March 8, 2023
Cindy Lopez:
Welcome. My name is Cindy Lopez, the host of this CHC podcast, Voices of Compassion. We hope you find a little courage, feel connected and experience compassion every time you listen.
Today’s episode was developed in response to requests from our partners at Palo Alto Unified School District, and while it’s great for all of our listeners, it’s intended especially for educators. You know, increasingly teachers are asked to manage not just the academic learning of the students in their classrooms, but to also address the mental health challenges and learning differences. We know it’s not possible to do it all and do it well. So in today’s podcast, we share some structures and strategies to support struggling students and promote a safe, positive learning environment for everyone. In addition to tips and takeaways, CHC’s Esther B. Clark Schools teacher Krislyn Conklin and clinician Kaila Sugiyama remind teachers that recognizing your own humanity in all of this is really what’s most important. We’re so excited to have Krislyn and Kaila here with us today. Welcome.
Krislyn Conklin:
Hi Cindy. Thanks for having me. My name is Krislyn Conklin, and I’m a fourth year teacher at EBC School at Children’s Health Council. I have my teaching credential as an education specialist. I’ve taught mostly fifth grade with some fourth and sixth graders mixed in, and I’m just really excited to share what we’ve been working on in the classroom all this time.
Kaila Sugiyama:
Hi Cindy, this is Kaila. I’m so excited to be here talking about my favorite topic: mental health. I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist, and I have been working in school-based therapy for the last five years with K through 10th grade students.
Cindy Lopez:
Thank you so much Krislyn and Kaila for being with us today and to talk about this important topic. And we’re talking today specifically about the K-8 classroom. So it could be that you’re in a self-contained classroom. You could be a middle school teacher where you have students coming and going between classes or sections. So, as we get started, Kaila and Krislyn, let’s talk for a minute about behavior that’s associated with mental health challenges. It can take a lot of teachers time and attention. So, what does that look like in the classroom? What are some of the signs of a struggling student?
Kaila Sugiyama:
That’s a really good question. It’s a big question too because like you said behavior can take up so much space and time in the classroom when things are going awry. So I like to look at behavior as communication. So what is the student trying to communicate through their behavior? This could look like they’re becoming physically or verbally aggressive in the classroom, making disparaging remarks to others, bullying, eloping. Those are very external behaviors, right? Those are things that we’re definitely gonna take notice of and look out for, and they really disrupt the classroom flow when you’re trying to teach, for sure.
The other kind of key behaviors that we’re wanting to look for maybe we don’t see as much, which are those internalizing behaviors. So behaviors where the students shutting down. They’re complaining about having a headache every day, a stomachache every day. They maybe talking negatively about themselves like, “I can’t do math, I can’t read.” They’re withdrawing socially. They’re not speaking to peers as much and those are kind of the behaviors maybe that are more traditionally associated with mental health and mental illness, right, anxiety and depression, but I think it’s important to know that those externalizing behaviors are just as a big of indication of mental illness.
Krislyn Conklin:
They’re important.
Kaila Sugiyama:
Mm-hmm.
Krislyn Conklin:
Yeah to piggyback off of what Kaila opened with as she said, “all behavior is communication,” a student might not have the social skills or communication skills to tell you exactly, you know, what they’re going through, what they need in the moment. So, we have to be empathetic and the goal for the student is to get a need met. So, particularly at EBC school, you know, think Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. So, a student might not have slept very well or maybe they didn’t eat breakfast, they’re not quite at their physiological baseline, and then thinking about having them do a quiz in the morning or like academic work before even feeling ready for that it can definitely spark some behaviors in the classroom. So we do see that often. We have strategies in the classroom to check in with students for them to either verbally or non-verbally communicate these needs. So that’s also something to consider.
Cindy Lopez:
For teachers, I think it’s hard. Once you get into the classroom and you’re kind of trying to get into your groove and get things going and you have a lot of objectives you’re trying to meet, right? So, whether it’s academic or social emotional, there’s a lot going on in the classroom. So, remembering that behavior is communication I think is really key. I’ve been in education for over 35 years, and my experience with students is if they could, they would, right? They’re trying to tell you what they need and they don’t know how.
So if you’re trying to help a student or support a student that’s having some behavioral challenges, where would you start? What could you do?
