| By: Kim Gulbrandson Telling Is Not Teaching When I first began working with the Second Step program 15 years ago, my colleagues and I were so focused on completing the lessons that we completely overlooked the extension activities (these are now called daily practice activities in Second Step 4th edition).Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Fostering Social and Emotional Learning One Day at a Time The Violence Prevention Program (VPP) was started in 1990. At the time, the program supported district-wide implementation of the Second Step program.Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson No Name-Calling Week Every year since 2004, during the fourth week of January, schools across the country have participated in No Name-Calling Week with educational activities aimed at ending name-calling and verbal bullying.Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson SEL Book Club I recently learned about a neat idea for working with Tier 2 or 3 students from mycolleague, Teri. She used this idea with her fourth and fifth graders.Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Winter Break: Keeping Youth Safe Online and Off Youth are often left with a lot of unstructured time on holiday breaks. During these times, they may be more at risk for engaging in unsafe behaviors because they may be bored, unsupervised, and looking for things to do.Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Ten Compelling Reasons to Choose the Second Step Program Our district has been using the Second Step program for more than 15 years.Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Things to Consider in Bullying Prevention For the past 14 years, I have been fortunate to work with a team of five to seven people to support schools in implementing and sustaining social and emotional learning programs.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family by Lensey Namioka Reading Level: Grades 3–4 The Story Yingmei (Yang the Third) and her family recently moved to Seattle, Washington, from China. As she tries to fit in, Yingmei changes he name to Mary, keeps a journal of the American words she wants to learn, eats sandwiches made with peanut butter and jelly instead of bean sprouts, and frets that the rest of her family isn't…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric Reading level: Preschool–Grade 2 Second-grader Lazlo S. Gasky seems different from the other kids at Brookhaven School. His white-blond hair sticks up all over, his vivid blue eyes and super-pink lips stand out against his pale complexion, his accent sounds “strange” to the other students, and he is brand new to his class (perhaps one of the most “different” traits possible in…Read More