During the 2021-2022 school year, students and staff felt the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, experienced a children's mental health crisis, and endured the fear and stress of racism and gun violence in our schools and communities. An individual was attacked.

During National Mental Health Awareness Month, we looked at ways to support children's mental health, but every year it becomes clearer that mental health should be a priority in schools. When teachers and students face high levels of stress, one of the most effective communication strategies is to recognize students as whole learners with unique abilities, experiences, and challenges.

Below are tools teachers can use to build these important relationships throughout the school year, from the first day of school in the fall to graduation in the spring, and actively support their students' mental health.

Collection of health data to support personalization

The Well-Being Index (WBI) is a student self-report instrument designed to help educators collect holistic data about physical, social, psychological, and emotional well-being in real-time. Collecting health data is something educators can incorporate into their daily practice and use to personalize student support, interactions, and experiences. This approach empowers student voices, allows students to tell their own stories, and encourages participation in the problem-solving process.

Understanding students' personalities, cultures, and experiences

By recognizing children as unique and complete individuals, adults can better understand how students feel and function and provide responsive and individualized support. Deeper Than an Icebreaker: Getting to Know Your Students Activities offer three activities to help teachers better understand a student's personality, culture, and experience through openness, respect, and empathy.

Accepting co-regulation in the classroom

Both students and teachers struggle with high levels of stress. Disruptive behavior can be a sign of increased stress, and teachers can moderate these responses by accommodating, understanding, and co-creating a strong sense of community. Co-regulation Workbook helps teachers identify their responses to stress, reflect on interactions with students, and develop new coping strategies during difficult times.

It supports the development of trusting relationships

Fostering positive developmental relationships with students is an important strategy to support students' mental health, but these relationships are not built simply by being good people. They are built through consistent interactions that build trust. Using this empathic listening strategy can help you develop trusting relationships by paying close attention and trying to understand rather than judge.

Enrich class relationships.

Strong relationships can reduce stress for both children and adults, address trauma, strengthen young people's beliefs about themselves and their future, and strengthen children's mental health. The relationship list tool helps teachers think about the relational aspect of the classroom.

Strengthening relationships with individual students

Students must trust that the adults in the school care for them and are there for them. Teachers can already interact regularly with students to learn about each student's unique strengths and challenges. Our custom relationship strategy tool provides easy-to-implement strategies to strengthen relationships with individual students.