Back-to-School Freebies for Educators to Use Anywhere

Kick off the new school year with painless PD you can do from home. In addition to all the valuable content you’ll find on our blog, we have a number of freebies at freespirit.com. Here’s a sampling of our free reproducible forms for use with students, webinars, and PLC/Book Study Guides.

Reproducible Forms

Challenging Prejudice and Discrimination

From Create a Culture of Kindness in Middle School by Naomi Drew, M.A., with Christa M. Tinari, M.A., these reproducible forms help students challenge prejudice and discrimination. Challenging Prejudice and Discrimination: What Would You Do? offers definitions of prejudice and discrimination and asks students to reflect on situations they’ve seen or experienced. Words That Challenge Prejudice and Discrimination provides space for students to brainstorm ways to respond when they witness someone being discriminated against.

Evaluate, Select, and Proceed

Encourage kids to use the ESP Form from Boost Emotional Intelligence in Students by Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D., and Steven E. Tobias, Psy.D., whenever they’re faced with a difficult problem or important decision. Standing for “evaluate, select, and proceed,” ESP helps students with the problem-solving and decision-making process.

Webinars

How Mindfulness Fits into Education in the Pandemic Era
Presented by James Butler, M.Ed., founder of Mindful Classrooms™, social emotional learning mindfulness specialist for Austin Independent School District, and author

Education is shifting to respond to the situation created by the pandemic. This webinar takes a look at how the trend of mindfulness fits into education now. This presentation is based on the unique experience of presenter James Butler, an educator of 18 years and the current mindfulness specialist for the Austin Independent School District (PreK–12). Viewers learn strategies for incorporating mindfulness into a daily self-care routine, explore mindful inquiry in the effort to make sure all students have equitable access to education, and engage with simple mindfulness practices that can be woven into synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities for students.

Watch the webinar recording.

Catching Happiness: How to Work Through Burnout and Be a Joy-Filled Teacher
Presented by Justin Ashley, award-winning teacher, motivational speaker, and author

In this edWebinar, Justin Ashley addresses the whole teacher: You and your bank account. Your health. Your social network. How can you be a better teacher . . . and a better parent, spouse, and friend? Discover a revolutionary, holistic approach to living the teacher life. Learn how to:

Catch happiness in every domain—social, career, physical/emotional, and financial
Counteract burnout, reduce anxiety, and skillfully navigate through seasons of depression
Set up fun field trips without breaking the bank
Build and live by a personal creed
Create and follow a monthly cash-flow plan
Bounce back from failure at work
Increase your quantity and quality of sleep, so you can be fully present while you’re awake
Inject “Purple Cows” into your lessons to make your classroom feel like an academic playground
Set four “Rising Sun” goals for the next school year

The whatever-it-takes philosophy of teaching is not the only way! If we want to last as educators, and truly enjoy the teaching process, we need to succeed in every domain, not just in the classroom.

Watch the webinar recording.

Looking for more webinars? Check out our archive at freespirit.com/webinar.

PLC/Book Study Guides

Inspiring Student Empowerment is a practical, comprehensive guide to help educators go beyond student engagement and differentiation to achieve student empowerment. Grab the PLC/Book Study Guide here.

Start Seeing and Serving Underserved Gifted Students provides flexible tools help teachers see, understand, teach, challenge, and advocate for underserved gifted students. Grab the PLC/Book Study Guide here.

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