Want to experience every human emotion in one week? Be an Educator.
Okay. I need to tell you about my back to school week…It started with pure joy. And then, in the same week, it got so much worse. Like lockdown worse.
But let me start with the good part.
There is a particular energy to the first week of school that I genuinely love, even after all these years in this work. Fresh starts. New possibilities. Y’all…THE NEW PENCILS.
I also love the first day of school tradition where we take photos of my daughters in the same spot and marvel at how much they’ve grown and “OMG how they in are in X grade already!” Then we take pix of the dogs, because that’s how we roll.
The joy continued I kicked off the month doing back to school professional development with educators across the country. At one kickoff, I looked out into the audience and saw Spiderman and a dinosaur cheering and dancing. Together. In professional development.
This is the kind of joyful, completely unhinged energy that sets the tone for an entire year and reminds me exactly why I love this work.
And then it happened the next day…
Both of my daughter’s schools went into lockdown for threats.
First my daughter’s high school. Then, within minutes, my other daughter’s middle school. Multiple schools affected in a very short period of time. I sat with my phone getting texts from my daughters about what was happening, and monitored the police blotter email notifications as everything unfolded. As a parent, your brain quickly goes to worse case scenarios and you’re paralyzed with fear. As a school psychologist who has been in far too many lockdowns in my career, I felt a double weight. I also felt the weight of a deep grief for the staff and students going through this on what should have been one of the most joyful weeks of their year.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. But since then, I’ve sat with the weight of what our educators, our students, and our school communities carry. Every single day. Often without support. Often without anyone asking how they are doing after.
Spiderman joy in the front row one day, and drones scanning for bombs and police on campus with guns drawn a few days later. This is the emotional whiplash that educators navigate without anyone really asking how they are doing. The highs are genuinely high and the lows are genuinely gutting, and nobody really prepares you for how to navigate the whiplash.
Which brings me to Tier Zero…
Tier Zero: The Tier nobody put on the MTSS Pyramid
Every tier of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) rests on one thing: a regulated, resourced educator, administrator, or support staff.
Tier 3 is intensive support for students in crisis. Tier 2 is targeted intervention. Tier 1 is universal support for all students. And underneath all of it, holding the whole pyramid up, is something that never made it onto the official diagram: You.
Tier Zero is you. Your wellbeing. Your nervous system. Your capacity to show up for the work that matters. Protect it and the whole system holds. Neglect it and the pyramid collapses, no matter how many cool initiatives are stacked on top of it.
You cannot hold up eleventy-billion initiatives if you are hanging on by a thread.
And you cannot be the one caring adult who changes a child’s trajectory if you are too depleted to notice they need you.
So this month’s Thrive Archive is all about our Tier Zero Framework® Guide. Practical, research-backed, and immediately useful. For the emotional whiplash, the upstream work, and the moments when you experience every human emotion before lunch.
🍃 Microhabit of the Month: From “What If” to “What Is”
When you are already in the emotional spin cycle, your brain is time-traveling. Catastrophizing about what might happen next or replaying what just went wrong. The microhabit this month is simple: come back to what IS.
Not what IF. What IS.
What IS actually true right now, in this moment, in this room? What can you see, hear, or feel? Grounding yourself in the present moment short-circuits the anxiety spiral before it takes over.
And when the emotion is already big, add Dr. Dan Siegel’s “name it to tame it.” Naming what you feel, even just “I am overwhelmed” or “I am scared,” literally reduces amygdala firing and brings your thinking brain back online.
But just naming your stress all day is a downstream activity. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some name-it-to-tame-it and box breathing, but that alone is not sufficient because it’s reactive.
The real Tier Zero work is upstream–solving problems on a systemic level that prevent everyday crises.
One of the biggest contributors to emotional whiplash in schools is not knowing what to do when a student is struggling. That uncertainty is its own chronic stressor. And the stakes could not be higher. Supporting a student’s mental health before they reach a crisis point is what keeps entire school communities safe. When you have evidence-based tools for the behavioral, mental health, and learning challenges showing up in your classroom right now, you walk into hard moments with more capacity, less fear, and a real chance to intervene before things escalate.
That is Tier Zero in action. And it is exactly what the tools below are built for.
Tier Zero Framework® Tools: For You and Your School Community
This month, we are highlighting three of our most popular Tier Zero Framework® Tools in our organization, Thriving Students Collective.
1) Free Webinar — The 4 Pillars of a Thriving School Psychologist If you are a school psychologist who is tired of writing reports on weekends, running on empty by October, and wondering how to reclaim the work that actually lights you up, this one is for you.
On Thursday September 17th from 12 to 1pm PST, I am hosting a free live webinar on the 4 Pillars of a Thriving School Psychologist. We will cover 5 critical behaviors to cut down report writing time, the top 4 burnout traps for school psychologists and how to get out of them, time management tips built specifically for school psychologists (not generic productivity advice that ignores your reality), and how to expand your role beyond just testing even in an under-resourced district.
We are coming up on the TENTH anniversary of me hosting this webinar, and over the years, more than 10,000 school psychologists have watched it! We’ve just updated it for the realities of school psych life in 2026 and you won’t want to miss it!
