 Good morning everyone welcome back to another Apple's and tiara's vlog I'm starting out today's vlog in my home office So I wanted to start off today's vlog by just welcoming you to my channel If you guys are new here, my name is Charlotte and I am a fourth-grade science and social studies teacher in the East Valley of Arizona So today's video is going to be all about What I'm doing to help my students with their emotional turmoil this year I don't know about you guys actually, you know what? That's a false statement. I do know about you guys. I am on TikTok. I am on Instagram. I am on YouTube I'm watching all the teachers. I'm you know, I'm doing the thing and there's so many teachers in the same exact Sinking boat that I'm in so let's just be real for a minute. Our students are in emotional turmoil I have never in my eight years of teaching had to deal with so many emotions so many self Doubts so many Internal struggles before I have never ever had to call myself a counselor or A guidance person per se. I've always just you know, it's never been this hard for me So for example, I've had Multiple students in all three of my blocks. I'm departmentalized by the way all three of my blocks who have completely breaking down broken down broken down Due to some sort of emotional turmoil, whether it's another person Insulting them or it's another person not leaving them alone or it's another person doing something to them Physically and a lot of these things that are happening. I hate to say it are very minute and The amount of emotional turmoil that it's creating within my students my nine and ten year old students is Just mind-blowing to the point where I've got kids huddled up in a corner crying because they think someone laughed at them I've got kids refusing to do anything and just putting their heads down for 90 minutes at a time because someone looked at them the wrong way And so I've really been struggling with this as an educator because as you guys know as educators Our job is to educate and teach We're not really trained to counsel or guide our students. So that brings me to this video Now, I'll be completely honest one of the reasons why I struggle with this the most is because I feel like And I don't mean to insult the other teachers in my school or in my like grade level band But like I am one of the teachers that really cares about my students emotional well-being I'm the one who if there's a child Hunched over in the corner crying. I'm the first one to show up whether it's one of my students of this year of a past year Whatever it is if I know this child on a personal level I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna take the time to sit with them now where this can go in a Direction that is not good for me is I end up sitting with that child for you know, up to 30 minutes I'm missing my prep. I'm missing my lunch. I'm not able to do my job as a teacher and I'm it's getting into instructional time So I've been doing certain things SEL you know Really really consistently and it doesn't really seem to be working as of lately I've been trying to use the miss our projects daily hype slides if you guys are on tiktok you probably know who miss our is there's a lot of controversy about her and her Platform in this and that me on a personal level. I really like how positive she is and I really like her daily hypes I've been using them with my students and it's really been something that they've been enjoying However, it's not exactly clicking yet for some of them. So I've been focusing a lot on one of her posters and it says We cannot control the actions or words of other people but we can control how we react to them and a lot of what I'm trying to instill in my students brains is Okay, yes, this person did that to you, but how did you react? Did you choose to let it bother you or are you going to choose joy and move forward with your day? It's a lot harder than it seems for You know fourth graders nine and ten year olds So what I've done is I've created two different spaces in my vicinity in my area One space is in the hallway for the entire grade level to use and one space is in my classroom because it seems like my classroom is the one where the breakdowns happen because The kids feel so comfortable doing so with me because they know I'll be there for them But as they approach fifth grade Which is only a few months away. It's now February. Happy February 1st, by the way We need to move them into a state where they're not dependent on a teacher to solve all of their problems But they're dependent on their self and they have the skills to get them there So a couple of the resources that you're going to see in these areas are from teachers pay teachers I will pry I will I will try to put the link down below of all of the tools that I used and printed as much as I possibly can and What I plan on doing is sort of training my students to use these areas in times of need and not in times of Want because what we don't want to happen is a child wants to avoid work So they separate themselves from class to go to this area where they can you know Escalate themselves and then they're just getting out of work So, you know, it's going to be very understood that when you go to one of these locations Whether it's in the hallway or whether it's in my classroom that you are still expected to complete the work that you are missing out on when you're not in the classroom or With the rest of the general population So I'm gonna take you guys into my classroom show you these little areas and then See how it goes I really want to try to transition my students from depending on me to solve their Very small problems to solving them on their own and only coming to me when something's extreme For the prime example Miss Valdez so and so cut me in line today. It really made me mad and now I've lost control and I can't focus on my work Okay Why are you telling me about a problem that is so minute that you could solve it yourself two options? You can Speak to that person. Let them know that you don't appreciate them cutting in line Or you can just ignore the situation choose joy and move on with your day completely as normal Which of the two are you gonna do because can I solve your problem for you? Can I go back in time and make that child not cut you in line? No, I can't I quite literally had a student come up to me and say so-and-so called me a name at recess I asked them. Well, why are you telling me? What would you like me to do about it? And they said and I quote I want you to suspend them or something I don't have the power to suspend people if I did people would be suspended all the time I don't have the power to even give students ISS or rewind or after-school detention I can't even give a student recessed attention without getting their parents permission So what would you like me to do about it? I can call their mom