Educating students has always been a complex process. Providing the instruction of necessary skills in a supportive and safe environment is essential to academic growth. During a pandemic, this process becomes a bigger challenge, as both academic and social-emotional skills need intensive instruction and concentration to assist student recovery from the last eighteen months.
In the October 8 Superintendent’s Blog, Heather Perry, Superintendent of Schools, told parents that the academic recovery is assured because our teachers are strong educators with the skills and training to meet this academic challenge.She also addressed how the K-12 staff is working together to address the social emotional needs of our students.
Superintendent Perry stated, “We are working to beef up advisory conversations, to offer more real world connections to our students, to embed movement breaks and mindfulness practices into our classrooms, we are strengthening our restorative practices approaches, and we are supporting students using our strong student support services models as just a few examples.”
Teachers of all grade levels and specialties, as well as the administrators, social workers and counselors – are meeting together, brainstorming strategies and collaborating with experts to meet the challenges of teaching students impacted by a pandemic, the past loss of face to face instruction time – and the increased anxiety felt by our students.
Provided by Brian JandreauA representation of Abraham Maslow’s theory, proposed in his writing “A Theory of Human Motivation” in which he outlined a hierarchy of human needs. This theory is helping to guide the approach at Gorham High School.
Tami Reynolds is a fourth grade teacher at Village School. She reports that “Our team is working together to help students to reacclimate to the school environment through building trust and productive relationships. Assuring that students feel safe and comfortable in the school is so important for them to access their learning. This takes time, but is vital to students’ growth as learners.”
Stacey Sawyer is a teaching counselor who provides students in grades K-2 with social emotional instruction to assist their development as learners, as part of their creative arts curriculum. “All teachers and staff create opportunities that focus on student social emotional needs and learning throughout the school day. In addition, all K-2 students receive direct instruction in five core competencies; self-awareness, relationship skills, self-management, responsible decision-making and social-awareness,” she says.
At GHS, Brian Jandreau said, “Every year, we focus our conversations on relationships. We want to build positive student-teacher relations and support our students’ social and emotional wellness, as well as to create relevant learning opportunities for them. This year in particular, we have adopted the mantra Maslow before Bloom. This is why we are putting so much effort on providing food for students and on taking care of our students’ social and emotional needs. Once these needs are met, we are able to focus on learning and challenge students to engage at a high level.”
In her blog, Superintendent Perry also shared a tremendous resource that parents can access, SEL4ME, created by the Maine Department of Education.