Well-Being Matters

 

The two memes I have posted above both come from an education/teacher page on Facebook. The first breaks my heart and the second has me saying "Yes! This!"

Sadly too often the idea that social emotional learning, mindfulness, mental health, self care, and I personally would replace self esteem with well being (we can talk more about that later), emotional regulation...and the like...are left to the idea of "if I have time."

Positive Psychologist Dr. Seligman and one of his doctoral students ran a study with students in the small Asian country of Bhutan. The Ministry of education in Bhutan had a goal of Gross National Happiness. Dr. Seligman and his student looked at what the students needed to accomplish the goal building this GNH and came up with the list of: mindfulness, critical thinking, decision making, communication, creative thinking, empathy, problem solving, interpersonal relationships, resilience and self-awareness. 

A program was created which wove the list of skills into the existing curriculum. They ran this program for 15 months and then stopped for a full year. After a year the well-being of students and teachers was the same as at the end of the program. The findings at the end of the program and a year later? Statistically significant positive well-being.  But that's not all. The students in the program out preformed peers not in the program....BY A FULL YEAR!

The experiment has been conducted in larger settings too and the researchers continue to find that students in the well-being program outperform peers by a little as 3 months, some up to six months, and in Bhutan a full year!

Do you have a student who is low?

Do you want higher test scores?

Do you want your students to grow?

Do you want to be less stressed?

Why not take time for SEL?

Why not engage in small mindfulness activities?

Why not use the mood meter?

Why not every morning ask your students "what went well yesterday?" "what is your gratitude today?"

Think about how you can add SEL, mindfulness, and well-being into your daily schedule.

Morning Greeting can become: Good Morning I am glad to see you today, what went well for you yesterday?

Make morning work to set a WHOOP goal. This is an opportunity to have students work on writing skills while gets a goal and making a daily plan. 

Throughout the day utilize the mood meter to check in with students emotions and your own. (I can send or print for you a small or large mood meter.) I had a great conversation with Ms. March and her 3rd grade class. The idea we talked about was using the mood meter as needed, no matter what is going on. If a student is frustrated with math, let them move their mood sticker (or something of the like) to "frustrated". As the teacher you can acknowledge this and support better. "Hey Cameron, thanks for moving your mood dude, I noticed you identified the feeling of frustration while working on fractions. Is that feeling helping with math? If not, can we work together to figure out how to shift the mood?"

You use the mood meter too. If the class is off task and you are feeling irritated, move your figure on the mood meter. Let the children silently know you are in the red. If you are using the mood meter daily the students will have the common language with you and know that they are not feeling pleasant. If you have built a relationship with your students and the mood meter, perhaps one student will ask if your mood is helpful and if not, how can they help.

After specials, lunch, recess, or any high energy time do a mindfulness. Set one time as your Inner Explorer mindfulness. Use the other times for a quick breathing and mood reflection time.

Close out your day by thanking your students for being in school and present and participating. Let them know that you wish them well as they go home (our Metta Mindfulness... I wish you well...).

Studies show that how we start and end a day, a conversation, our time with others, really matters. It's what people reflect on most. 

Show your students their well-being matters. 

Show students your well-being matters.