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Prevention Services in Schools

Module 3 Leading for Prevention

Part Two: SEL for Leaders

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Now what?

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Speakers Notes:

Let’s take a minute to check in:

Think of your efforts in advocating for student mental wellness whether you want to embark on implementing social emotional learning, a new prevention curriculum, or even work to address adult social emotional learning.

Choose which picture best represents your team’s reaction?

Were you like the group in picture number one? Wondering what was going on? Did you feel clueless, maybe even powerless?

Were you part of a group where some people were on board yet others just seemed to resist like the group in picture 2?

Or how about picture number 3, maybe your team was downright hostile!

If you’re lucky and your group had a great synergy and collaborative feel like picture number 4.

Most of us have probably experienced situations where we’ve felt like all 4 teams at one time or another, especially given the fact that, as humans, we tend to resist rethinking our old ways or ways that make us feel uncomfortable.

However, as a leader of a team, there key components to ensuring that changes are made for the betterment of the school community’s mental wellness!

Speakers Options:

List all of the changes that you have seen come to your building or district in the last 5 years (or even over your career). List initiatives, program implementation, new ideas, old ideas that have resurfaced.

Discuss how you felt as a result of one or more of those changes.

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Prosocial Leadership

Effective Mental Wellness Supports Implementation

Adapted from the Jennings and Greenberg prosocial classroom model (2009) and Penn State’s Prosocial School Leader Model (2019).

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Speakers Notes:

As we’ve said, school leaders bear the brunt of the burnout among teachers and the mental health concerns among students.

It has become increasingly important for school leaders to build their own SEL skills in both youth and adults to address these growing concerns prior to the pandemic, but that have become even more prominent during the pandemic.

There are many models of leadership, but today we’re going to discuss three key components to help you feel supported in leading the charge for changing policies, practices, and strategies to support a system of student mental wellness that will also support the team in your care.

These concepts are adapted from the original Jennings and Greenberg prosocial classroom model from 2009 and then adapted by Penn State as a prosocial school leader model in 2019.

We discuss many of these components in module 1 and 2 of the training including building a health school climate, partnering with families and the community, addressing the societal and community contextual factors that exist and implementing mental wellness supports throughout the school community which will ultimately affect student academic and wellness outcomes.

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Today we’re going to discuss what leaders can do to enhance these pieces through enhancing their own wellbeing and social emotional awareness

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Building effective leadership skills

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And building health relationships with staff

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School Leader SEL and Resilience

Speakers Notes

Historically the words self-care have carried certain connotations. When we say the words “self-care” there are still some may who will roll their eyes or think that self care is for people who are self-absorbed.

And self-care is really about building our own resilience.

We know that being an educator is a highly stressful job. As previously mentioned, prior to the pandemic teachers reported high rates of burnout, and many teachers left the field before their fifth year of service. Since the pandemic, stressors for educators have only increased.

All of this stress compounded over time will lead to poor health outcomes. It is essential that as leaders of our buildings we build our own resilience to meet the demands of the job.

Studies have also shown that school leaders can help reduce staff burnout and help team members feel more supported when they are aware of their own emotions and manage stress in healthy ways. When leaders practice their own self care and model stress management, they tend to be more aware of the emotions of their team, thus prompting feelings of support and engagement.

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™Disney Corporation, Nickelodeon

Speakers Notes:

Colleen

Let’s take a minute to reflect on your general approach to self-care and your own social-emotional wellbeing. Think about what happens when you are under stress. How do you approach the situation?

And even when you’re not under stress, how aware are you of your own emotions and your response to them?

Choose which self care profile(s) you most identify with.

Speakers Options:

This activity is for fun, but will also help you to understand your audience’s perception of self care. For example, if much of your audience fits the “Paul Bunyan profile” then you may need to work to make this material relevant to the audience by emphasizing the physical consequences of harboring and/or ignoring stress.

For this activity, you can simply have audience respond by sharing answers out loud or in a Zoom chat for remote sessions.

