Teacher Tales #24 – Mental health needs and solutions in schools, Mindfulness, creating resilient and empowered students: Jennifer – Middle School ELA teacher, mental health advocate, mother of triplets and singer in the Take a Stand Rock Band that promotes anti-bullying
In this episode, we meet Jennifer, a Middle School English Language Arts teacher who was featured in a Reuters article about mental health in our schools. Jennifer teaches in the Parkland School District in Allentown, PA and speaks about all of the great initiatives that her school and her district are doing to help support the mental health and well-being of their teachers and students. As the mother of triplets, she reminds us that all children are different and have different needs. She says that we need to remember that we don’t teach a subject or a grade, but rather we teach students, and that it is our job to see them and to hear them and to support their needs. We must show them how to build resilience and manage their own learning. Every Monday, she gives each child a sticky note and asks them to “check-in” with a celebration or a struggle that they have experienced recently, and write it on the back of the note. If they want her to check in with them, personally, then they put a check mark on the front of the sticky. Just this one activity gave Jennifer tremendous connection and heartfelt communication with her students to then ask “what’s going on, and how can I support you?” What happens when our amygdala is firing, and where does mindfulness come in?
Jennifer shares so many great ideas and strategies of how we can support the mental health and well-being of both teachers and students and even parents. She has a deep, multi-directional perspective on what we all have been going through in schools. Check it out, but be ready to take lots of notes and also get curious about how you can start your own Take a Stand Rock Band!