Abigail Bennett Portfolio Page
About Me
My name is Abigail Bennett. I went to SUNY Cortland and graduated in the fall of 2020 with a degree in early childhood/childhood education with a concentration in social sciences. After I completed my student teaching in NYC, I applied to SUNY Albany to start my graduate program. I am now in my third semester in the CDIT program.
So far, in over 4 years of working with students, I've created inclusive classroom communities where students explore their love for learning. My goal is to continue to influence students to thrive in their academics, extracurriculars, and community involvement. I take pride in creating a positive working environment that focuses on social-emotional learning and gives students space where they feel safe to take learning risks.
My Topic and Purpose
In this mini-course, you will learn how to incorporate social and emotional learning in an elementary classroom. This course will discuss how and why SEL affects the students learning, classroom community, and overall mental health. By integrating SEL practices into school culture you'll learn that students gain these critical skills that last them a lifetime. This course will give teachers the knowledge they need to enhance student's ability to problem-solve, manage their emotions, and build relationships.
Learning Outcomes
1. You will learn multiple strategies to incorporating social and emotional learning.
2. You will learn the benefits of incorporating social and emotional learning.
3. You will be able to apply what you learned in the future/current classroom.
Needs Assessment
Through experience in elementary schools, I have noticed a lack in incorporating social and emotional learning in the classrooms. Students all over the country are struggling with mental health issues. There has been a rise in technology use, a rise in stress, self-harm, self-hate, and feelings of disconnected/isolation. With of all these negative feelings, the impact of covid 19 should be viewed as a traumatic experience for students. The Washington Post article brings up a good point,
“We don’t know the trauma students are experiencing,”
This is so true because there are so many students who either don’t share their feelings or their mental health is hidden because of isolation. We also don’t know the extent of what these students are experiencing.
Abraham Maslow created the theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. This theory helps teachers understand that if their students’ needs aren’t being met, students will be less likely to learn to their fullest potential. This theory is connected to human motivation. His pyramid states that each lower need must be met before a student can move on to a higher level. The first four levels are physiological, safety, belongingness, and esteem. Next is cognitive, Aesthetic, self-actualization and self-transcendence. The bottom levels are referred to as “deficiency needs”. These are needs that are essential to a healthy human. If you don’t meet the needs at this level, you can expect illness, loneliness, self-doubt, and other emotional disturbances.
“This theory postulates that basic needs (food, shelter, clothing etc.), physical and emotional safety, love and belonging, and esteem must be met first for individuals to reach self-actualization and transcendence. Failure to meet each need may place an individual at higher risk for depression or increase the rate of growth of depressive symptoms. Alternatively, it may be said that depression hinders the growth of self-actualization, which includes self-regard and self-acceptance; using these concepts, prior research has found a negative relationship between self-actualization and depression in adolescents” (Crandall, A., Powell, E., Bradford, G., Magnusson, B., Hanson, C., Barnes, M., & Novilla, M. 2020).
Students who struggle with mental health problems are unable to move up this pyramid because their basic needs are unmet. This lack of emotional and physical security at an early age has been linked with anxiety and depression. With Maslow’s theory in mind, we can apply it to how we understand mental health problems in students. It helps show teachers and parents that there is more than just one element in a student's mental health. There are multiple levels that are affected and need to be supported.
What is to be learned:
Course users will learn how to teach the students ways to calm themselves and how to deal with overwhelming emotions. Users will learn how to incorporate SEL into daily instruction. Users will learn how to teach students how to self-monitor and self-regulate their feelings.
Analysis of the Learner and Context
Students spend the majority of their childhood in school. This is why school connectedness has an essential role in educating students about mental health.
“School connectedness is, therefore, an umbrella term attempting to operationalize how much an individual feels part of their school, experiences positive relationships with teachers and peers, and has a sense of belonging” (Oldfield, J., Stevenson, A., Ortiz, E., & Haley, B. 2018).
Students who feel connected to their school have shown reduced levels of risk-taking behavior and lower levels of emotional problems. This is because connectedness is something all humans need. We are a species that relies on a sense of community at all ages.
“School connectedness may provide a role in promoting resilience for mental health for adolescents living in risk, whereas the potential negative influence that secure attachments to peers exerts, in context of poor parental attachment, needs to be explored further.” (Oldfield, J., Stevenson, A., Ortiz, E., & Haley, B. 2018).
When discussing mental health in schools, it’s important to look at the school’s ability to promote connectedness. The first steps in creating school connectedness include encouraging welcomeness. This can include building a sense of belongingness such as including students’ cultures, going to students’ homes, inviting parents and community members. Once students feel like they are being accepted in a community, they can become more engaged and feel safe in their learning environment. Aside from school connectedness, we can also create lessons in class that focus on teaching students mental health education. By talking about mental health, you are allowing students to open up and create conversations that decrease the stigma around mental health. When having these conversations, you are informing students of possible symptoms as well as showing them that they are not alone. Sometimes teachers can feel like they aren’t experienced enough to handle mental health education. This can be fixed by providing teachers training that’s centered around identifying and responding to signs of mental health issues. Once teachers are confident in mental health education, they can create lessons that integrate mental health topics.
For younger students especially, we can create lessons that identify, describe and manage emotions. Some useful tactics used by educators today discussed the use of mood meters. This helps students develop self-awareness and recognition of their emotions. Once they can recognize their emotions, we can then provide students with strategies on how to manage their emotions. There are endless tools that can be implemented for mental health education. Some teachers incorporate daily mindfulness and relaxation techniques. Mindfulness can help students find a quiet place in their minds when the outside world becomes too hectic. By giving these tools to students, you are creating a safe place for students to learn about mental health and feel safe to check in with their feelings.
Performance-Based Objectives
By the end of the mini-unit, learners will be able to:
Define SEL and its role in classroom learning and student growth.
Understand how to effectively incorporate SEL strategies into the elementary classroom.
Apply knowledge learned to own classroom.
Collaborate with peers to achieve higher learning outcomes. Discuss and create a positive online classroom community.
Task Analysis
Elaborate and analyze the objectives to identify more specific enabling and supporting objectives.
Unit 1: Introduction: Why+What -In this unit, you will learn about SEL in the classroom and why it's important. Consider this the research section. Here you will find important background information about the topic.
Unit 2: Understanding Student Emotions -In this unit we will discuss student emotions and emotional intelligence.
Unit 3: Applying / Putting It All Together -In this unit, you learn and discuss how to implement SEL into your classroom.
Curriculum Map
References and Resources
Fox, J. (2010). Prospective effects of temperamental reactivity, emotion dysregulation, and stress on risk for anxiety and depression in elementary school-age children . University at Albany. Department of Psychology.
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J. (2006). Developmental Psychopathology, Theory and Method Volume 1.(WILEY SERIES ON PERSONALITY PROCESSES) (2nd ed.). Wiley.
Green, E. L. (2021, April 15). Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/politics/student-suicides-nevada-coronavirus.html
Öztürk Çopur, E., & Karasu, F. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life and depression, anxiety, and stress levels of individuals above the age of eighteen. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppc.12730
Crandall, A., Powell, E., Bradford, G., Magnusson, B., Hanson, C., Barnes, M., & Novilla, M. (2020). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a Framework for Understanding Adolescent Depressive Symptoms Over Time. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(2), 273–281. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01577-4
Oldfield, J., Stevenson, A., Ortiz, E., & Haley, B. (2018). Promoting or suppressing resilience to mental health outcomes in at risk young people: The role of parental and peer attachment and school connectedness. Journal of Adolescence (London, England.), 64, 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2018.01.002