As you may know, one of D303’s core values is belonging. Along with belonging, our district’s main priorities are student attendance and academics.  Our school strives to ensure that our students attend school, feel connected, and achieve good grades. At Wredling, we have an SEL student focus group. This group of sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade students have met over the last couple of months to brainstorm ways to support these main district/school goals. We have been working on ways to encourage students to come to school, get good grades, and feel connected with others. Here is an overview of the work that we have done.

Attendance Focus:

This group has been working on ways to encourage students to understand the importance of coming to school. D303’s attendance goal is for all students to attend school 95% of the school year. I interviewed some of the students in this group to figure out how their group was going to help our school. Violet Arbulu, Heather Colbert, and Erika Enders volunteered to participate in the interview. 

What did your group decide to do so that kids would understand the importance of coming to school?

We made a slideshow that was on all pod TVs, showcasing Wredling’s attendance statistics. It also shared reasons why students should come to school. We worked hard to create a fun song that would get stuck in kids’ heads but would produce information.

Belonging Focus: 

This group’s focus was to help students feel like they belong at our school. As you might know, D303’s motto is “Be Here, Be You, Belong”.  If you were at lunch on February 16,  you probably saw two tables with kids from our group handing out strips of paper for students to write something kind. Those strips of paper are hanging in the main foyer in a kindness chain. Another idea the belonging focus group had was to help advertise belonging by making posters. In the hall, you will see a variety of posters on the wall. Please take time out of your day to read these posters as this group took a lot of time and effort to showcase the importance of belonging and kindness.

Academic Focus:

Our District’s goal is for all learners to achieve a B average or higher. The academic focus group’s mission was to help kids realize the importance of grades. As I interviewed some of the kids from this group, I learned more about the importance of academics. The students interviewed were Connor Dell, Jarratt Tish, and Audrey Scheider.

What did your group do to help show the importance of grades?

Connor and Jarratt: We made posters to inform students about study habits that will help when they are in need of help. Our goal with our posters is to show the importance of studying and getting a good grade.

Haileigh: What is the goal of this group? 

Audrey: I would say the goal for our group is for kids to average a C or higher in their classes.  We want students to understand the goal and how getting a bad grade may affect them in the future.

I interviewed some other students in our school to see if they saw a change after all the work of the SEL student focus group. Redhawks interviewed were Keya Patel, Carson Naatz, and Jaxon Smith. 

Do you feel like the SEL focus group has been improving our school?

 Keya: I think that it was such a great idea to put posters all around the school, it was extremely motivating. So I do think they are doing a great job at trying to make our school a better place.

Do you think that the SEL focus group has done a good job at making our school a better place?

Jaxon: I would say that the messages are conveyed very well, I believe a lot of kids don’t notice them due to the hallways being crowded. They are quite hard to read when trying to get to class. 

Haileigh: How do you feel about the posters that the SEL focus group hung up?

Carson: I know that they are about kindness but It’s slightly hard to read them walking through the hallways. They do make our school halls a lot less boring, and very creative.

Overall, I would like to thank all the students who have participated in the SEL student focus group. They have served as role models for Wredling by helping to promote social-emotional learning for all.

6th-grade students: Jonathan Atienza, Lily Brogan, Maeve Carlson, Courtney Hassman, Chase Hernandez, Frannie Iori, Ellie Johnston, Devin Knap, Claire Lewandowski, Lorenzo Otalora, Sofia Quiroga, Audrey Scheider, McKinley Shanahan, Sofia Quiroga, Audrey Scheider, McKinley Shanahan, Vincenzo Spaccaferro, Anabelle Stellman, and Ella Svihra

7th-grade students: Violet Arbulu, Heather Colbert, Maddie Coleman, Grace Cook, Abeile Edwards, Erika Enders, Nadia Langer, Christian Morales, Atharva Patel, Reese Spyrnal, Aidan Steinhauser, and Trevor Sutherland

8th-grade students: Carla Almaguer, Connor Dell, Haileigh Prill, Emma Schwartz, Jarratt Tish, Giovanna Turi, Mady Walker, and Zoe Zars