Feeling good is something we can't take for granted- not in our students and not in ourselves. There have been many recent tragedies, some famous and some closer to home, and there is no panacea. One thing that I think we can do as educators is arm our students with tools that can help them get up and go throughout their days and even their life and to provide them with tools to bounce back when they hit a roadblock. It's the next step in our growth mindset work- to go beyond the language and build a tool box of options to go to when things get rough. Teaching bouncebackability is part of wellness and worth our focus.
This year, for half of my day, I teach a ¾ split in public school. I have tried to build outside the blocks, wherever possible, to combine curriculum while also providing students tools for learning. After I finished the Nutrition unit and the Healthy Start project in Health, I wanted to develop a unit around healthy relationships with the self at the centre because I realized that in order to develop healthy relationships, we would have to begin with our relationships with ourselves. I found exactly how they could connect with the following Ontario Curriculum expectations:
• identify the characteristics of healthy relationships (e.g., showing consideration of others’ feelings by avoiding negative communication); • identify the challenges (e.g., conflicting opinions) and responsibilities in their relationships with family and friends.
I introduced the idea of a Self Esteem Toolbox with a slide deck. The first screen was an overview of the different tools I would be introducing. One of the ways I was suggesting to help get students get themselves closer to fine in the face of adversity was music. The students were asked to find their S.E.T. Playlist songs for homework.
Students dove right into the playlist idea, and they were adding a lot of different songs from a lot of different places. I had a student who had done very little the entire time I had known her add 12 songs to the playlist. She was so engaged I called her parents in for a meeting and asked how I can do more to tap into her interests and help her participate like she did with this one task. An unanticipated residual benefit to having a playlist was inviting people’s interests and cultures into the mix. There were Israeli songs, a Brazilian hit, Indian music, K-Pop, Beatles songs, and chart toppers in the mix. A playlist is a great way to get people excited about a Self Esteem Toolbox, and I continue to use the songs to play into lunch and play out the day.
It took me a while to even realize that a playlist would work for this age group. I have been using music in and outside of the classroom for most of my career, but I had not even considered a playlist with my grade 3/4 class. Arianna Lambert, a wonderful TDSB educator, was a guest on my Personal Playlist Podcast and started using the prompts ( a nostalgic song, one that reflects your identity and one that lifts you up/pics you up, inspires or motivates you) with her Grade 4 class. That is when I realized that the power of music would not allude my class.
The next week was Wellness Week at school, so it seemed logical to roll out yoga and mindfulness as a tool. It was also something they did with their homeroom teacher, but the connection to self esteem and bouncebackability had not yet been made. With only an hour each week to explore the tool, the students were sent to find a kid's mindfulness or yoga video that they liked, but they were less engaged as in the previous week’s playlist.
I packed the last 4 into one session. While it wasn't ideal, I still had a lot of curriculum to cover under this umbrella. The last four tools were smile, laugh, find a hobby/passion/creative outlet and exercise. We graffitied boarded the types of exercises and different hobbies. The homework that week was to think about the tool box, decide what was missing and determine which tools work best for each person.
This idea first evolved through a collaboration with my students. Among the many teaching duties that I had at my previous school, I ran many student leadership activities including the RS360- the student arm of the Respectful School Initiative. This was a full circle approach to promoting a culture of inclusion, connection and respect. We had three subcommittees of Middle School students: Fun Budz who facilitated recess activities, the Lunch Bunch who ate lunch with younger students and even worked on homework with them. The Respectful School Ambassadors were a group of students who worked weekly with me to plan monthly lessons in the homeroom classes of younger students.
They were an incredible student team to lead. That year, the team decided on the theme YAA (You Are Awesome), and all of the lessons they planned and taught were related to self esteem. There was a lot of thoughtful lesson planning and delivery, the creation of The Corridor of Awesomeness with motivational quotes submitted by the students lining the hallways that they could walk through when they needed a pick-me-up , and the ever popular YAA playlist. It started school mornings with a soundtrack of uplifting songs generated by all the students and was one of the parts of the YAA Toolbox.
The You Are Awesome toolbox hung in each classroom with icons on velcro related to ways to pick oneself up. It was explicitly introduced in an RSA lesson, and homeroom teachers were encouraged to move the icons to the spotlight box when they taught or utilized these skills. I still had laminated images that I had made for the classrooms, and I wanted to find another way to use them.
Contents of the Self Esteem Tool Box :
Smile- research shows that smiling (fake it til you make it) can actually help your brain think you are happy.
Laugh- Laughter is a proven medicine and a great way to help oneself feel good
Practice Yoga- Yoga is shown to help focus people and channel positive thoughts
Find a hobby/interest/passion- Doing the things you love can make you happy.
Exercise- Exercise releases endorphins and helps you feel good.
Breathing/Meditation/Mindfulness- All these skills help people be aware of their thoughts and feeling and help them be more positive and growth-minded
Find Your Inner Artist- Creativity in whatever form can help provide a sense of purpose and be a realease.
Believe in Yourself (Be You)- Celebrating your unique self and knowing who you are is a great way to build self esteem.
Find Your Playlist- Music is a powerful medium, and it can change one’s mood or even one’s self-concept. This strategy encourages finding songs that lift you up when you feel low, inspire or motivate.
Last week, my students culminated their S.E.T. learning by sharing their own tool boxes. Using the ideas introduced through the lessons and adding their own, each student had to decide on at least 3 tools that help them most when trying to feel better about themselves or to give them bouncebackability. Using words and pictures, they were asked to decorate their tool boxes, and we added them to our class display.
Finally, I asked the students to write or share in some other way why having a Self Esteem Toolbox was helpful. As always, I will take their insights and add them to the toolbox I am building to share with whatever students come my way next. Here are some of their responses to the S.E.T. experience:
It’s good to have a Self Esteem Toolbox because you can share songs and find ways to feel good about yourself- Anastasiya
It helps you if are mad. -Radhesh
It turns a switch and wakes you up and helps you improve things like your working at school.- Adar
To help you feel up when you are down.- Michelle
It’s cool because it could help you be stronger and not feel alone. When I feel yucky, I can use the tools that help make me feel better.- Alexia
When I write, draw or listen to music it helps me feel less sad -Noam
I learned that I have a lot in my tool box like singing drawing, dancing, picking flowers, swimming and patting my dog and cat- Brielle
Your tool box shows the way to feel amazing and great and enjoy being a unique individual -Darren
We can use the curriculum and build beyond it by entering into a dialogue with learners about the reality and challenge of moving forward in the face failure or any set back. If we can tool them with options, then the education we provide them can help them know themselves and how to give themselves what they need when they need it. That's true of the transferability of learning skills and its true for bouncebackability, a combination or resilience and grit. That way, when things get rough, they may not have a magic wand, but they could still be S.E.T. to go!
