SEL & Tell

You know how it goes. You’re rushing between meetings when a colleague stops you in the hallway: “Hey, that group activity you mentioned sounds amazing! I want to try that with my kids.” You start to explain. Then the bell rings. Someone needs you for a crisis. Or you both remember you have seventeen other fires to put out before lunch.

“I’ll email you the details!” you call over your shoulder. You already know that email will never get sent. When exactly are we supposed to have time for that?

I’ve had this exact conversation countless times over my 10 years as a school social worker. We’re all bursting with ideas. We talk about strategies that work, and spectacular failures teach us even more. However, we never actually get to share them with each other. We’re scattered across different schools. We’re running from crisis to crisis and meeting to meeting. We have barely enough time to grab lunch, let alone sit down and really talk shop.

Here’s the thing about us mental health providers: we’re fantastic at supporting everyone else. However, we are terrible at finding time to collaborate and support each other. We desperately need a space. In that space, we can have those conversations we never get to finish. We can also finally start them in the first place.

So here we are. Welcome to SEL & Tell.

A Little About Me (And My Journey Through Every School Setting Imaginable)

I’ve been a school social worker for 10 years, but my education journey started 17 years and three states ago. I’ve worked in pretty much every type of school setting you can imagine: public schools, out-of-district placements, behavior programs, Autism Spectrum Disorder programs, Significant Support Needs programs, Title 1 schools, and higher SES communities.

Each setting taught me something different – and humbled me in ways I didn’t know were possible.

The out-of-district behavior program taught me about behavior modification. It also taught me about trauma. I learned how trauma shows up in the most unexpected ways in the classroom. 

The Title 1 schools taught me about systemic challenges. I learned how to get ridiculously creative when resources don’t even come close to matching the level of need. The SSN and ASD programs taught me .differentiation skills. They also taught me to be even more creative when differentiation wasn’t enough

Through it all, I’ve collected strategies, made mistakes (so, so many mistakes!), celebrated wins both big and small, and learned that no two days in school mental health are ever the same. I’ve also discovered that sometimes the most amazing breakthroughs happen when your carefully planned activity completely falls apart. They also occur when you completely forget to plan one in the first place and have to wing it with whatever’s in your desk drawer.

Why This Space Needed to Exist

Here’s what I’ve learned: we’re all figuring this out together, but we’re often doing it in complete isolation.

You know that feeling when you try a new SEL strategy and it completely bombs? Or when you finally find an approach that works with your most challenging student- but there’s literally no one around who really gets why that’s such a huge deal?

This work can be incredibly lonely. We’re the ones everyone comes to with their hardest problems. However, who supports us when we need help or fresh ideas? Who else understands why we’re genuinely celebrating that a student used their words (even their “colorful” words) instead of throwing their desk across the room?

I wanted to create a space where we can share our successes and spectacular failures. We can swap our favorite tools and resources. We can also laugh about the absolutely absurd moments that happen in this job more often than we’d care to admit. A place where we can support each other while growing as both providers and human beings who occasionally question our life choices.

What You Can Expect Here

I’m definitely not here to pretend I have all the answers. Trust me, my middle school students would shut down that delusion faster than you can say “social-emotional learning.” Instead, I want to share what I’ve learned along the way – the good, the bad, and the “wait, did that really just happen?” moments that make this job both incredibly challenging and absolutely incredible.

Real Talk About What Works (And What Spectacularly Doesn’t)
Honest reviews of SEL strategies I’ve tried, including the epic fails that taught me more than the successes. Plus the tools and resources that have become my absolute go-to’s – the ones I’d grab first if my office was on fire.

Practical Resources You Can Actually Use Tomorrow
Ready-to-implement lesson plans, assessment tools that actually help instead of just creating more paperwork, and free downloads that won’t require you to give up your firstborn child to access.

Behind-the-Scenes Stories
The funny moments that remind us why we love this work, challenging situations and how I navigated them (successfully or unsuccessfully – I’m an equal opportunity storyteller), and those wins that keep us going when everything else feels impossible.

Current Trends and Hot Topics
What’s actually happening in school mental health and special education, plus new research that’s genuinely applicable to real school settings (not the kind that was clearly written by people who haven’t set foot in a school since 1987).

Survive and Thrive Strategies
Self-care that goes way beyond “just meditate more” (though meditation is great if you can find five uninterrupted minutes), managing impossible caseloads without losing your sanity, and building relationships with difficult colleagues, parents, and administrators.

Just Like Show and Tell

The name “SEL & Tell” isn’t just a clever play on words, though I do love a good pun – sorry, not sorry. The best learning happens when we share our experiences. It’s just like that classic classroom activity we all remember-and still use.

I’ve learned as much from the school psychology intern who taught me a brilliant de-escalation technique as I have from veteran social workers with decades of experience. Every story, every strategy, every “what would you do in this situation?” moment adds to our collective wisdom and makes us all better at this beautifully chaotic job.

Let’s Build This Together

I will regularly share about the realities of school mental health work. This includes the triumphs and the disasters, along with everything in between. But I want to hear from you too. What are your biggest challenges right now? What topics would you like me to tackle first? What stories do you have that might help the rest of us navigate this wild world we’ve chosen?

Because at the end of the day, we’re all in this together – trying to help kids navigate their big feelings, build meaningful relationships, and develop the skills they need to thrive – or, at the very least, make “reasonable academic progress” without anyone getting suspended.

Plus, let’s be honest – we’re probably the only group of people who get genuinely excited about a good de-escalation technique and have strong opinions about which fidget toys actually work versus which ones just create more chaos.

So here’s my question for you: What’s your biggest SEL challenge right now? What’s keeping you up at night? Is it your impossible caseload? Or is it that one student who’s figured out how to push every single one of your buttons?

Drop a comment below and let’s start this conversation. After all, we’ve got about ten years’ worth of hallway conversations to catch up on.

P.S. – Yes, I promise to actually follow through on sharing resources and strategies, unlike all those emails we never sent after those hallway conversations. This is what accountability looks like in the age of the internet.