The Benefits of Student Support

The transcription is a conversation between individuals discussing the importance of parent involvement in students' lives and academics on a podcast. They share personal experiences from their clinical placements, highlighting the impact of strong family support on students' behavior and motivation. The conversation also touches on communication strategies between schools, teachers, and parents, as well as the role of the community in supporting students academically through after-school programs and neighborhood engagement. Suggestions are made on how schools and teachers can better involve parents and communities to help students succeed. There is a timer here, if you want to take a look. It's going to tell you how long you are. Oh, that's cool. Oh, nice. And I'm just going to check your voice, okay? Okay. And then, did you have dinner yet? No, not yet. Probably my leftover Chipotle after lunch. There you go. Okay, I think that's good. What did you guys have for dinner? I don't know yet. I haven't even had lunch yet. I was thinking some Mediterranean. There's one around Lawrence. Yeah, my house. Hala Inn. It's so good if you guys haven't tried it. Hala Inn? Hala Inn? Yeah. I'm actually really hungry. Ready? Okay. Oh, I asked them and they said it's fine if we take like another extra 20 minutes. Yeah, because it's 4.10 now. We're good. Yeah, 3.30. Okay. Okay. Just let me know if you guys do need anything, okay? Thank you so much. Thank you. And can you just like start, too? Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Okay. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Okay. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Okay. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Okay. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, hi, everyone, and welcome to our podcast where we're going to be exploring what really helps students grow, and not just academically, but socially and emotionally, and as whole human beings. So, I'm your host, Michelle, and today I'll be talking about something that every teacher talks about and struggles with or wishes they understood better, which is parent support in students' lives and academics. This is a part of two host episodes, so my partner, Jocelyn, would cover the student community side, but in my section, I'll focus on what parent involvement matters, what research actually says what works, what doesn't, and what real teachers can do, even if they're busy, overwhelmed, or nervous to call home. Thank you, Michelle, for that introduction to the podcast. I'm Jocelyn, who Michelle mentioned, and I will be doing the student's perspective on things. And here to help us today, here to help us with today, is our lovely classmate, Edith, who will talk about her experiences with student support. Thank you for being here with us, Edith. Do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself? Yeah, of course. My name is Edith. I am Michelle and Jocelyn's classmate from elementary education, and I am also here to, you know, they asked me to offer my opinions and thoughts from what I've experienced based on parent support and community support at schools. All right. Thank you, Edith. Okay. So, we're going to go ahead and start with the questions. So, for the first one, we have, how did you see parent involvement affecting students' academic performance during your clinical experience? Well, honestly, my first clinical experience went really well based on parent support and everything. I did have a ACT who would tell me about these things, how she would inform them whenever parents were, you know, lacking a little bit with their academics. She would immediately notify them, and the parents immediately would help their students. And you could see it also, I feel like, in the kids. They always came to the classroom with joy. They never felt like school was a horrible chore or anything. They felt, like, really great to be there. And I feel like, you know, when you have a parent support, you feel welcome in that classroom environment, and also as a student. As a teacher, I feel like you also feel, like, appreciated, too, because, you know, like, your parent, like, a parent is actually asking for your help or also supporting, like, helping you, you know? It's not just a one-person job to teach your kids. I feel like it's also a teacher and a parent job to do that. But, sadly, in my last clinical experience, it wasn't the best. You could see that a lot of parents lacked support. They did not offer enough support to students, and you could see it in the students as well. Like, some of the kids did not bring backpacks to school. They would just walk into the classroom, like, it was like a, I don't know, like a doctor's office or something. Like, they didn't want to be there at all, and I feel like if I were a parent, I would make sure that my kid has all of their supplies to go to school. But, yeah, like, also, like, my CT, he would tell me how he would text the parents whenever the kids were misbehaving or whatever, and he said that they would just not respond, so. And you could tell, like, it was, like, it was getting, like, bad, and it wasn't just his classroom. He said that that's kind of overall how the school was working. So, yeah, it was not the best, I guess. Okay. Thank you for sharing with us that. Of course. Okay, we're going to move on to the second question, which we have. Did you notice any differences in behavior or motivation between students who had strong family support and those who didn't? Yeah, honestly, on my first clinical site, I don't know. I know Michelle and I, we had the same school site at that time. I don't know if this was, like, your classroom, but we had a parent-teacher at ours, and the students loved her. Like, she, and she wasn't even, like, a person, like, she wasn't, like, a person who went to school or anything. She was just, she would just go as a volunteer, and she would just offer helping with grades or prepping school materials and stuff, like, the class materials, which was so nice of her, and she was just doing it out of her own