Thinking Errors

Oh wow.

How neglectful can I be?! Apparently, my new years resolution was NOT to be more consistent about blogging! It was, however, to become more organized in my approach to therapy. Things are getting crazy in my neck of the woods - graduate school starts up again next week and I begin practicum, i.e. seeing clients, which is just totally crazy to me because I don't feel ready at all.

What I do feel ready for is to teach my kiddos about thinking errors! When I first started at my current job in May 2013, the previous year's kiddos were learning about thinking errors, which was something I had previously heard called "Stinkin' Thinkin'" which I think is just cute and clever, especially if you work with little ones. Teens may not find it quite so cute. My kids are kind of in between, so I will more than likely err on the side of caution and use "Thinking Errors" whenever we talk about this.

So what is a thinking error? It is just what it sounds like - a thinking error is an irrational pattern of thinking that doesn't fit with the reality of the situation. These patterns can make us feel bad about ourselves and become the inner dialogue that our kids have with themselves without even realizing it. Everyone does this!

What does a thinking error look like? Here are 10 examples you could use.

1. Black-and-white thinking
Everything is either good or bad, there is nothing in between. Either you are a super star at a sport, or you totally stink. Either you are really good looking, or you are the most atrocious looking person in the world.

2. Unreal ideal
Making unfair comparisons between yourself and others. When you do this, you compare yourself with people who have a specific advantage in some area. Making unfair comparisons can leave you feeling inadequate.

3. Filtering
You only look at the negative parts of a situation, and ignore the positive parts. 

4. Personalizing: The self-blame game
When you personalize, you blame yourself for anything that goes wrong, even when it’s not your fault or responsibility.

5. Mind-reading
We assume that others are focused on our faults and weaknesses—but this is often wrong! Remember: your worst critic is probably you.

6. Exaggerating
When things go wrong, you might have a tendency to exaggerate the consequences and imagine that the results will be disastrous.

7. Over-generalizing
Over-generalizing is a lot like exaggeration. When you over-generalize, you exaggerate the frequency of negative things in your life, like mistakes, disapproval and failures. Typically you might think to yourself: I always make mistakes, or everyone thinks I’m stupid.

8. Fact versus feeling
Sometimes you might confuse your thoughts or feelings with reality. You might assume that your perceptions are correct.

9. Labeling
When you use label, you might call yourself or other people names. Instead of being specific—for example, saying “That was a silly thing to do” —you make negative generalizations about yourself or other people by saying things like “I’m ugly,” or “she’s an idiot.”

10. ‘Can’t Stand-itis’
Some people get intolerant when they have to do things they don’t enjoy. They tell themselves that they “can’t stand” certain things instead of acknowledging that they don’t enjoy them. As a result, they easily become frustrated and angry.

There are a TON of thinking errors, not just this list of 10. But I'm sure we can see these thinking errors happening with our kiddos and with ourselves sometimes. It is important to remember that kids use these to justify being aggressive, taking risks, getting rid of the responsibility, or manipulation of others. 

I found this super awesome website called I Don't Stink that is all about "Stinkin' Thinkin'". There's a yellow barrel on the left hand side that says "So You Think You Stink?" that will take the kiddos to a quiz about their own negative thoughts. Once they complete the quiz, they can see their "forecast" and look at the "prescription" for their stinkin' thinkin'. That's my plan for today! :) 

I am fighting some nasty flu like thing, so I'm hoping to kick it before long... 

Good luck and stay safe! 

Random Acts of Kindness

To carry on my lesson of selflessness with the kiddos, I'm doing a random acts of kindness week. I actually started this at the beginning of the week so that we could do it before Christmas break (because I didn't actually get to see the kids until Wednesday!)

So, continuing the target of "I can show selflessness through my interactions with others", I had all of the kids' names in a bowl and I had each kiddo draw a name. They HAD to have someone else's name. And each day during the week, I did this so that they could have a different name. Each and every day, they had to do one nice thing for that individual without making it known that they were doing it. So being secretive was very important for this activity. Then, at the end of the day during advisory, the kids had to share on a piece of paper the nice thing someone in the class did FOR them. I was able to give them a grade based on this activity.

It was simple, easy, and really got the kids out of the comfort zone. If you are a community PSR, you could go to a store and do "random acts of kindness" for strangers - someone drops something on the floor, so the kiddo picks it up for them. Or they find a display knocked over, so they help pick it up. The possibilities are endless here! 

No pictures for this one, as I think it is pretty self explanatory. :) 

Selflessness

The semester is winding down for both my kiddos at school, as well as at the school I attend for my masters degree in clinical counseling. And as we head into Christmas and the New Year, I wanted to teach the kids selflessness and using it in everyday life.

The first activity I called "The Wishing Tree". Basically, we made a big Christmas tree out of butcher paper (I had a kiddo who needed a calming activity help me with all of those curls! Love it!). Then, each of them got three blank Christmas ornament patterns. They could decorate it however they wanted, but I wanted them to think of something they wished for others. I turned on Christmas music and the whole class was so focused and seemed to really enjoy the activity. Then, we shared our wishes for others and I allowed the class to put their ornaments on the tree.

Do not judge us for our Christmas tree making skills... 

Homemade Gift Guru  is where you can download the ornament pattern if you would like.

This kids did awesome with this activity. I was very pleased with the participation and effort that went into making the ornaments and the wishes that they gave for other people. We had everything from world peace to wishing that we could have a white Christmas, but that it would only snow on the grass so that nobody got hurt while they were driving.I am consistently blown away by the kids' selflessness when they are prompted... just hoping I can get their selflessness to shine through all the time!

We have 5 more schools days left until Christmas break and I'm not sure who is more ready... the kids or the teachers! I'm also done with school as of last Friday, so I've got "plenty" of free time to do things for this blog... I hope! We shall see.

