Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Ep 136: Ready, Set, Breathe: Tackling Back-to-School Anxiety for Students, Parents & Educators
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With the start of each new school year comes a fresh set of nerves. Some students and even teachers and administrators are getting into new routines, students are finding their new classrooms, and everyone is meeting new faces.
Students aren’t the only one who get the jitters during the first week of school, Dr. Angela Wilkinson has dedicated nearly 20 years to educating young minds, 11 of which she has been at the helm of elementary schools — most recently, Sunrise and East Sandy elementary schools. This year, she’s finding her own new routine as principal of Draper Park Middle School.
“It’s been a mishmash of feelings,” Wilkinson said on a recent episode of Connect Canyons. “Seeing the students and the teachers, that has been so exciting. But prior to them coming, I have been very nervous. Obviously, I have a pit in my stomach wanting to make sure that you're meeting and greeting everybody, and making everybody feel welcome in your building.”
Wilkinson isn’t the only one, Paige Mangan, one of Canyons’ certified social workers, says it’s common for adults — parents included — to feel nervous during the first week of school.
“I am grateful that we're living in a world that is increasingly more accepting of grown-ups and kids and teenagers being able to talk about the hard things that we go through, the hard things that we think about,” Mangan says.
Wilkinson and Mangan have a few tips and tricks to manage anxiety whether as a parent, or to help students understand and recognize their own feelings.
“We are very excited to have our families and our students back,” Wilkinson said. “I want all the students and families in Canyons District, and other districts as well, to know that we are here for your students and for you, just ask. Come talk with us. We're excited to have conversations, and we're excited to have them back.”
Welcome To Connect Canyons
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyon School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach, and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great. Students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections. So connect with us.
SPEAKER_03Welcome
The First Week Butterflies
SPEAKER_03back to a new school year. Whether you're a student, parent, teacher, or staff member, we all feel a few butterflies during that first week of school. Some of us are getting into new routines, students are finding new classrooms, and we're all meeting new faces. Welcome to the first episode of Connect Canyons for the 2026-27 School Year. I'm your host, Frances Cook. Joining me today is Paige Mangan, school social worker at East Sandy Elementary, and Angela Wilkinson, new principal with the Draper Park Vikings. Thank you, ladies, for joining us.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_03Angela,
Even Principals Get Jitters
SPEAKER_03I would like to start with you. You were previously principal at Sunrise Elementary. And you were at East Sandy before that, so I'm sure you guys have some Mustang catching up to do. So you've spent time with our littles in elementary school, but this is your first week as principal at a middle school. Yeah, that's correct. Is it safe to say that principals also get the jitters? Oh my goodness. Yes. Yes, it is. Tell me what your feelings have been going into your first week at Draper Park.
SPEAKER_01It's funny because it's been a mishmash of feelings. I don't even know if that's the right word, but I have had a roller coaster of emotions, um, excitement uh because of the different things that are happening. We're welcoming back our teachers this week. We were able to have sixth grade orientation, um, have back to school night. So seeing the students and the teachers, that has been so exciting. But prior to them coming and even while they have been there, um, I have been very nervous. Obviously, I have a pit in my stomach wanting to make sure that, you know, you're you're meeting everybody and greeting everybody and making everybody feel welcome in your building.
SPEAKER_03Paige, I'd love to hear from you on that too, because, you know, I think especially our young kiddos are coming to the school and they see these, you know, cool adults that just half it all together, but everyone gets nerves, right? Our students are nervous, our parents are nervous. We're the same.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well,
Regulate Yourself Before Helping Kids
SPEAKER_02when I first got the email for this podcast to talk about back to school nerves, my first thought is oh, we as the adults need to be regulating ourselves if we have a shot at helping the kids be regulated. So yeah, all of the grown-ups I know I have been needing to take lots of deep breaths and refocus and just trust that no matter what happens, it's coming for us, right? The school year is starting. So how can I make sure that I'm coming in as calm for myself, for the other staff in my school, for the kids that are coming?
SPEAKER_03You're we're literally sitting here and we all have some kind of object that we're fiddling with, right? You've got a squishy, Angela has one of our calming pillows. I am twisting my pen and trying not to click it to make noises. We all have ways of dealing with our nerves, right? Would you two be willing to share some of your coping mechanisms or ways you've taught your kiddos to, you know, like you said, take that deep breath and recenter themselves?
