Host Jethro D. Jones talks with teacher Hilda Guerrero about her "Peacefully Productive Kids" program, which helps students develop emotional regulation, empathy, and conflict resolution skills. Hilda shares practical strategies and resources she created after working with a challenging student, and discusses her mission to make social-emotional learning easy and accessible for teachers everywhere.

• Peacefully Productive Kids - SEL and personal development for kids. 
• Started 3 years ago when she had a highly challenging student, elopement, emotional outbursts. 
• Started to read books and did action research with that particular student. 
• Creating and collecting resources. 
• Videos and resources already available and creating as she went along. 
• Stephen Guise Elastic Habits
• Created a chart and tracked behavior. 
• Ridiculously simple goals. 
• The more he succeeded the better he got at succeeding. 
• What causes the elopement?
• Let him know he’s safe, consistent soft, gentle messages
• When a child is in distress, they need to learn how to release the emotions in a different way.
• If they have the language skills to express how they feel they will do better. 
• Addressing 3 tiers with students - 1:1, friendship class, and whole group
• 3 main components: mind, heart, body. 
• Preparation for the lesson - needs to be teacher friendly. Within 5 clicks have what they need. 
• Videos, journals, lesson plans, role plays, poetry, music, dance, etc. 
• State an issue, and find resources to support kids. 
• Language as the pathway to social and emotional well being
• “My son used to be feisty and snappy, and he even talks differently.” 
• Words of empathy - friendship class - kids all complaining about what is going wrong. 
• I can give you the words to de-escalate the fight! 
• Friendship helpers. 
• 6 steps on how to be an active listener. 
• This project is bigger than me! 
• Teachers are undertrained and outnumbered. 
• Want to help out? Reach out at PeacefullyProductiveKids.com
  
  

About Hilda Guerrero

Hilda Guerrero is a dedicated educator with 28 years of experience teaching elementary-aged students. Throughout her career, she has specialized in bilingual education, equipping students with the linguistic skills necessary to thrive in diverse learning environments. She holds a Master’s Degree in Teaching English as a Second Language, which has deepened her understanding of language acquisition and cross-cultural communication.

Now, she is channeling her expertise into developing a digital product (Peacefully Productive Kids) designed to help teachers cultivate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and personal development skills in their students. Drawing on the four modes of language learning, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, she is developing specialized language practices that foster children's social, emotional, and mental growth. Her passion for teaching language has expanded to include the vital language of emotions and self-awareness, empowering young learners to understand themselves and others with empathy and confidence.

She believes in the transformative power of language and SEL to nurture holistic development, shaping not only students’ academic skills but also their emotional resilience and interpersonal growth.

When she’s not teaching or creating, she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, swimming, and taking long nature walks with friends, always inspired by the belief that education is the foundation for growth, in language, character, and life.

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks and IXL:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.