This 2023-2024 school year, administration created a new bell schedule on Wednesdays to incorporate a designated time for Social Emotional Learning with the rethink Ed program to assist students with: decision making skills, managing emotions, and developing empathy skills. Every Wednesday, the schedule abbreviates each period so that a 20-minute Advisement schedule is inserted after third period.
Prior to this change, advisement was scheduled about three to four times per semester with the teacher choosing what day to show the video and present the lesson during study hall. Just like last year, teachers must show the videos but have a choice on whether to present the lessons to accompany the video.
Sophomore Makayla Irby shares her thoughts on the new schedule, and said, “I actually think it’s better than last year because I would have to do that learning video in study hall and no one paid attention, and now the new advisement thing shortens my classes, so I like it.” Irby then begins to talk about the positive impact SEL has on students, she said, “It makes the students think about things they might not usually think about and even if they aren’t paying attention, they still see the video.”
Freshman Ben Shaener, a student who works with the health company Syncx doesn’t enjoy the videos in advisement. Shaener said, “I’ve worked in the mental health space for a little bit and I’m going to be honest, the best way to reach kids is not to put them in front of a video that they will immediately disregard, instead its actually to touch them one on one.”
Senior Sophie Schuman agreed with Irby’s assessment of the new schedule. Schuman said, “I enjoy the new advisement schedules because it gives you twenty minutes to unwind in the middle of the day.” Schuman then explains why she prefers the current schedule rather than the advisement from the previous years, “I like that this schedule has stayed consistent.”
English teacher, Steffen Mathis, who facilitates SEL for the school, shares the purpose for the change of and the importance of SEL. According to Mathis, “To many things were going on last year during fourth period and the lessons were not getting delivered and Fulton County Schools requires us to do Social Emotional Learning. They do the process across the whole school system, so when we got the numbers on how many students were receiving the lessons or engaging in the program, we had to make a change and most other schools have an advisement where they do this.”
Mathis then talks about the purpose of SEL. Mathis said, “The intention is to give resources and background on basic self-regulation or social skills, and I think that the lessons do that. I think that discussion and giving kids resources that are closer to Roswell are a part of it as well.”
