The impact of COVID on SEL skills was drastic. Our students had unprecedented struggles in many areas. With our help, students can begin recovering from the impact of COVID.
Recovering from the Impact of COVID on Mental Health
Recovering from the impact of COVID on our student’s mental health is crucial. We are seeing more and more students complaining of anxiety and depression. Adolescent students show increased self-harm behaviors, suicide attempts, and suicidal thoughts. Awareness of the shift in mental health is the first step.
Next, we need to focus our efforts on teaching students coping strategies. This should not be relegated to only students that are visiting our offices or complaining in class but should be taught to ALL students.
We can start with simple techniques such as recognizing emotions and labeling them. It is amazing what happens when you give a feeling a name. From there, we can teach students strategies to regulate their emotions.
Students should learn about breathing techniques such as box breathing. Breathe in for the count of 4, hold for the count of 4, breathe out for the count of 4, and hold for the count of 4. Some students might prefer simply taking slow deep breaths.
Younger children could use simple illustrations. Instruct the child to hold up one finger. Breathe in like you are sniffing a flower. Breathe out like you are blowing out a candle.
Other strategies might include drawing, journaling, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness.
Teaching Mental Health Skills School-wide
SEL and mental health skills go hand in hand. You can find plenty of videos online to help teach coping strategies. If you want a program already designed for you, check out The Mind Trek SEL Program.
Students need to learn about their emotions and how to manage them. There are lots of strategies to help students manage emotions. Strategies can include teaching students breathing techniques. The Mind Trek has several videos on our YouTube channel to help illustrate these.
Community meetings or nurture groups are an excellent way to build relationships in the classroom and create a safe space. These allow students to express how they are feeling. Students see that other students feel the same way and gain empathy for one another.
Many students suffered from anxiety, depression, or other mental health disorders before COVID. COVID amplified these for some of our students, and some students developed anxiety post-COVID. With this in mind, it is important to reach our students with the biggest issues. A guidance lesson might not be enough.
You can reach a targeted group of students through small groups. Hold some small groups that specifically target students that are struggling with anxiety, depression, or grief. During your groups, teach them additional coping skills and give them space to discuss their experiences.
We have many resources at the school level, but sometimes that isn’t enough. Train your staff in QPR so that they are aware of the signs of suicide. Create a list of community resources you can share with parents and families. Include outside counseling and support groups on your list.
Recovering from the Impact of COVID on Social Skills
Friendship Groups are an excellent way to help your students that are struggling to make friends. Students that struggle with being shy have always had a hard time making friends, but post-COVID, they seem to struggle more. During groups, you can teach them skills and strategies to help them make friends. This is also an excellent place for them to develop friendships with others in the group.
Help students remember how to be kind to one another. A great solution is to create a kindness club at your school. Give students the power to determine how kindness will be spread in your school. Their creativity is amazing!
Start smaller with a kindness week. Kindness week is a great way for students to focus on kindness. Provide dress-up days, a kindness wall, random acts of kindness challenge, and inspiring videos.
Teaching School-wide Social Skills
Remember that students have been out of the classroom for a long time. It is good practice to remind them of appropriate school behavior. That includes the behavior towards other students, in person and online. Redefine the boundaries for your students and remind them of how to interact with one another appropriately. It seems silly, but when a student doesn’t remember how to do multiplication, we don’t usually yell at them but instead reteach the skill.
We talked early about community and nurture groups. These are great tools for building empathy and relationships with students. It is a structured time to check in with students. If you aren’t ready for community groups, start with implementing some Take-5s. Simply dedicate 5 minutes of your class to connecting with students. This could be as simple as a morning check-in, or you can get creative and have a daily theme such as “Motivational Monday, Teaser Tuesday, or Would You Rather Wednesday. Looking for some weekly examples of questions to ask? Follow our Instagram page.
Don’t forget that your guidance lessons have power! We would love to share The Mind Trek’s SEL Program with you. You can also create your own lessons that help improve peer relationships and bullying.
Recovering from the Academic Impact of COVID
It is no secret that our students came back to school with some educational deficits. There are some things that we can do to help! First, have a remediation plan. Many of our students will need remediation for one skill or another. Develop a built-in time of your school day to facilitate this remediation. Work with administrators and teachers to develop a school-wide plan.
Help your teachers understand that students are socially and emotionally behind. We need to meet students where they are and bring them up to where we want them to be. This is going to require a lot more effort from our teachers. Even though our students look like they should be in their current grade, many are about a year to a year and a half behind. We can’t fix this overnight.
Create a homework help club at your school. Use peer tutors, volunteers, or teachers to help students with their homework after school. This is a great opportunity for those that excel to challenge themselves by helping others. It is also a wonderful time for students that are struggling to get some extra help.
Ask Rose is a great free resource for Math and Science homework help. Look around your community to see if there are any free tutoring services. Work with your PTO, education foundation, and community groups to create tutoring resources where none are available.
Teaching a Growth Mindset
Last, teach a growth mindset to your students. A Growth mindset is an excellent way of thinking that helps students not give up when they fail, or things get tough. It is a way of thinking that says, “I just don’t have it yet.” When a student has a growth mindset, they continue trying when things are hard. Students with a growth mindset are not afraid to fail and learn from their mistakes. When students have a fixed mindset, they are more likely to give up when things become challenging. Students with a fixed mindset believe they are not good at something when they don’t get it on the first try. Students with a fixed mindset are less likely to be creative and try hard things. They avoid failure at all costs. Check out this TED Talk from Carol Dweck to learn more about Growth Mindset.
SEL Unfiltered
Do you want to hear more? Check out the rest of our series on COVID and SEL Skills on our SEL Unfiltered podcast, wherever you stream your podcasts.
Check out other episodes in our COVID and SEL Skills series, including The Impact of COVID on SEL Skills, Reducing Anxiety, Reversing Apathy, and Resilience and ACE Scores.
Game of the Week
Every week on SEL Unfiltered, we like to bring you a game or activity. You can use the game with your students, in the classroom, or in a small group. This week Kaitlin and I played What’s Good Wednesday.
This is a simple activity that you can do with your students at the beginning of class as a check-in. It builds relationships in class and allows students to practice focusing on the positive.
It is as simple as it sounds. The question for the day is What’s good? What is one good thing that happened to you today or this week? It is a great way to highlight the positives in the middle of the week.
Students can take turns answering the question. You can also write the question on the board and allow students to write down their answers as they enter the room. Start a class discussion over everyone’s answers when class begins.
Students get the opportunity to think about one positive thing. Discussing and listening to classmates’ answers also allows students to broaden their horizons. Students can realize that there can be many good things, even amid frustrations or a challenging week.
