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How to meet your students’ emotional and mental health needs

June 30, 2021

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The past two years have disrupted the normal way of going to school for teachers, educators, and students. The rapid shift came with several unexpected challenges, including the emotional and mental health needs of the new virtual students.

How do you meet these needs?

Recent studies have demonstrated that feeling emotionally safe in school is one of the factors that strongly influence academic performance. But the sudden changes caused by the pandemic have led to anxiety, uncertainty, and elevated stress levels, which have affected student motivation and their drive to learn. 

The pandemic has raised many alarm bells, and pushed teachers and parents to pay more attention to students’ emotional well-being—and finding ways to support them, both academically and emotionally, at a distance. 

Improving emotional well-being

If you work in a school setting, you can have an impact on the mental health of your students—even during a pandemic that has forced distance learning upon us. These next steps will be beneficial in helping you reduce the stress levels and anxiety of your students.

The first—and most important—step is to support your students during this difficult time. If you notice that they are feeling demotivated in the online classroom, they might need more attention. A lack of motivation or interest might be caused by feelings of frustration or helplessness, especially if they are not used to learning from behind a screen. It’s not uncommon to feel anxious—or even to experience feelings of depression—when finding yourself physically away from an environment that helped you thrive, or away from friends and teachers. The home environment might also play an important role in how well the student transitions from in-person to online classes. This is why communicating and working with parents in helping the students is also important.  

Keep in mind that the school support staff that was readily available in the physical school setting is also available online. Advisors and counselors can help the students overcome challenges, such as struggles with online classes, time management, turning their bedroom into a temporary classroom, etc. 

You should also be creative when coming up with solutions. Being able to speak with students in an unconventional environment, where they might feel isolated and have no social contact with their peers, requires thinking outside the box. 

It’s also important to create opportunities for students to open up about their emotional needs, by creating and fostering safe virtual spaces, or giving them access to the best resources, such as mentoring programs and activities that can help them relax and disconnect (book clubs or art activities). Virtual classes don’t have to be impersonal and boring if you provide the right resources and outlets for your students to express themselves and grow.

Last but not least, know that online learning is not a perfect method and there is still a lot of room for improvement. Parents and students should have a realistic view of the virtual school and its challenges, and work together toward a common goal: adapting and becoming more flexible. Online learning can be improved when there is communication and collaboration between parents, teachers, and students. This collaboration will have great results and will ensure students are motivated both academically and personally.

Education professionals have been working tirelessly to improve or create new school experiences since the beginning of 2020, while satisfying economic, labor, and public health concerns. Today, the post-pandemic world accentuates the need for solving ongoing hurdles and providing more opportunities for a well-rounded education. 

The biggest change, however, will always start with you—the educator.