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What if we… Celebrate Student Success Through Story Arcs

October 25, 2020 / / 0 Comments

We all love a good story. It is a part of being human to desire to share and hear tales of life’s ups and downs. With this in mind, what if we used story arcs to reflect upon and celebrate the growth of our students?

The Student Support Team at my school pauses from time to time to celebrate the progress of our students. We know that it is so important for us as individuals and for our team wellness to step out of our daily routines to reflect on and celebrate the progress of our students. Taking time for the Character Strength of gratitude also expands the P and A of PERMAH with Positive Emotions and Accomplishment. 😉

Many teams start their meetings with a connection activity. You can see some examples of meeting starters at my Wellness@ES Team Wellness page (scroll down to the Meeting Starters/Connections section). The activities, yes, build connections and, at times, lead to some very thoughtful discussions. I think that if we try this story arc activity, it might sometimes be a bit cathartic. To describe the struggles, we sometimes experience with our students to see them reach the triumphant denouement of their story could be a very well-being-supportive experience! Sharing student story arcs might be a beneficial connection to think about trying with your team.

I am already thinking about how some student stories intersect with others, whether with other students, teachers, and/or patterns in working with parents. Our brains love connections and patterns, so something tells me that sharing student growth story arcs can be very fruitful for one’s team, whether it be a grade level, learning support, and/or department. Call me crazy, but I think this storytelling engagement with one’s Character Strength of creativity can also add to the fun of the constructive tales we might tell. And with our sharing, a few chuckles can go a long way these days. 🙂

I also see the possibility of using this story arc idea with students to help them reflect on to celebrate their pathway to personal growth. I would be bringing in lots of language around PERMAH and the Character Strengths as students literally draw their arc and write in their descriptions and wellness connections as they set the exposition, list the significant events, describe difficulties, and note their efforts to move through the difficulties to reach their goals. The connection aspect for students is so personal that the 4MAT approach (i.e., quadrant 1 connection making) to lesson design comes into play. I know I am again showing my age as an educator, as 4MAT was and is not just another passing fad in teaching and learning. It works!

The Write Stories website offers a beneficial description of the six shapes of stories to give you some examples of possible story arcs.

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Digital Wellness PERMAH Plan

October 25, 2020 / / 0 Comments

As an instructional technologist, I always struggled with Responsible Use Policies (RUP). In many cases, they list a lot of behaviors the students should not do. There didn’t seem to be a positive approach around being creative, collaborative, proactive, in control of oneself, etc. And there was not so much buy-in because the students had no say in creating them. So I would give students the official school RUP to sign while making time to have them draw up their own personal responsible use policy, which involved what they could constructively do with technology. 🙂

Now that I am a counselor again and living in the constructive world of Positive Psychology, I think my approach was sound and could be designed using PERMAH and the Character Strengths. Did you notice that I used a few character strengths in the first paragraph? 😉 Yes, they can be applied to how our students and all of us engage in the digital world.

Previously I posted the idea of families designing their own tech and media agreements (Family Digital Wellness Plan) based upon their family values taking shape either as part of the family mission statement or as a separate document. I stand by that approach of having a family media agreement, but it could be enhanced by bringing PERMAH and the Character Strengths into the development process.

It might be too complicated for families to include this wellness approach in their discussions to create a family media/tech digital wellness and/or mission statement, especially with young children. I wonder if children and families might be offered a value-focused or a Positive Psychology approach. I will need to think about this, as both seem very solid.

I definitely see myself at some point working with students to use the PERMAH construct to create their personal digital wellness plan looking at how they will engage with technology and digital information to:

  • enhance their Positive Emotions
  • deepen their Engagement in activities
  • nurture aspects of their Relationships
  • offer them opportunities for Accomplishment
  • and grow their mental and physical Health

The process would also include listing which Character Strengths they will engage with within each PERMAH pillar.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Fear to Learning to Growth Zones

October 5, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I ran across a beneficial article regarding the transitions and losses due to the COVID pandemic. The article is “Resiliency Schmasiliency… When Is this Over?*.” It contains the following graphic that connects to the transitions and loss many have experienced. It can be helpful to assess where one finds him/herself on the continuum. I also believe we can work with PERMAH and the Character Strengths to help us move from the left to the right.

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Going Deep with peRmah- ACR and Attachment Styles and More!

September 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

How is your peRmah going today? Here are a few strategies for learning, living, and teaching about relationships.

  • Active Listening – Be present and really listen to others.

  • Attachment Styles in Adult Relationships and Active Constructive Responding (ACR) – Positive Psychology dives deep into attachment and ACR within our relationships.

  • Do a 5-minute Favor (Act of Kindness) – Spend five minutes each week helping someone in your network (at home or work). Share information, recommend, or help a neighbor/colleague carry something from the car instead of making two trips.

