Contemplate toxic stress and trauma, and how it impacts lifelong physical health as well as emotional health for students and families, and how secondary traumatic stress may be impacting you. Find a simple practice or strategy that can be implemented into the classroom to help you and your students practice emotional and/or physical self-care on a daily basis. Implement this evidence-based strategy into your practice and/or classroom daily for four weeks. If you are starting a new practice or strategy, find 2 peer reviewed journal articles (published within the past five years) to support the technique you choose. Include article references as part of your learner work sample. Submit a learner work sample that includes an analysis of the notable changes you observed in yourself and/or your classroom among students as a result of implementing this practice/strategy. Learner work samples can include: written samples such as essays, stories, and reports; illustrations, maps, and diagrams; mathematics worksheets and other assignments, and graphs. Learner work samples should follow all relevant district/charter and FERPA guidelines.

Choose a self-care technique to teach your students. Create a schedule for when and how this self-care technique will be utilized in your classroom or group. You can have your students give input on the implementation plan. Create a survey for students to fill out assessing the self-care technique and its benefit to the classroom/school/group environment and to them as an individual. After reviewing the survey results, create a graph or diagram that summarizes the results. This submission should include both the graph or diagram, a description of the results, and a plan for continued self-care technique implementation within your classroom or group. Be sure to follow all relevant district/charter and FERPA guidelines.

Choose a self-care technique to teach your students. Have two teachers/staff members observe student behavior on two occasions, once prior to your implementation and once after about two weeks of daily practice of this self-care technique within your classroom/group. Have each teacher/staff member write at least one page regarding their observations. Their observations must include what they noticed about the classroom/group environment and student behavior during both of their observations, and any noticeable changes they observed, especially in regards to student behavior.

Download one mindfulness app on your phone. Set a goal to use the app for five minutes every day (set a specific time, such as in the morning before leaving for work or during your lunch or before going to bed). You can choose multiple times throughout the day if you would like to. Set a daily reminder to help you remember to use the mindfulness app. Continue this daily practice for two weeks. Submit a two-page reflective paper on how this app contributed to improving your ability to be mindful, how your practice impacted your ability to support students, and how mindfulness and self-care may support students who have experienced trauma in their lives.

Create an Infographic addressing the importance of educators implementing personal self-care programs into their lives. Include data and/or information relating to at least two self-care programs from two reliable sources that show physical, mental, or emotional improvement in individuals using these self-care techniques.

Create a self-care program and use it daily for two weeks. This program must take at least 15-20 minutes each day. This self-care program can be physically, mentally, and/or emotionally-based. Following each daily practice, document the activity completed and record your reflections about any changes you notice within yourself. At the end of the first week make note of any improvements you’ve seen during this week. At the end of the two week period, compile your daily and weekly reflections into a document to be submitted. This document may be in a narrative, bullet point or table style and must include the dates and times of your practices. Submit your reflections document. This document may be in a narrative, bullet point or table style and must include the dates and times.

Criterion 1: Evidence demonstrates the applicant understands the importance of using personal self-care techniques to support themselves when working with students who have experienced trauma.

Criterion 2: Evidence demonstrates the applicant understands the “how” and “why” of creating self-care techniques and programs that can be implemented in the classroom to reduce student anxiety.

Criterion 3: Evidence demonstrates the applicant’s use of evidence-based practices/resources when creating and implementing a self-care program.

Describe how the self-care program you implemented helped your physical, emotional, and/or mental health.

Describe how improving your physical, emotional or mental health strengthened your interactions with students in your classroom and/or school.

Describe how you could use self-care strategies or a self-care program collaboratively with your grade team and/or school staff to aid in increasing the understanding and importance of self-care, and decrease compassion fatigue.