3 Ways to Address Wellness in the Classroom
Mental wellness and well-being have become hot topics in the education world. It’s no wonder, given that 80% of U.S. students report feeling stressed sometimes or often, while 34% felt depression, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. On top of that, 59% of teachers experience burnout, compared to 48% of people in other professions. To summarize: There is currently a lot of stress in American classrooms. But there are ways to help. In this article, we’ll look at a few of the mental wellness services offered by Catapult Learning and how they can help both educators and students address wellness in the classroom.
1. Educator Well-Being Professional Development
If you’ve ever been on a flight, you’re probably aware of the instructions the flight attendants recite for passengers—so you’re likely familiar with the one about the oxygen mask. “In the event of an emergency, place your own oxygen mask on your face before you assist others.” That analogy applies to the mental well-being of educators. Teacher wellness must be addressed so educators are in the right mindset and headspace to effectively help students.
Teacher mental well-being has been directly associated with higher student engagement and fewer student psychological difficulties…not to mention better teacher retention rates. Put simply, if you take care of your educators, they can effectively take care of your students. And they’re more likely to stay for the long term.
Catapult’s new EmpowerU Educator Resilience and Mental Health Training professional development course is an evidence-based training proven to improve educator wellness, so teachers can be at their best for their students. The course is designed to equip educators with practical tools for:
- Promoting resilience
- Modeling pro-social behaviors
- Fostering classroom success
To learn more about our Educator Well-Being professional development course, visit EmpowerU Educator Resilience and Mental Health Training.
2. Tier 2 Interventions with Coaching
With student motivation, behavior, and mental health needs at an all-time high, the well-being and re-engagement of struggling students are critical. Catapult Learning now offers proven, data-driven Tier 2 interventions that build educator capacity and drive academic outcomes.
For students in grades 3-12 who are struggling with non-academic barriers to success, like anxiety, depression, and ADHD, our evidence-based Tier 2 interventions provide 15- to 20-minute online skill-building lessons that students can access on any device. To reinforce each lesson, students receive highly personalized support and feedback from their 1:1 instructor after each lesson.
To learn more about our Tier 2 interventions with coaching, visit EmpowerU Tier 2 Support.
3. Family Engagement
Because K-12 student stress and anxiety levels are so high, family engagement is more important than ever. Research from the Office of Early Childhood Development shows that strong family engagement is central in promoting children’s healthy development and wellness.
Enter Thriving Together, our family engagement program that helps busy families learn valuable resilience skills to increase calm, improve behaviors, and establish healthy communication. Thriving Together offers portable lessons that teach vital resilience concepts to both parent and child—together at home.
To learn more about our Thriving Together family engagement, visit Thriving Together.
How Catapult Learning Can Help
At the end of the day, student success and well-being are what’s most important. And for students to experience that success in the classroom, their mental wellness needs must be addressed. Which requires teachers’ mental wellness needs to be addressed as well. Catapult Learning is here to provide your district and schools with a holistic approach to mental well-being solutions for both educators and students.