Have a wonderful day!

Tattling versus Informing

Even at the level that I teach (which, if you didn't know from my about me post, I teach 7th and 8th graders), tattling is a very big problem. It disrupts the kiddo's day, it disrupts the learning environment, and it really isn't productive for anybody involved. Then why is it such a big problem?! So, continuing on the lesson plan of problem solving and conflict management, I bring to you tattling versus informing. I have also seen this lesson called "Emergency or Non Emergency" which I totally love, too, but don't most kids think that it is an emergency if little Johnny won't play with them on the playground?

So I made this poster chart (Note: this one is not mine, but I never got to snap a picture!) with the different ideas of what is tattling and what is informing.

We watched this short video regarding the differences between informing and tattling to help solidify what I just said to them (for my visual learners).

Then, I made these fun little guys so that we could apply what we learned to scenarios.

Aren't these great?! Obviously, not my pictures again but I used Informing, not Telling on mine.

So some of the scenarios I used were:

• She hit me. (Inform)
• He threw a pencil at me. (Inform)
• She called me a name. (Inform)
• He pushed me on the playground. (Inform)
• She wrote on the wall in the bathroom. (Inform)
• She is drawing on her paper instead of working. (Tattle)
• She looked at me funny. (Tattle)
• He cut in front of me in line. (Tattle)
• He took my pencil. (Tattle)
• She won't play with me at recess. (Tattle)

The kids would raise their little Tattle or Inform signs to show me what they thought the person was doing. I might even use this another way by having the kids come up to me and say these things! Maybe draw them out of a hat and act out the scenario. LOVE IT! 

Obviously, there are tons of ways to do this lesson. I love the topic because it is so relevant. 

Problem Solving Part 2

Hello all you wonderful people! So here is part 2 of my problem solving unit. I will be using this on Wednesday of this week because our school psychologist comes in and gives a lecture at the beginning of every week (Mondays, sometimes Tuesdays depending on the block schedule).

When we left Problem Solving Part 1 we had some example scenarios that the kids could rate on the scale of 1 to 5 for problem severity. But do they know how to solve those problems? It's time to teach them the steps to problem solving!

Here's a cool printable for you:

So now... maybe given an example or two and then play PROBLEM SOLVING JEOPARDY! I made this jeopardy board and I would love to share it with you. Also, there are tons of tutorials out there if you want to make your own jeopardy games. Don't you love the Internet? 

Social Skills Jeopardy

Enjoy, PSR friends!

About Me

I hope you all had a wonderful Turkey Day with your loved ones. I know mine was spectacular and I'm still so full I can hardly move. Hopefully nobody is working (self care is so important to prevent burnout in this field!) and you are taking this day as an additional day to be thankful. :) So, nothing "educational" today, but a little about me so you know exactly who is giving you your information.

My name is Jessica. I live in the great state of Idaho in the city of Meridian. I am a 25 year old wife to a fellow PSR (every single day I ask myself "How can I be more like my husband at my job?" because he is so incredibly amazing at what he does!), dog mom to two hyperactive Jack Russels (Anybody out there do doggy PSR?!), and overloaded and exhausted graduate student (not only do I work 40 hours a week, but I attend at least 2 classes a week, I do research on the side for one of my professors AND I'm starting practicum and seeing real clients in less than two months! SCARY!).

My husband and I with our oldest JRT, Gus. 

I received my B.S. from Boise State University (Go Broncos!) in Psychology and I am currently attending Northwest Nazarene University to get my masters in Clinical Counseling. I am a behavior interventionist (BI) for a school district in Idaho where I offer PSR services to middle school students with severe and persistent mental illness.

Proof that I graduated!! 

Working within the school district looks very different from working in the community. For example, children in the community get anywhere form 1 to 5 hours of PSR every week. My kiddos get up to 2040 minutes of services per week (2040 is the max, and it means they can receive all day PSR).  In my school, I teach in a classroom called the Therapeutic Learning Classroom and every other day (block schedule) I teach an 82 minute social skills class. This also looks different because I have to teach to a variety of kiddos who have different mental health needs and I'm not focusing on one kiddo individually (that comes later in the day when I follow particular kids around and use prompting, redirecting, etc. to help them overcome their mental illness in the general education population).

I am incredibly artsy (scrapbooking, crafting, home decorating, you name it, I've tried it!) and I love to snowboard. I also love clothing and fashion and maybe someday will feature some outfit of the day posts (but as you can see from above, I'm busy busy busy... so who knows).

At Grand Targee last spring break with (from L to R) my husband's best friend, my husband, me, and my father-in-law. Best spring break! 

So that's a little about me, my life, and what my work. Now back to the PSR!!

Thankfulness

I'm off this week for Thanksgiving break (Hallelujah!). But most community PSRs are probably working through the crazy holidays. You guys are awesome. Please remember to take some time on Thursday (and Friday if you're feeling frazzled) to spend time with your loved ones and appreciate all of those things that you are thankful for.

So this project is one that can be done a day before Thanksgiving, a week before Thanksgiving... whatever. My kiddos and I started doing this a month (!) before Thanksgiving to start thinking about all of the things that we can be thankful for during the holiday season, especially when things can look so gloom and doom when it is super cold out and the sun never shines. Plus, oftentimes our kiddos aren't looking forward to the holidays because of the commercial value that is placed on the holidays (and they don't get to participate in that aspect of the holidays). It is a way for them to look on the bright side and appreciate those things that they do have.

I printed off these cute little leaf patterns and put them on a foam wreath with pins. You could glue them into a circle shape and attach a ribbon or a strip of paper to the top so that the wreath could be displayed in the home.