Building Resilience in School Staff: Resources

When teaching coping skills, keep the following in mind:

• Teach new coping skills when everyone is relatively calm, not in the heat of the moment. 
• Practice coping skills regularly. 
• Encourage students to try lots of different coping skills. 
• Model healthy coping skills for students.

Use these resources to help students manage their feelings at school, at home and in the classroom.

In the classroom (Use these resources once per week to multiple times per week)

• Encourage students to use the coping skills posters, which you’ll receive in the mail. Use the introducing coping skills tip sheets on the back of the coping skills printables for ideas and support.
• Use these coping skills ideas to proactively teach coping skills.
  • Progressive muscle relaxation
  • Guided imagery
  • Deep breathing
  • Grounding your body and mind
• Use building awareness of coping skills in the classroom tip sheet to talk about coping skills (using books, music, journaling or expressive exercises).
• Model active participation in coping skills for students using the active engagement tip sheet.
• Help students make connections between their feelings and coping skills using the intentional connections tip sheet.
• Use these Brain Break videos to practice healthy coping skills.

School-wide opportunities

• Distribute on-the-go coping skills cards, which you’ll receive in the mail, to help students practice coping skills throughout the day.
• Use the morning announcements tip sheets (elementary school, middle and high school) for ideas on how to talk about feelings and coping skills.
• Share ready-to-use healthy habits newsletter tips with families for practicing healthy habits at home. We update these tips quarterly, so be sure to check back for new content

At home 

• Share the academic anxiety tip sheets with caregivers during the middle of March. 
• Share the building resilience over summer break tip sheets with caregivers during the middle of May.
• Share the coping skills webpage with caregivers for coping skills ideas families can practice together at home. 
• Share the calming corner webpage with caregivers for ideas on how to create a calming space at home.
• Share these resilience tip sheets with caregivers for tips to build resilience in kids at every age.
• Share the parent resources webpage for more resources to build resilience at home.   
• Share the behavioral and mental health services tip sheet with caregivers for an overview of different types of clinicians, types of therapy and interventions, questions to ask as you search, and things to know about therapy.
• Share the Strong4Life Healthy Habits handout with caregivers to promote healthy habits at home.

Educators face all kinds of challenges throughout the day, making it difficult to prioritize self-care. That’s why it’s critical to be intentional and carve out “me” time each day, if only for a few minutes. Check out these well-being resources for self-care ideas and strategies.

• Use these handouts for ideas to be intentional about self-care before, during and after the school day.
• Use the mindful minutes BINGO card and playing guide for ideas to practice mindfulness throughout the day.
• Use these quick tips to feel physically energized for a morning jump-start or to get over a mid-day slump.