Brainstorm: The brainstorming process went as expected because as a group of students, we kind of knew what the issues would’ve been due to personal experiences. Getting the ideas out was the easiest part but the hardest part was agreeing on the top 5 issues and solutions.

Tashai Johnson-Louis

• List 10 Problems

1. # Of Friends*
2. Environment At Home
3. Amount Of Wealth
4. The Objects You Own (Materialistic)
5. Appearance
6. Self Esteem
7. Grades
8. Relationships
9. Energy Level
10. School Food

• List 10 Solutions

1. Join clubs
2. Depends On The Exact Circumstances
3. If Of Age Get A Job
4. Do Not Become So Materialistic
5. Have Good Hygiene
6. Talk To Friends/Counselors
7. Join/Form Study Groups
8. Hmmm… Tricky One
9. Try To Get At Least 8 Hours Of Sleep Each Night
10. Bring Your Own, Or Cash For Snacks.  

Kyla Armistead

• List 10 Problems

1. # of students
2. Classroom size
3. The teacher
4. Subject
5. The activity, or assignment
6. Personal issues
7. No support
8. Grade level
9. School performance
10. Grades

List 10 Solutions

1.Talk with parents/ support system

2.Join clubs

3.Get tutored

4.Sleep

5.Find friends

6.Do things to keep you busy that you enjoy

7.Get used to the classroom environment

8.Talk with the teachers

9.Get to know your classmates

10.Find time for yourself    

Kamiell Leggitt

• List 10 Problems

1. Too much homework
2. Grades aren’t so good
3. Self – esteem
4. What you own
5. Lack of money
6. Too many jobs
7. Home issues
8. Lack of Rest
9. Not Understanding the work
10. Unorganized

• List 10 Solutions

1. Time management
2. Getting a tutor
3. Talking to a parent or a counselor about what will work for you to make you feel better about yourself
4. Don’t compare yourself to others
5. Go get a job even if it’s as simple as walking a dog
6. Find a balance in which you can work less hours or quit
7. Ask for help (idk)
8. Try to set a time for yourself and go to sleep around 10 or 11
9. Ask for help or stay after class
10. Get organized by using a planner or getting a binder with dividers

Na’Shawn Howze

• List 10 Problems

1. The kid might not have any friends
2. The work may be too much*
3. The work is too challenging
4. The classwork pace is way too fast
5. Not everyone gets to communicate their ideas
6. Students feel isolated
7. Students are having home issues
8. Students participate in after school activities
9. Students aren’t getting any sleep
10. Students aren’t confident in themselves*

• List 10 Solutions

1. Try to get other students to hang with everyone
2. Teacher should be understanding and give an attainable amount of work
3. Give a diagnostic test to see where every student stands so you can know how to assess them
4. Notice a pattern in class success whether it’s good or bad
5. As a teacher make sure everyone gets the opportunity to participate
6. Even if kids can’t make friends try associating with them as the adult to welcome them
7. Try to be more than a teacher and be a motivational figure for students.
8. Try to make a manageable schedule
9. Never procrastinate and always try to complete everything early
10. Compliment students to give them some self-esteem

Top 5 Problems:

1. Too much work.
2. Not socially active.
3. No support.
4. Lack of rest.
5. Environment at home.

Top 5 Solutions:

1. Manage your time.
2. Join clubs or teams.
3. Get to know your peers and teachers.
4. Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep.
5. Try to let your school authorities know.

Population: The population are the students of Lindblom Math and Science Academy which is a public 4-year selective enrollment high school located in West Englewood. West Englewood is a predominately African-American neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.

Survey: Our survey focuses closely on Lindblom students opinions and feelings during classes. 

 

Copy of Survey:

Emotional Health During School

Which emotion do you feel the MOST during a school week? (Check only ONE) *
Tired
Stressed
Depressed
Happy
Average
Sad
Angry
How often do you feel overwhelmed with SCHOOL? *
1 out of 5 days
2 out of 5 days
3 out of 5 days
4 out of 5 days
5 out of 5 days
Other:
How many classes do you feel overwhelmed in? *
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
When thinking about going to school which emotion are you most likely to feel? *
Happy
Depressed
Mediocre
Other:
Think about being in class how are you feeling most times? (Check only one *
Sad
Eager to leave
Bored
Happy
Upset
Other:
Which options effects the way you feel most in a classroom? *
Number of friends in the classroom.
The teacher.
The classroom rigor.
Other:
Do you feel as if too much is expected of you at school? *
Yes
No
Does certain restrictions effect the way you feel at school? (Dress code, cell phone usage, and designated areas) *
Yes
No
Other:
How do you think your school experience or emotional health in school could improve? *
What is 1-3 words to describe Lindblom? *

 

Link to spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/160CSmyxMf29yM3teU2okoC-xdZpDias3oZbO_S52L0Y/edit

Chart 1: Shows how many classes out of 7 total does a student feel overwhelmed in. 3 and 4 classes being the most popular with 21.4%

Chart 2: Shows how a student feel when thinking about coming to school. This question is interesting because 41.4% are mediocre while 47.1% are depressed. It’s like a fine split.