Can’t make it live? Sign up anyway and we will send you the replay. Only 100 live seats!
Save your free seat here: https://4pillars.thrivingstudents.com/
2) How to Support Student Mental Health Masterclass – Before the Crisis Hits. The most important time to support student mental health is not after a crisis. It is before one. That is Tier Zero Framework® applied to your whole school community.
Our How to Support Student Mental Health Masterclass is an all-hands-on-deck training for everyone on campus: bus drivers, teachers, administrators, support staff. Think of it as mental health first aid for your whole school community. Everyone learns to identify warning signs of mental health struggles, drug use, and danger to self and others. Everyone becomes part of the safety net.
This masterclass is included with every Thriving Students Platform subscription, because lets face it: every human in a school ecosystem is a first-line mental health responder.
AND…in encouraging news, states are starting to provide systemic support for mental health training and mental health safety nets. Texas passed HB3 legislation requiring mental health training for all campus staff and Pennsylvania just put $8 million behind growing the school psychology workforce in high-need districts. And California has made access to school-based mental health services easier for families with the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative.
Are you a district leader Interested in learning more? Reach out to our team at Thriving Students Collective here for more information on how we can support you!
3). Thrive Hive TV.® – Just in Time Support
When the specific hard thing shows up in October and you need tools fast, that is exactly what Thrive Hive TV® is for: Short, action-oriented, research-backed “Five-to-Thrive” videos with real experts on the real problems zapping your joy this week. Not a six-hour sit-and-get. Just-in-time support that meets you exactly where you are, in short social-media like bite sided videos.
Because if you have a student running out of the class, you can’t sit around and hope there’s a training on elopement on the full day PD in March.
And if you are not sure where to start, our custom AI chatbot Lily lives right inside the platform and helps you find exactly the right resource for exactly the right moment. We are adding new experts and micro-trainings every day!
And while learning is it’s own reward, we also provide continuing education credits for our micro-courses and masterclasses! We are an approved CEU provider for National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), American Psychological Association (APA), Texas Education Agency (TEA), CTLE in NY, and an approved provider of courses to certify Wellness Coaches in California under the CYBHI grant!
Learn more about Thrive Hive TV®, which is included in every Thriving Platform subscription, at thrivingstudents.com or reach out directly for more information HERE!
🐻 Beary Big News! Teddy Talks Season 2
Okay. I cannot keep this one to myself any longer!!!
This past Tuesday, one of the most influential voices in conscious parenting in the world was on Oprah. And then three days later, she recorded with me on Teddy Talks® Podcast! WHAT?!?
Dr. Shefali’s work on raising children through connection rather than control has transformed how millions of families think about the parent-child relationship. And this past week, she joined me and my teddy bears, Grizzle, and Grizzlette, to bring that message to the littlest ears in our podcast.
Because here is the thing: the way we talk to kids about their feelings, their needs, and their place in the world starts early. Mental health starts early. And the conversations we model for them now shape the humans they become.
Follow Teddy Talks® on social media and wherever you get your podcasts and you will be the first to know when it drops! The bears are very excited. So am I. Stay tuned!!! 🐻
🎙️Spotify
🧡 Teddy Talks® Podcast is a BEARY special collaboration with Generation Mindful emotional literacy tools and GoKidGo children’s media.
💃 Cringe TikTok of the Month: A Dance About Microhabits
There’s a few TikToks that almost made the cut this month as the most cringe… the one where I nearly set my hair on fire talking about burnout, embarrassing myself doing positive affirmations in my car, or perhaps slowing down my nervous system with the wisdom of World Cup hip hop songs.
But the most popular one was when I made a dance about microhabits to an I-pop girl group song. You’re welcome?
Watch it on TikTok here or on Instagram here.
Share it with a colleague who needs a reminder that we can be light while still acknowledging the dark. And its the little things that can make your day better. 🧡
Final Thoughts…
Here is what I want to leave you with this September.
The emotional rollercoaster is real. The swings between Spiderman dancing in professional development and drones scanning for bombs a few days later are not something you just get used to. They are something you build a system for.
Come back to what is. Name what you feel. Upskill on the things that make you feel uncertain. And reach for just-in-time support and a thriving community when the specific hard thing shows up. There’s no reason you have to white-knuckle the ride alone.
Your regulated nervous system is one of the most important interventions in that building. Take care of the person who does that work.
With you in the joy and the hard stuff,
Dr. Rebecca Branstetter
School psychologist, founder of Thriving Students Collective, and definitely not Spiderman.
If you’re interested in being a part of the Thriving Students Collective community and would like more information about how to bring the Thriving Students Platform to your school or district, CLICK HERE to connect with us.
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Dr. Rebecca Branstetter is a school psychologist and founder of The Thriving Students Collective, which provides professional development, engaging online courses, and a supportive online community that prioritizes whole-school wellness and equips educators and parents with practical tools to empower every learner’s success. She also has a TikTok account all about burnout prevention in K12 that her teen daughter has endorsed as “Cringe, but good dancing.”
