It's been a long term. To be fair, third term is always the 'drag yourself to work and into class' countdown. Countdown to piña coladas, beaches with white sand, sunny weather- oh, who am I kidding? More like, countdown to sleeping late, Netflix marathons and wilful amnesia as to what time/day, it is. We couldn't reach the last day, fast enough.
But as I sat outside my classroom on that last day, watching students enjoy their class party, the messy and muddy football 'sweat' and the 'beat the video game' session..a haunting question popped into my head: How many of these boys actually dread this last day? How many of them dread that, at 2:30 on July 8th, they are mandated to go to homes, ravaged by violence, poverty or plain neglect? And for two entire months?!
A completely out of place question, you might think. And so did I, until just a month ago when a student said to me: "Miss, I wish Tranquil Tuesdays could be everyday. This is the only time I have to be quiet. My house? It's just noise!" Another, simply appears by the door of the classroom, asking to come in, not to do anything, but just to rest his head down on the desk and listen to the soothing music. Lord alone knows what nights at his house are like.
I used to baffle about why so many students come out on the last day of school. And while I know for most, it's because they want to enjoy the fun and freedom, I'm now painfully aware that for some students...school simply is...safer than home.
It pulls me down a rabbit hole and I start to think about the physical state and appearance of students who reported to school after two years of being virtual. The unkempt hair, acne-riddled faces, dark circles under the eyes, significant weight gain/ loss. We can immediately blame it on poor hygiene and self-care, even a lack of parental supervision....
But have we thought about linking it to depression? Or viewing it as a physical manifestation of a mental cry for help? Suddenly, everything's not so clear cut and the missing piece of the puzzle, is arguably, the most essential piece of all: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines Social and Emotional learning as:
The process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/
Undoubtedly, the pandemic affected ALL areas of education. But I venture to suggest, that Social and Emotional Learning, took the hardest hit. And if we look at the five elements that are at the very centre of the SEL framework, we can see why:
- Self-Awareness:
- Self- Management
- Social Awareness
- Relationship Skills
- Responsible Decision- Making
I'm not going to accuse anyone of not covering these areas in their classes, because I know for the most part, educators have gone above and beyond for the last two years.
I only wish to share a model that we implemented at my school, "to care for the whole child" and put SEL on the front burner where it belongs.
It's a group that, a colleague (plus dear friend of mine), Mrs. Sonja Gibbs-Bowen and myself, started when we were teaching online. Truth be told though, it had been an idea we just took until then, to actually realise.
We had noticed how much our students enjoyed colouring projects that we gave them in class. Design a Mother's Day card in French/ Spanish, colour decorations for a Mexican fiesta...our boys would spend the class period, focused on what they were doing, dare I say, quiet, engaged and easily swapping colour pencils with their peers. Personally, it was an enlightening surprise...to realise they could sit still and....COLOUR??? Even the most mischievous, were every five minutes, proudly displaying their art work for me to praise (and I did, despite the obvious colour clashes and psychedelic mishaps).
Sonja even remarked that some of her boys had stayed back in class at the break and lunch intervals, just to finish up their artwork. That was significant, because if your school is anything like mine, students normally stealthily pack up a few minutes before the end of class to dash through the door and to the cafe, as soon as the bell rings out its first chime. Woe to the idle corridor walker who is in their path.
So we discussed it, we related it to the current trend of self-care/ therapy colouring books for older children and adults. We decided it was a good idea to flesh out into a club and committed to working on it in the new 2019-2020 academic year.
It didn't materialise however, until the start of 2021 when we were teaching online. But everything happens when it's supposed to, and that was when we noticed, more than ever, that students needed a quiet space to just be. Like all educators, we noticed the sudden silence of normally enthusiastic students, the background noise of conflict at home and the undue responsibility of our students to look after siblings who were just a few years younger than themselves.
So we put things in motion and here's how:
1. We discussed the objective of the group and what we wanted to achieve: A space where students could just be free to relax and get at least 40 mins of peace of mind. We also wanted to give them tools to cope with stressful events and situations.
2. We started with a target audience, rather than go too large too soon: While it was a very promising idea, we saw the wisdom in starting with just one Year Group. We chose the Form 2 Year Group as we were their form teachers and this was also the group that had never experienced physical school with us. I think, subconsciously, there was also an understanding, that building relationships with these students in particular, was critical.
3. Knowing our objective, we began to source and compile material. We searched extensively on topics such as Mindfulness, EFT (tapping), Coping with Online Learning, Basic Yoga for stress relief, Growth Mindset, Journaling, Grounding and Positive Affirmations. We vetted material that would be appropriate for our target year group, nothing too childish and nothing too adult or heavy. Personally I found resources from https://www.twinkl.co.uk to be extremely helpful. They were age appropriate and inclusive. Being a subscriber, I was able to download the resources and adapt for our boys.
The resources were compiled by theme, on a Padlet. Honestly guys, http://www.padlet.com, is an organisational tool that you cannot live without. But even if you don't use Padlet, you can create themed folders on Google Drive for each of the topics you're covering and share the folders with your colleagues or even your students. Point is, organise your material by theme.
4. After organising material by theme, we decided how many sessions we would spend on each one. You can't expect to cover a topic in one session. You have to allow for sharing the material, discussing it and giving your students time to let it all sink in. For example, we focused on Growth Mindset over a period of three weeks. You can even decide if you want to do a Focus-of-the-Month, on just one topic.
5. We did the advertising and created a Team: As we were on MS Teams for online teaching, we created a Tranquil Tuesdays channel on the Form 2 Year Group team. We posted what we would be doing in our session and reasons why students should come to the sessions. Below is one of the posters we did for the club:
6. We made it available after class time: We didn't try to compete with the classes, and we allowed for a 20 minute break before it started, so students could grab something to eat and go for a bathroom break. They were perfectly free to have their lunch while it was going on as well, and some did. But we were always there 10 minutes before the session started to cater for the early-birds. They would be let into the meeting and enjoy soothing, calming music until the session started.
7. We made one session, a Music Share: As an added incentive, we let the boys share music with each other in a monthly session. They were asked to share music videos with no vulgarity or obscenity, that helped them relax or that they enjoyed. This is one situation where it's important to have two group co-ordinators, as I was able to vet the links that students shared, before Sonja played them for the group. We would communicate via WhatsApp as to yay or nay...regarding the video's appropriateness. This was a good security check to avoid any 'bombing' of the meeting.
The numbers weren't always consistent, but the feedback from both students and parents was positive. Our Principal made special mention of the group when we closed up the academic year, commending us and letting us know that parents had appreciated our efforts. It was a small start on a big idea, but at last, it was in the works.
We carried the idea over into the 2021-2022 academic year, and while we remained online, the flow was pretty much the same. But when we returned to physical school in April, we had to go back to the drawing board on how to make this club transition with us.
In my next post, I'll share how we did just that. In between, think about all I've shared and consider if it's something you'd like to do with your students. After all, it could very well bridge the gap between student academic success and their social and emotional well-being. It is a gap that, all too often, is ignored.
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