This Mental Health month, we have practical, classroom-ready ideas to include emotional well-being in everyday learning. We’ll dive into student-led digital storytelling, easy video editing tools, and free media kits that help elevate student voice. Whether you’re a first-year teacher or seasoned vet, there’s something in this episode to help you bring more care, creativity, and connection to your students.
Mental Health Month
It’s easier than ever to create positive and human-centered classrooms that help support mental well-being, no matter what subject you teach! We’ve got data and statistics for math class, vocabulary for ELA, and fitness and self-care routines for health class or P.E.
Matt also has some series recommendations. Well Beings from PBS is an initiative that started in 2023 with the launch of Ken Burns’ Hiding in Plain Sight, and has grown to a powerful collection of resources, videos, teaching materials, and other content with the common goal of promoting positive mental health. Take a look at the educator toolkit from this series to get inspired.
For middle and high school students, hear from the hosts of Extra Credit in Let’s Talk Mental Health, an episode from the latest season about the importance of open dialogue and meaningful self-care.
Carl the Collector from PBS KIDS teaches young learners the importance of communicating emotions, sharing feelings with friends, and working through conflict.
For upper elementary students, there are plenty of segments in the newest episodes of Read, Write, ROAR! Ms. Yarnell, Ms. Audra, and Ms. A-P focus on mindset shifts and solid routine building.
Digital Storytelling – Week 4
This week, we’re revising scripts and editing videos together! Students will revisit their scripts and outlines to make any necessary revisions based on the content they have. They should read back through their scripts and outlines and remove anything that they didn’t get footage for and add anything new. Once that’s ready, bring it to life by cutting and editing footage to pull it together into a timeline that will become their final video.
During this phase, try using a graphic organizer or our premade timeline template.
Media Kits
Did you know that we have media kits available for educators to use in their classroom? Or, take our equipment for a test drive at one of our media making playground events. Here, we set up media creation gear and let teachers check it out and get familiar before designing projects. See everything available on our media hub.