Krislyn Conklin:
It’s really important to phrase your questions to the students really neutrally and try to help them, you know, instead of asking, “why are you doing this? Why did you do that?” Ask questions like, “how can I help you be successful right now, or what is it that you need in this moment right now?” And I think that can really change how a student’s looking at the situation and how they’re feeling in that situation. Not feeling like they’re a bad student, you know, and they’re just trying to talk to you. They’re just trying to move on with their day and get their day going.
Cindy Lopez:
Yeah, it’s interesting because as we’ve heard from teachers, students, you know, went through COVID and pandemic and did some stay at home school, right, Zoom school, and there weren’t as many boundaries or rules. There was probably a lot more flexibility. So I’m wondering, how can or should teachers structure their classroom in a way that promotes mental health and addresses those students who maybe are trying to get back into the rhythm of school and not responding so well to those limits and boundaries?
Krislyn Conklin:
Yeah, just bringing up distance learning, it’s bringing back a lot of memories for me. It was definitely a challenge for sure for students and for educators. And so you had to kind of take, you know, these strategies that you have in the classroom and do your best to implement it on Zoom, and so a lot of the same things applied though. So one example was having a schedule. We created a visual schedule for all our students who were completing their work at home. Zooming in, they knew exactly when they needed to log on. And so this is a really, you know underrated tool to have in the classroom is to have the schedule up to reference at all times. In the morning we do take about 10 minutes during morning meeting to go over everything that we’re going to go through in the dayand front loading the expectations for students to know which classes might be a little harder, maybe there is an assessment coming up that day. And so that’ll take some of the anxiety out of it, you know, and in the moment you’re kind of just springing it on them, they might have these reactions, but if they’ve had some time to kind of process what it is they’re working toward and what they’re going to need to work through that’s really important. They’ll have the time in the morning with you to kind of talk about it and kind of ease their anxiety about it. So that’s one thing is the visual schedule.
And then another really important thing that we do at EBC is a quiet transition before every academic period. So, and oftentimes, you know, academic periods follow an unstructured recess time, so it can be really difficult for students to come from this high energy, unstructured space and then come in and just meet requirements to be student ready, you know, to have a calm body at their desk, to have all their materials gathered and just be in that mind space to be ready to work. So having like a five minute transition for students to get water, to sharpen their pencil or use a bathroom, even take an extra movement break to get reset. It’s so helpful to have that little buffer period for students to be successful. A couple other strategies that I have that any educator can implement in the classroom is having students designate a safe space. Maybe students might not want to tell you that they’re upset, you know, coming in from recess about a peer conflict or something, but if there’s a corner in the room, a specific chair, a certain fidget that they have and they go pick it up, that’s still communication and that they need a little bit of space before checking in with you and movement breaks. A lot of students benefit from movement breaks, so it doesn’t have to be individual, it can be whole group. You can do structured movement breaks, timed like two minutes of this kind of activity and then you’re kind of getting into it with your kids and building rapport at the same time as well.
Kaila Sugiyama:
Absolutely. I think a big piece is the schedule. I mean, if I think about students that come into my office with high anxiety, especially in the younger kids, yes, absolutely they need that structure. But even middle schoolers and high schoolers can benefit from the class routine being the same every single period. So they know what to expect, right? And they don’t have to let their mind go wild in terms of what’s gonna happen in class today. In terms of strategies that I found helped students is making sure that whatever the break options in the classroom are going to be, right? Making sure those breaks are built in, but also giving them something to do, right? We’re not letting them just sit at the back table or in the designated area or taking a break outside without a structured activity because otherwise they’re just gonna get stuck in whatever that mindset that’s causing them to have a challenge. So, you know, giving them options like a Sudoku or a Madlib or a word search, something that will keep their brain occupied for a minute is really, really useful.
I also think it’s important as we’re talking about coming back from the pandemic and holding limits and holding boundaries, that it’s really tempting to either go all in on like, “here are the rules, here are the consequences, like you cannot step outside the line,” or the opposite, I’ve also seen with a lot of educators is to take away all the expectations, take away all of the boundaries because the kids are pushing back so much. And I think both of those extremes do a disservice to our students who need to learn, right? And it’s gonna be challenging, but they need someone to hold that space for them, right, to hold the limits because that’s communicating that you’re caring, that’s communicating, that you know what’s going to happen.