Interpretation of Survey: 

From this survey we learned that most students here are dissatisfied with Lindblom. Many students describe Lindblom as boring and stressful. Also, something that was repeated through our survey open ended question is for teachers to work with other teachers to eliminate a some of the large work load students receieve.

 

Interview:

Who You Interviewed: Jada, Alaysya and Zachary

Summary of Interview:

1. Alaysya enjoys going to school and likes all of her teachers. She doesn’t have a problem with the students and when she’s in class she is fully engaged and ready to learn. She enjoys her learning environment because Lindblom is a great school and has great opportunities to get you to where you wanna be.
2. Jada thinks that Lindblom can help students with their social and emotional health by organizing groups that they can talk to. Also by having posters up that give facts of why social and emotional help is beneficial so one can know that it is important and receive help. Social emotional health is important because it is apart you of you and helps you develop critical skills that help connect with others and display emotions such as empathy and kindness.
3. Zachary thinks that Lindblom is a nice school and it has great opportunity, but he also thinks that the teachers are a major problem. They give too much were, they are irritating and are not very helpful and aren’t very understanding. He would change the bathrooms at Lindblom and that effects his mental state because the smell effects his focus negatively. Also he said that Lindblom is the main cause of his stress and he feels that there should be more lunchtime and time between passing periods should be longer.

2 Things you learned or stood out:

• Alaysya surprisingly said that she enjoys her classes and that she already knows what to expect going into her classes and when she leaves the class she feels better then when she first entered the class
• Jada says that her social and emotional health is affecting her in class in a positive way because it makes her feel comfortable being able to express herself without feeling criticized of what others might say or think
• Zachary says that the teachers are not helpful and aren’t very understanding

Link or picture of notes: Please ask to see video of Zachary´s interview and Notes (that are on the iPhone) for Jada´s and Alaysya´s interviews.

Observation: 

List 3 Items You Recorded:

1. Number of people who have their phones out (10/21)
2. Number of people who are sleep or not engaged in the class
3. Amount of conversation between students

Summary Of Observation:

While in class, we all observed how students were acting in class in terms of their social and emotional health. We all collaborated all of our ideas together to form one big observation. We noticed how students weren’t really engaged in the class and weren’t listening to what the teacher was teaching. Also some students were isolated from the rest of the class, sitting alone and not once raised their hand to answer a question when the teacher asked. 3 students went out of class to use the restroom and didn’t come back until about 10-15 minutes later which lets us know that the students might not be engaged or interested in the lesson and wanted to get out. Some students looked what seemed like they were having trouble comprehending the work or didn’t;t understand it and when they got help from their teacher, for some it really didn’t help but for others they seemed to do good after that.

Link Or Pictures of Notes: Please ask to see notes of observation which are on the iPhone of the observer(s).

Research:

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=News&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=MultiTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=3&docId=GALE%7CA558530916&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=SUIC&contentSet=GALE%7CA558530916&searchId=R1&userGroupName=cps&inPS=true

Summary of Article:

Teaching students social and emotional skills can help students make responsible decisions inside and outside of the classroom. Effective SEL instructions can contribute to improvements in academic performance and students need this if they are doing poorly in class due to stress and other contributing factors. Improved mental health is one of the important long term effect of SEL instructions and therefore teachers believe the curriculum should be more efficient in school so it can help benefit students.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/opinion/college-gpa-career-success.html\

Summary of Article:

In a study, psychologists tracked down America most creative architects and compared them with their same skilled peers, but who were high achievers in college. One factor that distinguished the creative architects were they risky grades on college compared to their other peers. Students obsesses over getting straight A’s in school and even risking their health over it. Students who strive for straight A’s miss out socially due to the number of hours they put into studying. However, students do not know academic excellence does not predict career excellence due to there is no correlation between them. Having the mentality of thinking having straight A’s in school will help succeed in the future is bad for the student, emotionally and socially affecting them inside and outside the classroom.

 

https://health.usnews.com/wellness/for-parents/articles/2018-10-18/social-emotional-learning-a-new-dimension-of-education

Summary of Article:

  A student named Mason was a high performance student. He plagiarized and got expelled, moreover his emotional health was bad. He was experiencing stress, anxiety, and ashamed because he felt the school didn’t appreciate nor recognized his hard work. Now a days, educators should be more focused on the student emotional health because due to the rigorous academics they are taking and having to fit their extra curricular activities in. Students can be sleep deprived from this and will come to school feeling tired and perform poorly in the classroom and in the social aspect of it. That’s why schools are starting to emphasize SEL( Social Emotional Learning) to engage students in a positive way and to instill emotional conscious, coping skills, and self awareness.