  • Emotional Bank Account – Fill Your Bucket – Use the language of making deposits (not withdrawals) into the emotional bank and adding to (not dipping from) the emotional bucket of others.

  • Forgiveness – “When we are able to forgive another person, oneself, or a situation/circumstance, we are capable of freeing ourselves from a negative association to the source” (Raj et al. 2016)

  • Questions – Active listening and employing the Active Constructive Responding (ACR) response to good news and information (see below) are shown to strengthen relationships while supporting positive emotions in both the listener and the person at the receiving end of the listening. Dr. Jane Dutton’s research shows that we can employ four categories of questions in our active listening. Replace “work” with “school” for students.

1. Ask Questions that Convey Genuine Interest in the other person

  • What has been the most meaningful part of your work week?
  • What do you most care about in your work? Or what do you most love to do here?
  • What have you learned about yourself at work?

2. Ask Questions that Inject Positivity

  • What gives you joy at work?
  • Who are you most grateful for at work?
  • What makes you feel valued here?

3. Ask Questions that Offer Help and Assistance

  • In what ways can I assist you in your work?
  • What are your most significant needs at work right now?
  • What have others done for you that you found most helpful at work?

4. Ask Questions that Uncover Common Ground

  • What is your favorite hobby or activity outside of work?
  • What are you most looking forward to in the next three months?
  • Where have you traveled that you most enjoyed?

“Self-compassion involves treating yourself with the same kindness, concern and support you would show to a good friend.” (Neff & Dahm, 2015)

Student – Teacher Relationships article for lots of strategies.

Target the Active Construct Responding (ACR) listening technique to acknowledge – validate – celebrate others in your communication – see the chart below.

Cross-posted at Wellness@SSIS blog

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Embedding Wellness Learning Into Our Delivery Tools

September 3, 2020 / / 0 Comments

There are many tools and many ways we can use them in our teaching. My elementary school uses student planners, class websites, portfolios, and super unit booklets. Each of these tools can be designed to promote our school mission and values, Character Strengths, yearly learning initiatives, and lots more. Take a moment to consider the various tools and structures you use in your teaching.

The third-grade students are currently working with the essential question of “How can we collaborate to succeed?”. Collaboration/Teamwork is one of the Character Strengths, so this unit is ripe for wellness integration! Let’s focus on super unit booklets and student planners.

One of the activities in their super unit booklet involves self-reflection with their collaboration efforts. As you can see from the image below, the teachers really continue the learning through the assessment activity. We can see how the students deepen their understanding of the teamwork traits/skills via the inventory.

We also can see the opportunity to embed the character strengths into the teamwork inventory to have students explain how they used their character strengths to support collaboration. Another option could be at the start of the booklet with a worksheet entitled “Which character strengths will you use to support your team?”.

Student planners can be designed to support all sorts of learning outcomes, from specific learning standards to year-long themes. The teaching of PERMAH and Character Strengths fits in nicely as well. Planner pages can be dedicated to providing content information on the PERMAH pillars and the strengths. Enrichment activities can help curious students further their understanding of wellness. Specific days in the calendar can offer reminders for students to review their WOOP goals, take mindful moments, and/or add to the gratitude wall in the back of the classroom. The endless opportunities for teachers to engage their character strength of creativity to find ways to support the integration of wellness learning into their classrooms.

If you want to take a deeper dive into the possibilities provided by student planners, here is a blog post that offers a few more ideas.

Cross-posted at my school’s wellness blog.

Wellness Modules for Learning and Planning for Living It

August 30, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Our staff has helped our students transition back to school while ramping up the possibility of virtual school v2. It is essential to acknowledge that you, as staff members, also have gone through the back-to-school transition after a less-than-normal summer experience. With wellness being one of our prime initiatives for the year, let’s look at a couple of options to further support your efforts to learn and live wellness.

The Canadian HeretoHelp consortium of mental health supporting agencies provides a helpful series of learning modules on the topics of:

With personal well-being reserves probably starting at a lower level than average this school year, it makes a lot of sense to take some time to put a personal wellness plan together. Of course, an excellent framework to work with is the PERMAH and Character Strengths approach! You can design your own personal wellness plan template or start with this one that helps you set goals around PERMAH while engaging your character strengths.

Cross-posted at my school’s wellness blog.

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

Watches & Fitness Trackers for Wellness

August 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

We hear a lot about the misuse of technology in how we let it invade our personal lives. The flip side is that we can have agency when interacting with technology to use it to better our lives- even with our personal health. How do you engage with and leverage technology to support your wellness?

