As an educator, do you find that much of your time is spent trying to work towards helping your students with interpersonal conflicts? You spend a lot of time trying to decipher what is happening with students as they are not always forthcoming with information. Do you sometimes wish that your students could communicate the interpersonal conflicts they are facing to you in a way that ensures their safety? The StudentConnect app will allow you to do just that. Please click on this link to learn all about the app and the thinking behind it.
A3: StudentConnect Application
10 responses to “A3: StudentConnect Application”
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Hi Sonia, I enjoyed exploring your forecast project! This is a thoughtful idea that really doesn’t need any crazy advances in technology – it could easily be done now. I was wondering, as a student could reach out to a teacher to confide in them – anonymously, or not – what kind of steps would the teacher need to take? I know all schools have their own steps they take depending on what the issue is and the severity of it, but would there be certain steps in the app? Also, if a child chooses not to remain anonymous, how do we also ensure their protection when it comes to having private conversations with adults online? As much as I hate that this is a thing – I’m thinking about the children’s security when it comes to private conversations with their teachers too.
You have touched on a crucial topic with no easy solution, Sonia. And unfortunately, as you mention, kids often stay silent. But, of course, it’s always best to report incidents. As not everyone is comfortable identifying themselves when doing so, your app allows them an option to share what they’ve seen or experienced without anyone knowing. Yet, if the school has the power to find the source, would it not undermine the app? Would the school district also receive the communications to allow them to track overall trends?
Hi Sonia. Thanks for the presentation. You clearly highlighted the need for SEL in school communities. In my high school setting, I know of many students that are indeed afraid of going to the counsellor’s office for fear of being misinterpreted as a snitch or weak from their peers; this app could circumvent this. One thing I was wondering about was teachers making the time to use this application. Some teachers already feel overwhelmed with what they have on their plate. I know some of my colleagues have talked about the “always online” presence they had to have when COVID was at its worse. I think school collaboration to “bake” in time for this during work hours could be a great way to bring the school community together.
Hi Jackson,
I agree, I have heard the word snitch so many times when I switched to teaching grade 6/7 so I can only imagine how much more prevalent it is in high school. I definitely agree with you on teachers feeling overwhelmed, when I was teaching online I had to turn my Teams notifications off so I had to physically open my app to see any new messages. My hope is that teachers can check it maybe just once a day to see if there is a message from a student so as not to feel like they have to be on constant alert, I also really like your idea of having school time because it also will be helpful to have teachers be on board with the application and, as you said, bring the school community together.
Sonia, I see the value of an app where students can report bullying and report it anonymously if they wish to. Are the children practicing the bullying behavior counseled to teach them alternative means to express their feelings? I appreciate all you are doing with SEL at your school. SEL would have been helpful when my children were growing up. Teachers have such large class sizes that bullying can happen in classrooms, and teachers may not notice. In my experience, approaching a principal is not always helpful (no training to handle these events), and I contacted the superintendent in one situation. I’m not sure if SEL includes training for adults responding to disclosures. I think there are opportunities and challenges for releasing your app for use in schools where SEL is not practiced and responding adults have no formal training and experience. My children turned out to be kind, loving, and compassionate human beings, so no permanent harm was done, but an app like yours may have helped during elementary school. Great idea! How could your app be designed to decrease the likelihood of adults making situations worse for the children that disclosed the behavior?
Hi Tamaka,
Thank you for looking at my project and also I appreciate you sharing your personal experiences with your children. My hopes is that when an educator gets a message from a student using this app that they would firstly, speak to the student in a confidential way and offer their acknowledgement and support and then refer to appropriate channels, i.e. school counselor, child care worker, etc. as I agree with you, I do not believe educators are trained to handle some really tough spots. I have had a very supportive administrator and school counselor in the past who has helped me find the right ways to approach a situation and have taken over when necessary but I know some educators are not that lucky. In my classroom, I use MindUp (which I have a license to through my school) that comes with lesson plans, presentations, that help students understand their brain and feelings. There are also guides for adults to understand what they are teaching and also to support students. The lessons are tailored to grade level and it does go through healthy ways to express feelings and ways to seek help but not everyone has access to this and I recognize that as someone who has worked to learn and understand SEL, I have a slight advantage as an educator when it comes to creating that classroom environment where students hopefully feel more safe.
Hi Sonia,
What a fantastic application and a great idea for the ‘Student Connect’. The social emotional growth and awareness for students. What a great integration and support for students.
Thank you Jennifer for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated. I think there was a lot of interpersonal conflicts in our grade area that I had found when I started teaching grade 6/7 that were not as prevalent/ I was not aware of when I taught grade 3/4 so this definitely stemmed from my grade change.
Thank you for looking at my presentation and also for the feedback Braden. I agree that mental health resources added would be a great feature to the app. I also think it would be a good idea to have it all in one place if the technology could allow for it. I was just astounded by how comfortable students were last year when we had a serious incident of bullying and students were able to feel like they could share openly when they knew no other peers were judging or watching.
Hi Sonia, I also work in the Surrey district so am familiar with PSST, which can be an effective, albeit intimidating resource to access. I think that your proposed application would definitely support students by giving them a platform to address their concerns without fear of social repercussions from their peers or outside a formal 1-1 conversation with an adult, something that I find students are increasingly uncomfortable with. It may be especially powerful to have StudentConnect also have resources for mental health and conflict resolution internally for students who need support, but aren’t aware of other resources. I also wonder if integrating your features right into their student accounts would make it even more accessible than a separate application. Thanks for sharing!