Students are more engaged and effective learners when they have a trusted adult and a network of supportive peers.
This is according to the latest scientific research and analysis, including that of Dr. Marilyn Price-Mitchell, a leading researcher and author on education and relationships in learning communities. When students have at least one strong, safe, and reliable adult, she wrote in Psychology Today, they are more confident and engaged, and there is a decrease in bullying and negative behavior.
WAB Middle School is taking major steps to enhance personal, social, emotional learning opportunities for students in a deliberate effort to foster development of the life skills and knowledge necessary for future success. On top of our enhanced advisory program, which we wrote about in September, WAB is also taking steps to further expand its Mentoring program.
The mentorship program is set up to foster stronger, closer relationships between teachers and students, and also among students. This helps students better manage their stress level, build confidence and resilience, and therefore become more efficient learners. A teacher functions as a mentor for a group of 11 students, meeting daily to check in and connect and support students through conversations and activities. Using a positive psychological approach, mentors help each student identify their individual strengths, and students develop a trusted and supportive network. This dynamic helps students maximize their learning experience in a number of ways, including utilizing their strengths, the creation and pursuit of realistic goals, and establishing accountability in a small community.
“I think it’s good to have a person or group that we’re comfortable talking with. It feels like a home base,” one Middle School student said in a survey about the program. “We talk through different things, share ideas, and deal with relationships. If I ever had problems, I know I could go to my mentor teacher.”
In the Middle School, it's Principal Marina Frias and her team who are leading the way in making these changes take place.
“Since the birth of the program, we are intentional with the pace of implementation and the feedback collection process in order to better reflect the needs of individual students and teacher readiness,” she said.
WAB’s Middle School administration has further enhanced the program this year by increasing the frequency and regularity mentoring time. Mentor groups meet every morning for the first ten minutes of the school day to check in. On the first and last day of the week, they meet for 40 minutes, which establishes accountability and allows for progress tracking and reflection. In addition, mentors meet with students for an extended amount of time at the beginning of Day 9, a day in WAB’s rotation which gives students the freedom to choose from a variety of class and activity options that will support their learning. For Day 9, mentors meet with students with a focus on guiding and supporting those choices.
“The reason I think mentoring is important is because our mentor checks up with us and makes sure we’re setting goals for ourselves,” one student said. “My mentor always talks to me to make sure things are going well academically and socially.”
To support teachers, WAB counselors and administrators share resources and facilitate professional development opportunities in faculty meetings. They use a wide range of tools which help teachers with different personalities engage as mentors and offer varying types of support. The school has also hosted faculty-wide training and professional development with Ellen Mahoney of SeaChange Mentoring, a leader in relationship-based learning and wellbeing in international schools.
“We have seen an increased level of engagement and self-advocacy from students as a result of the new initiatives implemented in the Middle School in recent years,” Huiman Cheng, Middle School Vice Principal, said. “In surveys, more than 80 percent of our students say they have benefitted from the mentoring program and more than 90 percent say they have built relationships that contribute positively to their lives.”
The rapidly changing world of connectedness and social media has made the development of personal and social skills paramount. School communities, and teachers especially, have the responsibility to not only educate children with academic knowledge but to prepare them in every way for life after graduation. WAB is taking proactive steps to enhance our social-emotional learning to provide the type of experiences students will need to be successful now and in the future. To find out more about how WAB Middle School is enhancing social-emotional learning, check out this story on our Advisory Program.