1) What is your finalized HWM question? What question will guide your commitment to action?
My finalized HMW question is as follows: How might we optimize motivation and engagement through wellness programming for our students and staff?
I plan to guide my commitment to action by asking my students what is working well within our current wellbeing program and how we might improve the program ahead of the next academic year. I’ve connected with my wellbeing team in the JS, as well as the Wellbeing Director for Havergal to discuss my plan to pilot surveys and follow up feedback with my Grade 6 class following wellbeing sessions. In short, I’m most interested in what is going well and where we have room to improve.
2) What action will you commit to? What spheres of influence will you work within?
One action that I’ve committed to is the creation of a survey inspired by the RULER approach to social-emotional learning to help gauge the impact of wellness sessions by our wellbeing team. I’ve learned in my work so far that some of the specific language in the Mood Meter is inaccessible to students in Grade Six. To help close the gap, I’ve used an emoji-inspired version of the chart to help guide students in gauging the impact of these sessions. I will also use a form to gauge the mood of my students on days when wellbeing activities are not planned in the hope to establish a baseline.
3) What are your next steps? What short and medium-term goals can you set to help meet your goal?
Moving forward, I hope to connect with my wellbeing team in May to share and discuss the results that I’ve been able to connect with my class. I hope to then use this data to inform the planning for the 22/23 academic year and determine how best to move forward when considering engagement and motivation for all stakeholders in regards to our wellbeing program. Eventually, I would like to see a survey developed for both the primary and junior grades that take into account of age and stage of the stakeholders filling out the survey.
Hello @mblack (Michael),
I recall you talking about this during our last F2F meeting, but could you please expand on the ‘RULER’ method? What were the results of your class’ survey?
Although I believe we always keep wellness in our minds when we are teaching, I really feel that is just what teachers instinctively do, the question is are we explicit about it or not? This is the word that I have certainly been saying a lot of the last two years. It is not enough to assume/presume, but we need to engage more intrinsically with our students; explicitly ask them how they are doing, feeling, etc. in order to do as your HWQ states – help motivate and engage our students even more.
Thank you for your work in this area and I look forward to hearing what you have learned in your next blog post.
@mblack, thanks for your blog post! Hopefully you and @etenhagen can find some time to chat on Saturday as you both are evaluating current SEL programs and looking for feedback from students on how to improve these programs for the students for next year.
Hi Michael @mblack,
What an impactful action plan journey you have been on this year! Your commitment to taking a user-centric approach while simultaneously building a staff coalition is admirable. Furthermore, your willingness to iterate in support of the user is inspiring and will serve you well as you continue this journey. I wonder if the integration of a RULER-inspired FlipGrid video reflection might empower students to share what is going well and areas for improvement in a different way, and add an additional layer to your result sharing in May with the wellbeing team. Good luck with your continued work in wellness and SEL – your students (and school community) are lucky to have you!
Cheers,
Nicole