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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health - Elizabeth Green

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health - Elizabeth Green

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One way I promote social health in my music classroom is by having students work in groups for different projects. We talk a lot about how to work in a group, what being a good group member looks like, and even go through scenarios of situations we might encounter when working with a group. They have strategies in case a problem or disagreement come up in their group work.
Another way I am working to promote emotional health is showing students how music can be an outlet for them when they are feeling different things. We do a lot of listening in class and we try to connect those excerpts to emotions we are feeling. By third grade, a lot of students already have a favorite music and we discuss why that is. I love hearing that it helps them when they're down or it helps pump them up for sports games. Music is a very healthy outlet for students!

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Positive Social, Emotional & Mental Health- Natalie D'Amico

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Positive Social, Emotional & Mental Health- Natalie D'Amico

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One way that I promote positive social, emotional & mental health in my classroom is by creating a calm & safe environment for my students. I do so by incorporating soft lighting, music, comfortable seating, and minimal wall decor. Students come in and as they arrive you can see that their demeanor changes. They are either happily singing along to whatever music is playing, sitting in a comfortable chair,  or laughing with a fellow classmate.

In addition, I also provide a supportive environment for my students by building connections. One of the ways that we do this in my classroom is by having a weekly morning meeting. This is a non-negotiable, meaning that we always save time for our morning meeting together. The meeting is student-led and topics discussed are completely from the students themselves. Students have the freedom to share kudos to classmates, concerns they have, or suggestions for the class in how we can improve the following week. They know that this is a space where their voices are both heard and accepted. We also come together to set a goal for the week, which is something that the kids feel is important for them to improve on. I also build connections with my students throughout the day as I practice active listening to their concerns. It is my hope that my kids feel comfortable and supported each and every day.

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Positive Social, Emotional and Mental Health- Erin Collins

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Positive Social, Emotional and Mental Health- Erin Collins

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As a teacher, I try to create a calm and supportive environment the moment they walk in the door. Students walk in each day and look at their "To-Do List". Part of their morning "chores" is to complete a mindful task. Some of my students prefer to silent read, while some may draw on our enlarged "color me calm" sheets. During our morning meeting that is student-led, our class speakers choose a daily inspiration that they present to the whole class. Often these are quotes or even videos that have underlying themes of growth, self-acceptance, kindness and more. By allowing students to have a choice in this inspiration, I see much more about the type of themes and stories that seem to motivate them. This morning routine starts off our day in a positive and mindful way.

Throughout the day I try my best to manage student interactions and continue to coach them when they seem to need assistance. I use positive behavior messages and reminders as we move throughout our day. Even in fifth grade, I need to remind students to bring their "bodies and brains" to the meeting area. Everyone, even I, need reminders about being present in the moment. In addition, I work very closely with my social worker in order to check-in with students and offer them another adult to speak with when something is deeply troubling or I feel that they are needing a more experienced individual in terms of mental/social/emotional health.

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health- Holly Poppink

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health- Holly Poppink

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At the Alternative High School, there are many days when we cannot move forward with content until we address what's going on with mental health,  the social dynamic between a group of kids needs an intervention, or manage emotions.

One thing I'm really learning to focus on is being an active listener first. I've been slowing down my disciplinary role or putting my consequences on the back burner until I really listen and understand the root of the problem. I've found the kids much more open to listening to my suggestions once they feel they've been heard. I don't rush to tell them what they should have done, or what they should do next time or from now on (like I've done in the past). Instead I'm trying to listen first and have been amazed at how students can problem solve and get themselves calmed down after they have a chance to vent.

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health - Brandon Smith

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health - Brandon Smith

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In a high school setting, I believe that preparing students to be active participants in the world around them is paramount. In pursuit of this goal, items such as "Work well with others and alone," has become a large area of focus. We therefore often flip between working in groups and as individuals, and although it may make some students uncomfortable, it is still of absolute importance.

In fact, the fact that it makes some uncomfortable is something that I play into quite a bit. I pride myself on giving students an environment where they will be challenged both academically as well as personally. There is a fine line between helping someone to push their own boundaries and completely breaking a student, and I believe at that line is where students can get the most growth. It comes down to the "embrace the struggle" saying. I push my students to do that daily.

