21st Century Learning

As January and the new year approaches, I start to reflect on balance and keeping true to what I believe to be most important. When in the classroom, I always thought that it was a great time to press the reset button with students and gear up for the next half of the year. Over the break, I often take some time to check out resources that I think will help me along this goal so that I can add fresh ideas to lessons that I know have allowed students to reflect on themselves as they start to set goals. This year was no different even though I’m not in the classroom. While taking a look through some of the amazing ETFO resources available online, I found the Everyday Mental Health Classroom resource that I think is absolutely fantastic and essential for classrooms.

Co-developed over the past two years by School Mental Health ASSIST and ETFO, this resource is designed to provide K – 8 educators with evidence-based strategies to help develop the Social Emotional learning skills of students. The great part about this resource is that the activities contained have been tested by ETFO members and not only that, but a research project was done to determine the efficacy in classrooms. It’s definitely a resource that educators should consider using in their classrooms.

Here’s why! The resource:

offers the evidence and need for this work in classrooms;
honours the professional judgement of teachers;
focuses on core skills;
is online and easily accessible.

In this post, I’ll dig into why I think it’s a great resource for using in classrooms in the hopes that you’ll try it with students and if you already have, share what you’ve noticed with others.

Evidence-Based

When I think of a resource being evidence-based, I understand that it is informed objectively. In that there is a perceived need for the development of the resource and that there is time taken and reflection made to truly understand the impacts of what is being proposed as good pedagogy in the classroom.

The Everyday Mental Health Classroom resource offers a great deal of background on the rationale for the project and the findings. The resource honours and speaks to the fact that as educators, we are not expected to me experts in mental health and yet we have an important role in working with a diverse group of students. We do have the responsibility to create safe and caring classroom environments for all and for helping our students further develop the core skills that I’ll get into later. The idea is that the lessons and activities can be easily embedded into daily classroom practices with this goal in mind. Of educators who participated in the study, 84% found the resource extremely or very useful; while 95% would recommend the resource to other educators within and outside of their division and roles. The background page on the site offers a wealth of information on the benefits of Social Emotional Learning for students (1). I encourage your to take a look.

Honours Professional Judgement

In Understanding Your Professional Judgement, Professional Judgement is defined as, “judgement that is informed by professional knowledge of curriculum expectations, context, evidence of learning, methods of instruction and assessment and the criteria and standards that indicate success in student learning. In professional practice, judgement involves a purposeful and systematic thinking process that evolves in terms of accuracy and insight with ongoing reflection and self-correction”. ETFO has provided support for teacher and occasional teacher members in exercising their professional judgement.

One thing that makes this resource unique is that right on the landing page, there is mention of the importance of professional judgement. The site further encourages educators to consider their students and exercise professional judgement to maximize growth in students. It also states that, “Using professional judgement, educators can select from a variety of practices within the Everyday Mental Health Classroom Resource to enhance classroom conditions and build social emotional skills in ways that best meet the needs of their students”.

This is so empowering! While I may not be an expert in mental health, knowing that I can use my professional judgement to select and embed activities that will develop core skills that can potentially have a positive impact on students mental health and wellbeing is amazing. Sometimes hearing this is just the thing that a teacher needs to gain that confidence in trying something new.

Focuses On Core Skills

This resource focuses on developing 6 core skills:

Stress Management and Coping Skills

Everyday, we face challenges. How we manage these challenges and stresses is key to our success. Different people use different strategies in stress management. This section contains activities that helps students to develop skills and build their own toolboxes with strategies that work best for them.

Emotion Identification Skills

I’ve heard that there is power in naming emotions. We all face a variety of different emotions throughout the day. This section contains activities that help students to identify and appropriately express their feelings, further developing their ability to effectively self-regulate.

Positive Motivation Skills

This section reminds me of the importance of Growth Mindset. This section contains activities that help students in the areas of expressing gratitude, practicing optimising and perseverance, as well as reframing.

Relationship Skills

Positive relationships are important to have and are essential for a safe and caring classroom environment. This section contains activities that focus on acts of kindness, being a good friend, respect, conflict resolution, empathy and listening.

Self Confidence and Identity Skills

We all have qualities that make us unique. Understanding our identities and who we are is an important part of building our own self-confidence. This section contains activities that will help students to learn about and appreciate their identities while empowering them to hold firm to their beliefs when faced with challenging decisions.

Executive Functioning Skills

When we think of executive functioning skills, I think of the skills needed to plan, organize and complete tasks. This section contains activities that help students develop and master these skills through repeated opportunities for practice.

Online and Easily Accessible

This free resource is available online with challenge cards that can be printed for easy access while the activity is in progress. Each activity provides the teacher with information on the purpose and the time required so that they can best determine which might be best to embed into their day. The filter allows for teachers to search by division and also has a great feature that allows for Occasional Teachers to be able to search for activities that they can also use during their time with students. I think this is fantastic!

