Danica Thomsen-Harnick (she/her)
OCT, BA (Hons.) & BEd (Primary/Junior/Intermediate/Senior)
ReconciliACTION Collaborative Inquiry
Deep Learning Certification 2022-2023
Please find our project here.
MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID KITS:
A SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS PROJECT BY ST. JOSEPHINE PAF 3O/4O CLASS
SEMESTER 1 2021-2022
See this work featured in the 2022 Director's Annual Report here!
CITIZENSHIP
CGE: A responsible citizen who gives witness to Catholic social teaching by promoting peace, justice and the sacredness of human life.
Students saw a major need for mental health supports for youth, particularly exacerbated by the pandemic. They chose to create a product that would support fellow students' mental health needs across the Board as well as support CHEO through a donation built into the cost of the kit.
COLLABORATION
CGE: A collaborative contributor who finds meaning, dignity and vocation in work which respects the rights of all and contributes to the common good.
Students learned from our business mentor that all good businesses begin with three main departments: finance, product development, and marketing. They were divided into teams and worked together to develop the different aspects of the project, including the contents, the budgeting, the booklet, and the Shopify site.
CRITICAL THINKING
At the beginning of the semester, students learned about the four aspects of health: physical, spiritual, social, and emotional. They considered the four aspects and connected them to the types of items they wanted to include in the kit, researched the cost of their items, and finalized the contents based on their priorities.
CREATIVITY
CGE: A reflective, creative and holistic thinker who solves problems and makes responsible decisions with an informed moral conscience for the common good.
COMMUNICATION
CGE: An effective communicator who speaks, writes, and listens honestly and sensitively, responding critically in light of gospel values.
Through learning from myself and the business mentor, students learned how to generate a business meeting agenda and minutes to communicate the events and decisions of each meeting. They learned to give and receive appropriate feedback to and from leaders and peers, and how to resolve conflicts and differences of opinion about the final decisions of the project, such as when there was a miscommunication about who was designing the logo, and one student felt left out of the process. They learned to have professional and respectful discussion using "I" statements.
CHARACTER
Students experiences challenges in implementing the project, including limited timelines, figuring out what to do if someone doesn't uphold their responsibilities, handling deadlines, owning up to mistakes, and communicating kindly. This project was not a complete success, and students had to navigate disappointment in not fundraising enough for the final product, and suggest ways to complete the project after the semester had ended. They persevered through these challenges and demonstrated resilience, connecting back to the reason for developing the kit in the first place: to help students develop better resilience through mental health challenges.
LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS
My students and I engaged with a number of partners from within and outside the school board for this project, including:
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The Social Entrepreneurs Project team from the OCSB, led by Kim Lacelle, coordinating the process
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Shopify contact, Richard White
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Our business mentor, Jim Cummings
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Wellness Works Canada founder Victoria Granger connected with us about the similar kits her company produces for workplaces
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Dr. Richard Bolduc, OCSB Mental Health Lead to approve the project and kit contents to be distributed to schools across the Board
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Guidance counsellors, teacher-librarians, and resource teachers across the board requested kits and sent out our website to encourage families to donate
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Neda Bernabo for purchasing
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All Saints High School allowed us to use their space for kit assembly
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LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Being in a Virtual school, our learning environment was entirely digital! I worked to build rapport with students from day 1 to create a safe space for students to share their thoughts, ideas, and work through maintaining high expectations for respectful communication
Students designed a digital booklet to be included in the kit, and connected the contents to the four aspects of health. They designed a logo and a name for their social enterprise, Mind Body Development & Co. We had one student write and include a personal poem, and another personally took on creating affirmation cards to include in the kit. He designed the cards with appropriate affirmations, printed, and laminated them on his own!
PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES
Throughout the process, students engaged in:
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Project-based learning
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Having voice and choice
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Social constructivism
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Using a growth mindset to overcome challenges and failures
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Receiving immediate constructive feedback
LEVERAGING DIGITAL
It was challenging for a Virtual class to create a physical product! Students collaborated in small groups using Google Meet, Docs, and Slides to meet, take meeting notes, and develop their ideas, and to invite guest speakers and show them their work to solicit feedback. They set up an online Shopify store to solicit donations for the products, and used Book Creator to present their information and resources in the kit via a QR code, saving printing costs and allowing them to include videos and images freely.
FAITH CONNECTIONS
In the kit, students included a New Testament (with Psalms and Proverbs). The digital book also includes a a link to a Bible app, and it has a feature that directs students to scriptures that connect to a variety of specific life circumstances. Christian music is included in the Spotify playlist linked into the digital book, and prayer and connecting to a faith community are included as coping strategies for negative mental health. There are also Bible verses and prayers selected by students.