In this course we will:
Lay out the problem - define and understand the patterns and mechanisms related to childhood and adolescent mental illness
Talk about stress - identify the relationship between stress, anxiety, and depressions and develop easy and practical interventions to de-escalate and prevent stress buildup
Learn about trauma - Learn key concepts of Trauma Informed Care and create strategies to support traumatized students
Engage motivation - learn about the the relationship between motivation, performance, and mental health and develop ways to teach students how to have healthy relationship with their academic performance
Learn how to respond to emotional needs - Utilize approaches developed by child development psychology and neuroscience to improve our responses to students in distress
Focus on wellbeing - Create intentional pedagogical tools to develop positive self-esteem, self-awareness, mastery and other skills crucial for mental health
Be mindful - Identify how to utilize “staying in the now” to improve academic outcomes, relationships with students, and overall wellbeing
At the end of the course you will have enough information to build your own curriculum unit (guidelines included) using the content from the course and lesson plans (templates included). The curriculum unit will be a streamlined unit that will help you (and other educators if you wish to share!) address a specific mental health/illness need in the classroom.