Since the start of the second semester, 2+ classes around the high school have been taking time to watch and reflect on ideas and reminders brought up by Mindfulness Monday. This weekly routine was created by the PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Supports) team to help school culture improve throughout each education building.
“Mindfulness Monday was a way to come up with weekly messages for everybody to get people to stop and think for a moment about […] the things they say and how it might impact others and also themselves,” Associate Principal Dana Schoemer says.
Schoemer is a member of the PBIS team and has taken on the role of video-making for Mindfulness Monday up until April 11 when senior Emma Stokes created her first video.
“During 2+ I went around and took different video clips of classes and students. […] I wanted to show that there’s a place for everyone at school and in activities because I think it’s important to be involved, and it helps you stay busy and meet new people,” Stokes says.
So far there are only a couple of students involved with Mindfulness Monday, but Schoemer says she is open to the input of any student who wants to contribute.
“It means something different coming from you guys than it does from me,” Schoemer says.
Stokes revealed that after her video, many of her peers did reach out to her to see if their ideas could be included in an upcoming video.
“I’ve had a bunch of people be like ‘can you do a video on this?’ ‘Do you know anything about this?’” Stokes says. “[Students] are trying to start that conversation for change.”
Students and staff have given Schoemer feedback since the first video was released on Jan. 24, asking her to include more positive aspects of the school in the videos.
“That’s why you’re hearing in the announcements now, ‘Here’s a fun fact about Stoughton High School’ because it includes things that are going on that you might not be aware of that maybe can connect people back into our school,” Schoemer says.
As of now, Schoemer plans on continuing Mindfulness Monday in the years to come, partly based on some positive changes it might have sparked, such as, according to Schoemer, the fewer behavioral issues during third quarter.
Both Stokes and Schoemer hope to see even more positive changes within the school community in the future.
“Let’s realize that we are super different, but we also probably have a lot of things that are the same and coexist,” Schoemer says. “We might have some differences in opinions, but yet we can be respectful.”