Level 4
Sometimes when things become too much, we need to be removed from a situation, but we don't feel we have the power to do so. A healthy aspect of emotional discipline is knowing your limits, knowing what you can and cannot take, and knowing when you need to remove yourself from a situation.
1. Destigmatizing mental health - Mental health can be a gigantic barrier in the learning process, and the argument can be made that nobody is entirely mentally healthy. We all deal with different aspects of mental health, which makes it imperative that we learn how to effectively deal with mental health issues. In the classroom, there is nothing wrong with asking for a pass to see the school psychologist, and it needs to be imparted as such. School psychologists are excellent tools for students to regulate their well-being. No shame is cast on those who take advantage of this opportunity. It might be perverse to admit, but sometimes mental health come before learning.
2. Offering voluntary kinesthetic activity - High school students are vibrant and thumping with energy. Asking them to sit for 7 hours a day is a large task. In the classroom it needs to be taught that it is perfectly acceptable to get up and stretch or walk around for a period. No attention needs to be drawn to it, but students need to be offered the chance to kinesthetically engage themselves in order to get the most out of their learning. We are asking them to disobey a fundamental aspect of their body, the least that can be done is meet them halfway and offer consequence free opportunities for them to decompress (Classen and Classen, 2008).
3. Reframing 'get out of my class' - There is sometimes situations where students need to removed from the classroom, but reframing the conversation about it is important. Students should not be ordered out of the class to fix their behavior. Instead they should be encouraged to remove themselves from the classroom if necessary. In the event they need to be asked to leave the classroom, the conversation needs to be more productive with a clear purpose set. Instead of demanding a student remove themselves, we should tell them to go get a drink of water or wash their face. Give them the opportunity to respond to the verbal cue that they should leave the classroom. Giving them a task like washing their face gives them a clear purpose and a subtle acknowledgment that they can reenter the classroom when they have refreshed themselves (Denton, 2018).
4. Non-verbal signals - Establishing non-verbal signals with the students allows for action to be taken for a student to remove themselves from the classroom without any sort of disruption. Mutually agreed upon signals allows the student to get the instructor's attention and non-verbally tell them I need to step outside for a moment. This allows them to be discreet and allows the instructor insight into them needing to take a breather (Greene, 2014).