My heart-felt thanks for the hundreds of get-well wishes over the past week. The emails, electronic greeting cards and snail mail good wishes are strong medicineas I continue to recuperate. I came home mid-week and feel a little bit better every day. Thanks so much for your support!

There are some very creative, well-done pages out there designed for the purpose of supporting and promoting a child's healthy self-concept. As you go through this week's offerings you'll be amazed at the quality of what I've found. Some are more elementary, others are better suited for middle and high school. All can be adapted to meet your specific needs. Thanks to Jerry Blumengarten for more great recommendations. Enjoy!

• Can Do! - http://www.ucando.org/
  An extension of Peter Reynolds's inspirational work for kids, Can DO! offers "stories, activities, and resources to help create a better understanding and deeper appreciation of how people can overcome their challenges and reach their dreams by using their abilities and a 'can-do' attitude". Students can take an abilities survey, complete puzzles, write stories and poems, share dreams and learn to affect positive changes for themselves!
• Career Trail - http://library.thinkquest.org/11720/
  This ThinkQuest offering is subtitled "A student guide to jobs, resumes and vocational interests" and starts your students on a virtual trail where they journey to discover more about the opportunities available to them as they make their way. There is a career quiz, help with resumes and lots and lots of content on jobs and making satisfying choices. The metaphor of a town in the Old West is used consistently throughout the site and offers a nice tie-in for everything that is covered.
• Check Your Self-Esteem - http://barksdale.org/Evaluation/eval69.html
  The Barksdale Foundation offers this online, interactive set of 25 statements students respond to on a rating scale of 0-4. Once they're done, they click to submit their responses and an immediate score pops up on the screen indicating their current self-esteem on a scale of 0-100. This is a great way to start off a Self-Esteem unit or to work with a troubled child to help them gauge their self-concept at different periods in time.
• Conflict Resolution the Peaceful Way - http://www.stark.k12.oh.us/Docs/units/conflict/
  http://www.brainpop.com/science/weather/seasons/index.asp This is not full of bells and whistles, but the materials provided here put together an interdisciplinary thematic unit on conflict resolution for middle schoolers. The unit is planned to last three full weeks and engages students in the conflict resolution process in all areas of the curriculum. Presented in plain text and easily adaptable to any classroom, you ought to check out this site!
• Dealing with Feelings - http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/
  KidsHealth.org offers more than two dozen articles on everything from friends and bullies to being overweight and working through feelings about your parents' divorce. Each piece is short and to the point, perfect for sharing during a conference or printing or emailing for future reference. There are also many links to additional health related topics for children, written specifically for children.
• Keirsey Temperament Sorter - http://www.advisorteam.com/user/kts.asp
  Take this online assessment and learn which temperament category you fall into: artisan, guardian, rational or idealist. The hope is that by gaining self-awareness, students will be able to get along more successfully with others and also find true satisfaction for themselves in the choices they make. It is a fairly extensive survey, best suited for high school aged students. You can also take the Keirsey Character Sorter as a link from this site.
• Making Choices for Life - http://library.thinkquest.org/J001709/
  Here is a ThinkQuest entry that actually helps students consider the choices they make and the ramifications those choices have on their resulting happiness. There's an online survey with results you can view to compare your values to others. The values section of the site allows for self examination, and "You Make the Call" and "Moral Combat Theater" help students put those values into practice. Requires QuickTime 4 to fully make use of all this site has to offer!
• MazeMaster: Self-Assessment - http://www.mazemaster.on.ca/eng/mod1/mod1_index.html
  This is only one part of the MazeMaster site, and it requires you to create a unique login and password in order to proceed. But once you do, you have access to very thorough inventories on Interests, Skills and/or Values. After a student is done taking these assessments, they are then able to go to the Action Plan link and actually develop strategies for l job seeking. This site is great for everything from summer employment through planning future careers!
• Personality Online - http://www.spods.net/personality/
  Personality Online offers a variety of tests and resources you can use with students to promote a healthy self-concept. They do ask that you become a registered user as you make use of their materials, but it is free and the quality of what they have to offer may be well worth your time and effort. Especially useful for students in the upper grades.
• Role Model Project for Girls - http://www.womenswork.org/girls/careers.html
  This effort invites female professionals to share their career and the training involved so that girls can begin to appreciate the possibilities in their own futures. While it is not exhaustive by any means, it gives insight and advice that can only be shared by professionals in their fields. Want to see different career descriptions? Just hit reload on your browser and a random professional will share her career with you!
• Self-Esteem Test - http://www.queendom.com/selfest.html
  Students simply fill in the online form containing thirty questions with responses that range from agree to disagree and always to never. When they're done, they submit their responses and get an immediate scoring of their test. Since the response options are not a numerical scale but actual subjective statements, this instrument may give you a different picture than the "Check Your Self-Esteem" activity mentioned above.
• That's Me! - http://library.thinkquest.org/C004361/
  Subtitled "A Guide to Personality", this site offers insight into the psychology of people's personalities, presenting many schools of thought and studies that help us understand what makes people "tick". Polly and Professor Poofy explain the theories of personality in simple terms that even upper elementary students can appreciate, and it's great for middle schoolers too. The classroom support section offers lots of activities and games to promote a greater understanding of the topic, including a glossary.
  

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