Our new staff members probably are noticing that Apple has a prominent place on our campus. We are an Apple Distinguished School with many staff members carrying iPhones and wearing Apple watches. Apple continues to offer new health and physical fitness categories with its services. They do have some competition, though. This past week, a couple of competitors made giant leaps in their health and fitness offerings.

Fitbit Sense and Versa

Fitbit is a well-known fitness tracker provider but also has watches. This past week they introduced a new lineup of trackers and watches. Their giant leap in health and fitness services with their watches includes:

  • Multi-path optical heart rate sensor
  • Multipurpose electrical sensors compatible with the ECG app & EDA app
  • Skin temperature sensor

These new or improved sensor options provide more data than the usual steps and sleep cycles. To learn more about the possibilities, look at this article from Macworld. The EDA feature looks to open the door to offering biofeedback on emotional arousal, especially around stress. The Sense offers guided exercises to reduce anxiety when potential stress is measured. Here is an article that describes the process.

A new entry into the fitness tracker arena is Amazon. Who knew they had been working to find new ways to enter our lives? While talking about big data collection companies, did you know that Google now owns Fitbit? No commentary here but do apply your digital literacy and privacy awareness skills to read up on how Apple, Amazon, and Google handle the data they collect from their fitness devices. 😉

Amazon Halo

The Amazon tracker is called the Halo. Physically it stands out for not having a screen. Yes, you read that correctly. The casing with the sensors faces inwards from the band onto your wrist. One interacts with the sensor readings via an app. To learn more about the Halo, take a read at the write-up from The Verge.

Data collection through assessment is a major initiative at our school. The data drives how we design our instruction. The crossover to our personal wellness is the same. We can gather and track our dietary, fitness, and health data to better design how we manage our lives. The focus of this might seem to only be on the H in PERMAH, but there is a real carryover to

  • increased positive emotions due to brain chemicals released during exercise
  • deeper engagement in our various dietary and fitness research and actions
  • relationship strengthening that can occur when we partner and support each other’s wellness efforts
  • experiencing more meaning and purpose as we proactively add more design into our lives
  • and, of course, there is the Sense of accomplishment as we work towards goals and build healthy habits

I have mentioned the possibility of schools designing and building their own school wellness app for students, staff, and parents. I could see under the PERMAH module’s H having a place to record information from one’s fitness wearable. 😉

Apple Watch Image

Halo Image

Fitbit Image

Apple Watch

Note: I cross-posted this on my school’s wellness blog.

Virtual School – The Phases

March 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

To those just getting started with virtual school, here is one big lesson learned. You are in the thick of it at the start of running at a sprint. Once you get your protocols and systems in place, be ready to step back and plan as if you are running a marathon. Fatigue will set in for everyone so set timeline markers to stop and reflect.

On the curriculum front do think about empowering your virtual school design team to look for opportunities to assess what is working and what is not. But then you have to be careful of the energy level and emotional states of your teachers, students, and parents if you need to make some changes.

The change will need to happen as you work to sharpen the saw of your delivery. Just manage it carefully. 🙂

Also, understand that your virtual school delivery is going to go through several phases. One underlying process to possibly compare to are the stages of cultural adjustment that we talk about with international schools and our transition from one country to another.

It is a huge change for everyone involved to pivot to virtual learning in a time of societal crisis. We can think as teachers that we can handle the situation because we are still teaching. But of course, we are teaching in a very different learning space for ourselves and for our students. So once again, stop from time to time to reflect and acknowledge how things are different. There is loss and grief which accompanies this process of leaving what we know and are comfortable with in normal teaching. So keep asking how you are taking care of yourself and build in daily self-care routines into your schedule.

If you are a follower of Positive Psychology and the PERMAH model you might want to put a mini wellness plan together for yourself. Here is a blog post from my school’s wellness blog that describes one approach to engaging with PERMAH to support one’s well-being.

Photo by Jeremy Lapak on Unsplash

Virtual School – Different Types of Communication for Different Needs and Hitting the Pause Button

March 10, 2020 / / 0 Comments

-Communication-

When you look at any handbook for top priorities in handling a crisis in a school community, the number one priority is to set up clear communication from the head of school to the community.

We are fortunate at my school that our head of school, division principals, and communications team are on top of letting the community know the latest information about virtual school and where things stand with the hopeful reopening. They provide information from the government, strategies to support children studying at home, and health information while also offering reassurance that we are all working together for the benefit of our students and parents.

Our head of school communicates via email and videos. Her videos are especially helpful in making a personal connection while providing a visual image of her leadership in action.  What pops into my head as a history teacher/wellness coach is the voice of President Roosevelt doing his fireside chats. President Roosevelt communicated during the crisis of World War II to bring encouragement, stability, and hope into the lives of the citizens.

