Why am I making cookies?

It may seem a little strange that I’m now selling cookies on an educational website. Allow me to explain . . .

Around the time I started teaching, I also started baking. The reason was simple: I wanted cookies, I liked homemade ones best, and I didn’t think there was any way to get someone else to make them for me.

Working with students with emotional and behavioral challenges can be very similar to this. We want them to succeed and be the very best they can be, we have an idea of how that could happen, but we also find ourselves very isolated at times, unsure of where to start or who we can ask for help.

Front Range Educational Services was created to help address this need, to provide encouragement, support and resources for those who are out there trying to “figure it out” on their own for a child with behavioral challenges. Since I am still working out the best ways for me to do this (and working full time), I decided to start with something I know I can do well with the time I have, and that reflects a similar trial-and-error learning curve to my professional life: the cookie.

I hope my cookies and baked goods bring joy to others and help me find a way to help parents and educators address the needs of kids like those I’ve worked with for many years now without needing to charge a lot of money to do it.

So, that’s what FReD’s Kitchen is about. Try some cookies, browse the free resources and links, and let me know what you think or what you need using the Contact button.

Until the next post - Jesse

Back to School 2020

Whether you are heading back into the classroom, teaching online, or doing a combination of both this year, you already know that it will be a year like no other. COVID-19 has rocked our world. For kids who already struggle with anxiety and flexibility, this is an even tougher challenge, and it will take all of our patience and skill to address their needs.

As you work with students with social, emotional and behavioral needs this fall, know that you are not the only one; reach out to support staff in your school or district and establish positive relationships with parents and guardians when you can. You can even ask me questions or just say “hi” through the contact button. I will be posting ideas and more resources as often as I can.

Until the next post,

Jesse

What am I doing here?

SED, BD, AN . . . whatever your emotional and behavioral special education “teacher label”, like me you may find that you ask this question a bit more frequently than other teachers. I usually get there around this time of year, sometime between Winter Break and Spring Break when the pressure is on to demonstrate growth but most of my students seem to be demonstrating only regression.

Now that I’m in a new building for the first time in many years, I am happy to say that I’m not asking that question about my job assignment this year, but as I found myself at home on an unexpected snow day, the question has presented itself in a new way: What am I doing with this website?

Everykidcanlearn.com went online in 2018, the result of a particularly rough school year, a four day training and a desire to “start a business”. Two years and very little “business” later, I’m sitting here wondering what I‘m really trying to do and why I’m still keeping this site online . . .

It’s you. Really, I mean it. I want to help you help kids. You decided to work with kids that other people don’t get, or even avoid altogether. You face the pressure from administrators to keep them under control, from families to understand their unique needs and from the kids themselves to believe in them no matter what. You try to bring order to chaos, manage the unmanageable, and somehow keep your own sanity.

I’m there with you. I don’t have any magic answers, but I have been doing this for a while now and I’ve learned ways to survive and help challenging kids thrive in school. If I can help you do the same, I want to do that. So I will stick around a while, post some thoughts from time to time, and see if anything happens.

Please keep doing what you do for kids with emotional and behavioral needs. I will too.

Until the next post - Jesse