You can also read the profile descriptions below either before or after the audience responds:

Profile Descriptions:

Paul Bunyan

Individuals who fit the Paul Bunyan Self Care SEL Profile, respond to stress by suppressing all feelings and emotions. This suppression may lead to other unhealthy coping mechanisms such as overworking, frequent feelings of anger and frustration, and drinking more than one pot of coffee to get through the day.

The Timon and Pumba

The Timon and Pumba Self Care SEL Profile is characterized by a laissez faire approach to life. Timon’s and Pumba’s worry about nothing and take no action on anything, because they believe everything will take care of itself.

The Cinderella

People who identify with the Cinderella profile often find themselves constantly at the service of others while often ignoring their own needs. Cinderella’s often suffer from “empty-cup syndrome” and feel drained from the lack of participating in activities that they like to do or that bring them joy.

The Chuckie

The Chuckie profile is characterized by high levels of anxiety. For individuals who identify with Chuckie, the sky is always falling. Typically there is always a chaotic situation, and even if there is no reason to be anxious, high Chuckie profiles will find a reason to bring about anxiety.

The Rafiki

Rafiki, the wise mandrill monkey from Disney’s the Lion King, exudes the vibes of “all is well, all is as it should be.” These individuals can often be confused with the Timon and Pumba profile as seemingly carefree. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Rafki profile individuals understand that life is not without hardship, but there are lessons to be learned from hardship. People who identify with Rafiki work to achieve balance and tranquility in life. Others who encounter a Rafiki profile individual are often amazed by the wisdom and calm that comes from the conversation and are surprised by the feeling of empowerment they get after leaving a Rafki’s presence.

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Stress: It’s Not a Badge of Honor

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Is Your Stress Bucket Empty or Full?

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Building Your Own Resilience

Spiritual

Physical

Emotional

Relationships

Professional

Health Literacy

Financial

Environmental

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Speakers Notes:

Consider the results of the self-care checklist you just completed. If you did not complete the checklist, just view the words on the screen.

These words represent common domains of self-care. A Google search of self-care domains will lead you to many terms, but these are some of the most common.

First, consider the results of the checklist and look for the strengths on your list that help you build your own resilience.

Take time to write these down and celebrate them in your own way.

Next, choose one to three areas where you feel you could incorporate strategies to help you build more resilience. Perhaps you need to visit the doctor for those annoying headaches that won’t go away. Maybe you need to find a non-judgemental friend or loved one who will allow you to vent when you need to. Or maybe there is a relationship in your life that is causing you to worry.

Also, consider the things that you do when your brain is offline and you aren’t thinking clearly, especially at work. Maybe you need to go for a walk, pace back and forth, listen to music. These repetitive, rhythmic activities can help you to feel calmer and more balanced.

The goal of self care is not to live life in balance every single moment of the day but to be cognizant and aware that if one area is out of balance it will affect all others.

Speakers Options:

Have the audience write down (either on their own or by using the resources we’ve provided in the folder) one or two strategies/actions steps for each area they chose. Share out these thoughts if there is time.
Refer participants to the resource folder for assistance in finding strategies to support in their areas of need.

Speakers Notes

Finding strategies to cope with stress and minimize health outcomes is unique to each individual. If you try something and it doesn’t work for you, try finding something else. Or maybe take a break from that strategy and come back to it later.

Another point to consider is avoiding stress-coping strategies that lead to poor health outcomes. Coping with stress by drinking alcohol, smoking (marijuana or tobacco) poor eating, sleeping in a lot, sitting in the house all the time are habits that lead to poor health outcomes.

When you are in poor health, and your stress buckets are full, then you can’t be at your best to serve the students, team members, and families entrusted to your care.

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Healthy Relationships and Effective Leadership

Speakers Notes

According to an article from Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, research has shown that school leaders who have high-self awareness tend to recognize how their values, beliefs, and emotions support their interactions with others.

When school leaders use these self awareness skills to adopt a positive, proactive leadership style, then team members feel more supported “One study even found that school leaders supportive behaviors were associated with higher levels of teacher emotion regulation ability and job satisfaction.”

The foundation of effective leadership is building relationships with your team.

In this section we will provide you with tools and strategies to help you build healthy relationships with your team and build your skills in the areas of positive, proactive leadership.