DONS TIME

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING FOR EACH AND EVERY STUDENT

By Marlena Conroy, Principal

On Tuesday after lunch, Jack walks into his social studies class where he is greeted by his teacher with a post-it note and the name of one of his classmates on it. After prayer, the teacher asks the class to write a compliment about the person named on their post-it. After 2 minutes, the teacher collects the post-its and redistributes them to the person named on the post-it as the students leave class for the day.

We are in a unique period of time as we emerge from the pandemic. We are no longer educating students in prepandemic 2019. We now must shift our thinking and teaching strategies to care for the well-being of our post-pandemic students. When we returned to school in 2021, educators discovered that students forgot how to connect with their peers and their teachers, students struggled to name their emotions when they were navigating isolation, and students grappled with the challenges of returning to rigorous academics five days a week.

In May of 2022, we gathered all Cathedral Catholic employees to reflect on our students' challenges and to dream about what could be to support our students to thrive. We asked all CCHS employees to answer three questions:

1. What would you hope an ideal graduate would be able to DO (automatically, naturally)?

2. What would you hope an ideal graduate would SAY (automatically, naturally)? What would they sound like?

3. What would you hope an ideal graduate would THINK (automatically, naturally) about themselves, about their community, about those different from them, about God, about the world, etc.?

The responses were incredible to read, and we went through them as a team when we returned in the fall. Some people imagine that a science teacher may hope that a graduate is thinking about a science career or that a math teacher may wish that students retain essential math formulas. Instead, teachers, staff and counselors submitted statements like:

Do

“As a student, athlete, employee (whatever role they find themselves in), someone that models themselves as a person of faith, character and lifelong commitment to being a better human than they were the day before.”

Say

“A CCHS graduate will be slow to speak and quick to listen. While engaging in conversation, a CCHS graduate will seek to understand the ‘other’ point of view and also speak with conviction, strength and clarity about his or her own beliefs. A CCHS graduate will use words to encourage, uplift and inspire, rather than tear down and destroy.”

Think

“An ideal graduate would naturally think about how he or she can live the call and build the kingdom. They would think about their own dignity and worth as a child of God made in His image, as well as that of every other human being.”

Once we read through our hopes for our graduates, we had the task of integrating social and emotional learning into their classroom routines. We recognized that we needed to start our day differently to encourage belonging and connectedness for our students because, as John C. Maxwell states, “Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

In response to our conversations about what we want our graduates to do, say and think, we introduced Dons Time into our classes. Dons Time is about supporting student connectedness with their peers and teachers, being able to name their feelings and regulate emotions, and developing social and emotional skills like reflecting on accomplishments and confronting challenges. Dons Time is just as critical in our students’ development as the lessons they are learning in their other courses. On any given day after prayer and before diving into the lesson, the teacher will incorporate a Dons Time activity. A teacher may request, “Take a few minutes to share with me a rose (a small win or accomplishment), a thorn (a challenge) and a bud (something they are looking forward to) on the Google Form.” Another class is starting their day with the teacher asking students to give their internal weather report instead of simply saying “here” while taking attendance. Students in another class are returning to their giant Jenga game that they started earlier in the week. The Jenga pieces have a question written on each of the blocks to help students get to know each other.

These are not the typical math, social studies, science, English, arts, world language and religion classes that we took when we were in high school. Instead, these are classes that are committed to student connectedness and belonging. Our educators are aware of the importance of social and emotional well-being and dedicate their time to addressing their students’ social-emotional needs.