The counseling department at Mitchell coordinates and supports school-wide social-emotional learning and mental health initiatives that serve all students. 

It's no secret that the past few years have brought increased attention to, and concern about, children's social emotional development. The COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of new technology, and an increasingly complex and stressful social and digital world has underscored the importance of ensuring that all students develop the key social-emotional learning skills and competencies needed to successfully manage their emotions, develop resiliency, and build positive relationships with others. These skills, just like those needed for reading and math proficiency, must be explicitly taught, practiced, and reinforced before we can expect children to demonstrate mastery.

Mitchell supports social-emotional learning for all students in several ways: though weekly SEL lessons in the classroom using the evidence-based Second Step curriculum, adherence to Responsive Classroom techniques and principles to create student-centered classroom environments and approaches discipline, and the availability of counseling services to all students in need of social, emotional, or behavioral support. Find more information about SEL instruction at the Needham Public Schools website here.

In addition to these programs, Mitchell also implements an additional Tier 1 SEL initiative to support all students in building needed skills for academic achievement, social success, and overall health and mental well-being. The initiative contains several components: the first is a monthly Community Meeting that introduces the SEL theme for the month to all students. Students will learn about the theme through read-alouds, activities, or videos to help students understand the importance of the month’s theme.  Community Meetings provide an opportunity for students and teachers to come together and share ideas, strengthen relationships, set goals, and build a sense of togetherness. Students learn to translate classroom behavior expectations into audience behaviors, practice leadership and public speaking, and grow a vision of themselves as contributing members of a larger community. The second component of the program will be a school-wide activity for all students to participate in across the month to support the theme. The third component of the program is additional classroom activities in support of the theme to offer students additional practice and opportunities to explore the theme within their smaller classroom communities. The final component is a family newsletter to support the home-school learning connection and provide families the opportunity to reinforce the monthly theme with students at home.

School-wide programming is a Tier 1 SEL intervention that focuses on developing a shared vision for school climate, building positive relationships between students and teachers, and integrating SEL into academic instruction and activities across the school day through common practices and language.  

Please see the Counseling Newsletter tab for more information on each theme.