Krislyn Conklin:
Yeah, and I did wanna add, it’s really important at the beginning of the school year to practice the structure of the classroom, the routines, and having a student demonstrate, you know, model what it is that student ready looks like or how to line up. I have fifth graders, so they’re a little bit younger, you know, some of these things are going to need to be refreshed at the beginning of the year, especially after being in distance learning. And so, you may have some growing pains with your students early on, but later in the year, once the repetition’s there, they’ve been practicing, it’ll definitely pay off for you as you’ve practiced each day.
Mike:
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Cindy Lopez:
How can we encourage a healthy balance of learning or academics and mental health support in the classroom that allows students to thrive, but it’s also manageable for teachers? What does that look like?
Kaila Sugiyama:
I mean, firstly, I think it’s important to understand that when a student is struggling with their mental health, and whether it’s depression or anxiety their mood, their energy, their concentration is all impacted, right? And so they’re not gonna be absorbing academic material in the same way. So I think it’s important to recognize that and know that and help build in as much as you can, right…as much as is manageable for your own classroom and for your own time ways to promote emotional regulation, just in the classroom in general. Make it part of your routine, so that then when they are ready, when they are in a space to learn, they can, right? Instead of just throwing more and more and more academic expectations on them.
Krislyn Conklin:
Right, when you’ve built these coping strategies that you’re able to access as a student, once you’re there and you can kind of keep yourself regulated, that’s when the academics are gonna catch up. You know, think of behavior and emotional regulation as a foundation for it, and it’s kind of going back to my reference to Maslow’s hierarchy in terms of, you know, self-actualization and self-esteem before any of that. Students need to feel safe in their classroom, and if they’re feeling this anxiety, they’re not going to be ready to learn. So, you know, Kaila as a therapist works with students, you know, in building these strategies and accessing these and then so we as classroom staff can remind them and show them, whether it’s a picture on their desk as a reminder or something on the wall that they can, you know, work through this challenge that they’re going through and then when they’re in the right space, they are ready to take on the challenge of academics.
Cindy Lopez:
It is important for not only educators, but for parents to realize that the structure and the classroom boundaries and even your boundaries at home as parents, right, there’s freedom within the structure. It’s not like you’re trying to control their every movement. It’s just allowing them the space within the structure to feel safe and comfortable because as you noted Krislyn and Kaila, that’s when learning starts and that’s part of what happens with learning like if you’re willing to take some risks. Let’s talk about a school-based culture of support and what does that look like, and then how does that translate to the classroom?
Kaila Sugiyama:
So I think when we’re thinking about how to promote a culture of support in a school, the first thing that comes to my mind is relationships and communication. So that’s making sure that as a staff person, as a teacher on campus, you have a relationship with your coworkers, you have a relationship with your admin, you have a relationship with students, and you have a relationship with those students parents, like all of the network needs to be established because there’s gonna be moments when you’re gonna need more help. And that’s okay, that’s expected, especially right now with the climate of education. And so having people that you can go to to get extra support is gonna be more than necessary. I also think making sure that your relationship with your students and with their parents is, you know, connected and established is gonna go a long way in you supporting those students in your classroom, right? If a student and you don’t have a relationship, how are you going to be able to give them feedback, and how are they gonna be able to accept that feedback and want to make a change and feel safe and supported? They’re gonna be more willing to open up, to share, so that you’re not doing as much work being the detective and like piecing apart, “hey, why is this kid throwing pencils every day at 10:30? Like maybe they’ll share, right, if you have that connection. I think the other really important piece of making sure all students feel supported in their school environment is making sure that you’re talking about representation and diversity and equity because that’s allowing a space for students to bring their identity and who they are in the classroom environment. And it’s all over our social media. It’s all over our news. It’s pervasive in our culture right now to be talking about those things, and if we don’t allow the classroom to also be a place where students can bring them full selves, then we’re not gonna be able to have supportive connection and relationships.
Krislyn Conklin:
Yeah, I a-hundred percent agree Kaila and, you know, making those connections is really important. Early on at EBC we spent a lot of time in the beginning of the school year doing get to know you activities, questionnaires and games. And I know that these may go without saying you know, it is just kind of something that you do at the beginning of the school year, but it’s the time to really learn your students’ interests and later be able to use these as encouragement when they’re facing academic challenges or being able to use their interests and memories that they’ve shared with you to help them with assignments and having a little bit of flexibility for like a writing assignment, for example. You know, letting students have choices and if they’re stuck for whatever reason on an assignment, knowing your student well enough to suggest things to them that are of interest, and that they’re connected to is really gonna help them get started.
