About Teaching Positive

Dr. Keces works with families and educators to help them develop respectful communication skills that nurtures connection, and focuses on long term solutions that build loving, thriving relationships.

Teaching Positive strengthens children, teens, adults, families, and educators by equipping them with the social emotional tools and cultural competency to  build peaceful, mutually productive homes, classrooms and communities where adults and children thrive. Inspired by Positive Discipline practices founded by Jane Nelsen and the foundational work of Abraham Maslow, Albert Bandura, Martin Seligman, Marc Brackett, et al., Teaching Positive is committed to a solution focused and relationship-based framework to nurture social, emotional well being, spiritual connection, and academic growth. 

Teaching Positive is driven by four main tenants:

1. There is significant value in explicitly teaching children to form healthy personal connections in order to develop and maintain fully functional adult relationships.
2. Teachers, parents and adult mentors are responsible for developing and modeling respectful communication skills and personal development competencies outlined in CASEL (Collaborative of Social Emotional Learning)  such as: self-reflection,  self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. https://casel.org/
3. Adults should make a concerted effort to learn and embody the life skills they are trying to teach children, teens and young adults, and continue to develop their own social emotional and cultural competencies throughout their lives. 
4. Adults need to adopt a strength-based approach and growth mindset to developing themselves and others, within a proactive social context: building relationships, developing cultural humility, empowering others and working collaboratively.

Teaching Positive values a learning process that is experiential and embeds foundational communication skills to help children and adults create more productive and peaceful relationships while learning important life skills such as problem solving, intrinsic motivation, empathy and cooperation. Teaching Positive has shown to be effective in nurturing individuals to develop practical applications for home, work and school environments.

Core Social Emotional Skills and Characteristics For Thriving Include:

• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Skills
• Responsible Decision Making

How would you rate yourself in these SEL areas? What SEL skills are your strengths? What SEL skills could you work on to help you thrive? These are the questions that Teaching Positive asks and addresses in a collaborative process of self-discovery. Each person has a unique personal life experience, family dyanmic, personality and core beliefs. When we look at the specific SEL skills we can identify what areas we are more competent in and what areas we can grow. 

Where do you feel you land on a range of 0-10 on a SEL scale? Where would others (parents, teachers, friends) rate you on a SEL scale? 

Self-Awareness Skills: 

• Asking for help
• Telling others about your strengths and challenges
• Being positive about the future

Self-Management Skills: 

• Listening to others
• Following the rules
• Paying attention to your "work"
• Staying calm with others
• Expressing your feelings
• Staying calm when pushed, hit (physically and emotionally)
• Expressing your feelings
• Using appropriate language when upset
• Taking criticism without getting upset
• Saying when there is a problem

Social Awareness Skills:

• Doing nice things for others
• Standing up for others
• Making others feel better
• Showing concern for others
• Showing kindness to others when upset
• Forgiving others 

Relationship Skills:

• Saying "please" and "thank you"
• Taking turns when you talk
• Getting along with others
• Asking others to do things with you
• Introducing yourself to others
• Making compromises
• Resolving disagreements calmly

Responsible Decision-Making Skills:

• Doing the "right" thing
• Owning your actions
• Respecting other people's things
• Doing your part in a group
• Listening to different ideas