I know that this post just gives you a taste of this resource and I hope that you take some time to take a deeper look into it and consider using it in your classrooms. By developing these skills in students, we can prepare them to succeed beyond the classroom. The evidence is there, what are you waiting for?

1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11gM59_aU_enXWpED03URIPUpS0iLjxI1/view

I’m going to try something new! I’m always looking for new ways to incorporate technology in my classroom and after being inspired by a colleague down the hall, I’ve decided to bring a Google Home back to school with me in January!

We absolutely love our Google Home. It controls our thermostat, turns on our lights, keeps our shopping lists, plays our music, casts our shows to the TV and does countless more tasks that make small things much easier!

Thinking of all the wonderful things it does at home, I’m excited about the possibilities in my classroom.

Inquiry

Sparking and enhancing inquiry is where I’m most excited to incorporate Google Home into my teaching. At first, I’ll need to model how to properly use it for my students but my goal will be to get them to do the following independently:

Asking Questions – A great excuse to model not knowing the answer to something and finding out – “Miss Bottrell, what do giraffes eat?”…. “Well, I don’t know – let’s ask Google!”

Finding Sources – “Hey Google, how can I learn more about giraffes?” / what are some books about… / what are some websites that teach about… / And then a trip to the school library!

Fun Facts – A fun fact each day can be a great starting point for further inquiry!

Literacy

Word Spelling – I’ve taught my students a process for problem solving an unknown word when writing, but when they reach the end of the process and are still dying to know how to properly spell a word, instead of “Miss Bottrell, how do you spell giraffe?”, they can ask, “Okay Google, how do you spell giraffe?”. This might free me up to answer other questions!

Storytelling – Google has a great storytelling feature. On demand, it’ll play five to ten minute long stories – both familiar and original – complete with engaging and entertaining voice effects. There are so many opportunities here for literacy, I could write a whole post just about that!

Language Translation – I love including the home languages of all of my students in the classroom, and the translating feature will enhance that. “Hey Google, how do you say ‘giraffe’ in Spanish?” What’s wonderful, too, is that it will pronounce it properly for you.

Book Recommendations – “Okay Google, what are some good books about giraffes?”, or “Who is the author of….?”

Word Definitions – When we come across an unknown word, students can ask Google for the definition. Google will also provide synonyms and use it in a sentence.

Numeracy

Math Answers – Of course, the use of problem solving skills and mental math strategies is most important, but that are certainly some benefits to a student asking “Okay Google, what is the sum of….?”, or “How many centimetres are in…?”, when appropriate.

Classroom Management

Timer – Throughout the day, I’ll use the timer feature to remind us of upcoming transitions, keep track of small group timing, and help remind my students when it’s time to pack up their lunches and get dressed for recess.

Heads or Tails – A quick and fair way to make a class decision!

Weather Forecasting – Before heading outdoors, we can ask Google, “What should I wear outside today?” and it will respond with the temperature, forecast and a suggestion of attire – an excellent connection to grade one/two science and math! This will also help my students make informed decisions when dressing themselves for outside.

Teacher’s Assistant

Reminders – I can set reminders for myself, such as to make a phone call or take afternoon attendance, because I am notoriously bad at remembering this – anyone else?

Shopping Lists – I can ask Google to keep a running list of classroom materials and supplies that we are running out of.

Community Building

Mad Libs – A fun way to spend an extra five minutes, and a great way to sneakily review nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs!

Joke of the Day – A fun incentive to use during transitions or when you’ve got just one or two minutes to fill between activities!

Mystery Animal – Google will play 20 Questions so you can guess the secret animal. My students love playing this game already, and it’s great practice with formulating questions.

A Cool Classroom Job – I suspect “Googler of the Day” might become the most coveted job in our classroom job market! One student could be responsible for all of the Google tasks, which is a great opportunity for them to take leadership.

Music Playlists – Paired with my Spotify account, I can use Google to play self-curated playlists suitable for different types of environments I want to create throughout the day – “Hey Google, play Brain Break music!”, or “Hey Google, play Dance Party music!”.

Be sure to create a new professional account (separate from your home) when setting up the speaker, and ensure that family friendly filters are activated in the settings!

Of course, it’s going to take some teaching and learning to get all of this up and running. I know my students and therefore I know there will be temptation to be silly with the technology. I suspect many of them might have one at home and will have figured out how to interrupt someone speaking to Google by shouting something silly when the microphone is activated. Or, they might think Google is here just to tell jokes.

My goal is to teach them otherwise – to formulate questions, to take turns, to be responsible, to recognize the valuable resource that it is, but most importantly, to embrace the technology that surrounds them to drive their curiosity.

I look forward to reporting back on how it goes! Does anyone else use Google Home, or something similar, in their classroom?

Category: 21st Century Learning

Everyday Mental Health Classroom Resource

Google Home in the Classroom