Whole Child Newsletter
February 2021
Day of Discovery is Back!
March 8th is our next Countywide Virtual Professional Development Day! We are excited to offer more than 30 different presentations from a variety of presenters. More information can be found on our "Day of Discovery" website! We have expanded our offerings to make sure we are giving you what you asked for. Register HERE or go to the program website for details and updates.
See you there!
Stay Well
The Stay Well program helps educators find emotional support and resilience
Changing pandemic health orders affecting school districts throughout Michigan have made this a challenging school year. As a result, teachers and staff may be feeling anxious, depressed, or
overwhelmed by what might be coming next. They may even have symptoms of emotional distress that interfere with their day-to-day work, such as:
- Having problems falling or staying asleep
- Experiencing more conflicts or tension with family members or other people
- Crying easily or becoming tearful for no apparent reason
- Having trouble concentrating or remembering things
- Having a sense of despair, hopelessness, or emptiness about the future
- Drinking more alcoholic beverages than usual
The Stay Well program also offers virtual support group sessions specifically for Michigan educators. You can register for support group sessions at Michigan.gov/StayWell –and while you’re there, check out the links to helpful webinars, videos, and downloadable brochures. Several of the brochures are available in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and German.
Sign-up for support sessions here: www.michigan.gov/staywell.
Local Schools are "Stepping Up" for Staff Wellness
Teachers, and other school staff, have an important and intense job in normal times. The COVID pandemic has added stress and uncertainty to the lives of all Americans, and educators are certainly no exception. Students, families, and staff have been flexible, scared, determined, confused, and nearly every other emotion humans express since March 2020.
School leaders understand that teachers and staff need to be at their best so they are able to meet the needs of our youth...both academically and socially. So, nine area schools have created a cohort to focus on Staff Wellness through the Building Healthy Communities: Step Up for School Wellness Program. The schools are Hanover-Horton Elementary and Middle School, Arnold Elementary (Michigan Center), Michigan Center High School, Springport Elementary and Middle School, Warner Elementary (Western Schools), Jackson Area Career Center, and Williams Elementary in Jonesville.
"Step Up" provides students, teachers and administrators with the training, curriculum, equipment, funds, communication tools and external coaches needed to create a healthy school environment that supports a culture of wellness. This year the cohort is focusing on energizing building-level Wellness Teams and infusing this work into central planning for a healthy culture that benefits everyone! Wellness Teams use a tool called HSAT (Healthy Schools Action Tool) to assess current practices related to wellness and coordinate with JCISD Whole Child Team for additional support. The HSAT has revealed a need to embrace Staff Wellness for the remainder of the school year.
You may hear or see new opportunities to offer healthy activities at a school near you; please consider reaching out if you would like to be involved and "Step Up to School Wellness."
10 Mental Health Tips for Teachers
1. Control the Controllable During COVID-19
There are certain things that you simply cannot control right now: who will be impacted by COVID-19, whether it will be you, how things will evolve. But there are some things that you can control: how you spend some of your time, what you choose to prioritize, what types of media you consume (and how frequently) and your mindset, to name a few. By focusing on the things that you can control and prioritizing the ones that are healthy, you can help to put your mental wellness front and center.
2. Carve Out Time for Self-Care to Maintain Your Mental Health
Now, more than ever, we are acutely focused on remote teaching, physical health, and preventing illness– washing hands, social distancing, and engaging in healthy practices. But it is just as important, for maintaining mental health, to try to carve out some time to prioritize the other things that help us feel balanced: for some, it is exercise, for others, it is reading, journaling, meditation, or spending time doing a hobby. And, if you are someone who isn’t sure what you can do for your self-care, simply the act of doing something can help maintain your mental health.
3. Get Your Body Moving to Help Your Mental Wellness
One of the biggest challenges for many educators during this time is how hard it is to be sedentary– you may be used to moving around, physical transitions from one room to another, or even your usual lunchtime walk with a colleague. As you work around your schedule, set a timer or create breaks for you specifically to move around– this might mean moving around your house, or taking a walk around your building or neighborhood– obeying physical distancing recommendations, of course. Anything to get your body moving will help maintain your mental wellness.
4. Model Self-compassion
Now, more than ever, we need to be incredibly kind to ourselves to help maintain mental wellness. We teach students this all of the time– the basics of self-compassion, kind self-talk, and growth mindset. Now is the time to also turn it inwards. In doing so, you’ll benefit your own mental wellness and also be able to model it for others in your life.
5. Set Reasonable Expectations (for yourself and others)
Collectively, we need to acknowledge that we are in the midst of a pandemic and distance learning– and that it is not business as usual. Things are going to be different, and that is okay. We can’t expect to be as productive, or on top of it, or together as we once could. If you are one of those, like many, who is trying to balance educating with care-taking or educating your students on top of your own kids, there is no possible way that you can be all things to all people all of the time. By setting small, realistic goals and expectations around what you actually could be capable of, you will be setting yourself up to feel much more fulfilled and help maintain your mental health.
The Five Ds of Destressing
- Distract From It
- Deal With It
- Dispute Your Distortions
- Discuss It
- Develop Frontal Control
Learn More About The Five D's of Destressing by Clicking Here
January Technology Newsletter
Attached is the January newsletter. Some highlights include:
- Google Updates
- Virtual Class Jobs
- The new Teachers Teaching Teachers program and more!
