Final Reflection

    The past few weeks have been unimaginable in every way possible. Instead of neglecting my continuous thoughts on the world's current state of protests and dealing with a fatal, infectious disease, I decided to use them as a motivator to look further into this situation for my Passion Project. As a biologist, I have always been interested in symbiotic relationships in nature, thus naturally gravitated towards learning about the relationship between viruses, specifically the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and humans living through a global pandemic. Besides learning about the immediate effects of COVID-19, I was mainly concerned about the long-term effects. Through more research I discovered studies around childhood trauma from disease outbreaks is very new considering we've only recently been experiencing epidemics such as those in 2003 and 2011 related to SARS. Thus, not much planning or preventative measures have been put in place to help with recovery from a pandemic that takes a toll on ones mental and physical health. 

    However, my journey led me to find teachings around social and emotional learning that exist and have proved to benefit student self-management of emotions. Society has normalized suppressing emotions and keeping difficult thoughts to ourselves, and in many cultures there is still negative stigma around mental health. A beginning approach to changing that mindset is through social and emotional learning as we learn to acknowledge and accept those negative thoughts/feelings. Then, thinking what coping strategies can I use to better myself as a person and keep myself at ease. One strategy that has gained familiarity is mindfulness education. I found myself questioning: Is mindfulness effective? Can my students use mindfulness? Will they enjoy and benefit from mindfulness? How can I make mindfulness fun? and continued to explore for answers. Healing as I learned is a long process, but I am committed to taking that first step with my students and being vulnerable with them. 

   All in all, the modules supported me to keep in mind everyone has different schemas, different transactions, different experiences, different discourses and each have their individual uniqueness so we can't always make generalizations that one strategy fits all. Thus, the importance of analyzing various informational and literature texts for their complexities, and how they can be modified to suit a certain audience, grade level, and student. Likewise, the teacher reflections highlighted the importance and value of cultural relevance and student-led activities. The list of cooperative learning activities mentioned in module 7 are also an important part of SEL by having students collaborate and understand they each play a valuable role. The text sets are my starting pieces for understanding mindfulness. In order to make mindfulness effective in my classroom, not only do I have to educate myself through the literature, but also from students, parents, and community members who might already have insight on their own mindfulness practices. With the summer wrapping up, I'm looking forward to meeting my new class of students and navigating through the new challenges and successes this hybrid school year will bring. I'll now remember when times get stressful to just...breathe!