Six Suggestions to Support Student Wellbeing

 

                                                                                                                                  (C) 2022 Scott B. Freiberger

By Scott B. Freiberger

With the pestilential, persistent pandemic seemingly winding down like a bouncy bairn bauble with a beastly bromidic battery, student wellbeing has taken on a sudden and significant sense of seriousness.  Effective teaching anywhere is sparked by teachers and administrators who care.  When students feel safe, supported, and secure, finally fathoming that failure plays a far-reaching and prominent part of the learning process, they feel more reassured and receptive to communicate with calmness, consistency, and kindness. Here are six suggestions to support student wellbeing.

1. Parents are Paramount Learning Partners for Pupil Progress

Across the world, in every nation, parents should be prominent learning partners in their children’s education.  Research indicates that increased parent involvement not only enhances students’ overall academic performance, but it also has a positive influence on student attitude and behavior.  Workshops could welcome parents, help solidify student study skills, and keep kids on track to not receive flack for submitting incomplete work. 

Set a Positive Tone with Parents of ELLs

For English Language Learners (ELLs), especially, ensure that parents of ELLs feel welcome in the school community and have opportunities to participate and volunteer.  As I had penned in a previous TESOL-related piece, setting a positive tone at initial parent meetings and engaging in subsequent follow-though using bilingual books or multilingual communication materials to diverse families establishes a team-based, reciprocal environment, and cooperative approach. 

Ensure a deep understanding of each student’s home language, cultural background, and degree of family support to demonstrate that academic success may be enhanced by parental vigilance and family involvement.  In addition, emphasize to parents, guardians, and family members that students should not lose their native languages while learning English, and that students’ mother tongues could be used as a scaffold to better decipher meaning, compare language nuances and structure, and ultimately augment and support learning English as a second or new language.

Put Supports in Place with Parents of Children with IEPs

The home-school connection is also particularly paramount for children who have been diagnosed as having disabilities and have an Individual Education Plan (IEP).  Provide parents, especially those whose children have IEPs, information to understand the modifications and supports put in place to ensure a safe learning space and scaffolds for overall success.  Parents are pivotal in providing insights and information on their children’s behavior, emotional wellbeing, and academic strengths both inside and outside of school.  They may also provide helpful information on a child’s academic learning history and social and emotional development, as well as any family or outside, additional factors that may impact learning and success in a classroom setting.

Address Parent Apprehensions Aptly

Address parent apprehensions aptly, and ensure information is readily available to establish transparency and trust. Communicating via ParentSquare and Remind may also augment leading from behind.  Involved parents could help ensure children are rewarded when they meet measurable classroom goals.  If students are struggling, parents could also offer myriad insights as to why, and suggest strategies for strengthening teaching and learning.  Finally, parents should receive an admission of recognition for their welcome rapport to sustain student support.

2. Team Up for Testing, but Remember Student Resting

Enhancing the quality of student life means assistance alleviating strife.  In a post-pandemic learning environment, “progress monitoring” could not only account for academic progress, but also include emotional wellbeing.  While it’s commendable that teachers and administrators team up for testing, let’s not forget student resting.  Provide intermittent brain breaks, or opportunities for students to briefly untwist and untwine from the heady, academic vine.  Even adolescents may think it’s cool to take brain breaks at school.  When it’s time to enhance study prowess, mindfulness can show how serenity endows us.  Ready for middle school kids to thrive? Try one of these 25! 

Calm Down Kit

In the event that a student may become dysregulated, try having on hand a unique calm down kit.  You may even want to personalize it for a particular child.  A well-conceived calm down kit could be a reliable resource in a teacher’s toolkit to soothe an anxious child during challenging moments.  Survey students (as well as their parents) and try to put some of their views into practice.  Carefully-planned activities and events could be student-focused to be a catalyst for communication, spark motivation, and build unity within the community. 

3. Enhancing Mental Health means Growing Emotional Wealth

“Emotional wealth” in a K-12 context refers to the successful management of age-appropriate mental and social-emotional development, as well as providing relevant resources on an as-needed basis. Some traits of emotionally wealthy children include confidence, resilience, and focusing forward when mistakes might be made.  Students who continue to build emotional wealth fathom that reeling from resentment rapidly becomes a waste of time amidst a deep drain of emotional energy, so it would make more sense to act akin to Queen Elsa of Arendelle, to cast perturbation proverbially aside and simply, “Let It Go.”