How to Improve Equity: One Step, One Goal at a Time
Presented by Dr. Liz Brooke, CCC-SLP, Chief Learning Officer, Lexia Learning;
and Dr. Suzanne Carreker, CALT-QI, Principal Educational Content Lead, Lexia Learning
What does the saying, “Eating the elephant one bite at a time,” have to do with improving educational equity? Things that appear to be overwhelming or seemingly impossible, like addressing the myriad of inequities in K-12 education, can be accomplished by taking on a little at a time. So, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do we improve educational equity? Take on one goal at a time.
In this edWebinar, Lexia’s Dr. Liz Brooke and Dr. Suzanne Carreker will talk about the steps to improve educational equity and will highlight:
- The difference between an achievement gap and an opportunity gap
- How the pandemic is widening equity gaps
- The implications of a new equity-focused U.S. Secretary of Education
- What leaders can do to start leading with an equity agenda
This edWebinar will be of interest to preK-12 teachers and school and district leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
How to Improve Equity: One Step, One Goal at a Time
Wednesday, Feb. 3 @ 4 pm ET
Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness Modifications
Trauma-sensitive, or trauma-informed, practice means that we have a basic understanding of trauma in the context of our work. A trauma-informed physician can ask a patient’s permission before touching them, for example. Or a trauma-informed school counselor might ask a student whether they want the door open or closed during a session and inquire about a comfortable sitting distance. With trauma-sensitive mindfulness, we apply this concept to mindfulness instruction. As teachers, or as an organization, we commit to recognizing trauma, responding to it skillfully, and taking preemptive steps to ensure that people aren’t retraumatizing themselves under our watch.
The need for trauma-sensitive mindfulness is a reflection of both odds and statistics. Over the past decade, mindfulness has exploded in popularity. It’s now being offered in a wide range of secular environments, including elementary and high schools, corporations, and hospitals. Any number of workshops, retreats, conferences, seminars, and institutes offer mindfulness instruction. Books and articles on the subject have flooded the marketplace.
Free Professional Learning for Educators
MiSHCA is excited to offer these FREE professional learning opportunities to educators throughout the state. Continuing education credits will only be available to those who attend the live presentations. Please complete this registration form and select each of the sessions you are planning to attend. All sessions begin at 4:00pm (EST) and are one hour in length.
Topic 1: Bringing Mental Health Strategies to the Classroom
Topic 2: Suicide Prevention Basics for School Staff
Topic 3: The Effects of Health on all Student-Athletes, Parents, Coaches, and Fans During the Pandemic
Boosting Teacher Morale During the Height of the Pandemic
In this online article, teacher/writer Dave Stuart cites a December 2020 survey showing that 86 percent of U.S. teachers said morale was lower than before the pandemic. Motivation is key to morale and classroom effectiveness, says Stuart, and cites five positive beliefs – each of which is currently being undermined:
- Value – This work really matters – but am I contributing with remote teaching?
- Belonging – Teaching is my profession – but I’m having doubts.
- Effort – I’m a continuous improver – but now I’m overwhelmed.
- Efficacy – I’m skillful in the classroom – but I can’t succeed in this format.
- Credibility – My principal is competent, cares about me, and is into the work as much as I am – but right now, not so much.
“When a teacher knows those five things to be true,” says Stuart, “that is a teacher who will work hard and with joy, even amidst adversity.” But during the pandemic, each is being seriously challenged.
The good news, says Stuart, is that if school leaders keep the five beliefs in mind, they can address low teacher morale by bringing “some basic, loving practices to bear on people who need it.”
Here are some of his suggestions:
• Make a genuine connection with each staff member – once a week in small schools, every two weeks with a bigger staff. In these meetings, teachers need to know that they are valued, known, and respected.
• Demonstrate competence by solving a problem that everyone is having and closing the loop with colleagues when it’s done. “It doesn’t take a huge amount of time to follow up,” says Stuart, “but the impact on a teacher’s perception of your competence is significant.”
• Demonstrate passion for your work by frequently using 2-3 shorthand phrases about the mission of the school or how much you enjoy working with your team.
• Focus on repairing frayed or fraying relationships. Any situation where a colleague feels offended, embarrassed, or belittled will undermine a leader’s credibility and needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
“Ten Things Leaders Can Do to Improve Teacher Morale in Early 2021” by Dave Stuart, January 15, 2021; Stuart can be reached at dave@davestuartjr.com.
Contact the Whole Child Team!
Janelle Buchler: Whole Child Consultant (janelle.buchler@jcisd.org)
Eric Swihart: Whole Child Coordinator (eric.swihart@jcisd.org)
Caitlin Williams: Attendance and Homeless Program Coordinator (caitlin.williams@jcisd.org)
Rebecca Hurst: Behavior Health Project Coordinator (rebecca.hurst@jcisd.org)
Kelsea Jabkiewicz: Data Integration and Medicaid Cost Recovery Coordinator (kelsea.jabkiewicz@jcisd.org)
Angela Maddox: Whole Child Secretary (angela.maddox@jcisd.org)