When a child at Greenwood Community Schools feels frustrated or is on the verge of an emotional breakdown, they can alert a teacher by pointing to a color on a chart to demonstrate an emotion or fidget with a piece of a bike chain instead of lashing out.
All over Johnson County, schools are adopting or planning the introduction of social-emotional learning, which helps students manage their emotions, accomplish goals and build positive relationships, according to the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, a nationwide organization that promotes social-emotional learning in schools.
Creating an outlet for students to learn how to better cope with distress is key to maintaining a positive and productive school environment. That can involve giving choices to students to deescalate them, said Jill Lambert, director of Student Services for Greenwood Schools.
“If you have a child you can tell is starting to escalate and you identified their triggers, we want to be able to give a child a choice and not force them to do anything, because nine out of 10 times it won’t end well if they’re forced,” Lambert said.
That child might be offered a chance to read at their desk or enter what Lambert calls a calming corner, which has coloring books and the opportunity for children to practice deep breathing and other techniques to relax themselves, she said.
Greenwood Schools also has bike chain fidget toys, snake-twist puzzles and Rubix cubes for students to handle in order to elevate their focus through multitasking, Lambert said.
Edinburgh Community Schools and Greenwood Schools have the common practice of using a technique called Zones of Regulation. With the technique, students can point to a color coded section of a chart. By having this chart, children can feel comfortable demonstrating how they feel to an adult without acting out, Edinburgh School Superintendent Doug Arnold said.
“Zones of Regulation gives (teachers) tools and they teach kids to use these colors to deal with stressful situations,” Arnold said. “Teachers use these with students to talk about dealing with emotions.”
By pointing to the blue zone on the chart, for example, students can demonstrate they feel sad, he said.
Teachers at Edinburgh Schools read a book called “Help for Billy” during the summer. The book delves into how traumatic experiences can cause children to act the way they do. It also guides teachers in how to make interactions with students who are having a difficult episode more productive, according to the book’s description.
“It’s a hands-on book with tools you can use to help kids have the skills they need to deal with social-emotional needs,” Arnold said. “It talks about experts and their recommendations, they discuss the learning process and discuss kids having difficult traumatic situations. It talks about development, it talks about motivation; it’s much more theoretical and philosophical.”
After Clark-Pleasant Community Schools experienced turnover in both of its curriculum-based administrative positions and hired a new mental health coordinator earlier this year, the district is still figuring out how to best implement social-emotional learning practices in classrooms, spokesperson John Venter said.
“We are developing our strategies according to best practices; this is an emerging discipline,” Venter said.
Administrators will develop those strategies by meeting with support staff, he said.
At Webb Elementary School in Franklin, social-emotional learning is one of the three main areas of focus, along with academic support and college and career readiness, school counselor Angie Clendening said.
Throughout Franklin Community Schools, teachers are using the Second Step Program, a social-emotional learning system that helps students manage their emotions by identifying them, she said.
“Every student is learning the same skills. Emotional management, which is calming ourselves and being self-aware, taking tangible steps to calm themselves; how to stop, name your feelings and calm down. You learn in kindergarten and by the time you’re in fourth grade you know,” Clendening said.
Like at Greenwood schools, classrooms in Franklin schools have calming corners so students can squeeze a stress ball and sit on a bean bag chair to relax before they rejoin the class. Meeting students’ emotional needs is part of accommodating students who have difficult backgrounds or trauma that might cause them to act the way they do, Clendening said.
“We’re moving towards trauma-informed education; we’re sensitive to students coming from trauma. It’s about establishing safety for students when at school,” Clendening said.
“The calming corner helps students self-regulate without leaving the classroom.”
Emotional regulation techniques aren’t limited to students. Staff at Webb Elementary School are working on putting together a calming area for teachers who may be overwhelmed by the stress of teaching, she said.