Students also build emotional wealth by standing up for others, fostering faith over fear, and by always choosing kindness.  As Melody Schoenfeld, a California-based certified personal trainer with over 23 years of health and wellness training experience and the NSCA 2019 Personal Trainer of the Year advised, “Life is always going to throw you curveballs. Don’t let that stop you from reaching your goals.”  Another tenet that Ms. Schoenfeld teaches her clients that is also applicable to K-12 students is modeling that life is about finding one’s direction, rather than striving for perfection, and managing “what makes sense in the moment.” 

4. Career Surmiser? Think: Peer Adviser

The Latin saying, “Discimus ut Serviamus” translates to, “We learn so that we may serve.”  In essence, the more pedagogues enhance skills, the better prepared they become to support all students.  As an undergraduate at Queens College of CUNY, I had served as a “Peer Advisor,” helping students on campus with academic advising, as well as offering students support with social and emotional life adjustment issues.  A similar buddy or peer mentoring program could be established in K-12 schools, especially for adolescents, to help assist with emotional regulation and academic celebration. “Checking in” mornings and “checking out” afternoons may go a long way in making students feel emotionally safe and welcome back in buildings. These attentive actions may also keep them on task in class and on track for graduation.    

Support students’ physical, social, and emotional health needs by referring potential issues to school counselors, as well as any medical issues to the nurse.  Planning in advance for conceivable potential problems could help mitigate issues once the school year starts.  Working collaboratively should also lead to more seamless transitions for everyone.

5. Promote Positive Practices to Curtail Classroom Conflicts

As a teacher, I had collaborated with students at the beginning of each year to create a classroom charter, which all students agreed to sign.  This mutual agreement helped to establish how, collectively in the classroom, we wanted to feel.  It also included some agreed-upon actions, and how we could prevent and mange conflicts.  My goal was to prepare students to not only be an inspiration in the lives of others, but also to elevate them to be thoughtful thinkers and meaningful members of the school, making compassionate contributions to the community, and ultimately uplifting humanity.  Students facilitated discussions by utilizing a talking stick to show respect, and learned the value of listening attentively, considering constructive feedback, and managing missteps.  Ultimately, many of these missteps became teachable moments.  When students became isolated, acted disengaged, or otherwise behaved in a manner contrary to what we had all collectively agreed upon, a private discussion generally ensued. I intentionally established good working relationships with students (and their parents) so when issues did arise, our strong relationships were helpful in remedying perceived harm and restoring respect.

Be Proactive, Not Punitive

According to Cory Collins, author of Toolkit: The Foundations of Restorative Justice, restorative practices refers to developing a more communal, collaborative system of communication rather than imposing harsh punishments. Collins also emphasized the use of restorative circles for pedagogues to facilitate group conversations to resolve community conflicts.  This way, students take more ownership for their actions, tend to be more willing to collaborate, and communicate without prejudice when they feel they have collectively set the expectations to hold one another accountable.

6. Support Service Learning Across Subjects

In a pertinent blog post, I had elaborated how service learning helps students develop confidence and tap into both interests and talent.  Current issues to consider may include global warming, environmental conservation, and poverty alleviation.  Precise lesson planning coupled with community outreach to organizations with reliable resources could offer opportunities for student reflection, appropriate assignments for students to pen pertinent papers, and/or a collaborative presentation to point out pertinent pondering.

With a wealth of resources available to teach and learn about service learning, invite students to become active participants in their own learning.  Above all, it is important for students to have a strong voice in the process to deepen their understanding of the activities and to maximize learning opportunities.   When students surmise that their contributions are considered and voices are valued, service-learning becomes a terrific tool to cultivate a caring classroom culture, touch up teaching, uplift learning, and enhance community empowerment.  In sum, service-learning proves that the choices students make and the actions students take reveal the quintessential essence of who we, as humans, truly are: civil, productive, and united.

Since pandemic virus variants continue to circulate, practical school leaders and pragmatic pedagogues may also want to keep current on upgrading remote teaching and learning in the unfortunate event that students and staff members may not temporarily meet in buildings.  In the meantime, let’s keep kindness in mind at all times, continue to improve the educational community, and collaborate to improve the learning environment for everyone. 

This article also appears here.

BIO

Scott Freiberger is an attentive administrator and a passionate pedagogue who advocates for ELLs/MLLs and students with special needs. Follow him on Twitter: @scottfreiberger