GGUSD Education Center (OC Tribune photo).
Garden Grove Unified School District is preparing to begin the 2020-2021 school year with a “Start Strong” initiative that is designed to provide students with new social-emotional wellness supports. The initiative will equip teachers with instructional resources to ensure that the first three weeks of school are focused on the social-emotional needs of GGUSD’s 41,000 students across 67 schools.
The need for social-emotional support is more important now than ever. GGUSD recognizes that the experiences of a world pandemic have affected all of its students in some way. A GGUSD team of school psychologists, social workers, nurses, speech and language pathologists, and instructional leaders developed learning modules, videos, and other resources to support student well-being specific to each grade level.
“Start Strong” learning modules will empower students with tools to process emotional hardships and reduce barriers to learning, while working to establish a safe and supportive learning environment that promotes social emotional learning.
The main goals of Start Strong are to ensure that:
- each student feels welcome and supported at school (in person and/or virtual)
- students have space to share and process feelings
- teachers build on students’ strengths to foster growth in their personal skills
- school staff work towards building and maintaining positive relationships with students
Start Strong topics include COVID-19 prevention and awareness, healthy relationships, self care and stress management, digital citizenship, and more. GGUSD plans to continue embedding and integrating social-emotional learning throughout the school year to support our students.
The GGUSD serves most of Garden Grove and parts of Anaheim, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster.
