Long Beach teachers add art for social emotional support

Students at Quarles Elementary School in Long Beach were welcomed back to class from summer break with a splash of color this morning.

Monday may be the first day of school for Quarles Elementary students, but Principal Dr. Jan Hanson has been working hard all summer to prepare these halls for the 2018-2019 school year. “We have added an additional layer of social emotional support in addition to all the academic improvements that we made. So, we have painted the front walk. They all look like pencils on the posts coming in. We have the motivational walls and some of the bathrooms are painted above the mirrors.”

The walls now act as reminders to students to a ‘be a leader’ or ‘do something amazing.’ “We want children to understand how important they are. Once they understand how important they are to themselves and to us then the academic part is not as difficult to tackle for the children or for the teachers. We are really trying to grow the child as a whole.”

Along with motivational quotes, each teacher has hung their college alma mater flag in front of the their classroom and every hallway has the students’ graduation year banner hanging up. Dr. Hanson says this aspect of the social emotional support aligns with their drop-out prevention program. “We have added that different level of support to get them enthused and engaged and committed to learning. There’s a lot of talk about continuing on and graduating from high school and continuing on with their education.”