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A Simple But Powerful Class Opening Activity

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A Simple But Powerful Class Opening Activity

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

The rose and thorn check-in is a quick strategy for building community and developing student voice.

At the start of a recent class, my students gathered a bouquet of good news: a trip to Ireland, an end to recent car troubles, an upcoming visit with a friend. These were highlights they shared during our start-of-class routine, the rose and thorn check-in.

In this quick activity, students participate by sharing roses-something positive going on for a student that day-and thorns, which are negative, or at least less than positive.

Students can choose their level of vulnerability: A rose can simply be "the weather is nice today." A low-stakes thorn might be "I feel tired." Yet many students choose to share more personal items: "My rose is that even though I'm stressed out, I got all my homework done" or "My thorn is that my dog is sick and I'm really worried about her."

Going around the classroom, each student states one rose and one thorn. I share mine too. The whole process takes five minutes or less. Yet though this fast activity may seem simple, the rose and thorn check-in is an essential part of my classroom community-building.

Benefits of the Check-In

Students know that every voice matters: The rose and thorn check-in gets every student's voice into the room at the start of each class. Although students can always say "pass" instead of sharing, each student has the opportunity to be heard, every single day. The check-in is also a great opportunity to practice active listening, turn-taking, and following group norms.

Students develop awareness of others' emotions-and how to respond to them: When students share their roses and thorns, they give their classmates a snapshot of their emotional state. And if I hear a student say that their thorn is "I didn't sleep much last night" or "I feel like I can't focus today," I can adjust my interactions with that person accordingly.

Students increase their comfort with vulnerability: Rose and thorn check-ins are opportunities for students to practice being emotionally vulnerable with their peers. This comfort level translates directly into the ability to share opinions and take academic risks in other contexts.

Facilitation Tips

Acknowledge each person's contribution: My colleague John Milton Oliver, who also uses this strategy, suggests saying "thank you," followed by the student's name, and then turning your attention to the next person in the circle. This models acceptance while also keeping things moving.

Discuss how emotions impact learning: Before or after the check-in, invite students to consider how their roses and thorns might affect their ability to participate in class that day. Ask students to brainstorm how they might support a classmate who shares a big thorn or how to celebrate a friend's exciting rose.

Model authenticity: While remembering your role and professional boundaries, try to authentically share: "My rose is that my class last period went really well," or "My thorn is that I'm a little behind on giving feedback on your papers, and it's stressing me out." Show students that it's OK to be vulnerable.

Practice, practice, practice: Depending on the skill level and existing cohesiveness of your group, it can take many tries to get the hang of the routine. Don't give up-and make sure to keep it quick and consistent.

Monitor time: My younger students are often eager to negotiate with me: "Can I please have three roses and two thorns?" Give students think time to write or draw what they will share.

Make a plan for following up on concerns: Occasionally, students may share something concerning. Make a plan for how you and the class will respond. Many times, this simply means following up individually with a student to offer support. For topics that could use a whole-class discussion, consider building in opportunities for group processing, such as a weekly community-building circle.

Tending to Challenges

Here are some tips for making this activity go smoothly:

Help Your Garden Grow

When your class gets the hang of the rose and thorn check-in, feel free to modify it. For example, I taught one group of students who reframed it as Harry Potter and Voldemort. Let your students take ownership over how to make the check-in feel meaningful to them.

As students get better at sharing, you can add a third part to the share: the rosebud, something that they're looking forward to in the near future. Students can develop other variations or components as well.

If your group is too big to do a full share, my colleague John suggests a lightning round, in which the roses and thorns are condensed to two or three words: "Thorn: sick dog! Rose: sunshine!" You could instead create small groups of three or four students each who share their full check-ins with one another instead of the whole class.

As teachers know, there's never enough time in a class period to accomplish everything we'd like to. The rose and thorn check-in may feel like "one more thing," but I see it as an investment in my classroom community. Making time to hear each student's voice demonstrates that I care enough to prioritize listening.