goodness of her heart. Aww. So sweet, yeah. And, like, the kids loved her. They would always say good morning to her, always say goodbye to her, and she was, it was a great classroom, because I felt like she would help me also with the ones, because she knew the kids more than I did at that time. Yeah. And she can, like, help them, like, get them engaged, too, or she would tell me, too, hey, he's not engaging. Can you help me with that? And I'd be, like, yeah, of course. Like, she was just the best. But then over here on the other school I went to, you could tell, like, like, again, it wasn't, like, the best. Like, whenever, like, my CT would, like, be, like, oh, I told your parent about that, the kid would just get even more upset and be, like, well, now that you told my parent this, I'm not going to do anything at all, because you already got me in trouble. I don't care. And, yeah, it was just, like, pretty bad. Yeah. Wow. Mm-hmm. And that's, like, your... That was my second clinical. Your second clinical. Yeah. Okay. Oh, okay. So now we're going to talk about, like, in this placement that you have, how does the school or teacher communicate with parents to support student learning, or either clinical? No, I guess, like, you know, they would just text them or talk to them during conferences. They would try to plan conferences to talk to them. And regarding, like, behavior academics, like I said, it either worked with one school and with the other it didn't. But, yeah, they would just communicate. They would always try to communicate with the parents, for sure, the teachers. Okay, that's good. That's good to hear. Mm-hmm. And then another question we have is, what role did the community, like, after-school programs, neighborhood groups, school events, et cetera, play in supporting students academically? I feel like they do offer a lot of after-school activities, like soccer and, like, sports and stuff. Like, there's soccer. A lot of kids loved it. They would, I feel like they would mostly come to school for the after-school extracurriculars, which is amazing. You know, like, that actually, like, makes them something to look forward to. Yeah. And then, so, yeah, I feel like there's that. But then also, sadly, in my second neighborhood, on my second site, the neighborhood, apparently, I did hear that, like, the neighborhood was not as supportive towards the school because they believed that the school was making the neighborhood bad. Oh, wow. Which is, like, really sad to hear that because it's like, how are kids doing that? It's not the kids. There's something else. Yeah, it's something else. Like, they're children. What did they know? Okay. How are they messing up the neighborhood? So, yeah, I just thought it was a little weird for a neighborhood to think that and not support the school because of that. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Next question, which is, based on what you observed, what is one thing schools or teachers could do better to involve parents as a community in helping students succeed? I feel like they should, well, this is from my personal experience. When I was in middle school, before I went to that middle school, my mom, my middle school, it was Aspera Hagen. They offered summer computer classes in the summer for parents, anybody, for free. It was not crazy tech savvy. It was just how to open up an email, how to write emails. I'm the first gen here in the US, so for my parents to know that or my mom to know that was the best because she already knew how to turn on a computer. She knew how to write an email. She knew how to use Word on her own. That was the best. They offered those classes. They gave her a certificate and everything for free. She always looked up to the school, my school. Even though I would tell her, oh, I don't like my school, she'd be like, well, your teachers are really good because it was our own computer science teacher who did that course. I feel like if the schools would do more activities to involve parents, or not just parents, but the neighborhood, I feel like they could gain support, too. There could also be, I don't know, something like, I feel like the community needs to come up with where they can do it at the school or neighborhood, if that makes sense. If the school offers things, gives something in return to the parents or just people in the neighborhood, not parents or kids, then they could receive the help as well. Connecting to what you were sharing with us, I have someone, a friend that I know, that was back in high school, middle school. They were close to joining a game. Because there was a priest who pulled him back in and was like, hey, let's do, just offer after-school programs that they could go to. Sometimes he would take them to the movies. It was a group of students. He would take them to the movies, or he would play soccer with them. He was just very involved in their lives. He says that's the biggest, main reason why he didn't join a game. He kind of pulled him away from all those, that path that he was going to take. He says that in a way, he kind of saved him. Connecting to what you're saying, I feel like if their community, school, parents could involve them into after-school programs, it would kind of keep them engaged and keep them entertained so they don't go into a bad path. I feel like it works both ways. Schools need to do something and make it known, just so the communities can see it and involve their kids into it. Parents might not even be aware that these sources are out there. It's true. They have to put it out there. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much, Aiden, for your words. We appreciate your enlightening input. Thank you so much. I'm going to start talking. A lot of what I shared today is going to come from really good and powerful sources, including articles from Edutopia, Education Week, and Annie Casey Foundation, and research summaries about parent involvement. Article 1 is called The Impact of Parent Involvement Statistics on Academic Success. Usually when I tell people that I'm studying to become a teacher, they say some things like, oh, good luck with the parents. Honestly, many teachers feel nervous contacting parents from my clinical observations, or they just have something to say about parents. One of the articles that I read from Amir Turan Ayers from Edutopia compares calling parents to going to the dentist. Not because parents are scary, but because teachers worry about conflict, judgment, or saying the wrong things that might trigger a parent. But the research that was pointed out in this article was that when teachers and parents work together, students succeed. The article explains that parents' involvement is so powerful that it often outweighs factors like family income, race, ethnicity, or even parents' own educational level. So parents are truly a child's first teacher, and their support creates a strong foundation for everything that happens in school. So just a few striking findings that I found in the article was that students who frequently talk about school with their parents have a 44% higher odds of attending post-secondary education. That's amazing. Students without academic support are 34% more likely to drop out, showing how much guidance and supervision really does matter. Parents being involved matters a lot. Not just academically, but I feel like when parents are like, when they know who their teachers are, what friends they hang out with, I feel like it just makes the student want to be connected to the parents, and it makes them want to share more information about school with their parents, because their parents are taking the time to get to know their child. And like you said, even like the littlest things, like even knowing who their friends and who they hang out with, how their teacher, like the name of, some parents probably don't know the name of the teacher, the name that they have. Maybe their grade they're in. So with that, it is. So I also found out that, like in the article, it mentioned that if parents' expectations are huge, or like, you know, they're bigger, parents are only expected, so if a parent only expects a child to finish high school, the student becomes five times more likely to leave school by 8th grade, compared to students who have parents with higher expectations. Oh, that's interesting. Yes, and I feel like that's a big one, and I definitely noticed with some of my friends in high school and elementary, I feel like parents who are constantly pushing their students, to like, hey, what are you going to do? Do this, you've got to keep pushing them, it means a lot, because I feel like, I have some friends that their parents, which is not really involved in their academics, or overall, like their lives, they didn't really have anything to look forward to after high school. It's true, and I feel like I agree, because I feel like when parents, when they push and they motivate their kids to do well, I feel like it leaves a mindset in the students or their kids, where they're like, oh, I have someone rooting for me, who wants me to do good, you know? It makes them feel like, oh, I don't want to disappoint them. It makes them want to work harder, too. Yeah, and it might have a mindset of like, oh, maybe if they're not motivated by themselves, it could be like, I'm doing this for my parents. Yeah, that's so true. I'm going to graduate college for my parents. Like, you have that little push, you know? That's so true. So then, article number two talked about, so it's called, Three Tips for Partnering with Parents for Support Success, and it kind of goes deeper into the three big strategies, and they're honestly one of the most helpful tips that I've ever read. So the first one says, Determine the best method of contact. So some parents' schedules vary by a lot. So some parents might work night shifts, run small businesses, or they're just busy. Some might have two jobs. Yeah, two jobs. Or three jobs. Or maybe they might not even be home. Someone else might be taking care of them, like a mom. Grandparents. So teachers have to be flexible. Many parents prefer texts or emails because they're quick, and they're just quick and easy to respond to, rather than just giving them a call. And then maybe the parent can't pick up the call when they're at work, and then it's more likely, oh, I saw the text, I'll text back. Don't just rely on calls. Okay. At least just to ignore it, or forget about. Yeah, or not being able to access them in the moment, as a call, at the moment. That's true. And then, I also talked about normalizing positive but real communication. So teachers usually reach out not only when something's wrong. I feel like if we're only reaching out to parents when something's going wrong in the students' lives, in their academics, they're just going to relate to you as, oh, this is something bad, and they're going to call their parents for something positive. Yeah, it makes a difference. And it's not like the compliment sandwich, not a fake phrase, but it's real, specific positives that show, hey, I see your child, I understand who they are, and I notice what they bring to the classroom. So you have to be very specific, and shoot when you're calling the parent about something that you want them to know. Yeah, a genuine compliment. Mm-hmm. Then, it also talked about shift from deficit thinking. So, deficit thinking sounds like they don't have supplies, they don't care, they don't know how to support learning. But an asset-based mindset sounds like this family wants to help. What strength does a family bring? What resources can we share to support success? So Iris says that the shift helps teachers become warm, demanders, supportive, and high-expectation educators. I like this, because I feel like, especially us, since we're beginning to barely be teachers, I feel like it's going to be difficult to get out of that mindset, because we're so used to hearing negative things about, but I feel like once we change our mindset to the asset-based mindset, like how you were saying, I feel like it'll be a stronger bond that will be created between parent and teacher and student. Yes, for sure. Mm-hmm. So then, moving on to my third