Wellness@ES

Purpose of this Website

Welcome to the Wellness@ES (Elementary School) website! The resources on this website support educators at the elementary school level as they learn, live and teach the principles of Positive Psychology. The ultimate goal is to embed¹ the principles into the culture of one's school and the greater community through an integrative approach to make the science of Positive Psychology tangible and useable in the lives of your community members so that they can flourish/thrive.

Designing and implementing a school-wide wellness program starts with forming a wellness team comprised of teachers, administrators, parents and other school stakeholders including support staff and students. My approach would be to have a dual pathway in which the team constructs a strategic wellness plan for structured and systematic implementation over a number of years. Concurrently, integrating Positive Psychology principles into the regular classroom curriculum, including teaching Character Strengths and the PERMAH framework, should start as soon as possible. (Note: The term Character Strengths is capitalized for emphasis throughout this website.)

A helpful "let's get going" model is to start with integration strategies listed here on this website using the approach provided by the School Retool PD program. Their guiding mantra is Bias to Action > Fail Forward and Learn > Start Small. Draw from your initial integration efforts to help guide your strategic planning efforts! Whether you start with your early adopters or have all staff members as part of their professional growth plans try some wellness integration strategies to get started and get the ball moving, as designing and implementing a full-on school and community wellness program takes time.

Note to High School Educators: Here is a prototype high school wellness resource site I collaborated to build it with a Vietnamese non-profit for middle and high school students. It is a very rough draft! Here is a sample of lessons the non-profit designed using the resource site.

Definitions

The World Health Organization (WHO) Definition of Wellbeing (using the UK and Australian spelling of well-being): "Mental health is defined as a state of wellbeing in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community."

The PERMAH pillars and several of the Character Strengths of Positive Psychology come together to help students grow what we call their social and emotional learning (SEL) while providing a framework that is graspable and usable by our students. With many schools having SEL guidance programs based on the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Student Standards, it is not a stretch to see how Positive Psychology and SEL have the same goals in mind. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is "the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions." - Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

In the News

October 2022: Edutopia article "What's the Role of Teachers in Supporting Mental Health?" paints a severe picture of student mental health in the US. The article provides helpful case studies and data but the focus is almost entirely on reactive strategies to support student wellness. Only one paragraph offers proactive, integrative approaches to support all students with their wellness.

July 2022: US government provides funding for a more team approach to help students "thrive."

January 2022: An elementary school principal shares her Six Ways to Optimize Your School's SEL Curriculum, which aligns with the integration strategies offered here. Her sixth point of supporting "teachers to follow their own passions" is a fundamental value-added approach for staff engagement and celebration of individual talents and interests.

December 2021: As the author of this website, I engage my Character Strength of humility as I consistently question my approach and the information that I provide so it is helpful when leaders in the field validate some of the ideas presented here. I recently read an interview with Dr. Aaliyah Samuel. She is the new CEO and President of CASEL, the leading US organization supporting social and emotional learning. She said the following about the importance of taking an integrated approach to providing SEL learning opportunities for our students. "I think understanding that SEL, in part, doesn't have to be a separate thing, that it can be integrated into the work, into the fabric of what's happening. I also think focusing on adult SEL as well is really important to the sustainability." - Source.

November 2021: We spent the last couple of decades integrating technology into our teaching. The International Society led this effort for Technology in Education (ISTE). The folks at ISTE recently highlighted the importance and need to integrate SEL into our teaching. "Relevancy in learning has taken on a new meaning as many educators now understand the importance of actively integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into their lessons in tandem with academic and career learning." - Source. The author of the article's third area of integration, emotional intelligence, connects directly to the resources provided on the Character Strength page of Emotional Intelligence of this site.

August 2021: The ACT (college testing provider) teamed with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) to survey school counselors, pre-service counselors, and district leaders in the US about SEL. Here is a summary of their report listing highlights and recommendations. The following is the headline of their findings:

"There is growing consensus among educators, policymakers, and researchers that K–12 students' social and emotional (SE) skill development may be nearly as important as cognitive ability for education and workplace success." - Source.

An Integrated Approach

Character.org provides guidelines that include purchased character education curriculum programs that provide helpful first steps and elements of a comprehensive effort. But there also should be a holistic approach that integrates character development into every aspect of school life with an environmental experiential approach. School staff members model wellness practices with an intentional and proactive effort while responding to teachable moments to integrate Character Strength learning experiences that include the three domains of thinking, feeling, and behavior. Instructors take deliberate steps to create opportunities for character development and personal growth. This principle includes teaching students the social, emotional, and character development skills they need to be ethical citizens.