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Positive Social, Emotional and Mental Health- Brianna Schoonover

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Positive Social, Emotional and Mental Health- Brianna Schoonover

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One way I promote social health within the classroom is by having Star of the Week. Each day, our star shares with us information about their family and home life and also a favorite item. This allows the star student to build confidence in themselves, as many kids often blurt out, "Oh I love that!" or "That's so cool!". It is also an opportunity for my kids to make connections with others and realize that they are not alone, that other kids enjoy what they enjoy.
I also promote expressing and trying to show empathy. When something happens between my students, I will have them each express their side of the story while the other one listens. Then I ask them to either apologize for what they did or how they made the other person feel. To acknowledge that sometimes we make mistakes, but to take accountability if they hurt someone's feelings. In return, I teach the child to say "thank you" or "I accept your apology" back.

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health - Macy Holmberg

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Health - Macy Holmberg

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Inside of my Young 5's classroom, we are consistently focusing on optimism. Expressing optimism is one of my personal strengths as a teacher, so I demonstrate an enthusiasm for school each day when we are learning together. Our social emotional curriculum addresses Growth Mindset. We focus on the language that we use to encourage ourselves when we can't do something "yet". We think about when we might get upset and the tools that we can use to take a break (counting, reading, deep breaths, fidget toy).
As new members of a school community, my students are also learning what it means to be a responsible student of our school. We read different books and interactively model, what is expected behavior and unexpected behavior. Our school social worker has even been coming in and speaking to my class about Social Thinking. I have already seen my students take great care of our classroom and are learning more each day on how to be a student at Pleasant Ridge!

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Heath - Kasey Chapman

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Positive Social, Emotional, and Mental Heath - Kasey Chapman

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In my classroom, we work on positive social, emotional, and mental health throughout the day, everyday! We have a morning meeting to welcome students to the classroom and share any current events in their lives. As a class, we have worked to build a safe environment for all students to feel comfortable having successes and learning experiences.

I have worked to build a good rapport with each of my students since we started school. I enjoy engaging with my students outside of our academic time. We play games before school starts, enjoy lunch together, and play  games during activity time.

In kindergarten, we work in partners, small groups, and whole group. During this time, I fish bowl students demonstrating cooperation and praise students following our group plan.

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Positive Social Emotional and Mental Health - Kaitlynn Taylor

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Positive Social Emotional and Mental Health - Kaitlynn Taylor

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Within my resource room we are working on positive social, emotional and mental health daily. One way we do this is in the morning I have a check in with each of my students. We use our behavior thermometer and work on evaluating ourselves and our emotions. When a student is high on the thermometer we discuss our strategies and what we can do to help get back down on the thermometer. When I know a student starts the day off high on the thermometer that I continually check on that student throughout the day and having them self-evaluate.

There are times my students have challenging moments and struggle with regulating their emotions. Once a student has calmed down and the situation is deescalated, we take time to reflect. We talk about what triggers we have and how we can work through them. I am constantly reminding my students that it isn't about our melt downs, or challenges, it is about how we come back and what we do next time.

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Positive Emotional and Mental Health - Justin Ward

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Positive Emotional and Mental Health - Justin Ward

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It is imperative that we promote positive social, emotional, and mental health in the classroom. I believe this all starts with positive communication with both staff and students. It is important to have a strong focus on the positives that come out of each day, even when things are difficult. I think that the little things can go a long way in regard to how we treat the people around us. Showing a willingness to go out of your way to help someone or assist in a situation can show support for both students and staff you work with.

In our classroom, our staff works together to help ensure that we put our students in the best position to be successful.

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Positive Social Health- Megan Stephenson

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Positive Social Health- Megan Stephenson

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To promote positive social health in my classroom, we have Story of the Day before we leave to go home every day. My students get to share something that happened to them either that day, or during the week some time. They use the student microphone and present their story for the class. We take a few moments after to ask questions or give feedback. Usually, we end in celebration, and then we head out for the day!

In my classroom, we do a lot of celebrating. When someone goes above and beyond, we shout them out. We take time out of our day to share meaningful work, stories, and experiences we have. If something goes wrong, we have a group discussion and talk about how we could improve, or change our behavior the next time. We don't shy away from conflict or struggle, but use it as an opportunity for growth. We build connections by branching out beyond our classroom--for example, we have 5th grade buddies from Mr. Spicer's class.

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Positive Emotional and Mental Health- Courtney Brothers

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Positive Emotional and Mental Health- Courtney Brothers

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A strategy that I use in my classroom to promote positive emotional and mental health is embracing the struggle. When being introduced to new situations or challenges, it's easy to shut down and push it away. Any bit of success is celebrated to demonstrate to my students that learning is a process and it is okay to make mistakes. I am still learning with my students as well which also results in many mistakes from myself.  I make it clear to my students that I make mistakes too but I keep trying. When trying to accomplish so much, it can become stressful and frustrating but I make sure I celebrate those small wins to keep us moving forward.

Another technique that is enforced in our everyday schedule is regulating and managing emotions. Many of my students have a difficult time managing their thoughts and emotions and may act upon them in an inappropriate manner. I work to discuss how the student is feeling, why they are feeling that way, and once de-escalated, what we could have done differently. I check in with my students to see how they are feeling throughout the day. I make sure they understand that it is okay to be upset but we must find alternatives to manage our emotions. I have began using visual schedules to help students plan out their day while giving them choice in what they would like to do/accomplish.

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Positive Emotional and Mental Health- Dan Hunt

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Positive Emotional and Mental Health- Dan Hunt

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With my students each day, we embrace the need to develop positive strategies and attitudes about our mental health. One way we practice this is through using "Zones of Regulation", which helps a couple of my students identify their feelings & emotions along a spectrum between raging mad to excitement.  It's serves as a way to grow awareness and to practice the regulation skills. I will continue to use the "zones" as a way to help students identify the emotions, feelings and thoughts that arise during the day.

Secondarily, we work on acting as responsible citizens in our community outings, as well as our management and care of our classroom. This means that we clean-up after ourselves at school and after using public spaces, recycle our plastics and cans, and leave places better than we found them. In making shredded paper firebricks, (a district supported fundraiser) students are actively demonstrating the "reuse" principle of the 3-R's At this time, this more of a goal than a daily reality but we are embracing it!

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A big strategy I try to implement in my classroom is regulating and managing emotions.  In my academic support class we do one lesson a week on mindfulness/meditation to help students have strategies to manage stress level and learn more about themselves.   This leads to some great conversations about what stresses students and helps them learn to relate with each other better.   This can also help to build connections between the teacher and student.

Another thing that this helps facilitate is embracing the struggle and for me to show empathy.  After mindfulness time each day, students are given time to ask me questions and discuss their stress, which allows me an opportunity of empathy.  This also gives me an opportunity to teach students how to embrace the stress and struggle as a good thing, to continue to grow as a person through this experience.

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In my classroom, we do many things to promote many facets of positive social and emotional health.  We begin everyday with a morning meeting.  We are intentional about taking time to share with each other and prepare ourselves for the day ahead.  Part of this includes talking about our behavioral learning target and what we will do to work towards this goal each day.
To continue this learning, I work very hard to correct behaviors by pointing out positive behaviors in others with the hopes that those not following our group plan will be able to self regulate and correct the behavior on their own.  When they can't, we have discussion about what is expected and talk about how we can learn from our mistakes.
I also work hard to build connections with my students on a regular basis. Whether that means eating with them in the lunch room, spending time talking to them during our activity time or just touching base out on the playground.

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In my classroom, we build connections by starting each day with a morning meeting. During this time every students is greeted with a good morning, students share and feel heard, and we celebrate successes while planning for the day ahead.

We are continually developing students abilities to work well alone and with others. During the average school day students work alone, with partners, and in groups. I model, remind, and praise behaviors for students to be successful. When problems arise, I use and model active listening to help facilitate win-win problem solving.