Submitted Photo Surrey Public School student Charlee Keller and school counselor Rachael Ritzke use Kinetic Sand as a play therapy method in Ritzke's classroom on March 22.

Schools in the area surrounding Minot have been taking several steps in helping students learn to recognize and process their emotions and become mindful of their own bodies using social emotional learning (SEL).

Because young people can find it difficult to express needs or communicate what they are feeling, counselors and teachers at Glenburn and Surrey Public Schools are stepping up to help their students recognize, label, communicate and process their emotions when they feel overwhelmed.

Rachael Ritzke has been the counselor at Surrey Public School since 2016. Becoming a counselor was not what she thought she would do when she finished college. She graduated with a degree in social work, but she was not sure which direction she wanted to go with her career.

She was a substitute teacher for a while, and the school system she was working for at the time asked if she was interested in going back to school for teaching or if she had ever considered becoming a school counselor.

She visited with the counselor at the school where she worked, and that visit got her interested.

“I get to do the best of both worlds,” Ritzke said. “I get to help students work through their problems. And so, I still get to be in the helping profession, and I thoroughly enjoy working with kids and giving them all the essential skills and the tools to help them be successful.”

Ritzke sets up readings and activities for students who come into her classroom. They have covered several different topics, such as boundaries and how some people may not like hugs, instead preferring a high-five or a fist bump; behaviors and their consequences; and talking to other people with kind words.

Her classroom is chock-full of games, activities and posters. These are kept around as a way for students to focus on something else for a few minutes before talking about what may be bothering them.

A couple of the games she uses are Talking, Feeling, and Doing, and My Feelings: Exploring Emotions through Fun, Active Play. She also has a tub filled with purple Kinetic Sand that holds its shape when molded without water. Students can play with the sand and use the feel of it or the action of play to bring themselves toward a baseline emotional state.

The My Feelings game gives students a chance to see what sadness, anger or frustration might look like, especially if they have a hard time communicating or figuring out what it is they are feeling.

Ritzke generally tries to stay away from worksheets and things of that nature. She likes to play more interactive videos.The younger elementary students enjoy the comedy in the videos and dancing along.

Students are sometimes put into pairs or groups for interactive activities. One of the important skills she tries to teach to her students is leadership and what being a leader truly means.

“I feel like they also need to learn how to interact with people and be a leader,” Ritzke said. “Working in a group, [you find] out how you can best get everybody’s voices heard and not just kind of take over.”

Glenburn Public School’s counselor Emilie Walker does many of the same things as Ritzke, but her original goal was to do art therapy in a maximum security prison. Instead, she received her degree in art education and taught art on the high school end for six years before the previous counselor left.

“I just kind of thought I could probably do more for students in a counselor aspect than I could with being in the art position,” Walker said. “And so, they definitely took a chance on me, and I’m so happy with how things have gone so far and I feel so blessed to be in this position.”

Walker has a Jenga game with SEL-related questions on each individual block for the student to answer as a way to facilitate conversation if they cannot figure out where to begin with vocalizing what they are feeling.

As a way to practice mindfulness, Walker’s first-grade students listened to a story about Mindful Mr. Sloth, who described what it can be like to constantly be on the go and not listening to what their bodies were telling them or recognizing what they are feeling.

After the story, they settled on the floor and did what Walker called a “body scanner.” They focus on each individual part of their body and what sensations they feel, such as what their socks feel like inside their shoes and against their feet.

Another activity Walker uses to help them self-regulate is blowing bubbles, which allows the students to practice deep breathing techniques with a fun twist.

One thing Ritzke has that Walker is looking forward to is a sandbox. A regulation strategy that Walker found includes finding little “trinkets” or toys to put in the sand and labeling what they signify as a form of play therapy.

Walker has a rotating schedule with each class from kindergarten to 12th grade. She meets with the elementary students every week and the high school students once a month. Sessions with elementary students last around 30 minutes and sessions with high school students last the full 47-minute class period.

Both counselors work closely with the teachers and school staff to keep an eye on their students, watching for shifts in demeanor or behavior. If a teacher notices a student appears to be in a state of sensory overload, the teacher will call the counselor and ask if she has a few minutes to sit and talk with the student.

In class, teachers see a lot of what goes on and notice things that may bother a particular student or cause them stress.

“They can kind of pick up on those nonverbal communication cues and then they’re able to realize what they need, and we communicate with each other on how best we can support them,” Ritzke said.

During classes with the elementary students, after doing calm activities such as reading a book, meditating or body scanning, the counselors sometimes introduce high-energy activities, such as doing the Hokey-Pokey. Even while having fun, students still need to be mindful of where their arms and legs are in regard to their neighbor.

By introducing activities for different energy levels, the students have a few calming techniques at their disposal when or if they find themselves in crisis. They can try one method, and if it does not work, they have other things to try.

Walker said she really prefers the smaller class sizes in Glenburn, enjoying more one-on-one time with the students if they ever happen to need it.

“I think it’s really neat that our teachers can identify everybody on the high school end, everybody on the elementary end. They’re a person and an individual versus just a number,” Walker said.

She sees her students in the hallway every day and knows them all by name, which she described as a key part of forming relationships with her students.

“My ultimate goal is to know that when these students enter our halls in our building, they know that they’re loved, that they’re supported, they’re cared for, and that they always have staff members, including myself, to go to at any time that they need,” Ritzke said.