Courageous Choices

A social emotional learning program designed to teach emotional awareness, self-regulation, and resilience

Courageous Choices is a comprehensive social-emotional learning (SEL) program designed to equip students with essential emotional awareness, self-regulation, and resilience skills. Available for two audiences—one for K-5 students and one for early childhood, pre-K learners—the program addresses the critical need for students to build self-awareness and develop lifelong self-regulation strategies.

Overview

Courageous Choices includes a comprehensive set of materials to support social-emotional learning in both classroom and behavioral health settings. Each component is designed to facilitate skill development, practice, and reinforcement.

Materials Included

  • Courageous Choices Guidebooks
  • Posters to display in the classroom to visually reinforce key concepts
  • Visuals of grade-level skills for use in calming corners to support individual student needs
  • Google Slide Lessons to introduce and teach each SEL skill
  • Student Worksheets to provide additional practice and review of each skill (worksheets can be compiled into an SEL folder for ongoing integration)
"One of my biggest takeaways is the amount of teaching time I have bought back for myself, along with the amount of knowledge my students have learned because they have the strategies and skills to be a learner. It's honestly been life-changing. I am so proud of the amount of learning my class participates in daily, in a positive learning environment. Another important takeaway is that my students are not learning through fear of getting in trouble, but rather with a desire to do their best (all day long!)."
-Kindergarten Teacher

Meet the Authors

Two dedicated professionals with real-world experience

Erika Grevelding, LCSW-R

Erika Grevelding is a school social worker currently working at Milton Terrace Elementary School in Ballston Spa, NY. Her current role is to provide individual and group counseling services, facilitate social-emotion lessons in classrooms, and provide on-going staff and parent consultation. She is also a Therapeutic Crisis Intervention trainer for the district to provide updated trauma-informed de-escalation strategies. Erika has been a school social worker since 2008. Her approach in the school setting was influenced from her previous experience of providing counseling services at a local agency focused on supporting the needs of children and families. This was a diverse, trauma-focused role that included individual, group, and family counseling using a family systems and strengths-based approach. In this position, she also provided home-based support, developed and facilitated parenting classes, and also provided prevention programs in local school districts. She received a Master of Social Work degree from the State University of New York at Albany.

Erika lives in Ballston Spa, NY with her husband, Patrick, and children, Kyle and Alexa, who provide endless opportunities to be curious about behavior and to enjoy life. She believes they always provide fun and unique perspectives resulting in an inspiration to grow along with an unconditional support to just be.

Colleen Germann, PsyD

Dr. Colleen Germann is a school psychologist and licensed psychologist currently working at Milton Terrace Elementary School in Ballston Spa, NY. She has worked in various positions in the Ballston Spa Central School District since 2011. Her primary roles include assessment, direct intervention with students, and staff consultation within a Multi Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model. Dr. Germann’s interests include trauma-informed strategies in the classroom along with data management related to intervention effectiveness as well as providing consultation on systems-level change. She has experience chairing the Committee on Special Education at the preschool and school-age level, incorporating extensive knowledge of state and national education law. Prior to her work as a practitioner she earned her doctoral degree at the State University of New York at Albany in school psychology. Her dissertation research focused on school psychology internship satisfaction among early-career practitioners.

Dr. Germann lives in Glenville, NY with her husband, Matt, and children, Spencer and Asher, who inspire her with their courage and spirit every day.