With no end in sight for our virtual school and terrible news coming from Europe and North America, I definitely see the need to have our head of school and other leaders provide some sort of fireside chats to our community. We can ask the parents to send in their questions to guide the content of the talks.

Another type of communication in the case of a public health crisis is education for both mental and physical health which we combine under the PERMAH  wellness construct. In the case of my school, the nurse and I take turns posting articles, write-ups, and tips to support the well-being of our staff. We have not opened up the wellness blog to our parents so I hope we can find some way to share needed information with them as well as our students. Something as basic as creating and sharing a video on hand washing which the nurse and I did back at HKIS during SARS is just one way to provide health information to the community.

-Hitting the Pause Button-

While we are fortunate in Vietnam to have limited cases of the coronavirus, we are now in week six of virtual school. Fatigue is setting in for some so it is definitely time to pause, reflect, consolidate and re-calibrate what we are doing and how we will go forward. We are entering a new phase of virtual school with Europe and North America now being engulfed by the spreading wave of the coronavirus.

A few guiding questions for this reflection process could be:

  • What aspects of our efforts are really working well for our student learners? Our parent and nanny facilitators?
  • Which delivery strategies have the greatest return on investment of time and energy with our efforts?
  • Which is offering the lowest return?
  • Are we using technology to meet our pedagogical needs or are we adapting our pedagogy to the tools?
  • Where are our staff, students, and parents regarding their stamina and endurance for the possibility of extended virtual school?
  • We started off with a sprint and we are now in a marathon. Have we adapted? Do we need any course corrections?
  • How intentional are we in making wellness a priority for our community?
  • How are our actions supporting our desire for our collective well-being?
  • What could happen next in Vietnam and in the world that we need to have contingency plans ready for?

One observation for me is that boy howdy we have an incredibly talented and driven group of educators at my school. They dove into the shift from regular to virtual school with a passion to serve their students and their parents. I previously wrote about how I saw several of the PERMAH pillars in action during virtual school at HKIS during SARS. I see the same positive benefits today seventeen later. The wellness benefit of the PERMAH “A for Accomplishment” really stood out back at HKIS and it is the same today.

One big difference between the HKIS virtual school and my current school is that we ran for a month in Hong Kong and now we are in week six not knowing how much longer we will be doing online learning. With no clear end of virtual school in sight, we find ourselves working hard and definitely accomplishing a great deal. But my observation is that we cannot continue to pound away at achievements as a source of energy to support our well-being.

The staff at my school has been pushing forward using lots of energy to the point that it seems like our collective energy reserves are running low. Our normal recharging through face-to-face teaching is obviously missing and we need to acknowledge this.  As we pause and reflect on how we are doing virtual school, I come back to my previous posts and article on the importance of supporting the social-emotional needs of the community. A big lesson learned from HKIS is that the longer virtual school lasted, the more the social and emotional needs of students, staff, and parents became our focus. Back to the present day, it definitely feels like we need to take our collective foot off the gas pedal to find ways to re-energize. One might say that we are in need of an intervention.

As one colleague says, we need to do some “tuning” of our lives to find a balance between our commitments to students, our teaching partners, our parents, our own families, and most importantly ourselves.

Something tells me that educators at the other Asian international schools that closed when we did are experiencing the same revelation. It seems that we need to shift our emphasis from accomplishments to other PERMAH pillars to support our individual and collective well-being. I think the R for Relationships is a good place to revisit while spending time on the character strengths of emotional intelligence and social intelligence.

Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash

Wellness: The Umbrella Construct

December 9, 2019 / / 0 Comments

A Captain Obvious moment here. As we try to package and “sell” our programs to a busy clientele, in this case, teachers and parents, it only makes sense to demonstrate how the program has interrelated purposes that meet multiple learning needs for our students. Thus, when we talk about wellness, we are talking about its umbrella nature of combining under PERMAH several very everyday initiatives that are found in our schools.

The three everyday efforts that come to mind as part of the process of supporting the whole child are social/emotional, (digital) citizenship, and health learning. These are pretty standard areas of concern for schools. However, I wonder how many schools communicate to stakeholders just how interconnected they are.

Let’s start with health which connects directly with the H in PERMAH. There is straightforward physical health. Then there is of course mental health which connects to what we now call “digital health” which also connects to emotional and social regulation which connects to the Positive Emotions and Relationships in PERMAH. Whew, I need to take a connections break. That is a lot of connectivity!

A big part of working to increase one’s well-being and hopefully flourish is to use PERMAH and the character strengths to self-reflect to then take action steps where we need to grow within the PERMAH pillars by engaging various strengths. The process of self-reflection and increased self-understanding connects to the social and emotional regulation that are foundational elements of CASEL’s listing of social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies. The character strengths of kindness, love, self-regulation, and social intelligence directly support the SEL competencies.

Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash
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