Years after the coronavirus pandemic prompted district-wide remote learning, Principal Darren A. Cole Ochoa watched as Tuan Middle School students readjusted to in-person instruction.
“When we walked into the classroom, the students were shy. They didn’t want to work in groups. They had walls,” said Cole Ochoa, a small student in Elsa, Texas. Let’s talk about the students in town. “[Now] Some have blossomed, while others have overcome it. But some still feel isolated because they want to use their phones or Chromebooks at school. ”
Cole-Ochoa said the new focus on social-emotional learning will help students address ongoing mental health issues that took shape or worsened during the distance learning quarantine that began in 2020. He is one of several educators across the United States who are experimenting with this approach.
School districts have taken a variety of approaches. documented By Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, a nonprofit organization that studies how government policies affect low-income households. Some approaches include “advocacy centers,” which teach students about strong emotions through activities such as yoga, breathing exercises, and calming music. Some are more broadly applicable, such as mentorship programs and culturally responsive curricula.
cultural change
When Cole Ochoa was assigned to the middle school campus more than two years ago, he was told to turn around his academic performance. Cole-Ochoa, a former detective, said his approach was to focus on creating a welcoming culture before cracking down on his punishment.
“Why do you write to your child just because he didn’t bring a pencil?” Do you know what happened? ” He says, “We don’t know what will happen to our children when they leave here. Many of our children have no heat, no electricity, no running water, and their moms and dads have to work all the time. So, these seventh and eighth graders are the babysitters, they help put food on the table for the families, and it takes a lot of work. ”
Professor Cole-Ochoa said the initiative is aimed at reinforcing positive behavior and ensuring students know there is a place for help before negative behavior is punished. Students have access to both female and male counselors and social workers. Counselors visit classrooms and speak on topics such as how to do homework well and the negative effects of vaping. Students who perform good deeds, such as picking up trash in the hallways, receive “stinger bucks” that can be exchanged for prizes.
On the other side of the Lone Star State in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Principal Annabelle Ybarra similarly developed a culture change plan at Bowie Middle School. When she came to campus three years ago, it was focused on “strategies to win the hearts and minds of kids.”
“I always think of it as Maslow’s; you have to meet the needs of your students first,” she explains. “We need to make them feel cared about before we can help them with their academic problems or anything like that.”
Similar to Cole Ochoa’s approach, her school also includes fun initiatives such as glow dance parties for students who meet academic goals. Students can continue to improve their test scores even after the party has started to earn a chance to participate in the Last Her Hour.
But Ibarra has also revamped homeroom with an initiative he calls “Cub Connection,” named after the school’s mascot, a tiger cub. Under the initiative, each student is assigned a teacher who monitors their progress in all subjects. This year, students will be grouped based on math proficiency, but Cub She Connection teachers will focus on helping with homework in different subjects for each day of the week.
“Our advisor teachers are supposed to be the only people who make sure you get the right instruction in all subjects,” says Ibarra. “When there is a parent-teacher conference, it is the responsibility of the teachers at Kabu Kanojo Connection to communicate that information to the parents. We feel that this is at the heart of what we do. He needs to be guaranteed at least one adult to check on him.”
“Two major battles”
Kelly Frazier, a current counselor at Bowie Middle School and Ybarra’s colleague, was doing a counseling internship during the coronavirus lockdown. When her students returned to campus, she saw them struggling with anxiety and depression and reporting suicidal thoughts.
“I know that the isolation of being at home and always on the computer was really harmful to a lot of kids,” Frazier recalled. “And I saw first-hand how much kids need to get out of the house and socialize, because many kids don’t have adults at home to talk to or who care about them. Because he’s not there.”
Ybarra said middle school administrators worked closely with counselors to find ways to not only punish the dangerous behavior, but also to prevent it from happening again. That means assaults and marijuana smoking have increased, she says.
“Those were our two big battles on the discipline side with counseling,” Ybarra explained. “After COVID-19, there was an increase in aggression. It wasn’t a confrontation, it wasn’t a mutual fight. It was more like, ‘You get angry about something that happened at some point and you deal with it. I didn’t have the processing skills to handle it, so I lashed out.”
Regarding the use of Vaping with cannabis variants Similar to Delta 8 and Delta 9, Ybarra said students are self-medicating to deal with the issues Frazier mentioned: anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. Ybarra said the school is focused on making sure the substance never comes onto campus because students face harsh consequences if caught.
Part of this includes creating group counseling for students suspected of smoking marijuana during the previous school year.
“Our dean of students checks in with students every week to see how they are doing,” Ybarra said. “It’s just to make sure they’re using appropriate coping strategies and that they’re not coming back from resorting to drug or alcohol use.”
Ybarra’s campus has another thing in common with Cole Ochoa’s middle school. Both schools piloted the use of an AI mental health app in the district, with the aim of providing an outlet for students at any time. Cole-Ochoa said that when students interact with the app’s chatbot on their phones, it is intended to help them think through problems that are bothering them and suggest ways to deal with them. .
“If something serious happens, like a cry of suicidal thoughts, me and my two counselors are automatically alerted,” Cole Ochoa explains. Then we take them to talk to a counselor and make sure everything is okay. ”
Professor Cole-Ochoa says the goal is not to replace the role of counselor for students. “However, support is often needed on weekends, evenings or after hours when students are alone.”
He and school counselors responded to five incidents this school year in which students expressed suicidal thoughts on the app, prompting counselor intervention.
“These students were okay for a time, but when they got here we were able to say, ‘Okay, what’s going on?'” How can we help you? Can you? ” says Cole-Ochoa. “Then the counselor’s best job is to talk to the student and assess the situation. So work with the parents, work with the student, and figure out what can be done to help this student.” We are considering.”
Cole-Ochoa believes a culture of caring permeates the school, but it’s not just a sentiment; the numbers back it up. Cole-Ochoa said the middle school had discipline referrals for 1,200 students during the 2019-2020 school year, but that slot was shortened in March of the same year due to the coronavirus lockdown. It is said that
Over the past two years, Cole Ochoa said, the school has had about 200 discipline referrals a year and administrative referrals have decreased by 1,000.
Tuan Middle School is now where teachers greet students at the door before each class, and students can see four emojis (happy, sad, well, angry faces) posted next to the door upon entering. You can tap any of them. Cole-Ochoa says when a child complains that they’re having a bad day, it’s an opportunity for teachers to find out what’s going on and whether they or a counselor can help.
“Due to COVID-19, they are still shy,” he says. “By doing these fun things for the students, by giving them perfect attendance awards, by giving them stingerbacks to reward good citizenship, they can say, “Oh, this school is so important to me.” They noticed how I was doing academically, socially and emotionally. ”