and say hey Joe Schmoe called Jane Doe stupid on the playground today. What are you gonna do about it? My job in this building is to teach That includes teaching life skills emotional skills But it also should be taught at home too. So, you know the biggest responsibility I have is teaching you the content in which I am an expert in I'm not an expert in emotional turmoil This is where I'm starting to struggle Anyways, I've been gathering so I'm gonna take you guys to my classroom and show you what I've made Okay, so here is the hallway one So these things came from the TPT pack that I was talking about This one came from Miss R's project Miss the Miss R project These are just my bitmojis and then again that same teachers pay teachers one But basically what I was thinking is that if that the child in any of the three rooms is struggling They can come out here Sit in front of the wall and just go through the motions like they would start here. They would breathe Then they would read this positive affirmation Then they would read this and then they would breathe some more Breathe again and then make a choice and then when they're ready to go They can come back into class and the idea is that they're only out here for like five minutes I need to get a stress ball to have ready to go Probably not gonna offer a coloring page But if they need to read a book, that's fine But they really should only be out here about five minutes From start to finish if they're actually doing the things that they're supposed to do They should only be out here for about five minutes Okay, so the idea behind the eruption zone would be like if there isn't Like if they don't want to go out in the hallway. They want to stay in class Maybe it's in the middle of class or whatever. They can come over here and again I just have a couple of signs this one is from the miss our project and then this one I actually made myself I found the little volcano just on Google and then I just said, you know before you erupt count backwards from 10 to 1 And then over here. I included a couple of books like what should Danny do what should Darla do? This is a little breathing activity. They can take this off and they take Like they go up and down as they breathe and then there's little things there and then this one I put a 10 minute visual timer So when they come over here, they should really only take about 10 minutes So they can flip the sand over and then I included all the same signs inside of this little flip book Deep breaths. How do you feel? Again, this one's from TPT. I'll try to link it down below Same thing from TPT. These are all from the same pack This one I would actually not be opposed if they came and sat here Opposed to them doing a coloring page. I do have a few coloring books I could put a box of crayons over here and they could color for 10 minutes And then I don't have a stress ball, but I was thinking about putting My Yoda over here. So instead of a stress ball, they could just snuggle the Yoda and then also peaches right here So if she's out, they can kind of just watch her for a little while to get distracted And then I also have they have the rainbow breathing the square breathing so they can choose to do those And then Again, I can be calm. They can just read through these and then when they're ready to go when that 10 minutes is up They should be able to do all of these things. So Ideally what would happen is when a student is Starting to feel oh and again also I have my volcano diffuser here and I diffuse One of these three. It's either stress relief head relief or focus. So I diffuse these every day So they can come over here. They can kind of breathe in the essential oils. I wish I had a Extension cord and extension cord so I could put that volcano just straight in the middle of the table So that they can really breathe it in but right there is pretty much all I can get The cord is right there and it can't really go any farther. So and then I need to move this but the stool Goes right there. So I can come over here and Deal with their eruption That's kind of my little pun intended Saying but anyway, that is where I was thinking that this could go Just really as a tool for a student to use when they're having an emotional moment And I can't and I can't assist them at the time. So It's really just designed to help them kind of get through the process of de-escalating themselves and I also think it's really important too as Educators to really model this for our students last week I got to a point where I had dealt with so many people so many other people's emotions and Problems that I literally could not Regulate myself like I was starting to feel really stressed out. I wasn't able to deliver my lesson Like I was getting to the point where I was about to have a mental breakdown And I really don't like getting to that point. So I asked my third block class I said do you guys mind giving me five minutes to de-escalate myself and they were like Yeah, so I took those five minutes. I put on a timer. I Put on some soft relaxing music. I Took some oil. I put it in my hand I've smelled it. I took deep breaths I kind of just like paced back and forth in the back of the room just to kind of show them like what my Process is for calming down and it was very interesting the way that they like perceived it Like they all kind of sat there and for a minute They were looking at me and watching me go through this process and then it was crazy Some of them joined in like they were so enamored by what I was doing that they started to de-escalate Theirselves while I was de-escalating myself. They kind of saw like oh Okay, that she looks like like that looks interesting to do so they started kind of doing it along with me So anyways you guys I hope that this video gave you some insight I don't know I've just really been going through it with these kids and their emotions and like the amount of Problems that are being brought to me that are really not problems that I should be solving for them And I refuse to solve it for them I want them to learn how to solve these problems on their own and get through them on their own because I'm not always gonna be there Teachers aren't always gonna be there. There's not always gonna be a teacher like me that cares so much that they'll stop what they're doing and Help these kids through it that it just they don't they don't always exist And it's unfortunate that I even have to say something like that, but it's so true. There's so many teachers Out there who when a kid is really struggling they tend to just send them away, and it's like I can't do that so I'm trying to Find a way for me to cope Alongside of these kids and still be able to get my Duties done as a teacher So I hope this video was helpful if you guys enjoyed it Please give it a thumbs up and of course subscribe, and I'll see you all in the next video. Bye guys