Mood Meter
According to the Yale School of Medicine, emotions matter when it comes to creating a healthier and more equitable, innovative, and compassionate society. Our ability to use our emotions wisely impacts everything – creating and maintaining relationships, performing well at school and work, tapping into creativity, making good decisions, and cultivating mental and physical well-being. I plan to use the mood meter in my classroom as a Social Emotional Learning tool. This will help students identify their emotions and energy levels and inform me as to how to proceed. I’d like the students to be able to name the emotion they are feeling and not just the “zone” they are in. I will implement this strategy as a check in tool each day with my students. Students that exhibit a hard time expressing their emotions more often than other students, those will be the individuals that I consistently do more check-ins with. For example, pulling the student aside to do a ten minute check in with, so they can express to me and themselves how they are feeling that day. Then coming up with ways to express that emotion in a healthy action that will promote positive vibes throughout the rest of the day for the child. If a child is feeling upset, let them express that frustration and then come up with a action plan that can express that frustration respectively towards themselves and others, for instance writing a letter, breathing exercises, taking a walk to the counselors, etc.
Obstacles to Effective Implementation:
One obstacle for effective implementation of the Mood Meter is that students may become comfortable identifying what zone they are in (green, yellow, red, blue) without learning the vocabulary associated with the emotions they are feeling. It is extremely important to teach the vocabulary otherwise this is not an effective tool. Having the vocabulary to label emotions is a key component to the RULER approach to social emotional learning. (Yale University, Child Study Center)
Another obstacle is that students might not feel comfortable sharing their feelings with a large group of people. This may be tied a cultural norm or a personality trait. Students who are not comfortable sharing in a large group or publicly should be given other opportunities to learn how to recognize and label emotions.
Reflection:
I want my students to get the most out of our time together and to be in a space where they are open to learning. Using the mood meter as a gauge not only helps me better serve my students but is a teaching tool that helps students recognize emotions in themself and others. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) there are five social and emotional competencies for elementary and middle school students. These competencies are: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making (https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/). Through naming, exploring, visualizing, and discovering meaning, children cope with their feelings, rather than being controlled by them (Yale School of Medicine). According to CASEL, researchers, K-8 students with access to SEL programs showed gains averaging 11 to 17 percent higher than those who did not (Smith, Fisher, and Frey, 2015, p. 43). These findings emphasize the benefits of SEL teaching strategies in the classroom such as the use of the mood meter.
Using this mood meter strategy helps create self-awareness and social awareness, to help set the stage for the day, and to center ourselves to better focus on academics. When students can create awareness for themselves and others they can better relate to their peers and work more collaboratively as a team.
References: CASEL. https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/
Yale School of Medicine, Child Study Center. https://medicine.yale.edu/childstudy/services/community-and-schools-programs/center-for-emotional-intelligence/research/ruler/