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A Simple but Powerful Class Opening Activity

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The rose and thorn check-in is a quick strategy for building community and developing student voice.

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Social Contracts Foster Community in the Classroom

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Social Contracts Foster Community in the Classroom

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Social Contracts Foster Community in the Classroom

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When students and teachers collaborate to create shared behavior expectations, the whole class is invested in the norms.

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In High School, the Kids Are Not All Right: Strategies on Tracking Students Mental Well-Being

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In High School, the Kids Are Not All Right: Strategies on Tracking Students Mental Well-Being

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I lost my first student to suicide not long ago. The student was no longer in my class at the time, nor even at the school, but I was flooded with the expected surge of feelings: overwhelming sadness, periodic despair, compulsive frame-by-frame replays of our every interaction. I felt the loss deeply. It was unspeakably tragic-for the student's friends and family, for me, and for the world I'd hoped the student would help shape.

I was haunted, too-I still am-by the fear of a similar tragedy among my raw-nerved and anxious students. And the recent spike in teenage suicides in my area has underscored this fear sharply.

Based on my observations, the lives of the high school students I teach are hemmed in everywhere by social pressures and expectations: high-stakes testing, the looming shadow of college admissions, the fiercely competitive school system, the painful process of figuring out who you are, and the ubiquitous desire for peer acceptance. Add to this the unseen pressures-fractured or fragmented home lives, emotional or physical violence and abuse, struggles with substance use, legal problems, and the wide range of issues borne by the many immigrant communities across the country-and it makes for a period of unsustainable emotional distress. In recent weeks the constant pressure has meant dealing with student depression almost daily, and helping support those who I feel might be toeing the line of self-harm.

There are plenty of resources for dealing with student mental health issues, of course-though most of them are geared either toward college kids or, more tragically, toward elementary and middle school-aged children. The sources that do offer strategies tailored for high school students tend to be either excessively academic or so general as to be useless. Reviewing my notes from my joint credential and master's program, I find inconsistency and a frustrating lack of clarity. The strategies include things like teaching positive management strategies and promoting emotional competency, or educating staff on mental health issues and encourage social supports.

As a practicing teacher, I don't find that very helpful. And in my day-to-day work life, I see two common-and mostly inadequate-mental health strategies deployed to help high schoolers who look like they might be struggling: First, take some time, and second, get caught up. Even if the advice is phrased differently, it's usually a variation on the same theme. Students are advised to take the adolescent equivalent of a personal day, and then complete their work accordingly. I'm not pointing fingers. I've done it myself.

In my case, frustration drove me to seek some better answers. In a series of recent conversations with the mental health professionals I trust, with colleagues who have a long history of putting students' mental well-being first-and of course with students-I've assembled a list of strategies for classroom teachers to implement that might help not just treat the symptoms but also address the underlying issues.

5 Strategies for Promoting High Schoolers' Mental Well-Being

1. Ask "How are you doing?"-and mean it. For the past six years, I've stood at the door and welcomed my high school students in with a handshake and a variant of that question. If I sense any problems, I might ask "Really?" or "You sure?" I think it's reassuring to students to know that an adult in their life cares about their well-being, and the research strongly supports that position.

Student responses, even if they don't answer honestly, can reveal volumes about their actual mental and emotional status. In my class, as students complete the warm-up, I go to my roster and note which students seemed upset or otherwise off.

Over the course of an average month, I think it's a good goal to seek out one substantial check-in with every student, no matter how they seem to be doing. The teacher will have made a meaningful one-on-one contact, and the student will know that the teacher has their well-being at heart. Furthermore, it's easy and cheap in terms of time invested, but can yield important insights.

2. Set office hours. This is a policy I've borrowed from some of the best teachers I've worked with: Set formal office hours and use them to meet with students about more than just academic concerns. For example, I'll try and meet with each of my students once per semester at some point outside of class time and use the conversation to learn more about who they are, what their academic goals are, and whatever other concerns they have. More often than not, these conversations move into more meaningful territory-most of my students just want or need someone to talk to. The primary objection is that this costs a great deal of time, and I agree. It's time intensive, but I think it's worth it.

