Let's build social emotional skills
Hi there, I'm Laura
Your job is to help students grow - often without the resources, time, or support you need. It can feel like they forgot the magic wand with that diploma. Especially after that third crisis call on Friday afternoon.
I can't answer that walkie-talkie for you, but I can give you the tools you need to build social, emotional, and behavioral skills.
So who am I?
I'm a school psych burnout. Woo, jumped right in there. That took me a long time to admit. A memorial service for my previous career path might have been the closure I needed.
I was working 60 hours a week at a growing charter school. I wore my stress-induced eye twitch like a badge of honor. I don't know when I hit the wall, but it hurt.
It taught me that self-care is about boundaries more than anything else.
After I left, I thought I'd make a career change. Maybe somewhere with unrestricted use of a color printer? My future husband saw an opening in my very planned life. He held his breath and suggested we travel for a year. To his shock, I started looking up the best travel backpacks. September came, our stuff went to storage, our dog went to my in-laws in Montana, and we set out on a life-shifting path.
A year and a half later, it had changed me. It was my phoenix moment. I rose from the career ashes and went in a different direction.
Social Emotional Workshop was started on my laptop in different corners of the world. At first, it was my way of staying connected to something that defined part of me. Then, it became something more as I talked to many of you and found ways to help.
Over the last few years, the goal has remained the same. You are professionals with some serious know-how. I want you to have all the necessary tools to do your job.
-laura
A little bit more about me
in 5 random low stakes confessions
Three cold brews is Almost Always a bad idea
But I do it far too often.
Pictured: A mug a student made for me in her pottery class. I broke the handle ?
I should have been a spy
Unfortunately for our country, I didn't get recruited by the CIA. Instead I collect information I MAY need in the future like some sort of information hoarder.
I know what's stocked in the bodega downstairs. I know 4 restaurants to go to in a neighborhood I've never been to in Brooklyn. I read education articles about engagement strategies. When it pays off, it's such an endorphin rush.
A Packed subway car is my zen zone.
I love NYC. Not a scandalous confession, I know. But the chaotic energy of millions of people hustling around nourishes my soul every day.
Doing All the Self Care isn't Self Care
That's me drowning in all the self care. How do people remember to drink enough water, go for a walk, eat right, and have good boundaries? It's impossible. Right?
I'm a planner who lives for deviationS
I quit my job and traveled for a year and half with no idea what would happen after. It was the best. Even when stranded at a train station in Sri Lanka after getting on the wrong train.
I eloped in a garden down the street because 2020/2021 was not exactly a time for things to go according to plan.
I write down my goals for the day every day. And then do anything but that.
Where to start
Top Resource
Let's become inbox friends.
Sign up for weekly emails with ideas, tips, and resources for social emotional learning.
Use your personal email. School filters are not playing around.