SPEAKER_02One of the things that I was thinking about offering as a suggestion for parents and teachers is checking in with yourself before you go in to support anyone else, right? So whether that is taking two minutes to really ask yourself, how am I feeling? What am I afraid of right now? Like what are my worst case scenarios that are running through my head? Can I name them? Because when we name them, we're able to tame them way better.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Um, and so journaling can be another way of doing that or talking to a supportive person. And then once you are regulated, you can go in and teach your students, teach your kids those same skills of okay, can we name what is it exactly that you're feeling so nervous about? Because once it's out there, it's a little less intimidating, it seems like.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Once you speak its name, right? Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think for me, it's talking about it. Being able to talk about it with other adults, being able to talk about it with your students um or kids, um, and letting them know that it's okay. This is a normal emotion, a normal feeling of being nervous and everybody gets nervous, and then knowing that that's normal, and they may feel that a little bit on the first day. So I think acknowledging those feelings and emotions is really important.
SPEAKER_03I couldn't agree more. I feel like we are entering a world where it's becoming more, you feel more safe in saying, you know what, I'm nervous, or this just feels so weird. I'm not used to this new routine yet, or I can't find my class, I'm so frustrated. I think allowing our students and children to have these feelings and acknowledging for them that what they're feeling is normal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And what you just said about like that acknowledgement and validating and normalizing is so important. And and I am grateful that we're living in a world that is increasingly more accepting of grown-ups and kids and teenagers being able to talk about the hard things that we go through, the hard things that we think about.
SPEAKER_03We were talking about um some of these coping mechanisms and things, and and you said, you know, taking a deep breath or just even talking about it. Even for me, sometimes I just have to remove myself for a moment, right? Yeah. And I think we see a lot of our students who maybe they're getting frustrated, they can't solve the problem that they're trying to solve, or they keep, you know, flopping their eyes and their ease, right? And it just they get so frustrated, just you know, going and talking to your teacher, talking to your counselor, saying, Hey, I I need a minute, and letting them just step back and breathe and work through those feelings. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think it's important for all of our parents and students and families to know that adults are the safe space in the building and and encourage your students to go and talk with those adults and let them know how how that your student is feeling. I think that's really important for our students.
SPEAKER_03I would say even as much for parents. For you know, parents are nervous about their kids going to school, right? Yes. Especially you're transitioning to a middle school. We've got so many kiddos coming into sixth grade, going, oh my look at this building, it's the size of Costco. I think it's it's nerve-wracking, and then the parent wants to be there, you know, you want to be there for your kid. What
Parent Nerves And The Stress Cycle
SPEAKER_03advice would you have for parents who may be a little nervous about their kids going back to school?
SPEAKER_01That's a good question. I think being on the side of being a principal and being on the side of being a parent, I think knowing that you can trust the people that are there and that we are going to take care of and love your kiddos is really important. I think the other piece is remembering to take a deep breath yourself as a parent, right? We are often giving that advice to our kids, but doing it ourselves and then stepping away and knowing that your student is going to be okay and that those small struggles are good for them and that we'll be there to help them get through it.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I agree completely, Angela, with what you said. And I think that's like a really important piece that gets missed sometimes. Yeah. In like we do want to validate, we do want to acknowledge the feelings. Those feelings of anxiety and nervousness are normal and acceptable. And they'll they need to be able to complete that stress cycle. Yeah. They need to be able to feel that sense of overcoming the anxiety. If we take away that opportunity by not all not holding the line, not saying, okay, no, you we have to go to school, then that that removes the opportunity for them to be successful in overcoming that anxiety.
SPEAKER_03Paige, could you go deeper into that stress cycle, right? You know, how do these feelings start coming up? What can we look for in our students to see that they might be feeling some stress and kind of walk us through that process of making it through all of the appropriate steps to get you where you need to be?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I'm come from the elementary context. So the stress cycle for a kid is usually pretty apparent. Teenagers are a little bit better at masking it and keeping it inside, internalizing it. So for me, what I'm seeing in the elementary level, and what you've probably seen in your experience in the elementary level, is a lot of school anxiety at drop-off. So kids coming in and clinging to their parents, crying, saying just one more hug, just one more kiss, like please don't leave me, right?
SPEAKER_03And mom and dad are probably sometimes crying too. I've seen many parents shedding some tears.
SPEAKER_02I want to cry when I see those situations. It's impossible not to be affected by a child who is in such distress. Yeah. What we encourage parents to do is to give them a big squeeze and walk out of the building. Yeah. Leave the building. Trust your school's principal, your school's wellness team to move that child through the stress cycle, which probably is going to look pretty scary the first time you do it because your child feels scared. And so they were they're going to probably cry and scream and do anything they can to get you to stay.
SPEAKER_01And I think as a parent, that's really hard, right? Because it's hard just breaks for your for your kid. So yeah. It's funny because you talk about that in the context of elementary, and I know it in that context as well. Friday was our sixth grade orientation. And we got to see that with a lot of our sixth graders today, too, just feeling nervous and some tears and parents being worried about their kids. I think that we forget and need to remember that our sixth graders are still little.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And on the other side of those tears, like anytime a child has gone through that really hard goodbye, on the other side is a child who is able to calm down. Yeah. A child who's able to eventually regulate and we do what we need to do in the moment to make sure that child feels safe. And a child who's able to return to the classroom and then build those friendships, build those relationships with their teacher. I think that is the tough part that parents don't get to see.
