At various times throughout the school year, students will struggle with mental health issues but how will they get assistance from their teachers? How will they get motivated or advice to keep going? The past few years to help students, teachers have begun implementing social emotional learning (SEL) strategies in to their day to day lessons.
SEL strategies are built in often at the beginning of lessons, the end, or sometimes a whole lesson in the middle of the unit. ”I apply SEL strategies when I check in during warmup time. It can be beneficial to students and it’s an easy way to let students know we care about their mental health,” shared ELA teacher, Ms. Thompson.
As students enter their teens years, there’s often certain pressures and expectations, as well as a deeper understanding of the world around them, that can lead to an increase in mental health concerns. The awareness of mental health and the role schools can play in helping students take care of their mental health has become an increasing focus even before the pandemic, where the concern for student mental health and strategies like SEL really became a daily part of lesson planning.
“I believe mental health is extremely important for everyone. I think students should speak to counselors and therapists at an early age to help them navigate their emotions. The work they do young can carry them into adulthood,” adds Ms. Thompson.
The goal with SEL strategies isn’t just to help improve student’s own emotional regulation and self awareness to make better decision making and build better relationships in their lives but the hope is to also improve the school climate overall. “When a student’s mental health is good it will impact our school because our students will know how to handle conflict instead of fighting . Also, when their mental health is good they will be able to focus more on their education,” adds Ms. Thompson.
Whether it’s little check ins at the beginning of class or the end, a break in a unit, or a mini SEL lesson during advisory, SEL strategies can help students not just succeed academically but as people too.
