Helping 🫶 Students Transition Back to School 📚 After Summer🌞
The transition from summer to school can’t be underestimated. It’s a window of time where children and teenagers are bound to feel overwhelming volumes of change happening all at once.
After approximately two and a half months without school, students are expected to adjust to different schedules, energy levels, social interactions, and mental stimulation.
Some kids may find this exciting and opportunistic. But we can’t dismiss the fact that many feel waves of anxiety, worry, fear, and stress instead.
Navigating this transition calls for more awareness within the household. Parents, caretakers, and students have to understand how this period of change can impact them mentally, emotionally, and physically. More importantly, it’s necessary to practice this awareness until students feel completely calm and comfortable with their new routines — which might take a few days or even a few weeks depending on the degree of change that a student is feeling.
Here are a few tips to help kids and teenagers prioritize mental health awareness as they prepare for school:
- Daily check- ins
- Build new schedules & routines (morning and night)
- Validate & affirm
- Create a sense of community
- Make the last few days of summer special
Read full article -->> MyGoodBrain.org
8 Dimensions of Wellness
Wellness is a broad concept. We invite you to think of wellness as meaning being healthy in many dimensions of our lives. That includes the emotional, physical, occupational, intellectual, financial, social, environmental, and spiritual parts. These dimensions are interconnected, one dimension building on another.
Each individual’s path will be a bit different. Every aspect of wellness can affect a person’s life. Working toward all of them in one way or another is a great goal, because wellness relates directly to the quality of a person’s life.
As schools, districts, states and communities seek to address the attendance crisis, they should consider the positive impact of school-based mental health services on student attendance. Since children spend half their awake hours at school, schools are the ideal place to receive such services, especially in under-resourced areas where students may struggle to receive such services. Accessing mental health services at school also can reduce stigma and address transportation and scheduling barriers.
- Students who are experiencing well-being and feel engaged are much more likely to attend school and achieve academically.
- When children are not in school, they can be below grade level for reading and numeracy in the early grades, achieving in middle school and graduating from high school. They also are at higher risk of falling behind in social-emotional development and executive functioning.
- Anxiety, depression and mental health are currently the top health-related drivers of absenteeism in those schools.
6 Ways to Help Your Student Athlete Balance High School Sports and Mental Health
We often talk about the mental health benefits of exercise and physical activity. Still, evidence suggests that as young people compete more intensely in sports, gains in mental wellness may be replaced by mental health challenges particular to competitive athletics.
The parents and coaches of competitive, collegiate, and high school sports athletes can help overcome these barriers and support prioritizing mental health by following these helpful tips:
- Spend time outside of training to be or get in attunement with the teen or young adult.
- Talk openly about issues and encourage them to educate themselves.
- Be conscious of language and the treatment of others.
- Treat their mental wellbeing as equal to their physical wellbeing.
- Make it a priority for yourself and lead by example.
- Focus on the positives and empowerment that can come from mental wellness.
Knock, knock... Who's there?... F.E.E.T... F.E.E.T. who??
The Family Engagement Educators Team (F.E.E.T.), that's who!
The Family Engagement Educators Team (F.E.E.T.) is group of TCS faculty & staff, from all three schools, working together with the goal to make better connections with students and bridge the gap between school and community. One way they do this is by getting out into the community to get to know our TCS families where they are.
This "boots on the ground" team enjoys being visible in the community with regular, good old-fashioned home visits. Student snack bags are shared and family connections are made with each visit. Another way F.E.E.T. connects with our TCS families is by hosting district-wide events throughout the year to share valuable information, bring community resources together, and have a little family fun time in the process.
Honk and wave when you see us making connections around in town!
Most importantly, open your doors to have a positive chat on the porch with our Tallassee F.E.E.T. members when we come knocking!
GROWTH
Growth...it's one of those strange words that can feel intimidating. Growth is something we all strive for in some area of our lives. Perhaps you're seeking to grow personally--to learn to be better for all of the loved ones around you. Perhaps you're seeking to grow and make improvements in your physical health--exercise more, improve eating habits, lose weight, etc. Perhaps you're seeking to grow in the area of mental or spiritual health.
However you're trying to grow...know that it looks different for everyone.
We live in a comparison society--one that seeks to show the BEST of the BEST of our lives on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X (Twitter), and SnapChat. We spend countless hours scrolling as we compare our lives to others' who seem to have it all together. The truth is...they don't.
Guess what? Every step forward is just that! It's growth. It's movement. It's improvement.
Your growth journey is NOT MEANT to look just like your friend's journey.
Don't compare your story...celebrate the victories (small and large) along the way!
You deserve to be celebrated for every step you take toward wellness!
Mrs. Jen Bafford
Tallassee City Schools
Mental Health Services Coordinator
Email: Jen.Bafford@tcschools.com
Location: 901 E B Payne Sr Dr, Tallassee, AL 36078
Call or Text: 334-415-4125
Facebook: facebook.com/MrsJenBafford
NEW page on TCS Website: https://www.tcschools.com/page/mental-health-wellness