SPEAKER_01Well, and ultimately, right, that builds their skills. Yeah. Of being able to go through that cycle and maybe quicker the next time. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03And teaching them, I imagine, those coping mechanisms, right? Beyond just, okay, take a take a deep breath. You know, some kiddos, it's going to be hard for a minute, but then like you said, once their their parent or their guardian is out of sight, then they're able to focus on what's around them and move on. But then you're gonna have some of those those kiddos that really, really struggle with it. And, you know, I've seen so many, I call them coping mechanisms, but so many methods of of calming. You know, there's the three three three. What are three things that you can see? Yeah. Three things that you can hear, and three things that you can feel or touch and just center yourself. What what are you seeing
Grounding Tricks That Actually Work
SPEAKER_03in the schools as ways some of our kiddos are are regulating and like you said, being able to get back into that moment and back into the classroom?
SPEAKER_01One of my favorite ways that I have always taught is it is taking deep breaths, but it's through um putting your hand up and taking the deep breaths while tracing your fingers. But also, I've asked the students to blow out birthday candles. I don't know if that's gonna be relevant in middle school or not, but they love to blow out the birthday candles and that helps them take deep breaths.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Sometimes it's as simple as they did not get a chance to eat breakfast. Yeah. And they need some a quiet place to eat breakfast, you know, like maybe the morning was just crazy and they didn't get a chance to. So anytime we can provide them a school breakfast, sometimes it's having weighted items. So like I know in my office I have weighted blankets, I have stuffies. Um, and each kid is going to be different with what they find to be regulating, what they find to be calming.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And I think as you mentioned earlier, having those positive mentorships, whether it's from your social worker, your counselor, your principal, your teacher, showing, listen, you know, today's been a tough day. I can understand that. I can see that you're frustrated, but setting yourself as the mirror for them to then work.
SPEAKER_02Co-regulate. Sure.
SPEAKER_03Co-regulate.
SPEAKER_00Co-regulation, perhaps?
SPEAKER_03Yes, having something that they can then mirror themselves as a way of stabilizing. As a principal, I know we have so many wonderful administrators in our school, and I have seen all of you, and you in particular, Angela, your door is always open.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, let's let's talk about that. What
Resources for Parents and Students Alike
SPEAKER_03resources are available in the front office? And then Paige will move over to even the the further resource that we have through our social workers and throughout the district as a whole.
SPEAKER_01So specifically in the front office, are you talking about people that are available or all of the above.
SPEAKER_03All of the above. Lay it all out. What can our kiddos and their parents expect?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's a good question. I think it's very easy for me to think, first of all, about the people that are available because they're right in front of me all the time, right? So uh as you mentioned, my door is always open. And my favorite part of being at the school is the kids, right? So I enjoy talking with the students, but I also have two assistant principals, two wonderful assistant principals, that their doors are always open as well. Our front office staff, they are always willing to greet and talk with students. And then we have our school nurse, and right across the hall from us, we have our wellness, our student counseling center. We have our counselors in there, school psych. We have a wellness room. So there's lots of resources available.
SPEAKER_03Will you talk about the wellness room? I was I was hoping you would bring that up. I love that we are implementing these in as many schools as we can. What is a wellness room?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, good question.
What A Wellness Room Looks Like
SPEAKER_01So I can speak to it from my experience with it because I've had wellness rooms in the last couple of schools that I've been in, as well as uh Draper Park, but it's a room where students can go in to regulate their emotions, maybe have a space where there's not other students and not a bunch of noise to be able to take the time to calm down. There's different tools in there for the students to use to help calm down. One of the one of the things that I like at Draper Park specifically, there's a table with like a glass over the top, and it's a sand uh where the ball is constantly sketching. I don't know what they're called. Almost like a giant etch a sketch. Yes, kind of. But I think the ball is moving kind of on its own and sketching in the sand. So the students can just watch it. The lighting is dimmed. So there's just tools in there for the students to use to help calm themselves down and be able to regulate.
SPEAKER_03You mentioned tools. That's something that we can implement at home as well, right? Not just, you know, a wellness room. We don't expect families to knock out a wall and build a wellness room. But re-establishing those routines, right? You get home from school, what's the first thing that you do? Are you grabbing an after-school snack? Are you learning what homework is as a new sixth grader going into middle school? And do we have a space set aside that's specifically for studying that they're not going to have distractions or siblings running around? I think finding those tools and routines is important at every level.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I completely agree. I completely
District Mental Health Supports For Families
SPEAKER_01agree.