And then like as Kaila said, you know we have multiple staff in the classroom at EBC. So I know that this isn’t always the case for educators, but simply modeling respectful communication for students to see, and, you know, just kind of being the mentor in the classroom is already a lot for students to take in and learn from. A specific example that I wanted to share of, you know, building community in the classroom is that at the beginning of every year we create a class charter together. So the staff and the students, we all come up with a theme. We vote on a theme. So, there’s you know, some responsibility, some ownership of this charter poster that we’re making together. And, you know, it might say, “we promise to use respectful words. We promise to be kind to each other.” And we all end up signing it. And it’s just a way to have something visual in the classroom to refer to and point to during certain situations or just periodically to remind students that this is our classroom community.
Cindy Lopez:
I’m wondering if there are any additional tools or strategies that you want to share with our listeners that would be easy to implement in the classroom and that would benefit everyone in the classroom, whether it’s in the lower school, an elementary classroom or a middle school classroom.
Krislyn Conklin:
So in our classroom we use hand signals, and I’m sure a lot of educators use hand signals. A classic, you know, quiet coyote, but we have hand signals for like using the bathroom, which is just like a fingers crossed so that you know if students need to use the bathroom, they’re not calling out in the middle of a lesson saying, “I need to use the bathroom. I need to use the bathroom.” They have a quiet hand at their desk with their hand signal and one of the staff can take them or a hand signal for water, you know, there’s a W that you make with your three middle fingers. And so students can just hold that symbol up and a staff member will nod at them, and they can go fill up their water without interrupting anything that might be happening during a lesson. So love our hand signals, we teach these early on at the beginning of the year, and we have visual signs on the wall for students if they forget a hand signal, whole group incentives. Teachers, we love to do our own kinds of stars, you know, and rewarding students for positive behaviors, positive reinforcement. So like an example of that that we’ve done in class three at EBC School is a quiet hand jar. So it’s just promoting student ready behaviors, raising a quiet hand to participate, showing calm body at your desk because there are a lot of call outs and students are excited to share. And so, you know, putting a pompom in every time that they’ve demonstrated this student ready behavior is just really affirming for students and then another strategy that I’d like to share is just trying to incorporate executive functioning skills, uh, into your classroom, keeping an organized and clear desk, designating a specific time for this. I generally have students clean them a few times a week during a study skills period, which is right after lunch. You know, students are coming in from recess, and I just want them to feel like, you know, a clean space at their desk will really help them have a clear mind going forward.
Kaila Sugiyama:
Those are all great strategies. I see those every day here at EBC. Thinking about like the therapeutic perspective, you know, really making sure that we’re teaching about emotions and promoting emotional literacy. Emotional regulation is not something that we’re inherently born with, it’s something that we need to learn. And so providing students with a common framework about how to talk about their feelings is so important. At EBC, we use the mood meter, which was developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Development, but there’s so many great resources out there to fit with whatever like age population you’re using, right? Like I’ve seen zones of regulation, there’s kimochis, there’s just so many different ways, but making sure that your classroom has an established way that you’re talking about feelings and emotions and regulation is gonna go a long way in teaching how to be a student, how to regulate yourself in the classroom.
I think one of my favorite things about EBC is every morning the classrooms do a morning check-in, and so each student goes around and tells the whole class how they’re feeling, and it lets staff know, “hey, maybe this student needs a little extra support.” and it leads to other questions like, hey, did you sleep enough last night? Hey, did you eat breakfast? Because those are huge things that are gonna impact how the student’s day is run. It also gives peers an opportunity to know, “hey, like maybe I need to give Johnny a little space today so that I’m not interacting with him as much because he’s feeling tired, and I just know that that’s not gonna lead to a more positive interaction.” And I think the other thing is how are we folding in social emotional learning or SEL into all subjects, right? Like, can we explore the impact of emotion on characters and the story that we’re reading. Can we talk about the nervous system in science? Like how are we folding these into our regular academic subjects so that it’s not you doing more work outside of all of the expectations of being a teacher.
