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College of Education senior instructs peers on student mental health By Stephanie Koons
As an aspiring teacher and soon-to-be graduate of the College of Education, SaraGrace Kimball understands that mental health awareness is an important issue for all educators as they play an influential role in their students’ lives. During the spring 2021 semester, she taught a course on how teachers can support students’ mental health as part of an initiative at Penn State to give undergraduate students at University Park an opportunity to design and teach their own credit-bearing courses. Kimball, a senior secondary math education major with a minor in English, taught EDUC197: Supporting Students’ Mental Health for the first eight weeks of the spring semester through synchronous Zoom. While teaching the one-credit class, Kimball challenged her students to take an in-depth look at the literature surrounding how teachers can support students’ mental health. She said her goal was for her students to not only think theoretically but also to take away concrete methods to support their students’ emotional, psychological and social well-being. “We’re really just brushing the surface on trauma-informed education and how students can support mental health, but I think it’s a really important start for the college to see the positive outcomes that can come from a course like this,” said Kimball. Kimball developed and taught 10
Penn State Education
“As a future teacher, it is important that I know how to help my students in the best way possible.”
— Makayla Clemons
the EDUC197 course through Students Teaching Students (STS), an organization at Penn State launched in spring 2020 that equips and enables undergraduate students to teach an official course under the supervision of a faculty member. STS partners with both the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence and the Student Engagement Network. Kimball’s faculty sponsor for her course was Fran Arbaugh, professor of education (mathematics education) in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, who was present at each Zoom class but muted and video turned off. “SaraGrace had the whole class planned out before the semester even started,” Arbaugh said. “She was so thoughtful in how she constructed the sessions and in choosing the readings she asked the students to do.” According to Arbaugh, one of the benefits for a teacher in the STS program is “being able to engage other Penn State students in discussions they’re really interested in having.” For the students, having a peer as an instructor encourages them to express themselves more candidly. “I think having these kinds of discussions about K-12 students’ mental health with another preservice teacher freed them up to talk about the things they really wanted to talk about,” she said. Kimball said one of her main
goals for the class was to create a collaborative environment in which the students would feel comfortable bouncing ideas off each other. “It wasn’t supposed to be ‘I’m just talking at you for two hours,’ it was supposed to be a ‘we’re going to discover this together’ environment,” she said. “But it was hard to know how successful that was going to be in a virtual setting. And so I tried really hard early on to build connections and relationships.” To accomplish that goal, Kimball practiced patience while taking a creative approach to teaching. She dedicated a class and a half to letting students get to know each other. She also used Zoom breakout rooms to divide the class into small groups, and students answered icebreaker questions and played games. Kimball also established discussion boards on Canvas. “It’s all about variation for your students so that they’re not getting bored and they’re staying involved in the class,” she said. Valarie Hibbard, a freshman majoring in elementary and early childhood education who took the Supporting Students’ Mental Health class, said she felt like she could be more up-front about her opinions in class with a teacher close to her age. “We’ve likely shared experiences recently which helps to create this connection that a student may not experience with a professor 30
