Empowering Educators: Integrating Well-Being into Classroom Lessons
Kia ora koutou, hello, and welcome,
Today, we are going to look at the importance of integrating well-being into our lessons and how we can do this in a way that is sustainable for us as teachers. We know the importance of teaching well-being tools, however we are so incredibly busy that often we just have to get through the multitude of work our students need to learn and it can be hard to see how we can do both. Over the next two weeks we are going to explore just how we can incorporate the principles of positive education into our subjects so that we are maximising the time spent with our students.
Educators, you are the architects of change, standing against rising rates of depression and anxiety. My goal is to help you to discover scientifically proven well-being techniques for your classrooms that can be used by each and every student. Not just one size fits all but tools for each and every individual you work with. By exploring and uncovering techniques that work for your students before they really need them, you are empowering them to cope with the inevitable tough times we know they are going to face in life.
For this, I just want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you. Your dedication and hard work in nurturing the next generation truly makes a difference, and I'm honoured that you’ve taken the time to read through this post today.
When we think about what we want for our students in the long term we often come up with words, or phrases like resilience, happiness, the ability to make friends, inner confidence and the like. Yet when we sit down to plan for the next week or month we have a lot of content that needs to be covered. This can be daunting and I know I personally get weighed down by the academic at times, however there is a way we can teach both and today I am going to explore some of these ideas with you.
As I said in last weeks post, happiness, good relationships, engagement, and meaning are all measurable and teachable! Research has shown time and again that happy children perform better academically. So, as educators, it's high time we embrace this holistic approach to education.
Some tips to start with:
Plan well-being for the term. When I sit down at the beginning of each term to look at what content needs to be covered I also make a ten week well-being plan based upon what’s happening in and around school. For example for term one my focus has been on relationships, belonging, character strengths and goal setting. I have allocated two or three weeks for each of these topics to be an overall focus within my classroom. If your school has an existing well-being plan this may already be done for you however you can also create your own based upon what you feel is important for this time of the year.
Set aside one lesson for explicit teaching of the subject matter. For example you may decide to spend half or all of one english/literacy lesson focussed on building relationships. This may seem like a big time commitment but once you have set this up with your class you will be able to revisit this content throughout various topics quickly and easily. This can be a little harder if you do not teach a subject such as literacy, however if you take the time in any subject area it will pay off in the long run.
Explore how you can integrate this topic into other subject areas. I have added a section to my planning template which states the well-being topic we are currently focussing on. This helps to keep it front of mind for me when doing my weekly planning. Having already explicitly taught the topic I just then briefly revisit the content when setting up the students with their task for the day. For example, if you have decided to focus on relationships you could integrate this into math by making one of the learning outcomes working together and being an actively involved member of the group. Having explored character strengths with your class you may create a statistical investigation showing the various strengths within the class and discuss which are most common etc. This can be great for relationship building as children see similarities with their classmates
Take time at the end of each lesson to reflect on the well-being focus as well as the content students have learned. This will highlight the importance to the students and help them to keep this focus front of mind throughout any lessons you teach them.
As a primary school teacher you have the class with you all day and can refer to the well-being focus frequently, however I have found that unless you actually incorporate this into your planning a day, or days can slip by and we forget to do so. This is normal as we are not only busy but constantly getting thrown curve balls such as interruptions that mean we are having to think on our feet or improvise.
If we take the time to explicitly plan well-being into our lessons then this is much less likely to happen and we keep this focus front of mind. Often having taught a topic merely referencing it is enough to help your students remember it is a focus of this time.
Thank you for being champions of well-being for the children in your care. Flourishing through Positive Education is an ongoing journey, and I encourage you to continue exploring, learning, and implementing these strategies in your classrooms. Until next time, let's continue building a future where every child realizes their unlimited potential.
Take care, and ka kite!
Natalie
