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Meet Mrs. Taylor
Hi there! I’m Christie Taylor, the school counselor at Lincoln Elementary, where I’ve proudly served for the past four years. I work with students in kindergarten through second grade, and I absolutely love what I do. One of the most rewarding parts of being a K–2 counselor is getting to be a part of students’ early learning journeys. I have the unique opportunity to help lay the foundation for their understanding of social-emotional learning (SEL), which will support them as they grow academically, socially, and emotionally.
Lincoln Elementary is a vibrant, student-centered school in Cedar Lake, Indiana; our district is passionate about preparing students for lifelong success. As part of that commitment, we’ve embraced the Indiana Employability Skills framework. These are essential skills like collaboration, communication, and work ethic that students need to thrive not just in school, but in life. Our elementary schools are also pilot sites for The DeBruce Foundation’s Agilities© for Elementary. We are blending these two powerful approaches to help even our youngest learners recognize their strengths and develop practical life skills.
Using slides to teach Agilities
To support our schoolwide focus on employability skills, I create monthly SEL slides that are shared across both elementary schools in our district. Each month, we focus on two designated employability skills. I cross-reference these with The DeBruce Foundation’s Agilities to ensure my slides also highlight the corresponding Agilities. This dual focus creates a seamless bridge between social emotional development and future-ready skills.
All the resources included—videos, discussion questions, read-a-loud books and printable activities— are provided by The DeBruce Foundation. I simply found a way to compile everything into one kid-friendly, easy-to-use slide deck with cute, clickable visuals. Having all the information in one place at both the teachers’ and students’ fingertips makes these tools incredibly accessible and effective.
Because the materials are organized and interactive, teachers can easily incorporate them during snack time, morning meeting, or even center rotations. It’s a simple but powerful way to keep kids engaged, reinforce key concepts, and ensure SEL and Agilities remain as a visible, integrated part of each school day.
A slide created by Christie Taylor, sent out to elementary schools in her district, to help teachers easily engage their students in SEL and the Agilities.
Real-life Agilities in action: Zootopia-themed stations
One of the best examples of bringing the Agilities to life is our recent Zootopia-themed classroom lesson. Released in 2016, Zootopia is an animated film based in an animal-run city, teaching younger audiences the importance of teamwork and challenging the status quo. This spring, I’ve been using themed stations inspired by the movie to teach The DeBruce Foundation’s Agilities, essential workplace skills that combine individual’s strengths and interests, to help students thrive in school and beyond.
In the lesson, students rotated through five interactive stations, each designed to highlight skills like Organizing, Managing, and Judging and Estimating in fun, age-appropriate ways. Each station is hands-on, highly engaging, and packed with purpose. The feedback from this lesson was overwhelmingly positive; Teachers loved how the stations reinforced both academic and SEL standards and students were highly engaged from start to finish. It was such a joy to see kids proudly using Agilities vocabulary like “Judging and Estimating” and “Managing” – all while actively applying those skills in meaningful ways. Here’s a peek at how I am bringing the world of Zootopia into my school while building important life skills:
Station 1: Tundra Town Ice Cream Orders
Agility Focus: Organizing & Inspecting
Students step into the chilly streets of Tundra Town as ice cream shop employees. Their job? Fill customer orders using colorful, pretend ice cream scoops and cones. Each student gets an order card and must follow it exactly to scoop and stack the right combination. This station helps build attention to detail, sequencing, and organizing tasks in a meaningful way.
Station 2: Tundra Town Footprint Match
Agility Focus: Judging and Estimating
In this station, students are wildlife detectives! They analyze a set of animal footprints and match them to the correct animal cards. This activity sharpens observation skills and helps students use clues to make thoughtful choices—just like a real detective in Zootopia.
Station 3: Zootopia Police Department Training Camp – Cup Stack Challenge
Agility Focus: Managing & Selling and Communicating
Time is of the essence in this fast-paced Zootopia Police Department challenge. Working in teams, students must follow instruction cards to stack cups into specific patterns. It’s a race against the clock! This station fosters communication, time management, and collaboration under pressure.
Station 4: Finnick’s Quick Getaway Packing Mission
Agility Focus: Judging and Estimating
Oh no! Finnick the fox needs to make a quick getaway—but he can only take what’s necessary. Students look through a mix of items and decide what Finnick should pack and what to leave behind. This encourages decision-making, prioritization, and critical thinking.
Station 5: Nick and Judy’s Communication Challenge
Agility Focus: Selling and Communicating & Organizing
This station is a crowd favorite! Partners sit on opposite sides of a partition, each with an identical set of colored tiles. One student goes first and creates a design using their tiles. Without peeking, the next student must replicate the pattern—only using their partner’s verbal instructions. This challenge builds verbal communication, listening skills, and patience.
By turning our lessons into a city-wide adventure across Zootopia, students are not only having a blast but also building real-world Agilities that will serve them for life. I love seeing their confidence grow as they learn to organize, make decisions, communicate, and judge—all while pretending to be part of the Zootopia Police Department or helping a fox escape in style.
Building Big Skills with Little Learners
Being part of a pilot school using Agilities has allowed me to explore new ways to connect SEL with real-world applications. The more I use the Agilities in lessons and small groups, the more I see students internalizing them. They begin to see themselves as organizers, communicators, and decision-makers. They recognize their own strengths and start to build confidence in who they are becoming.
Teachers have shared how helpful the monthly slides are, especially because they can easily fit them into their day without extra preparation. They’ve also commented on how students are beginning to use Agility language independently such as saying, “I used my Organizing skill today when I cleaned up my center,” or “I judged which tool would help me calm down.” These moments are powerful reminders of the long-term impact we’re creating.
Planting the Future, One Agility at a Time
As we continue this journey, I plan to dive even deeper into the intentional use of Agilities in the coming school year. I want to expand our lessons, introduce more hands-on opportunities, and empower staff to integrate Agility-focused language throughout their teaching. When students see that these skills matter, not just in guidance lessons, but across their school day, the message truly sticks.
Watching our youngest learners develop self-awareness, problem-solving abilities, and a strong sense of self is exactly why I love being a school counselor. I’m so proud to be part of a team and a district like Hanover that values this foundational work and is committed to helping every child thrive.
Interested in using the Agilities with your students? Learn more about our K-12 Resources:
