How to De-ACHE Mistakes
For kids—and adults—making mistakes can feel like the end of the world. But avoiding mistakes is impossible, and that’s why this issue of Upbeat News is packed full of resources to help you help students navigate their anxiety, perfectionism, and self-view surrounding mistakes. In this month’s book excerpts you’ll find:
  • classroom strategies and interventions for students who worry
  • information on the difference between perfectionism and striving for excellence, and why that difference matters
  • two writing activities to help students challenge negative self-views so they can learn to accept themselves as they are


Below you’ll find a free worksheet from Zach Makes Mistakes by William Mulcahy, illustrated by Darren McKee: The Key to Mistakes. It offers an easy-to-remember three-step process that helps young children learn from their mistakes. We’re also pleased to introduce our new title How to Take the ACHE Out of Mistakes by Kimberly Feltes Taylor and Eric Braun. This new addition to the Laugh & Learn® series helps kids ages 8 to 13 learn how to bounce back after making a mistake.
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New Release Spotlight
The Laugh & Learn® series gets a new book: How to Take the ACHE Out of Mistakes by Kimberly Feltes Taylor and Eric Braun, illustrated by Steve Mark. Learning how to cope with mistakes—and how to stop that “ache”—can be one of the hardest parts of growing up. This fun and funny book takes a closer look at the mistakes kids make—honest and intentional—and shares three steps for dealing with a mistake: 
  1. Own it
  2. Fix it
  3. Learn from it 
Tips & Tools from the Free Spirit Blog
Otis Kriegel Mistakes
Otis Kriegel, author of Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn in College), encourages educators to embrace mistakes as opportunities to learn.  Read now.
Perfectionism
Thomas S. Greenspon, Ph.D., author of What to Do When Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough, shares how adults can help kids strive for excellence without feeling the need to be perfect. Read now.
Grants
Educational grants available for your school or community:

NWEA offers Educators for Equity Grants that strive to foster academic growth among underserved students, including those who are economically disadvantaged and English language learners. Proposed programs should be equity-focused, evidence-based, culturally relevant to students served, and explicitly designed to improve academic opportunities and outcomes.

Eligibility: Public, Private, Charter, Other (including homeschool, 501 (c)(3) organizations)
Prize: Grants of up to $10,000 are awarded.
Deadline: Applications are due June 30, 2019.

The National Endowment for the Arts envisions a nation where every student is engaged and empowered through an excellent arts education. Arts education funding is focused on students. Projects are for prekindergarten through grade 12 students, the educators and artists who support them, and the schools and communities that serve them.

Eligibility: Public, Charter, Other (including homeschool, 501 (c)(3) organizations) 
Prize: Awards range from $10,000 to $100,000.
Deadline: Applications are due July 11, 2019.
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Put kids in charge of their emotions and behaviors with an easy-to-remember tool, the Key to Mistakes, from Zach Makes Mistakes by William Mulcahy, illustrated by Darren McKee. The Key to Mistakes is a simple three-step process to help students deal with mistakes:
  1. Detect (find the reason for the mistake)
  2. Correct (fix the mistake if you can)
  3. Reflect (think back about your mistake to find what you can learn from it) 

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“Instruction does much, but encouragement does everything.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and politician