What have I done?

So far, I have implemented journal writing as a daily routine on my Thursday visits. This is a way for me to give students an opportunity to express themselves through writing or drawing. Since we established as a class that the journals are only for the teachers viewing and spelling and grammar is not marked in the journals, students have opened up. Students can choose what they want to write about or write about a prompt question on the board incase they are stuck.

Another approach I’ve taken to develop my inquiry question is through in-depth conversations with my SA and the youth-worker in my practicum school. These conversations have allowed for further exploration of my question and more background on each of my students. I’ve also gained new strategies on how to approach students who have approached me with difficult situations occurring at home. I’ve been able to use these strategies, such as telling students I am always here to talk but I do have an obligation to report our conversation if I feel the child is being harmed or if the child has disclosed a time where they were abused or mistreated. Through my conversations, I’ve learned how to disclose that information in a professional and personal way. I’ve also gained insight and been given strategies to not take every one of my students’ home-lives home with me. In the first few months of being at my practicum school and in the classroom, I had a really hard time not thinking about my students and their unique situations 24/7. I couldn’t focus on other things and I was constantly thinking about my class. It was nice to talk to teachers with experience within my school to provide with ways of coping. Even though my inquiry relates to student mental health, it also relates to my ability to teach professional and effectively in a classroom that has a lot going on personally.

What have I learned and where am I now?

I’ve learned that my favourite part of my inquiry project has been having conversations with staff, colleagues, and students. These conversations that I’ve taken part in have been enlightening, engaging, and provided me with a lot of the resources that I have on my resource list. I’ve learned that students are my best resource for the most effective strategies to help headspace in the classroom. The students I have had conversations with are using strategies presently, to be in the right mindset in the classroom, even with a lot going on at home. Nancy Perry has been a huge help with my reference list, especially with the help of using MindUp. My SA is trained in MindUp and has attended a lot of workshops. Through conversations and lessons, I observed that MindUp has been a great resource for students and a great outlet for students to express what they need to learn best in the classroom.

I’ve also observed students use the Traffic Light Mood Meter as a way to show their headspace to their teacher. Through observation, I was able to learn that once again, if I give students an outlet, for a long period of time, eventually they will use it. It was a very simple activity that we have tried out on my two-week practicum and my SA has continued it throughout the year. Students check in with the traffic light in the morning when they get into class and put their name on the colour red, yellow, or green. The red means they are not in a great headspace, yellow in an okay headspace, and green they are ready to learn. This mood meter gave students a chance to check in with themselves. So far, I have learned that this was an extremely effective strategies for students to check in with themselves. Through conversations with students, I’ve learned that they liked being able to physically see where they were on the mood meter. I also gave students the opportunity to chance to change their location on the meter throughout the day, which gave students autonomy. Through this autonomy, I observed students checking in with themselves more and acknowledging their headspace and mental state before starting a new project. This gave students time to think about themselves and how they would benefit from a mood change or take a strategy that they learned through MindUP, to get them in a better headspace to start a new assignment.

What about these resources makes them useful?

• MindUp: From Mind-Up, I’ve learned that it takes a lot of different lessons to build up strength within the classroom. I’ve learned that different approaches that mind up suggests, such as circle talks, journal writes, and class trust games assists in building a safe space. A safe space is necessary for students who are struggling with home situations because it creates a space that students want to come to. The results have been quite great in terms of class attendance and participation. With MindUp the students have created strong relationships with one another because the program has involved a lot of peer-to-peer communication.
• Outdoor Ed Motivators- DPA Collection Bank: Giving students the opportunity to build their outdoor education opportunities have been great for team building. As a result, I’ve learned that students who can physically contribute to their learning, are more motived to be present. The way this bank worked, was students who were seen helping others, encouraging others, or working as a class team earned DPA points. These points turned into minutes and once students collected enough minutes for a free block, they were given the choice of a classroom activity outside. Through this little incentive, I learned that students were more responsive and engaged with each other with the same goals in mind. Students showed mored positive thoughts and more active participation, compared to when we didn’t use the DPA bank.
• Journals: Journals have been a progressive element for students to express themselves in class. Strategically, I’ve tried to use journals as a way to calm students after lunch or recess or before heavy content projects. I’ve noticed that the transition is much more fluid from from one activity to another. Students seem to be more calm and present for the next activity if it follows a journal write. Journals have shown students that someone else is listening if they need to get something off their chest and journals are always seen by the teacher, with comments made. I’ve learned that as long as there’s an outlet provided, students will use it when they need to.

• Team Collaboration: Collaboration with staff and administration and has allowed my observations and conversations to grow years beyond what I thought it would. Not only do I feel a tremendous amount of support, but I feel like I’ve learned so much from multiple perspectives. These new strategies have given me to tools to provide students with more strategies to assist students in obtaining their learning goals. Through conversations with our Youth Worker, our School Counsellor, my SA, and Principal, we’ve been able to keep everyone in the loop for so I don’t feel like all the weight of these students lives and learning is on my shoulders.