The importance of our virtual village for the social-emotional reception of learners during social isolation

General topic of interest

One way to support students to develop social-emotional skills is teaching them to recognize and identify emotions. Since all emotions are necessary, the students could learn that there are no “good” or “bad” emotions, they come and go in different levels. There are good and bad ways of expressing emotions.

The role of the Guidance Counselor is to help students learn to welcome and validate the emotions and learn to manage stress through tools that aim at self-knowledge, empathy and respect for differences.

The social isolation due to the pandemic made students experience emotions that became more intense.

During the meetings with the guidance counselor, the students could talk about how they were feeling, be listened and build and share strategies to deal with. What the students shared most was sadness, fear, joy and gratitude (for being protected) for the context in which they lived.
The approach of our socio-emotional work with students aims to validate emotions, naming them and always looking for new tools to learn how to manage them in order to maintain socio-emotional balance in a time of pandemic.

In this way, we conducted activities in "small groups" of conversation, mindfulness and individual assistance with students in this process of self-knowledge.