Lexie Kisseberth
Lexie Kisseberth
Embedded Files
About the Publisher
About the Publisher
My name is Alexandria (Lexie) Kisseberth and I am an English Secondary Education major at TCNJ. I currently aspire to become a high school English teacher and also hope to further my education by earning a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership and Administration. I have completed two practicum experiences at Mercer County Technical Schools Assunpink Center and Hightstown High School. I currently substitute teach through ESS at the Toms River Regional School District, as well as the Southern Regional School District. Through all of these programs, I always advocate for a stronger focus on students' mental health.
Mental Health
What is "Mental Health?"
What is "Mental Health?"
The World Health Organization defines mental health as "a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community." They go on to further explain that a good mental health is essential for making decisions, building relationships, and personal development.
Mental health is part of the emotional, psychological, and social well-being of every individual. Recently, the ADA Amendment Act of 2008 broadened the definition of disability, covering mental health and psychiatric disabilities.
COVID-19
Mental Health & COVID-19
Mental Health & COVID-19
Since the pandemic, mental health has been a big topic of discussion for students. The CDC recently conducted a Mental Health survey looking at high school students' mental health during the pandemic. The survey found that 45.2% of students had poor mental health, 52.9% had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 25.6% seriously considered attempting suicide, and 11.9% attempted suicide. They discovered that 1 in 3 high school students experienced poor mental health (stress, anxiety, depression) during COVID-19, and it still has lingering effects years after the pandemic.
One aspect that the CDC looked into was interpersonal communications. High school students had better mental health when they felt close to people and themselves. This hightened mental health issues prevelant in students has created a new area in schooling. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a new educational method that aims to help students with understanding their emotions by fostering social and emotional skills within school curriculum.
Social Emotional Learning
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
After COVID-19, society had hopes of returning back to "normal," but quickly discovered that they couldn't go back. This world was our new normal and everyone needed to adapt. Since the coronavirus severely impacted students' mental health, the idea of Social Emotional Learning became to boom and appeared more often in schools. It has become apparent that "the need for resilient and adaptive individuals for rapidly changing environments is becoming increasingly important." This urgency for a program that could aid students in this area created the dramatic increase of schools using Social Emotional Learning. The idea was to help students develop skills and knowledge that help them to express and manage their emotions, as well as creating positive goals and building healthy relationships with others as well as themselves to take care of their personal and social needs.
Social Emotional Learning is centered around the idea of integrating these goals into everyday curriculum. This can be presented and done in many different ways. How it is done is fully dependent on the students and their needs, the class subjects, and the teachers' knowledge of SEL. There have been many benefits of SEL that are proven with scientific evidence. These benefits include:
Positive school attitudes
Strong sense of community
Higher motivation
Increased sense of coping
Better attitude about school
Positive trend in school behavior
Fewer suspensions
Higher engagement
Fewer absences
More classroom participation
Increase in school performance
Higher achievement in math, language arts, and social studies
Improvements in achievement test scores
Use of higher-level thinking strategy
Promoting Mental Health With SEL
Promoting Mental Health With SEL
One of the most important things that Social Emotional Learning does is help students understand their emotions to attempt to improve their mental health. While the idea of SEL is all the same, it is not a one-size fits all. Each classroom and every student is different. Some students may have more severe problems and very poor mental health, while other students and classes may just need a little extra encouragement.
When thinking about Social Emotional Learning, there is a Tier System. Tier 1 is the "green zone" where around 80% of the student population does not appear to be at risk for developing severe mental health problems. This tier of SEL is necessary as every student can benefit from these life skills, but it is not emergent.
Tier 2 is considered the "yellow zone." This tier has a little more of the student population showing signs of developing poor mental health. These schools need a "yellow light" tier to help students slow down and be careful. It hones in on individual students a little more, but still does work with small group lessons. Teachers may offer extra help before or after school if students are struggling with a new skill. They may offer remind students when to use skills they learned from SEL and may alter lessons so they are more realistic and related to the students' lives.
The third and final tier, the "red zone," is when around 5% of the student population appear to need immediate and long-term help due to their battles with mental health. While the first two tiers were preventative lessons, the third tier usually needs a much more concentrated and powerful intervention. Some students may be able to talk to an educator they trust and have them as a "mentor," while others may need additional help. Here teachers can offer them support by teaching them about the mental health services available online or in their community. Teachers may need to have interventions with students that may acquire multiple professionals to help create a plan to help them with their mental health while not harming their schooling experience.
