Attalla City Schools: Thinking Outside the Box to Address Social-Emotional Wellness

By Nate Ayers
Assistant Principal
Etowah High School

I truly believe education is a calling and continual growth is a commitment to something much greater than yourself. For that reason I am writing this to share with you a few things that we have done with our students in Attalla City Schools to facilitate a safe and positive learning environment with strong social and emotional support.

At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, when I was AP at Etowah Middle School, our school district made the Social and Emotional wellness of our students a point of emphasis for our system. Not that the social and emotional wellness of students wasn’t important before – but this time we were going to develop a united approach toward the issue.

After an initial meeting, our school leadership team began to brainstorm ways to reach our students. Three years prior, Etowah Middle had implemented a positive behavioral intervention system built around teams. This model had made an impact in several measurable areas including discipline, attendance, and achievement.

Using this structure as our platform for further innovation, we decided to use our sub-groups (mentor groups) within each team to discuss topics in a small group setting with the goal of improving Social Emotional Learning at our school.

The groups were working very well and there were several students who we were able to get extra help in areas that they needed because of topics that were discussed within these groups.

“I ain’t no snitch.”

Our daily atmosphere in the hallways was pretty good but we were still struggling to get students to come to the office when there was an issue or conflict that needed to be resolved.

There were also a few public arguments and confrontations that we all felt like could have been avoided had there just been better communication. After one of the confrontations I asked the student why they had not reported the issue to us if it had been going on so long.

His reply was not surprising but it hit me in a different way this time. The student, who I have a great relationship with, said, “Mr. Ayers, I ain’t no snitch.” After he left I knew there had to be a better way to become aware of these issues and address them before they blew up in the hallway.

A “home-grown” SEL formative assessment

After a talk with Jeff Johnson, my principal, we left the office with a way that our school leadership could formatively assess our students when we felt like there were issues taking place.

We believed we would be able to put our SEL formative assessment plan into action because we had already developed meaningful and trusting relationships with our students. These relationships would open the door to real conversations about tough topics if we could just get past the worries over the stigma of being seen as an informant.

Step one was devising a way for our administration to have meaningful conversations with students that kept other students from knowing the conversations were happening. We knew that if a student was called to the office over the school intercom or if a student aide was sent to bring a student to the office, the summoned student would not open up on the issue at hand for fear of being called a “snitch.”

To offset this stigma we had to be creative in the way we talked to students while at the same time protecting as much instructional time as possible. We decided to look at the student’s schedule and see when they were in an elective class. Once that time was determined we would send word to that teacher that the student in question was being requested by another teacher.

Then an administrator would meet them in the hall in between the two locations to have a conversation about the issue we were concerned about. At the end of the conversation we would always tell them we were going to follow up and how that follow up would take place.

December 2019: Eighth graders at Etowah Middle School and teacher Stacia Tidwell teamed up to provide holiday gifts for more than 30 children. @EMSBlueDevils

It worked – and so has Step 2

Although I was all-in, I must admit I was a little skeptical that our initial step would work. To my surprise students were very comfortable talking about their problems when none of their peers knew they were talking to us. There were many different issues that we were able to address and we utilized the counselor when we felt the issues in play needed her attention.

Like any well planned lesson we now had to come up with Step 2 – the follow up. We did not want to take students away from classroom work, so we decided to use transition times. We purposefully positioned ourselves in the hallway where the student in question would have to walk past us.

I should say that one of our norms for administrators at our school is to be visible during transitions and speak to as many students as we can while they’re moving through the hallways. You might think this daily contact with our students would make them late for their next class, but we have always kept the contacts simple and brief. “Sally, I heard you crushed your science test last week, great job,” or “Good game last night, Jonny.” These quick but meaningful comments allow us to deepen our relationships with our students over time.

Since our students were already accustomed to these daily hall exchanges, no one suspected that our check-ins with certain students about issues and conflicts were anything unusual. In fact, these interactions rarely involved any words at all. As the student walked by we would make eye contact and simply give them a thumbs up. If that thumbs up was reciprocated then we knew the issue had improved. If the thumbs up was not returned or the student shook their head or gave us a blank stare we knew the matter needed further attention.

It comes down to relationships

Our approach here was not rooted in any specific research and might not be found in any book on “best practices” around the social emotional wellness of students. However, one thing that drove this concept has been extensively studied and proven time and time again as a way to improve school culture and climate. And that’s the importance teacher-student relationships play in the education of young people.

Bottom line: Get to know your students on a level that’s deeper than their academic development. Get to know what makes them tick and fuels their learning fire. Those relationships will open the way to genuine and impactful social emotional learning.

I appreciate your time reading this blog post and would be glad to answer any questions you may have about this idea or any best practices when it comes to developing and maintaining a successful PBIS in your school.

Nate Ayers, Ed.D, was recently named assistant principal of Etowah High School, after serving four years as AP at Etowah Middle. His 13-year career in education includes four years as an administrator in the Attalla City Schools and nine years as a Science teacher at Holly Pond High School in Cullman County, where he also coached football, basketball, and track and field.

Nate and his wife Laney (pictured here) have two children, Parker (9) and Walker (6). If you have questions about Attalla’s SEL initiatives, you can reach Nate at [email protected].