SPEAKER_03Paige, let's go beyond the front office. So we've we've moved through, we've had a chat with our wonderful head secretaries who get everything, you know, squared away there. We've met our brand new Viking principal. We're so excited to have her. And now we're sliding on over to the Mustangs and we're walking into the counselor's offices. Yeah. What resources do you have that are available?
SPEAKER_02Yes, at my elementary school, we have a school social worker, which essentially operates the same as a counselor would at the elementary level. And we have a school psych. We have two MTSS aides. So MTSS stands for multi-tiered systems of support. Yeah. It's a mouthful. Yes, it is a mouthful. And it's like, what is MTSS? Basically, these are two adults who are at in the school able to respond if a kiddo or a student is having a response that goes beyond the teacher's ability to support them in the classroom. So maybe a frustration that's too big. Yeah their need or their ability to regulate. And those are kind of our first line of support beyond our front office, beyond our admin. The school social workers and school sites in your buildings are great resources for students who are needing some support building those skills to help them be successful in the classroom that go beyond academic skills. That is not my forte. Like executive functioning skills. I spend a lot of time with kids teaching them organizational systems and practicing games that can increase their working memory, increase their focus, play skills. So for your younger kids, kindergarten, first grade students who maybe need a little bit more support in working with peers. School social workers and school psychologists are great resources, and we work with parents and families when those needs arise to teach those more specific and maybe more in-depth skills. The other resource I wanted to mention is a lot of our schools have project connection and hopeful beginnings, which is school-based mental health therapy. An outside therapist, so like an outside contracted therapist comes in and provides mental health therapy in the school. So if you have kiddos who have gone through something traumatic, maybe there's some deeper issues that parents are wanting services for, that can happen right in the school building during the school day, which is great for parents who need that support. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Not having a great work. Parents and guardians are working, there's after school after school activities. It's hard to then schedule extra appointments. But then they're also there to apply it directly back into the classroom. And, you know, we're we're talking about elementary and middle schools because that's where the two of you are. But these resources are district-wide. Absolutely. Every school has counselors, psychs. Uh, you know, there are resources in every single building, but then we also have a myriad of resources online in our uh student services portal.
SPEAKER_02Yes. That just reminded me of the Canyons Family Center, which is a free resource for all Canyons families. They you can take your kids to classes about anxiety and anger management and ADHD, and there's parent classes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I don't know all of the classes. I know that they change and they're available to all of our families if they're wanting to utilize it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I've heard from a number of families who, you know, were not aware of be it the Canyons Family Center, or that even they can walk in or call the front office and say, listen, I want to talk to my my child's counselor, my child's social worker. And just have open that conversation about how your child is doing, what we're seeing at the school level, what they're seeing at home, and how we can then combine that. Like you were saying, Paige, for the the whole child. Yes. Right? It's not just about academics. Obviously, we want them to succeed in the classroom, but in order to do that, right, we have to acknowledge that they are a whole tiny human still growing and learning how to come up with their own identity. And that goes all the way up to high school. You know, you mentioned the teenagers, they're good at hiding those things. Yes, they are. And it's, you know, you look at, are you good? I'm fine. And that might be there, they are fine, or they're not. Yeah. They're so good at that. So it's really beautiful to hear that we have all of these things available across the board. And first step, lock in that front door, talk to your head secretary, talk to your principal, and they'll point you in the right direction. Yes. Last
Encouragement And How To Reach Us
SPEAKER_03question is more just I would love to hear a final message from both of you that you would like to share with the Canyons community as we start this brand new school year.
SPEAKER_02We're just so excited for kids to be back in the buildings. For for everything that a school year brings, there's highs and there's lows, and there's everything in between. We are just so excited for your kids to be back.
SPEAKER_03It's different in the summer when they're empty.
SPEAKER_01It is very different. And Paige, I I want to add on to what you were saying. And we are very excited to have our families and our students back. And I want all of the students and families in the whole Canyons district and other districts as well to know that we are here for your students and for you. Um, and just ask, come talk with us. We're excited to have conversations and we're excited to have them back.
SPEAKER_03I think watching everyone get set up over the last couple of weeks, watching the classrooms come back together and changing those decorations and you can you could see the excitement all the way up through that first day of school. Given those high fives, I think we're in for a good year, especially with our stellar leadership, like the two of you at the helm. So thank you so much for all that you do. Thank you for joining us and wishing you the best of luck this school year.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. And thank you for listening. If there's a topic you'd like to hear discuss on the podcast, send us an email to communications at canyonsdistrict.org.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram at Canyons District, or on our website, CanyonsDistrict.org.
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