TED Talks
Future Classroom Use
Future Classroom Use
Social Emotional Learning
Social Emotional Learning
There are many activities that can be used in classrooms. Some examples that are not connected to curriculum are doing mindful breathing during the first 5 minutes of class to let students decompress and understand and think about the emotions they are feeling. Another option is meditation and yoga. If teachers notice their students being extra stressed one week or know quarterlies/midterms are coming up, the students may benefit from a yoga or meditation period where they can have some time to not be stressed and check in with themselves.
When asking teachers why they wanted to be in the education field, most educators say it is because they want to make a difference in students' lives. While cirriculm is extremely important, caring is another huge component. Our students are not robots, and sometimes having a teacher who cares can make a huge difference in their lives. Nel Noddings is an educator and philosopher who wrote about caring in education. She emphasized that students who feel cared for are more responsive and have better mental health because they have someone who believes in them. Through caring, teachers also learn about each of their students and their individual needs to help support them and their mental health. There are two quotes that are incredibly powerful when thinking about care in education that are listed below.
Since the pandemic, technology has played a much bigger role in schooling. A recent study from July 2023 found that children's screen time has remained significantly high since the pandemic. The higher screen times were found to be directly associated with anxious and depressive symptoms. Students were more stressed and had increased internalizing behaviors. Technology has lowered people's attention span, which creates a lot of anxiety in schooling. While technology can be a very powerful resource in schools for tools and resources in learning, it can also be dangerous. Having a healthy balance with screen time can have a positive affect for mental health.
"First, as we listen to our students, we gain their trust and, in an on-going relation of care and trust, it is more likely that students will accept what we try to teach... Second, as we engage our students in dialogue, we learn about their needs, working habits, interests, and talents. We gain important ideas from them about how to build our lessons and plan for their individual process. Finally, as we acquire knowledge about our students' needs and realize how much more than the standard curriculum is needed, we are inspired to increase our own competence" (Noddings 4)
"First, as we listen to our students, we gain their trust and, in an on-going relation of care and trust, it is more likely that students will accept what we try to teach... Second, as we engage our students in dialogue, we learn about their needs, working habits, interests, and talents. We gain important ideas from them about how to build our lessons and plan for their individual process. Finally, as we acquire knowledge about our students' needs and realize how much more than the standard curriculum is needed, we are inspired to increase our own competence" (Noddings 4)
"Caring relations also provide the best foundation for moral education. Teachers show students how to care, engage them in dialogue about moral life, supervise their practice in caring, and confirm them in developing their best selves" (Noddings 7).
"Caring relations also provide the best foundation for moral education. Teachers show students how to care, engage them in dialogue about moral life, supervise their practice in caring, and confirm them in developing their best selves" (Noddings 7).
Examples in Subject-Specific Classrooms
Examples in Subject-Specific Classrooms
English is a subject that has many opportunities for Social Emotional Learning. Students can have options for essays where they get to reflect on their own emotions and how they appear in books and characters. Teachers can allow students to reflect on what kind of books they like to read, and why they might like those genres. Another option is to allow students to have a say in some of the books they may read (ex: independent reading assignment) where they can explore characters that experience their same emotions or cultures.
While math can be a harder subject to integrate Social Emotional Learning, there are opportunities. During the first week of school, a class may be allowed to help create classroom rules as well as consequences, which can help students see how their own behaviors will have certain outcomes. Teachers may assign a puzzle for students to solve, where they can explore and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Having a lesson about self-management and check in with students about their emotions is also beneficial.
One way teachers can use SEL in science classrooms is having lessons where students can explore neurochemistry. Students can research how their brains work and how and why they feel certain emotions. Neurochemistry - the way our brains work. Additionally, when working in lab groups, students can exploe their strengths and build upon them and shine. Students can also identify their weaknesses and learn from their peers in the lab groups to work on their weaknesses to expand their skills and knowledge.
In history classes, students can reflect on current events and explore how they connect to the history topics discusses in class. When reading about historical people, teachers can ask their students if there are any people that they have the same feelings have. Then, the students can explore how those characters persevered and see if they can apply those skills to their own lives. Finally, history class is an amazing opportunity for students to do research about their own cultures and family history, and to share them with their peers.
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