Every Wednesday during Cougar Connections, students and staff participate in SEL (Social Emotional Learning) lessons to help educate students on different skills.
Cougar Connections is meant to be a time for students to work on any schoolwork they have during school hours so that less homework is sent home. Now that is what Cougar Connections is mainly for, but it is not the only thing students do. Cougar Connections is also meant to be a time for students to build relationships with each other. Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Data Steward Lisa Bergmeyer explains, “The purpose of that time [Cougar Connections] is to work on building relationships and building a community where one feels comfortable having discussions around internet safety, bullying and social relationships and responsibilities.”
SEL lessons are programs that educate students about a wide variety of topics. The main topics students will learn about are internet safety and digital citizenship as well as mental health and peer relationships. How the school achieves these goals is by using programs like Neptune Navigate, Character Strong and Softsxills.
Neptune Navigate is used to educate students about internet safety and digital citizenship. This program teaches students how to use technology safely, responsibly and respectfully. These skills help students with protecting privacy, building reputations, and succeeding in school, work and life online. “We try to complete these lessons during the beginning of the year since technology is in students’ hands all day long,” says Bergmeyer.
Character Strong mainly focuses on behavior, peer relationships and mental health. The goal of this program is to give students coping strategies that will help with everyday situations in and out of school. Whether or not students have something bothering them, this program will hopefully teach students how to cope with situations in the future. Bergmeyer hopes, “this program provides students with tools and strategies that will support them through everyday situations in school and life”.
Softsxills is a program where students can go to reflect on work and on a set of important skills such as creativity, leadership, problem-solving, and resilience.These skills are important to students as they grow and transition to adulthood. The goal of this program is to help students with not only tests and grades but for life outside of school. Bergmeyer explained, “Conestoga works with the company Softsxills to have students reflect on their work and awareness around a set of identified skills”.
The SEL lessons are something that not a lot of students enjoy according to an anonymous poll. Of the thirteen respondents, 92% say that they do not enjoy SEL lessons. The majority of students from the poll believe that these lessons are too boring, making it hard to focus on, and take up too much study hall time. What students want with these lessons is making them shorter [allowing more study hall time], and being more interactive [hands on] to make the lessons more enjoyable.