article, it's called Does Parents' Involvement Really Help Students? And here's what research says by Levi Stanford. So there's a myth that parents involvement only means showing up to school. But Levi Stanford's article called No, I'm sorry. Levi Stanford's article shows that different types of involvement lead to different outcomes. So I'm going to just break it down. So school-based involvement, which means parent-teacher conference, open houses, visiting the school, volunteering, these help students, but the impact's actually stronger at earlier grades and gets weaker in high school. Because in high school, they're kind of like on their own. More independent. And it's not like a homeroom that they have. They're kind of like taking multiple, so it's kind of hard to reach every teacher. That's true, yeah. And then home-based involvement means talking about school. It's like, do you do your part in school and at home? Mm-hmm. So at home, it's like talking about school, encouraging goals, creating a routine, reading together, going to the library, asking them, even in high school, when they're in high school, asking them, what's your homework? Did you do it? When is it due? Just things like that to kind of keep them you're also aware of what they have going on in school and not just expecting them that they're responsible. Yes, they might be responsible, but you also might want to be informed about it. Yeah, and I feel like it lets the students know too they're not just asking just to know but more to genuinely want to understand, how's school going? Can I help you with something? How are your grades? How are your classes going? When parents are involved, I feel like it really does it changes the mindset of the student. It makes a big impact. And then my fourth article, it's called Getting Parents Involved is a Foundation of Student Success by Michael Saville. And something that they mentioned was parents must spend two 90-minute sessions per week in classrooms. Before that, they must attend a step course to prepare them. But what really blew my mind was that parents even lead sessions based on their professional knowledge, not as helpers, but as an expert group. So architects teach geometry, doctors teach biology, engineers help with problem-solving lessons, and even families can be in the building, find other ways to photocopy, text, troubleshoot, chaperone, or even evening tasks. And the results that they saw was that students become great group workers, parents understand the education system, families become advocates, and teachers feel supportive. But this model is possibly everywhere, it might not be, but it just shows how much family expertise enriches schools and makes a big impact on how the school is being led. No, definitely. And I can relate to this one because when I was younger, I remember my dad, he would always want a chaperone for our field trips. And me, being little, I'd be like, oh, I'm a little embarrassed because my dad is going to be there with my friends and whatnot. But looking back now at it, I'm like, oh my goodness, I feel like I was so thankful to have a dad who wanted to spend time with me and get to know my friends and help my teachers out. And not only that, but my friends ended up loving my dad. Even students who I never talked to, they would go up to him and be like, oh, hi, Mr. Omasan. And they knew who he was, and it felt nice to have a parent who wanted to be involved with the school that you went to. It felt great. So I feel like students seeing their parents teach a lesson, I feel like it makes them think, oh, my parents are doing that. I feel like, yeah. It is good. This actually happened in elementary school in California, so it's how they're leading the school. And I was like, wow, this is amazing. It's really good. And then my last article, something that I found out, and it's a research-backed strategy and it's called The Role of Parental Involvement in Your Child's Education by the Amy E. Casey Foundation. So first, creating a welcoming school culture. So parents need to feel like they belong there, right? So this could include parents' rooms or gathering spaces specifically for them to gather or just arrive and just have their own space there. Flexible meeting times as well. After-hours events and leadership that models family engagement, because I feel like oftentimes schools don't offer that extra space for parents to take the lead. True. It's usually just them volunteering. Only volunteering when they have a field trip or a school event. How about when there's none? How could they get involved? Good point. The second point that they mentioned was including parents in decision-making. So this transforms involvement to engagement. And some examples of this could be parent comedies or curriculum nights, advisory groups. The third one is empower families with tools to support learning at home. So not homework help, but actual tools that they could do at home, so like books, routines, conversation starters, apps, or guides for creative learning-friendly homes, because I feel like everyone that kind of refers to like, oh, how can parents support students at home? By homework. There's actually so much more. For example, conversation starters. I feel like that's a great one, especially when you have a teen at home. Because sometimes they're not in the mood to talk, or it's just kind of hard to reach them. They're kind of isolated. Yes. So I feel like even providing parents with like, here's some conversation starters that you could use. Or even like for example, my CT, she has like a little weekly note that she sends home. And she lets them know this is what we're doing for this week. And I feel like even there you could include like, oh, this is something that we're learning. These are conversation starters that you could use at home to kind of guide the conversation based on like what they're doing in school that week. I feel like that's really good. Oh yeah, and I like that they also give other ways to help the students at home. Because I feel like a lot of the times teachers do say, like parents will ask