the ability to take care of ourselves, building and maintaining resilience and identifying and managing our feelings or emotions.

Relationships:

include the development of healthy relationships to promote mental health such as building and maintaining communication skills, skills of empathy, compassion and acceptance and the ability to express gratitude and forgiveness.

Resource management:

Is to know what, when, where and how to ask for help for yourself and others.

So, what do you think? How are your mental health skills? Do you have them down pat or might they need a little tweaking? Like all areas of health, our mental health will take a bit of managing and checking in on, on an ongoing basis.

Check out the aws Studios mental health skill building activities here and give your mental health a boost today!

How to Get Along with Others

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Building a Circle of Community

Just about everywhere – school, work, families, neighborhoods – we have to work and get along with others. If conflict is kept to a minimum, everyone “gets along” better. And the group, team or committee accomplishes its goal more effectively and efficiently. But key to this effectiveness and efficiency is knowing “how” to work together. Often, we’re expected to do this with no instruction or guidance. Teaching about keeping conflict to a minimum and get groups to their goal or “win” often lacks in education. My activity, Circle of Community™, shows teams how to work together to keep conflict to a minimum giving them a better chance of reaching their goals.

a picture of the Totem Animals used in the Circle of Community team building resource that helps students learn how to get along with others

Teamwork

A scene in Apollo 13 provides my favorite illustration of positive teamwork. The astronauts stranded in their capsule need to get back to earth. The NASA scientists and engineers work together to solve the problem. I enjoy challenges with a problem to solve. But not unless I do it with others. For me, there’s comfort in working on a team. I like offering my strengths to the group but I don’t have to know or do everything!  Where I lack certain knowledge or skills, other members’ strengths compensate.

Reducing Conflict and Bad Feelings

But thrown into groups, there’s an expectation everyone will get along. With no direction for how to deal with different personalities, ways of thinking and problem-solving methods, conflict and bad feelings arise.

A Way to Get Along While Working Together

Circle of Community™ helps groups bypass conflict and bad feelings by showing them a way to work together. The activity provides a fun and easy way to build communication skills by assessing each member’s strengths and challenges. By understanding why members do or say what they do, inner team conflict decreases paving a solid road to their business of problem solving.

Circle of Community™ is an activity that works to build community within groups, teams, families, etc. It provides a playful way to learn about each other’s strengths and challenges, illustrating how working together and getting along is an effective strategy for solving problems and attaining group goals.

The activity is for teachers, trainers, Human Resources, parenting educators, parents or any teams or groups working together in for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Every team needs Circle of Community™!

click here to Get Circle of Community™ at “teachers pay teachers”