3. Remember your Maslow. It seems trite to point this out, but in the midst of all the testing and the grading, we need to remind ourselves that mental health trumps academic performance every time. Students who don't feel grounded or safe or healthy cannot do their best work. Instead of constructing a classroom environment that operates at 100 percent difficulty all the time, consider alternate models that allow students to feel supported and competent first-and then consciously and explicitly ratchet up the difficulty and complexity as appropriate. I try to practice a type of curricular minimalism: lots of guided and independent low-stakes practice, culminating in a manageable set of summative exercises.

4. Consider what matters. I have often spoken with both past and current colleagues about makeup work. Many are of the belief that if a student misses an assignment, they should be-and often must be-responsible for timely completion upon their return. Others tend to recommend a gardener's approach, pruning the material to its most vital branch. More specifically, when a student is out, it's important for teachers to consider what work, what skills, and what benchmarks are actually important for outcomes.

When a colleague suggested to me that not all assignments matter, and those that do matter don't all matter the same, I balked-but there's plenty of wisdom in the idea. When a student falls behind, consider dropping assignments or editing down the work and, most importantly, explain to the student why that exception is being made. They will appreciate the clarity and the empathy, and most respond by working with greater discipline toward more manageable outcomes in the future.

5. Use the professionals. The best attempts of teachers pale in comparison to the support, resources, and guidance of professionals. I cannot advocate enough for teachers and all school staff to get to know your on-site school psychologists or mental health counselors (if you are so lucky), or to find those very important names and numbers immediately. Every mental health professional I've met in education has impressed me with their sensitivity, care, and ability to identify underlying issues well beyond my knowledge, and they explain the connection between a student's case history and my observations in a way that is both useful and crystal clear. Although teachers tend to try to be self-sufficient and eschew asking for help from those outside the classroom, we aren't mental health professionals-and this sort of assistance is necessary.

And don't forget to talk to someone yourself. This last strategy emphasizes self-care. I've seen teachers look just as punch-drunk as students, sometimes suffering from the same anxiousness and depression. It's important that teachers make an effort to talk to someone else-especially since the old truism that each classroom is its own kingdom is generally still true. A teacher who is burdened with the trials and tribulations of their hundred-plus students-and their own struggles to boot-won't have the headspace to be a humane, observant, and effective shepherd.

Whether it's in small doses with a spouse or significant other, structured sessions with a therapist, or even informational conversations with colleagues, getting those feelings and thoughts out of your head will make you more capable of responding to the needs of others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In High School, the Kids Are Not All Right

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I lost my first student to suicide not long ago. The student was no longer in my class at the time, nor even at the school, but I was flooded with the expected surge of feelings: overwhelming sadness, periodic despair, compulsive frame-by-frame replays of our every interaction. I felt the loss deeply.

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Beyond Treats and Timeouts: Humanistic Behavioral Supports In Inclusive Classrooms

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Beyond Treats and Timeouts: Humanistic Behavioral Supports In Inclusive Classrooms

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Access Google Forms with a personal Google account or Google Workspace account (for business use).

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Host interactive online meetings | Poll Everywhere

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A recent interview with British neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, the author of the 2018 book Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, begins with a caveat.

"I think it's important to know before we start that up until 20 years ago we really didn't know that the brain changes at all after childhood," she confides. "That's what I was taught during my undergraduate degree. We now know that's completely untrue."

In matters of settled opinion, science has often found itself in the role of provocateur, even saboteur-prodding at conventional wisdoms until they yield unexpected truths, and sometimes toppling them entirely. The mysteries of celestial bodies, heredity, and mental illness have all undergone dramatic rethinking.