like, how can I help my students more at home? And the teacher will always be like, oh yeah, help them with their homework. But a lot of the time, or most of the time, some parents might not understand the homework. So they might feel like, well, I'm not really, they might feel like they're at a disadvantage because they don't know how to help them. But I like these, like they give you different options that you could help with, like the books, the routines, the conversation starters was a good one. So I like that it's like, it offers more than what we usually think of, the homework. Yeah, than just the homework, exactly. So just to kind of wrap up my section, I want to bring back the idea that students do better when parents and teachers see each other as partners and not opponents. Opponents. And then across every article that I read, every study and every statistic, the message was kind of like the same. So it was like, parents want to be involved. Parents involvement makes a measurable difference. Teachers communication real and honest and positive communication opens the door for everything else. And then when we build those relationships and students feel supported by a whole team. Thank you so much for listening to my part. Thank you, Michelle, for teaching us on how parent involvement has a positive effect on the way students are supported. And so now that we've covered the parent perspective of things, I'll be talking more about the student side for support. And so we just want to reiterate that this is an important topic to talk about because it's linked to students' academic success. So when students feel supported, they're more likely to stay motivated, understand material better, and they perform well in their classes. So support systems like how we talked about, like teachers and family and counselors and peers who I'll talk about, they help remove barriers to learning. So students who receive support develop skills that they carry into adulthood, such as problem solving, communication, emotional regulation, and perseverance. And so with that being said, I'll talk about my first article, which is building a classroom community to support students' social-moral development by Marilyn Watson, Lana Dallet, Trinnell Smith, and Colette Rabin. And so in this first article, it opens by talking about the Child Development Project, which was a research initiative launched in 1979 by educational researchers, psychologists, and teachers. And the goal of this program was to design an elementary school program that supported students' social and moral growth. So they came up with a program that could be integrated into curriculum and classroom management procedures. And so essentially with this program classroom, it had three core approaches. So the first one was a literature-based language arts curriculum so that it could build empathy and social values. The second one was a cooperative approach to learning, emphasizing that working together in a fair, caring, and responsible way was important. And then the third approach focused on building caring and trusting relationships with and among students to guide them toward responsible behavior. And so when all three of these components were successfully implemented, students showed significant positive social, moral, and academic growth. And these students reported a strong sense of community, enjoyed school more, and they increased their conflict resolution skills and commitment to being more selfless. And so for the second segment, it talks about actually putting this into practice. So despite positive results, the program experienced mixed results because a lot of teachers, they failed to implement these key aspects. So some teachers, they still clung to the traditional reward-slash- punishment-based discipline. And this approach, it was often what they experienced as students themselves or they learned in teacher education, and so that's why they're so used to implementing those rewards and those punishments. And it focused more on efficient control, but it was inconsistent to build that sense of community, especially for the students who would mistrust the teachers. And so they want to emphasize that this approach is slow and time-intensive, meaning that it requires teachers to build those supportive relationships to help students understand the reasons behind the rules, which I know a lot of the time, I work with little kids and I've seen the teachers or even parents, when children are very little, a child will do something wrong and they'll ask why, and the parent will just be like, because I said so. It doesn't really help them to grow or to understand why what they're doing is wrong. And so I've seen that a lot, where they just won't back up the reasoning for the rules, which doesn't help them to understand what they're doing wrong. And another one, they said, was to teach students the skills needed for kind and responsible behavior and to engage students in problem-solving when they misbehave and to use non-punishment control when needed. So I'm not going to lie, so I have a little sister at home and sometimes she's doing something wrong, I'll be like, don't do that. And she will ask me herself, why not? They want to know why can't they do it? They want to know what's the reason behind them doing that. So sometimes I'm not going to lie, because I don't know why they're doing that. It just sometimes comes out without even thinking it. But I try later on if I'm reflecting on something before going to bed, I'll let her know where I apologize and be like, hey, I'm sorry for how that happened earlier. It happened because of this, or that, and I'll try to apologize to her. Maybe it's wrong that I didn't do it right away, but sometimes I like to reflect on what happened throughout my day right before I go to bed. And if that comes up, I'll bring it up to her and I do apologize to her. But I'm very intentional with apologizing and making sure that she knows that I'm saying I'm sorry. If you don't, you lose that. I'm a parent, I apologize. So I think that's important to help them understand the reason behind