It is mock exam season. I have used this “Cloud Scale” to gauge students’ feelings. 1 and 2 seem to be popular right now. We discuss ways to manage stress while testing and coping strategies they can use while testing.
Daily Dose of Dopamine
I recently started doing the “daily dose of dopamine” with my students. I show them pictures of cute things like my dog. They now ask me for pictures when I walk into the classroom. I have asked them also to share photos of their pets or other cute things. I am excited to see what I get.
SafeTALK training
I was able to attend the SafeTALK training for Suicide Alertness. I love to do trainings like this to remind myself of best practices in counseling. I often do not post what I do on the Social-Emotional side of my career, as much of it is confidential. But this is something I can show you.
Creating PSHE Lessons
Working with the Head of Pastoral and Well-being, we created a PSHE Curriculum that meets the ISCA Standard. We also were using lessons obtained from Unifrog, which is also the system we use for University applications. I find the PSHE lessons to be very comprehensive.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I got this template from Canva and edited it slightly. If you or someone you know is struggling with poor mental health, seek out counseling.
Needs Assessment
The interesting part of my needs assessment showed that more students were at risk in the spring versus the fall. I added more social-emotional activities to advisory, and I am also adding mindfulness units to the SEL curriculum.
When I spoke to the students about their results, some did not take the test seriously. How do I get students to take the needs assessment seriously? I think it would help to have teacher buy-in about the social-emotional needs of our students. I could do a better job of working with the teachers to support students better. I could also better promote the data collected from the needs assessments to teachers and other stakeholders to help encourage better SEL awareness.
Dear Parents
亲爱的家长们,
As we move to online learning, we know that some students struggle with being online. The counselors will be doing check-ins with students and recording videos to upload into Bilibili to help students cope with being online. Students are also being checked in on by their advisors or homeroom teachers, and the advisors/teachers will keep me informed if they notice struggling students.
线上教学已经开始，我们需关注到，有些同学可能会对网课不适应。我会随机与学生进行聊天，确认他们的情绪状况，并会在Bilibili上上传线上课堂的相关视频，帮助学生更从容地应对。班级导师、科任老师们也会随机与学生聊天，并在发现有学生需要帮助的时候及时告知我。
It is important that students have designated work areas free of distraction. Students also need time to do something they enjoy (i.e., going for a walk, having a phone call with friends, arts). It is essential to have a separation from schoolwork and downtime. This separation helps students and adults alike have boundaries between their school/work life and their personal ones. If students are too focused on their schoolwork, they can burn out. Burning out can also prevent success in academics, so allowing students that separation reduces the likelihood that will happen.
对于学生来说，拥有一个不被打扰的学习环境是至关重要的。同时，学生也需要休闲娱乐活动（例如外出散步、和朋友聊天、艺术创作等），因此，学习时间和休息时间应该有一个良好的分配。合理的时间分配能帮助学生亦或是大人更好的划分学习/工作和个人生活。如学生过度投入于学习，他们可能会精力交猝。过犹不及，请允许/帮助您的孩子合理地分配时间，避免消极的情况发生。
If you feel like your student is struggling, please reach out to Ms. XXX (EC and ES) or Ms. Kendra (SS) to help provide the necessary support. We are also happy to meet with you through Teams.
如您察觉到您的孩子在线上教学中感到吃力或需要帮助，请与Ms. XXX（幼儿园、小学）或Ms. Kendra（中学）联系，让我们及时地提供必要的帮助。我们也很乐意通过Teams与家长交谈。
Similar to last year, this toilet talk is about bullying.
Above is the first toilet talk of the 2022-2023 school year.
This was not posted, as some of the month we were out for Lunar New Year, and the other part was online learning.
Above is the October 2022 toilet talk
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I would also like to link to this other amazing resource.
Lockdown and Counseling
Our city in China went on lockdown due to covid. We were online learning for about 3 school weeks due to this. We were able to do all our work online. As such, most of my lessons were done through video and uploaded into Bilibili or youtube. Below is an example of one such video. We did other activities that were fun like Jeopardy, check-ins to what animal would you be and why, and learned about healthy relationships.
In January we are talking about being thankful, and the benefits of saying thank you. Studies done by UC Davis show that saying thank you has positive effects on your health!
December Toilet Talk is about friendship. Knowing how to be a good friend is so important!
November Toilet Talk was all about Kindness.