So it shouldn't be entirely surprising that new technologies that allow us to peer into the brain as it processes information are driving a revolution in our understanding of human cognition. Images from fMRI machines, for example, reveal that the brain is less like a collection of discrete, specialized modules-one for speech and one for vision, the old model-and more like an integrated network of functions that support each other. Those same images show that cerebral networks undergo dramatic, global maturation well into our 20s.

The findings have cast doubt on many theories about adolescence. For too long, assertions about teenagers-from their purported irrationality to their apparent sense of invulnerability-have circulated widely and uncritically. The new research suggests that we have plenty of rethinking to do.

Of Mice and Minors

Adolescent rodents and adolescent humans are susceptible to peer pressure-and members of both species take risks at much higher rates when in the presence of companions their own age.

In a study conducted in 2005, neuroscientist Laurence Steinberg asked teenagers and adults to play a virtual driving game that tested their willingness to take risks as traffic lights turned from green to yellow to red. Participants were penalized when accidents occurred. Adolescents responded to the risks as well as adults did and performed about equally when playing alone. But in the presence of peers, risk-taking surged among the teenagers and young adults-risky driving increased threefold for 13- to 16-year-olds, and the number of crashes spiked-while remaining flat among adults.
Illustration by Leigh Wells
A study involving mice and alcohol consumption reached a similar conclusion. That 2014 experiment exposed rodents of different ages to the equivalent of an open bar: They could drink alcohol at their leisure. The adolescent mice-those at the tender age of 4 to 5 weeks-drank about as often as adult mice when by themselves. But in the presence of other juveniles, they settled in for a bender, drinking 25 percent more of the time. There was no change in the drinking of adult mice.

These results aren't just laboratory tricks. Using real crash data from 2007-10, a study published in 2012 found that the risk of death for teenagers driving alone increased by 44 percent per mile when traveling with one peer, and quadrupled with three peers in the car. By contrast, Blakemore writes, traveling companions are actually a "protective factor" for adults over 26, "who are less likely to crash if they have a passenger than if they're alone."

In a few recent experiments, peer pressure emerges as a measurable biological phenomenon, crossing over into the perceptible world like the first earthquake waves etched onto a seismograph. A 2013 study found that when human subjects were told that a peer was watching them, skin conductance readings-a measure of the electricity triggered by stress and arousal-were consistently higher in adolescents than in either adults or children. Brain scans administered at the same time revealed telltale flares of greater activity in key regions of the teenage brain linked to self-awareness and the ability to understand others.

It's never been a question of feeling invincible. For teenagers, there's just something about the presence of peers that is transfiguring-they understand the risks, and take them anyway.

A Telling Mismatch

A likely culprit in adolescent risk-taking is a brain network that stretches back deep into evolutionary history-the limbic system, the seat of primal instincts like fear, lust, hunger, and pleasure. "These are regions in the deep center of the brain," explained Blakemore. "They are much older, and we share these systems with a lot of other animals."

In 2014, Blakemore and two colleagues gathered brain images of 33 people and plotted the growth rates of individual limbic systems over time. They also looked at another critical brain region: the prefrontal cortex.
Illustration by Leigh Wells
The charts that resulted (above) show that limbic structures like the nucleus accumbens changed only modestly during adolescence while the prefrontal cortex experienced a dramatic shift in volume, shrinking and reorganizing as it pruned away unused synaptic connections. The upshot? The brain scans seem to indicate that the limbic system-the brain's reward system-is mature and firing on all cylinders in teenagers, while the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for things like self-control, planning, and self-awareness, is still busy developing.

"One major theory of adolescent development is that there is a mismatch between these two systems," Blakemore elaborated. "The limbic system, which gives you the rewarding feeling of taking risks, is structurally more developed before the prefrontal cortex, which stops you from taking risks."

If that seems too neat to you, Blakemore agrees. "I wouldn't discount social factors like changing schools," she cautions, or "overlook individual differences in teenagers."