it. I think it's good that you're reflecting on it too, because it means you want to help her to understand more things. I feel like that's always the hardest part is acknowledging it, but because you acknowledge it, to help her better. Yeah, which is good. So this article, it concludes by emphasizing that while building supportive and trusting relationships using this discipline, it's often a slow and difficult process, but it can be a way to help these struggling students to change those negative worldviews and set them on a positive life course. And so they gave the little analogy that learning this approach, it's like learning to play the cello, it requires time, dedication, and lots of practice to master, but you should expect the process to take time to master. Having patience. Having patience, definitely. And so the second article, it talks about school size, student performance, and cost analysis. And for the second article, it's a bit shorter, but it's still going to be talking about whether elementary school size really does matter when it comes to academic success. And so this article, it advocates for small schools to emphasize the degree to which students feel supported and cared for by teachers and staff, and they emphasize how small schools they naturally create that intimate learning environment that foster that sense of belonging and community. And another point they made was how students' studies confirm the benefits of this connectedness that shows that students in smaller schools experience number one, higher engagement, so what this means is they have much higher rates of participation in extracurricular, athletic, and academic activities because every student is needed as a critical member. That's amazing. And the second one, they said that in smaller schools, there's better discipline, so like principals in schools with under 300 students reported for fewer patterns of office referrals for disrespect compared to those in schools with over a thousand students, which I feel like it makes sense because I feel like in a smaller school, it's easier for students to know other students, it's easier for teachers and staff to know all the students, so I feel like it makes sense as to why they're not getting called into the principal's office as much when compared to schools with a thousand students, you don't know it's harder to control them. Yes, exactly. So it makes sense. And the third one they had was higher achievement overall where multiple studies have concluded that students in smaller schools, they generally demonstrate higher academic achievement and so perhaps the most compelling argument for smaller school size, it relates to low socioeconomic status so researchers identified what they called equity ethics, meaning that small schools have a more effectiveness for students who are impoverished or economically disadvantaged so multiple studies found that smaller schools lessened or muted the negative effects of poverty on student achievement which allow these students to perform more effectively compared to their peers in larger schools and in contrast, large schools, they tend to magnify these economic disadvantages which I feel like we see a lot where students with a bunch of school schools with a lot of students unfortunately because if they're in if they're in a school where they don't have a lot of resources or the school is low funded it makes sense that these students are going to be at a higher disadvantage than students who attend smaller schools and so, in conclusion for this article, while large schools offer cost efficiencies the evidence strongly suggests that smaller settings provide greater academic benefits, especially for students facing economic challenges because they foster crucial relationships and community engagement and policy makers, they have to proceed with caution understanding that student potential means prioritizing these intimate environments, whether by building smaller schools or strategically dividing larger ones and so, going on with my third article, it's called Learning Environments for Stress, Calming Rooms and Gardens it talks about an original study that explores the creation of learning environments designed to support elementary students who are experiencing chronic stress and so, the core issue is that many elementary students face chronic stress stemming from factors like poverty racism, trauma food insecurity and community violence and the impact that this chronic stress creates it creates obstacles to help them succeed academically which leads to an achievement gap and a lot of times these efforts they fail because they overlook the non-academic aspects of well-being that influence a child's ability to learn and so it's a project that focuses on three signature efforts developed collaboratively with school staff and one that they had is a calming room, so like a therapeutic space and so it talks about how this space was designed for students experiencing emotional or behavioral outbursts used with the support of a trained adult and this room was intentionally meant to be simplistic to help students get away from all the stimuli and so that they learn to self-regulate on their own definitely and features for this room included cubbies for retrieves or designs on the walls for tracing to help them calm down and cozy yeah, like a cozy corner for sure and it was important to note that it wasn't an isolation room, it was more of a therapeutic space for supported regulation to help the students calm down get away from all the stimuli that's going on in their lives and just take it down a notch remind themselves that they're in a safe space right now where they can calm down and that's actually nice to have I feel like it would be nice to have both that room for the entire school and a space like that in your classroom which might be a little harder for them to get that quiet space but having a calm corner in your classroom and a room overall in the whole school that's amazing I like that I agree, I feel like it really does help calm you down and center yourself especially for younger