By Lauren Farberman and Max Rosenberg
Theme Editors
Long nights of studying, working on homework and attending to extracurriculars often bleed into early mornings of sleep-deprived struggles for students in school; Mira Costa’s Social Emotional Wellness Committee works to combat just this.
The committee consists of about 20 students, parents, administrators, counselors and teachers, all of whom have joined together to find the root causes of stress on campus. The group, now almost two years old, has accelerated its implementation of a number of stress-reducing initiatives on and off campus this year.
PHOTOS: A closer look at Shadow Day
New this year, Shadow Days have been held twice this year, first in November and more recently in January. Shadow Days occur within a week-long period during which 15 administrators, teachers or parents accompany 18 Costa students throughout one school day. While shadowing students, members of the committee hope to gain a comprehensive understanding of students’ school lives ranging across all grade levels and workloads, including extracurricular, co-curricular and sports obligations. The goal of shadowing was not only to allow shadowers to gain insight on the daily life of a student, but to evaluate stressors such as homework load and lack of sleep, Social Emotional Wellness Committee Head Ellen Rosenberg said.
“Being shadowed for a full day at Costa was one of the most engaging things I have done in high school,” said Costa junior Phillip Wah, who was shadowed by Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews during the Jan. 23-27 session. “It was one of the few times during my schooling where I was given the chance to really connect and open up to a faculty member.”
In order to select the faculty members that would shadow students, Costa administrators sent an email inviting teachers to participate in a Shadow Day. Shadowers and students were randomly paired up together.
“I have always been really curious about students’ school lives, so this was an opportunity I could not pass up,” English teacher and shadower Quincy Howerton said.
During the committee’s Jan. 31 meeting, both students and shadowers shared their experiences and observations from the Shadow Days through an open discussion over lunch that was held at the end of the week of shadowing.
“The feedback that we’ve gained has been very enlightening and mind-expanding with a few things that we haven’t considered,” Rosenberg said. “The students have also been helpful by chiming in their views and by discussing a topic; they offer different perspectives.”
A number of shadowers observed a lack of time for snack and passing periods, along with teachers’ lack of commitment to the designated exam days, according to Rosenberg.
“I found that there is no time to use the restroom or go to your locker because getting from class to class takes up all the time during a passing period, so students have to acclimate and find a way to plan their breaks around the bell schedule, which can be stressful,” Howerton said.
Howerton believes that shadowing a student was beneficial because it allowed her to gain a greater understanding of methods that alleviate stress in the classroom, such as adhering to the designated test days for each department, she said. Although encouraged throughout the year, Howerton has not previously enforced the policy in her classroom due to altered class times caused by minimum days or late starts, for example, she said.
“I would rather my students study for one test, rather than divide their time up to study for three different classes,” Howerton said.” I am going to adhere to the English testing days in the future. Having been in the classroom on the student side, I really saw how beneficial this can be.”
Despite informative findings of the Shadow Days, several participating stu- dents, including Wah, have raised ques- tions regarding the possibility that one day was not sufficient to encompass the breadth of students’ experiences, he said. Shadowers only observed each student for a single day, which Wah believes was not a fitting time period to accurately understand an individual’s entire workload and stress over time, Wah said.
“One day is simply not enough time for a teacher to understand all the things a student does and goes through,” Wah said. “At this point, I am curious as to what else the district can come up with in their effort to combat student stress.”
Due to a limit on the number of teachers that can shadow in each round, several staff members who wanted to participate were unable to do so during the two Shadow Days, Rosenberg said. In order to accommodate this demand for an increased number of shadow opportunities, the SEW Committee is considering a third round this year that would likely occur after AP exams, Rosenberg said, possibly limiting shadow positions to Mira Costa staff members.
“We thought we were done for the year, but at our last meeting there were still a decent number of teachers that wanted to get the experience of shadow-ing,” Rosenberg said. “If we do another round, we will most likely limit the shad- ow positions to Mira Costa staff. Overall, we as a committee are satisfied with how the Shadow Days turned out.”
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