PBS LearningMedia provides a helpful video describing how social and emotional (SEL) learning can weave into daily school life by applying the three domains listed above. The integrative and standalone curriculum approaches can come together in a hybrid approach to teaching wellness to one's students. As outlined in the article entitled "All Aboard! How a New Curriculum-Development Process Brought Teachers, Administrators and Learning Specialists to the Table and Resulted Some Innovative Uses of Technology," integration can take place through collaborative planning. The article outlines how to bring the distributed expertise of the learning community together to integrate technology into the curriculum. The same approach also applies to wellness integration. We can see how the Technological-Pedagogical-Content Knowledge (TPACK) approach to technology integration into the classroom curriculum can be a model for wellness integration. One might call it a WPACK construct with Wellness-Pedagogy-Content knowledge coming together to hit the sweet spot for integration purposes.

Edutopia published a list of critical guidelines for SEL implementation that align with what is shared here at the Wellness@ES site. :) If you want to purchase a curriculum of set lessons, you can review the CASEL list of SEL programs.

Process

One primary goal of a wellness program is to help our students THRIVE! To reach this goal, here are six potential steps to follow. Remember the focus of this site is the elementary school so it is practical but not global for implementing a K-12 wellness program.

Step 1: Introduction Lessons - What is wellness? What is character? What are Character Strengths? The wellness coach works with the grade-level teams to design the lessons.

Step 2: Teachers then teach students the individual Character Strengths that scientific research shows we all have. The Wellness Coach works with the grade-level teams to design the lessons. Each team has a Wellness Lead who is the point person for all things wellness especially in leading the integration process. One approach is for the wellness coach and grade-level teachers is to design the scope and sequence of when you will teach each of the strengths. Perhaps in early childhood, only a handful of strengths are introduced, such as emotional and social intelligences, honesty, kindness, and self-control. Teach additional Character Strengths each year so that all the strengths are in place by, say, Grade 3.

Step 3: Teachers then apply the PRIME integration and Secondary strategies listed on this Wellness@ES website for each Character Strength integrated into the regular classroom curriculum to offer many opportunities to practice using the strengths during the year. As students learn each of the strengths, they will grow their understanding by "exercising" them.

Step 4: Teachers then teach students Positive Psychology's six "pillars." The wellness coach works with the grade-level teams and their Wellness Leads to design the lessons. We use the acronym PERMAH to describe them. Each pillar is a significant category of how we live our lives. Again, it is through scientific research that psychologists concluded that living well within each pillar helps us thrive. The wellness coach works with the grade-level teams to decide the scope and sequence of when individual pillars will be taught. You could start with relationships and aspects of health in the early years, adding on pillars from there.

Step 5: Each student creates a personal wellness plan that lists how they will exercise the Character Strengths within each PERMAH pillar to live more fully and flourish. The wellness plan contains action steps to help students engage with the Character Strengths and PERMAH pillars as a regular part of their lives. It can also be helpful to have students add intentional practices and habits to engage further within each pillar.

Step 6: Once you complete steps 1-5 to bring wellness practices into the lives of our students, we start using the term "wellness toolkit" as an ongoing integration practice. At this point, students develop a language of wellness, further embedding the tenets of Positive Psychology into their life practices and habits.

We use language and references such as

Which tools can you use from your wellness toolkit to help with....?
In planning for our field trip this week, which tools from your wellness toolkits can help us prepare for and make the most of our experience?
Let's look at your wellness plans to see how you are all doing. Let's do some self-reflection on our efforts. Which tools from your wellness toolkits are you using most frequently and why?
Let's drill down into your toolkits with the pillar of H for Health. Which tools, as in strengths and practices like diet, sleep, and exercising, are you engaging in? Which habits are you building to really engage with this PERMAH pillar?

Additional Step: The Character Strengths are organized into six classes of virtues: Courage | Humanity | Justice | Temperance | Transcendence | Wisdom. In your second or third year, you could design age-appropriate lessons on values clarification to build on your work from the previous year.

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If you are looking for ideas to help design and implement a K-12 wellness program, I put together a blog post that might be helpful. :)

Using This Wellness@ES Website

A Few More Thoughts

The first step towards wellness is understanding oneself. With increased self-awareness, we can engage with the pillars of Positive Psychology and Character Strengths to map out our pathway to flourish and live well. The term "wayfinding," popularized by Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, nicely describes the process of designing a pathway toward wellness. "Wayfinding is the ancient art of figuring out where you are going when you don't actually know your destination. For wayfinding, you need a compass and you need a direction. Not a map – a direction." (Designing Your Life, p. 43)

We also pull from social and emotional learning tenets, drawing from CASEL's Framework of Five Core Competencies. The Five Core Competencies are applied through the Character Strengths of Emotional Intelligence, Self-Control, and Social Intelligence (Character Strength pages within this website).

Developing social skills helps students establish and maintain positive relationships enhancing communication with others in various settings and situations. Recognizing the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of others leads to practical cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution. Personal and emotional development skills help students identify, understand, and effectively manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Personal and academic successes build upon the ability to consider thoughts, understand feelings, and manage one's responses.

The process of living and embedding the principles of Positive Psychology into your school community comes down to a couple of starter questions.