students who have a harder time expressing their emotions or they get mad very easily, they get angry and it could benefit their teens too I think yes, I agree, it could definitely benefit and so they talk about the level of impact for students they said how the intervention helped them, it helped to improve emotional regulation so students showed positive changes they become more proactive by asking to visit the calming room when they feel agitated they say that the room helped them get back to class sooner and more regulated and ready to work and they mention how the garden was also used as a calming space to relieve stress and pent up energy and students showed great enthusiasm for the garden and they gained exposure to gardening and on a staff level they mentioned how the staff played an important role in supporting that student regulation that the calming room improved the way staff were able to process with students and help them get back on task with their academic work and on a school environment level the calming room benefited the overall school environment leading to a noticeably calmer atmosphere and less chaotic movement throughout the building, so teachers mentioned how they successfully incorporated the garden into their curriculum, integrating it into different content areas and on a more community level, with families and community, it said that there was increased involvement, that the garden successfully engaged community members parents and guardians and community members cared for the garden and picked produce, and staff noticed that the garden facilitated positive connections conversations with parents, even helping to overcome language barriers that's amazing definitely, it helped on the student level, the staff level the school level, and the community level so I feel like it's something that it's helping everyone a lot of schools should implement this more and it's fun it's fun, it's healthy for the environment, healthy for you because you're getting organic food that's a good idea, I really like that one we need to talk about this in our future schools I want to advocate for this yes, and so in conclusion, this project demonstrated the benefits of multiple interventions in supporting student well-being, and so the fourth article, it talks about school content improving student achievement and behavior, and so for this, they had a student success skills model that was built upon extensive reviews of educational research identifying the most critical factors associated with long-term school success that focus on like three sets, which were cognitive and metacognitive skills, which includes goal setting, progress monitoring and memory strategies the second was social skills, so like covering interpersonal skills such as listening, teamwork, and social problem solving and the third one was self-management skills which was the ability to manage attention motivation and anger and so for this they demonstrated how the counselors and the guidance counselors they had to note that the counselors they received extensive training such as peer coaching sessions where they reviewed videotapes which helped to boost their confidence and also to help to understand how they could genuinely help the students at the schools more and they found that the reading scores improved significantly in terms of reading achievement that the treatment group for like after the counseling intervention and their math scores also increased significantly which they found in the math achievement and so it just goes to show how like important a school counselor or guidance counselor is in like schools because I mean a lot of times students do have things to do with like stress or like worries at home and sometimes they might feel like they might not have like the resources needed but it's important to like train the school guidance counselors to understand like how to like positively talk to the students and so ultimately like this research provides like strong documentation that like strong school counselors at interventions they have a substantial positive effect on both student academic achievement and behavior and it reinforces the need for counselors to measure and report their impact as well as to improve like academic and their performance. And so for the last article it talks about teacher beliefs and practices in inclusive classrooms and so what they found in this article was that teachers who believe it is their responsibility to include students with special education needs are fundamentally more effective practitioners for all their students and so this focused on like the length and complexity of instructional teachers that they have with individual students so essentially this article talks about how students or teachers who are more equipped with like knowing how to like differentiate instruction for like those special education needs students, they were able to understand how to communicate that lesson plan to all their students so it talks about how for inclusion to truly succeed in a classroom they must focus on like fostering the internal belief that all the students can learn. So essentially it begins with like teachers understanding that it's their role and responsibility that if they're able to teach to all students that they will truly like engage all the learners but they have to believe that their instruction can overcome barriers so that they can create an enhanced opportunity for every student to learn. And yeah, those were our 10 sources that we talked about That was amazing. Thank you for doing your part. Thank you Michelle. Thank you too. But yeah, we hope you enjoyed our podcast and learned a little something more about supporting students in academic settings and yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you. Oh my god. I was getting nervous. I was like, there she is. I'm so sorry. No, no, it's okay. You guys doing okay? Yeah. How do you guys feel? I was a little nervous at the beginning but later on I kind of did better. It wasn't that bad. Get that conversation going. It's like you don't want this to happen. Yeah, it's true.