And then the other thing is just really focusing on building resilience and problem solving and confidence. You know, kids’ self-esteem is shot, right? Especially when they know that they’re not doing their best when they’re getting in trouble every day, when they’re not following expectations. They want to do good, they wanna do well, they wanna be the student that gets praised, but right now they’re not able to. And so helping them build those coping strategies that we talked about earlier and opening up communication with them about what their goals are for themselves, right? We set goals with our students all the time, like, what is the thing that you’re focusing on right now, what is the thing that we wanna work on? And how are we gonna get ourselves there? Let’s work together to get there because then they’re gonna take ownership of their behavior and be able to move forward.
Cindy Lopez:
Yeah, you both have shared so many great strategies, and I’m guessing there are some of our listeners who are thinking, those are great, I do some of those things, but I still have students in my classroom like those strategies don’t seem to be helping. So what if there are listeners out there who are saying there is some behavior that continues to escalate no matter what, what do teachers do then?
Krislyn Conklin:
Yeah. And I think this goes back to what Kaila was explaining earlier, communication with family, having that relationship built with the family at the beginning of the year is going to come into play here. And being able to reach out to them and to get some insight about if there’s something going on at home, it can be really important for educators and classroom staff to just know what’s going on. We have a really great flow of communication between home and school at EBC, and it lets us know when we need a check-in with a student right away. You know, eventually we would figure it out after doing our morning check-ins, but having that communication with the family, seeing if there’s anything going on, seeing if there might be more specific ways to motivate the student.
Kaila Sugiyama:
I also think, you know, every school is different, every school district’s different, but at some point, calling in extra support or saying, “hey, this behavior is outside of my scope of competency and what I can handle.” And calling a team meeting with your administration and parents to discuss that can be one of your greatest assets, right? Because I mean, that’s the way that we get students at EBC, and I think it’s important to recognize that that’s not a failing of you as a teacher, right? That just means that the student needs more than what you can offer them in your classroom, and so let’s help them get the supports that they need so that they can access education, right? Because that’s at the end of the day, what we want.
Cindy Lopez:
Yeah, that’s right. And I really appreciate that, and as we wrap this up and think about everything that you shared today in this episode, what do you want to leave our listeners with?
Kaila Sugiyama:
I think kind of what I was talking about just a second ago like recognizing your own humanity in all of this is the most important. Recognizing that it’s impossible to wear every single hat that it comes with being a teacher. Like there is gonna be a point right, where you can’t do everything and helping learn how to identify your own boundaries I think is so important and calling on those supports that you have outside, right? Like your coworkers, your administration, whatever mental health support that you have because otherwise you’re gonna get lost in trying to support the students who are struggling and like lose your objective as an educator and being able to focus on the actual education and supporting your students and caring for them at the end of the day.
Krislyn Conklin:
I have just a couple of points, making sure that you are praising students for even the smallest successes and at EBC we say, for each piece of corrective feedback, five pieces of positive praise for them cause it’s going to help them with their confidence and help them get through their day feeling more successful. And as an educator hitting objectives and completing lessons is important, but depending on the head space of your student that day flexibility is something to be considered, to promote trust, safety and confidence in the classroom and so just getting over like a smaller hurdle can help them feel that much more ready to take on the day. And so those are the pieces of advice I’d like to leave listeners with.
Cindy Lopez:
Thank you so much Krislyn and Kaila for sharing your experience with us today, and to our listeners, if you have questions, we do have resources that are available that we’ve noted in the show notes, or you can find them on our podcast website. You can also reach out to chconline.org if you want to speak with one of our clinicians or someone who might be able to help you, we’re happy to do that. We also have some free resources: we have a learning specialist collaborative. We have a school counselors and wellness specialist collaborative. So those meet quarterly. It’s an opportunity for you to network and build those relationships. As Kaila mentioned earlier, those relationships that are really important. We hope that you’ll reach out to us, and you can find out more at chconline.org. Thank you again for listening today.
Cindy Lopez:
Visit us online at podcasts.chconline.org. Make sure to subscribe to Voices of Compassion so you never miss an episode, and we’d love it if you’d leave us a rating and review. Have a question? Send us an email or a voice memo at podcasts@chconline.org. We’re here for you when you need us.
