One benefit of student reflection is that students often use the space to share important things that are impacting their learning and development that educators would not otherwise know. Sometimes, students write reflections that may need an intervention outside of Sown To Grow. There are several lines of defense to catch these reflections, including teachers consistently reading student responses and administrators keeping an eye on the Emotional Well Being report in their portal.
As an additional layer, Sown To Grow has built an alert system that notifies teachers and specified school administrators about concerning student reflections that may need an intervention. This system uses natural language processing technology to identify language related to self harm, death of a loved one, depression/anxiety, and other traumatic events.
Reflections with concerning language may include, but are not limited to:
- References to depression or self-harm
- References to death in the family
- References to COVID-19 or coronavirus
- References to elevated stress or anxiety
In addition to sending an email notification, we have now added an Alerts tab to the School Dashboard. Assigned school administrators can view and manage the alerts, including marking them as addressed or non-critical.
Looking to learn how to manage alerts? Read How Do I Manage Alerts?