Nov 15, 2021
How to Support Student Well-Being Online and at Home
Leveraging Teacher-Parent Relationships and At-Home Learning
So many factors outside the classroom influence a student’s experience inside the classroom — and we know, of course, that social and emotional well-being is closely tied to academic learning. Many schools are well-versed in the importance of social and emotional learning and have adopted programs to integrate social and emotional practices into academic instruction. Others are exploring how family and community engagement can support whole child instruction, and nearly all districts continue to navigate student engagement and social and emotional support strategies through some degree of remote or hybrid instruction.
Approaching student well-being through a holistic lens that considers the various environments in which students grow and learn as well as their support systems outside of the classroom, like family and community, can be overwhelming. Educators have enough on their shoulders without looking outside of classroom walls! But fostering relationships with parents and ensuring that students are thriving in remote environments contribute to what happens inside the classroom.
To help gather tangible ideas for supporting student well-being and social and emotional learning through family engagement and online learning, we recently held a webinar with educators, thought leaders, and even a clinical social worker. They covered social and emotional learning family engagement programs, best practices for building parent-teacher partnerships, creative ways to connect with students, and helping elevate student voices online.
Watch the full webinar recording below, or read on for a quick snapshot of each speaker’s presentation.
Engage Families & the Community with Kindness
The Great Kindness Challenge, a free activity for schools that celebrates acts of kindness, has created a Family Edition of their acts of kindness checklist! This activity contains acts of kindness designed for families to complete together at home. Whether your school is participating in the School Edition of the Great Kindness Challenge this year or not, making families aware of free resources like this one is a great way to establish a relationship with parents, help them connect to their child’s learning, and help children have access to great resources at home. If your school is participating in the Great Kindness Challenge, there are endless ways to engage parents in the week-long kindness celebration through in-school activities as well as community engagement activities. In the webinar recording above, the leaders of the Great Kindness Challenge discuss the Family Edition of the checklist and ways to involve parents in the School Edition.
To sign up for the Great Kindness Challenge or to download the Family Edition of the kindness checklist, see:
Connect with Parents and Families on Student Well-Being
Kerrie LaRosa, a clinical social worker and parent coach who specializes in helping parents understand their children’s behaviors, joined us on the webinar to offer some insights from her work with parents that are applicable to educators. Kerrie discussed the importance of teacher-family communication to student well-being and academic performance, including research that found teacher-family communication increased homework completion by 40%, class participation by 15%, created stronger teacher-student relationships, and increased parent involvement and student motivation.
In the webinar, Kerrie explains how the following are core principles for teachers to follow when establishing relationships with families:
- Parents as Partners
- Make Positive Assumptions
- Mutual Respect
- Collaboration
- Communication
For more from Kerrie, check out her website and read her blogs:
Reach Students Through Online Learning & Flexibility
Finally, educator Stacey Roshan and School Psychologist Adam Parker shared their best practices for reaching students through online learning, flexible environments, and even music videos!
Stacey discussed how she has leveraged online learning to help students who may not feel comfortable speaking up in class engage in learning through digital features. Stacey made the case that purposeful, meaningful digital learning environments can actually empower students to participate in learning in a way that suits their comfort, needs, and strengths. She discussed how educators can use digital learning environments to create a safe, and even equitable, space for students to express themselves, connect with other students, and make their voices heard. Read Stacey’s book, Tech with Heart, or find her blogs here:
Adam Parker, a School Psychologist, discussed how daily class meetings, check-ins, buddies, and flexible spaces like “cozy corners” can help students cope with trauma and engage with learning. He also discussed how making activities like yoga, journals, and coloring pages available to students can help them practice well-being. Adam creates music videos for students, available to parents, teachers, and students about social and emotional learning. You can find them here:
For more resources to connect with parents and families on social and emotional learning or to offer resources to remote students, check out our virtual care packages, free to download and created for K-12 learners:
