ItAG Participants: Heather Brody, Emily Nodell, Skylar Spitaleri
Mental wellness has a significant impact on both academic achievement and the general learning environment in schools. More attention has been drawn to the topic of mental health in recent years due to the extreme need for additional support in educational settings. Mental health initiatives are gaining traction as educational institutions prioritize the emotional and psychological needs of their students. Students need a space to process their experiences, reflect on the lasting effects of the pandemic, and look deeper into the influence of social media. Social-emotional learning through art is a gateway for students to understand themselves and the world around them and process the traumas that still have a hold on them. Not only are they able to reflect on their own mental health through art, but they can share their feelings with others who may have had similar experiences. Art serves as an outlet to give students a creative way to express their emotions, reflect, discover themselves, and connect with others. This ItAG invites you to inquire how art can be utilized by students as an effective outlet to help themselves as individuals but also shed light on the growing need for mental health awareness for all.
As individuals, we each have our own experience with the need for mental health support in school settings. This comes from our school experience and the lack of attention and transparency when it comes to topics of mental health. This drew us to inquire about how things might have changed, or not changed since we were in high school.
One creative tactic that inspired our work is developing a sense of “communal meaning.” From the beginning of this research project our intention was to diminish the stigma surrounding mental health and show students and teachers that they are not alone on this journey. We looked at the Subway Therapy project and it’s use of post-its as inspiration to gather information from students using Google Jamboard so they could share how they feel anonymously for others to see and relate. For our final action, we created a website: The Heartfelt Teaching Project to share information and resources with other art teachers and build a sense of community in navigating student’s well-being in the classroom. This is a topic all teachers face, and providing resources for art teachers can make a great impact by showing students that they can use art as an emotional outlet.
One goal we have for our action is to reach as many art teachers as possible. We want the resources we gathered and lessons we created to help teachers who are unsure how to help students with mental wellness, and in turn, help students feel more comfortable in the classroom. We also hope that this action will inspire teachers to take mental wellness into account in the classroom more often by doing check-ins and offering activities to help them de-stress during difficult times. Finally, we hope to build a community by sharing this with others through online platforms such as Facebook and share information and ideas with other art teachers. So far our website has received all positive feedback from different Facebook groups in which we shared it.
