Social-emotional learning during a pandemic
High school counselors address mental health in a virtual world
Mental health is top on everyone’s mind during a pandemic, but it was a particular focus of counselors at Grosse Pointe North and Grosse Pointe South high schools during remote learning this fall. According to North counseling department chairman Jenny Sherman, counselors met with students more virtually than in person due to the toll COVID-19 places on students academically, socially and emotionally.
Sherman acknowledged the isolation students are experiencing during remote learning.
“Even the kids who are doing well academically are struggling emotionally with the isolation piece at home,” she said.
To counteract this, counselors have shared their cell numbers with students “so they can text or call us directly as well as their parents,” Sherman reported. “We are also in classes weekly to support students and stay connected. When we're not in meetings, we are emailing, Schoology messaging, texting and calling students and parents to check-in and connect. … Truly, we have never been busier.”
Counselors at both high schools also surveyed students and their parents, providing a menu of ideas for respondents to check that might be helpful.
Everything across the menu was checked, Sherman said.
Technology has played a key role. Students schedule meetings using Calendly, an online appointment scheduling software.
Zoom meetings connect students virtually with not only their counselors but their peers.
For example, several weeks before break, North’s counseling department, in a joint effort with the student government, instituted a Wednesday “Zoom-ion” during lunch, providing students with the opportunity to come together virtually to eat lunch, play Kahoot games, engage in a teacher challenge or chat in smaller groups of students in a breakout room.
During an open wellness group on Thursdays, counselors share positive mental wellness tips and strategies, take a pulse on how students are feeling and give them the opportunity to talk to one another about what they’re experiencing.
“It’s having kids talk to other kids,” Sherman said. “Kids who come are so appreciative about having the space.”
Similar efforts are underway at South, according to counseling department chairman Beth Walsh-Sahutske. This includes weekly preventative “Wellness Wednesday” information blasts on Schoology and monthly check-ins with students — a quick social-emotional and academic “temperature check” and opportunity for students to share thoughts or concerns.
“Sometimes kids need more than a check-in and we move into special services,” Walsh-Sahutske said. “We currently maintain 84 accommodations plans. We initiated 32 accommodations reviews since the start of the year” along with 12 new special education referrals.
“We know that looking for flags in academics and discipline are likely indicators of social and emotional learning issues and through our Tier 2 (positive behavior interventions and supports) work we have followed up individually on 337 students,” she continued. “The follow-ups range from a single meeting to an ongoing weekly or in some cases twice-weekly check-in/check-out.”
Counselors also conduct personal outreach meetings with freshmen to help them get to know their counselors, Walsh-Sahutske added.
According to survey responses, one of the main things students wanted was resources. While many resources are posted on the district website, South’s counseling department assembled them in one place in a link tree on Schoology.
Also available to students and parents is a newsletter on mental health and wellness created by district social workers and school psychologists.
An Instagram page created specifically with students in mind grew out of a focus group Zoom meeting among North and South students and staff and representatives from Healthy Grosse Pointe & Harper Woods. The page —gps.mental_health_coalition — includes links to resources along with videos created by students offering wellness tips.
The coalition has its own Instagram page, healthygphw, administered by North junior Kristin Krier, who posts self-care and mental health tips for teens.
Krier said she looks for infographics and tips teenagers can read in under a minute that help them with the social isolation she and her friends are experiencing.
“We can’t talk about our days,” she said. “We can’t talk about things that are really going on. People say you can text people. You can FaceTime them. The reason we don’t do that is we’re on Zoom all day. We’re so taxed with technology. I think we're all feeling a little anti-social right now.”
Krier posts things she likes that she hopes will benefit others as well.
“I think the main thing I found helpful is setting realistic expectations,” she said.
For example, as a New Year’s resolution, she set the goal of drinking more water.
MaryJo Harris, who set up the focus group meeting on behalf of the coalition, said she has worked with other school districts and the resources available to parents and students in the Grosse Pointe Public School System “far outweigh what other districts have done.”
However, those resources are only helpful if students and parents take advantage of them, she pointed out.
“The counselors are doing the best job they can, but if parents have specific needs for their kids, they need to ask for them.”
Krier agrees the counselors are doing a lot to help students, but virtual connections often fall short in replicating what students really want — “an environment where they can relax and talk with friends, but you can’t really do that on Zoom,” she said.
“It’s not something you can fix so it’s hard,” she added.