Putting student advice into practice: Mental Health

In this bonus episode of Education Unimagined, I am going to talk a little bit about my perception of student mental health, and student behaviors in my classroom I talk about previous episodes in which this topic has surfaced.

It's kind of surprising to me how often mental health from a student's perspective has come up in these conversations with students. In my first episode with Joe Simione, he talks about mental health and how he didn't have time to experience anxiety.

The conversation I had with Kela and her mom a student in my chemistry class as a sophomore, and that year her anxiety was so overwhelming that she did not see another way out. She made the choice and luckily was unsuccessful in her attempt at taking her life. I thought it was because of peer pressure, but it was about her anxiety.  She defines of what giving a hundred percent from a teacher's perspective versus a student's perspective. Which made me think about my role in the classroom and about the observations I'm making with my students. There's a whole lot more to what we are doing in the classroom than delivering content. 

Maddie talks about mental health in her episode about being a three-season athlete. 

In season one, I spoke to Brianna who struggled because she was often seen as an exceptional student, but she had anxiety, and navigating that was challenging, especially when Covid happened. I learned a lot from Brianna because as a student in my AP chemistry class, I remember feeling really intimidated by her because she was so smart. But I also realized that she was struggling in my class more than anyone, but not academically. She was struggling to keep up with the work.

She was struggling to keep up with the in-class assignments. And it was really interesting for me to have this conversation with Brianna after having her in my classroom and again, listening and learning about how students put on incredible masks, which leads to the conversation with Avery. 

Avery and I talked about how we have been wearing masks In school and probably in our lives long before Covid, we don't bring our full selves to the classroom because we're afraid of judgment, that perception that we're worried what others might see. That conversation with Avery was really, really powerful and I encourage you to listen to that episode. You will learn so much. 

As educators, we are talking a lot more about the mental health of our students and teachers, but I think we still have a long way to go in understanding how mental health presents itself, and how it's different for every person. It requires us to know more about ourselves. It requires us to be more observant. It requires more empathy and vulnerability to know that we don't know a lot we make a lot of accommodations for physical ailments, crutches, slings, and elevators. We need to be doing the same kind of thing for students And adults with mental health challenges.