Still, there's plenty of evidence that the limbic system is hyperactive during adolescence. It's not youthful irrationality or a flair for the dramatic at work; teenagers actually experience things like music, drugs, and the thrill of speed more powerfully than adults do. In his 2014 book Age of Opportunity: Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence, Steinberg draws a straight line to peer influence as well, noting that teenage peers "light up the same reward centers that are aroused by drugs, sex, food, and money."

All Natural Plastic

It's not all gloom and doom. The teenage years are "the last, great neuroplastic era in our lifetimes," according to Steinberg, referring to the brain's continued capacity for intellectual and emotional growth. The same emerging circuitry that makes teenagers vulnerable to risky behavior and mood swings also confers significant advantage on adolescent learners.
Illustration by Leigh Wells
At the deep neural level, new information is written into the gray matter of the brain itself-expressed in structural changes to synapses, which, through repeated exposure, form increasingly durable webs of memory. A study conducted in 2002 provides a fascinating window into the brain at the very moment of learning. The chart above shows the electrical response in both adolescent and adult mice to a novel piece of information, represented by the red arrow. Like a bell struck more sharply, the brain of the adolescent mouse produces a more dramatic reply-and then sustains it for longer.

That's good news-and a clear signal that the teenage brain is by nature more receptive to learning, says Frances Jensen in her 2015 book The Teenage Brain. Adolescent animals simply "show faster learning curves than adults," and we retain the capacity to improve even fundamental attributes like our IQ well into our teenage years.

Reaching Teenagers in Class

Take the direct approach: Talking to teenagers frankly about their brain development can provide useful context for their emotional worlds, and reset their expectations about their potential for continued intellectual growth. "We know that people like biological explanations. It's true in neurological stroke patients-showing that the brain is plastic and can change and rehabilitate is really useful," Blakemore said.

Explaining the role of the limbic system, the influence of peers, and the malleability of the teenage brain establishes a basis for students to better understand themselves and exert control over their emotional and academic lives. Blakemore insists there's also a simple question of respect at stake: "They have a right to know," she says emphatically. "It's happening in their brains."

Make good use of peer pressure: Peer pressure and social influence can be used for good, too. Smoking research shows, for example, that teens ignore warnings about the long-term health consequences of cigarettes, but respond to the social effects. It's more convincing to remind teens that cigarettes "give you bad breath, or put younger children in danger," said Blakemore. Teens "also respond to the idea that this is an adult industry that is exploiting them to make money. That has been shown to help for smoking and also for healthy eating."

Schools are aware of many of these social dynamics, and have used teen leaders, social influencers, and appeals to fairness and justice to change behaviors around vaping, bullying, and academic cheating.

Teach self-regulation: It's not too late. The prefrontal cortex, which governs executive functions, is still developing and remains highly responsive to the environment and to training during adolescence. It stands to reason that explicitly teaching self-regulation, long-term planning, and empathy might have particular benefits for teenagers.

According to Steinberg, efforts to improve the self-regulation of teenagers "are far more likely to be effective in reducing risky behavior than are those that are limited to providing them with information about risky activities." And social and emotional learning programs that show adolescents "how to regulate their emotions, manage stress, and consider other people's feelings" can have positive effects on executive functions more generally, improving focus and self-discipline, and setting teenagers up for academic and professional success well beyond high school.

The author of this article is the chief content officer at Edutopia. You can follow him on Twitter @smerrill777.

The charts in this story were drawn by illustrator Leigh Wells, and adapted from studies by 1) Margo Gardner and Laurence Steinberg, 2005; 2) K.L. Mills, A.L. Goddings, L.S. Clasen, J.N. Giedd, and S.J. Blakemore, 2014; and 3) N.L. Schramm, R.E. Egli, and D.G. Winder, 2002, via Synapse magazine, courtesy of Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Decoding the Teenage Brain (in 3 Charts)

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A recent interview with British neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, the author of the 2018 book Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, begins with a caveat. "I think it's important to know before we start that up until 20 years ago we really didn't know that the brain changes at all after childhood," she confides.