Teach for Wellness

PROBLEM: In the summer of 2022, students were completing their first fully in-person school year after the disruptions from the pandemic, and a concerning trend was emerging: students were increasingly struggling with mental health issues and this was leading to behavioral issues in the classroom. The isolation of the pandemic and the associated increase in online activity exacerbated feelings of depression and anxiety, and educators were themselves struggling with how to simultaneously support students and be mindful of their own worsening mental health.

PARTNERS: In a series of focus groups with school leaders, counselors, and teachers, it became clear that educators were looking for proven and easy-to-implement strategies to build happy and resilient classrooms. We partnered with John Crocker at the Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium (MASMHC) and psychiatrists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to help provide those strategies. As this community grew, we also welcomed the Teacher Collaborative as a critical partner in this effort.

SOLUTION: Together, we planned a free summer webinar series on Cognitive Behavioral Tools (CBT) for the classroom, offering expert advice to educators on plug-and-play tools to support student mental health in the next school year. Hundreds of educators across the state attended these sessions, and we heard a desire for continued engagement on this topic. In response, we formed the “Teach for Wellness” community, a growing community of curious educators seeking and sharing proven strategies for supporting resilient students.

ADOPTION: The “Teach For Wellness” community continued to expand over the following year with a monthly newsletter containing wellness tips for educators, and by the end of the 2022-2023 school year there were over 500 educators engaged regularly with experts on a variety of mental health topics. In the summer of 2023, in response to increasing demand, we held another free webinar on bringing trauma-informed teaching strategies into classrooms.