societies to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose.” It is impor- tant to understand that well-being is indi- vidual and not a one-size-fits-all state of be- ing. Terefore, it is necessary to understand and cultivate the conditions for well-being to flourish. For schools, the conditions for well-being
are rooted in having an identity-affirming and mentally healthy learning environment, as well as trusting relationships with caring adults. Well-being is strengthened by having meaningful connections with peers, educa- tors, caring adults, families and the commu- nity in which the student lives and goes to school. When these conditions are in place, a person’s social, emotional, physical, cogni- tive and spiritual well-being can flourish. As a team, our goal was to establish what this might look like in classrooms across our school board.
WEAVING WELL-BEING
Te weaving of well-being began with edu- cators opening their classroom doors and allowing our team to plan and teach well- being strategies within their daily schedule. Our team supported 17 elementary schools in our first year. Educators from Kinder- garten to Grade 8 welcomed us into their classrooms, which amounted to close to 900 lessons being shared.
We tried a number of approaches ground-
ed in Tier 1 intervention from the Aligned and Integrated Model (AIM) from School Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON). Some of the strategies we found most engaging and supportive of student mental health were:
WELCOME
• Greet students when they enter the class- room, not only at the beginning of the day but aſter transitions (such as aſter recess).
• Have co-created classroom norms that honour student voice and are reviewed and updated regularly (e.g., paying attention to what helps you learn and honouring that others may need different methods). Setting this learning norm can help fuel discussions about what helps individuals focus, such as doodling while listening.
• Begin with belonging. Have opportuni- ties to start the day with conversations, connections and activities that promote collaboration, such as time to eat snacks, creating a puzzle at a table, having a “com- plete the comic” worksheet on the table, or having a “would you rather” question on the board for students to discuss.
• Reflect student voice and choice in the classroom environment. Examples of this include documenting classroom discus-
ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 27
“ EDUCATORS NATURALLY INTEGRATE EXPERIENCES, ACTIVITIES, AND LEARN- ING OPPORTUNITIES INTO THEIR DAILY PRACTICES THAT SUPPORT POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH. BUT WHEN EDUCATORS PUR- POSEFULLY PLAN WITH INTENTION TO WEAVE WELL-BEING LEARNING INTO THEIR CLASSROOM AND LEARNING EXPERIENC- ES, IT NOT ONLY BENEFITS THE STUDENTS, IT ALSO REWARDS THE EDUCATOR.”
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