What is the current wellness of the community as a whole and that of individual members? One way to answer this question is to do a wellness audit.
What mechanisms will you implement to move your community members further along the continuum toward improved wellness? One pathway, as mentioned, is to design and implement a personalized wellness plan that combines PERMAH and Character Strengths through goal-setting into the lives of the community members. Here are sample wellness plans you can copy and adapt for the needs of your adult community members and students. Regular Wellness Plan | More In-Depth Wellness Plan

Wellness Designers

The main goal of this integrated approach to wellness is to help community members (i.e., students, school staff, and parents) construct their wellness toolkit while seeing themselves as the proactive designers of their lives going forward. This approach supports ongoing efforts worldwide to increase student-centered learning and agency.

Understanding how to use the tools of one's wellness toolkit helps community members proactively set themselves up for success. And when difficulties arise, well-practiced and thriving individuals know which tools to use to overcome obstacles. Building lots of practice time by consistently revisiting the PRIME strategies in your classes helps your students build fluency with the language of wellness and its application in their lives.

Designing and implementing a wellness program involves bringing together community stakeholders and school leaders. One critical leadership role in the process is the instructional coach for wellness or simply the wellness coach. Wellness coaches can help facilitate the process from the planning to the action phase to bring the tenets of Positive Psychology into the lives of the community members. Another vital role is your Wellness Leads, who lead your elementary grade-level teams, middle school teams and advisory groups, and high school departmental teams and advisory groups.

Digital Wellness

Helping our students learn the skills to use technology in a healthy and generative fashion goes hand in hand with their wellbeing. You can visit the Digital Wellness page of this site for strategies, lessons, and resources to help parents and children with their digital lives.

Wellness Toolkit

Look to use this website as a source of content knowledge and instructional strategies to choose from to create your wellness toolkit and for instructional use. Start your search for integration activities by accessing the Character Strengths page of this site to review the PRIME integration strategies you can use across all the Character Strengths. You can then visit the individual Character Strength pages for secondary activities and ones mainly applicable to individual strengths.

The vision is that students, staff, and parents apply their understanding of PERMAH and Character Strengths to live their lives well proactively. When difficulties arise, one reaches into their wellness toolkit to choose which PERMAH pillars and strengths to "exercise." At the same time, one actively works towards broad and pillar-specific goals to live well and flourish.

Note: The Character Strengths names listed here originate from the Character Lab website. The Character Lab's version of the VIA Character Strengths are sometimes renamed and presented in more student-friendly terms. This Wellness @ ES site will not be developed any further, so new Character Lab versions of the strengths will probably not be added.

Support Tools

We use the term "scaffolding" in education to help us plan as designers to implement learning strategies that offer a step-by-step and learner-focused approach to our teaching. Here are some scaffolded plans, implementation approaches, and blog posts that you can adapt for your use in your efforts to support individual and family wellness in your school community.

Family Mission Statement - The approach doesn't apply PosPsych, but it can support family wellbeing. :)
Family Wellness Plan - Steps to follow to enhance family wellness.
Family Digital Wellness Plan Creation Workshop - Work through the slideshow to write your plan.
Family Wellness Progress Reports - Look to design your template to prompt reflection and action.
Home Learning Support Strategies - Practices to help parents further build their "parenting toolkit."
How Is My PERMAH Today? - Use this plan to assess your wellbeing (unscientific).
Lifebook Creation - I am in the process of designing a structure for students to create their own "Lifebook," as in a life plan.
My Wellness Profile - A chart that shows how I engage my Character Strengths within each PERMAH pillar.
PERMAH Pivot Plan - To help make significant changes in one's life.
Personal Wellness Plan (Regular and In-Depth versions) - Where do you want to go with your wellness?
Strength Coaching Plan - A simple plan to exercise your strengths in new ways.
Student Profile - An information gathering form for parents to complete based upon Positive Psychology. This parent-completed profile can guide the counselor/wellness coach to offer home learning support strategies. The Student Profile form can assist teachers in further individualizing their support of the student.
Tips for Student & Family Wellness During Virtual School - Take care of yourself and your family during VS.
Workspace Wellness - Guidelines to support your physical and mental work routines.

Disclosure and Disclaimer

My earlier work in education was in instructional technology. I created a site similar to this one to support teaching and learning with technology. At the center of the effort was the belief that our youth must first become literate in information and communication skills. The next step would be to become fluent. I follow the same approach here with Positive Psychology in which the students become literate in their understanding of PERMAH and the Character Strengths. Then, through the strategies and activities provided here to integrate wellness into the school's culture, the students become fluent and facile in living the tenets of Positive Psychology. :)

The research and strategies provided by Character Lab, led by Dr. Angela Duckworth, provide much of the information found on the individual strength pages of this site. If you are getting familiar with Character Lab, do look to spend some time going through their helpful website. Another common resource is the Positive Psychology website.

My personal photography in this site is not connected to the subject matter as I don't have access to students. If I was at a school I would use photographs of students living the Character Strengths within the PERMAH domains. The banner art is by my son Maxwell.