Mental Health

After reading, Supporting Minds: An Educator’s Guide to Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being, I was very surprised to read how common Mental Health Problems are in Youth: “Most estimates suggest that 15 to 20 per cent of children and youth struggle with a mental health problem. This could mean that in a classroom of thirty students, five or six students may be experiencing a mental health problem, and three or four of them may have a problem that significantly interferes with their daily life.”

This fact really shocked me.  It made me think about my daily practice in the classroom and how focussed I am on achieving the best results. 

The article listed ways that one can promote positive mental health:

 •            identification and effective management of emotions;

•             promotion of normal and healthy child and adolescent development;

•             exploration and use of children and youth’s strengths and capacities;

 •            development of meaningful family, school, and community relationships;

•             enhancement of positive coping and problem-solving skills;

 •            creation of meaningful and positive learning environments;

•             increased participation in structured community recreational and leisure activities;

 •            enhanced respect and appreciation for diversity and individual differences;

•             increased understanding and de-stigmatization of mental health conditions;

•             enhanced opportunities for children and youth to demonstrate age-appropriate autonomy and choice;

•             heightened sensitivity to the needs of others and demonstration of pro-social behaviours;

•             increased involvement in structured and unstructured physical activities;

 •            reduction in high-risk behaviours (e.g., drug use);

•             enhanced academic achievement and school attendance;

One of the best schools that I worked at was a ‘Value-Based’ School.  Values was promoted in all that we did. We had a value of the month and this value was introduced to the school as a whole (during an assembly) and within the classroom. The school had an end of the week ‘Values Assembly’ whereby individual children were praised for values that they had shown throughout the week. We also had very high standards at this school. We thought all children had the potential to be successful academically and we made this and school attendance a priority.  I feel this helped with the overall mental attitude within the school. It felt like we were one big family! I think this can really help children (and staff) who are suffering mentally.  I think schools like this should be modelled for others to follow.

Positive Relationships

Reflect on your current classroom management and identify two strategies you do well:  
1) Give Hints and Clues to Help Students Answer Questions – I am usually very good at this technique.  I know my students well and I know those students who need a clue or hint or even leading few words in order to answer the question correctly.  My questions are varied depending on the pupil that I ask, leaving the more open-ended questions to those pupils who can expand their answers more.  If a child is struggling to answer a question, I will often give them a prompt to help them. 
2) Tell Students They Have the Ability to Do Well – If you can love a technique, then I absolutely love this one!  I have extremely high expectations of ALL my pupils and I let them know that they are extremely capable of so much!  I am currently reading ‘Kenzuke’s Kingdom’ with a grade 3 class.  The amount of rich vocabulary in this book is extremely high….. but they are so capable of listening to this story and understanding these new words.  We discuss, we go over, we get excited about and we are capable of doing well! I use this technique in 3 different ways: as a whole class (like in reading Kenzuke’s Kingdom), as a small group (for example in a guided reading group) or individually (in order to achieve personal goals).  Children thrive on being able to be successful, especially when they view the task initially as a challenge.  It is so nice to see their faces and hear their pride in their work and what they have accomplished.

Photo credit: http://archive.education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Better/articles/fall2012.html Identify two strategies you plan on trying out in your classroom:
1) Increase Latency Periods When Questioning Students – This is a strategy that I am definitely guilty of not doing.  For the past few years, I have been responsible for the Year 6 (Grade 6) pupils at my school and without wanting this to sound like an excuse (although it is), I was under enormous pressure to ensure the children made excellent results in their end-of-year government tests.  I found that as each year went on, as we got closer and closer to that week of exams, there always seemed an enormous amount of curriculum still left to cover and never enough time.  With this notion, the pace of my lessons was extremely quick. I know this was far from ideal, especially for the exceptional learners who would struggle academically. Therefore, this is definitely the strategy that I would like to be consciously aware of in the future.
2) Demonstrating Caring – I absolutely care and show my students I care, however the one part of this strategy which I need to work on is the morning routine.  I have seen so many great teachers who greet their students at the door of the classroom and ask them how they are engage in conversation straight away.  I know this one time of the day is the time when I need to focus better.  At the start of a busy day, I am often preparing or getting ready for the day ahead (this isn’t because I’m not prepared) but I always find ‘one more thing’ that needs doing. I often find myself just finishing off that ‘last’ (yeah right) job whilst the students arrive for the day. My classroom set-up is that they usually go into an ‘Early Morning Task’ but I still know that I need to be better in this year and show care at this particular time of day.  This is a crucial time whereby I may find out someone important has happened to a pupil the previous day or on their way to school. This could have an impact on their learning.  If there is no such incident, I know how incredibly important it is to simply show a child that you do care. This morning when I dropped my daughter off at school, the teacher who greeted her at the school gate asked about what she was carrying (a homework project: a homemade musical instrument).  I could see how positively it set my daughter up for the school day by having one of her teachers show how much they care!

Behaviour Problems Organized

Behaviour problems usually fall into one of these categories:

• disruptive: students are off-task, talking, or just fooling around
• aggressive: students show impulse-directed outbursts
• apathetic: students show nonparticipation

For students to be characterized as having an emotional/behavioural disorder, they must demonstrate several of the following characteristics, over a long period of time, to a significantly different degree than what is generally accepted due to age, ethnic, or cultural norms:

Verbal and/or Physical Aggression	Difficulty Building Relationships	Inattention and Impulsivity
withdrawn behaviour	depression	low self-esteem
excessive fear or anxiety	poor social skills	academic problems
inappropriate crying	temper tantrums	non-compliant behaviour
compulsive behaviour	difficulty solving social/academic problems	Difficulty categorizing /organizing information
low motivation	poor self-control

Supporting Positive Behaviour in the Classroom

According to The Manitoba Ministry of Education (2011) these are the "key elements [that] are used to create positive, supportive, safe, and intellectually engaging classroom settings in which all students can be successful.”

 

Credit: www.gloscommunityofpractice.org

• Positive relationships are encouraged among students in the classroom, between teachers and individual students, among staff members, between staff and administration, and between teachers and parents.
• Classroom organization includes the physical environment, structures, and routines that foster learning and encourage positive behaviour throughout the school day.
• Differentiated instruction is used to consider the individual learning needs of students and create learning situations that match their current abilities, learning preferences, and specific needs, but also to stretch their abilities and encourage them to try new ways of learning.
• Classroom behavioural expectations are clearly articulated, aligned with school- wide expectations, and consistent throughout the school day.
• Social skills instruction helps to demonstrate and directly teach specific classroom behavioural expectations.
• Positive reinforcement is helpful for individual students and groups of students who demonstrate positive behaviours.
• Fair and predictable consequences are important for individual students who demonstrate negative behaviours that adversely affect them, others, and/or the classroom environment.
• Gathering data to understand student behaviour allows the teacher to use observation and analysis to identify students’ strengths and needs in order to identify the areas for improved classroom management and to measure progress over time.
• Planning for behavioural changes is a targeted goal-setting process to increase specific positive behaviours and/or reduce specific negative behaviours.