Auburn teacher, Green River students create Web app to measure kids’ emotional well being | Guest op

Published 10:48 am Thursday, September 22, 2016

With overcrowded classrooms and the focus on standardized testing, thinly-stretched teachers don’t have the resources or the time to monitor the emotional well being of each and every student.

And yet, the correlation between emotional well being and academic performance is well documented. Kids who feel happy and safe tend to perform better than kids who don’t. Schools emphasize academic standards; emotions count too, right?

Gina Greco, a fourth-grade teacher at Lake View Elementary School, has been thinking about the emotion problem for years. So much so, that Greco, a 16-year veteran of the Auburn School District, eventually came up with an idea for a website that would allow students to safely and privately register their feelings with teachers.

“Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s really important to support students academically, socially and emotionally,” Greco said. “An online screener seemed like a natural way to quickly and efficiently check a student’s emotional health and well-being.”

Such a website would take the emotional pulse of a classroom, providing teachers with actionable data that could be used to identify those in need of intervention or extra support. Greco didn’t have all the details worked out but she knew a tool like this could change lives. Emotions Count was born.

Great idea

Greco had an idea for a product, but like most people, she didn’t have the technical know-how to transform that idea into a piece of working software. To make her dream a reality, she teamed up with students in Green River College’s bachelor’s in software development, a four-year degree offering that teaches web and mobile development through project-based learning.

When Greco pitched her idea for Emotions Count to a recent session of IT 355: Agile Development Methods, four Green River students – including Satinder Kaur, Jami Schwarzwalder, Benjamin Arnold and Joshua Hawks – jumped at the chance to work on the project.

“Rarely do we ask how students feel,” said Schwarzwalder, a youth services librarian by day and a Green River student by night. “It’s been shown that if a student’s physical and emotional needs are not being met, or they do not feel safe, then students are unable to fulfill their highest potential. I saw Emotions Count as an important tool that could help teachers gauge the emotional states of students to address problems and create more supportive learning environments.”

During a kickoff meeting with her new development team, Greco described her vision for Emotions Count. After gathering her requirements for the website, the team translated them into a prioritized backlog of technical features, divvied out tasks and started coding.

At the conclusion of IT 355 eight weeks later, the team presented a fully functional version of Emotions Count to Green River faculty and staff, student peers and visiting teachers from the school district, Trina Johnson and Megan Orr. Demoing the product in a public forum not only provided team members with an opportunity to practice their presentation skills, but it also helped Greco gather even more feedback to guide future development efforts.

Simple emoticons

Like all great products, the premise of Emotions Count makes perfect sense, leaving anyone who’s used it wondering why no one had thought of it before. It doesn’t force students to grapple clumsily with putting their feelings into words. Rather, it delivers a handful of short prompts on a screen — “Do you feel included at recess?” “Do you have a grown-up at home to talk to?” “Do you ever feel bullied?” — and invites students to respond with simple emoticons.

Behind the scenes, the website provides a secure teacher dashboard that instantly collects the results and color-codes those students who, based on their responses, may be at risk or in need of an intervention. A real-time data set in just a few clicks — behold the magic of the web.

“The data that Emotions Count collects can help teachers, counselors and parents create individualized systems of ongoing support to ensure that a student’s emotional needs are being met,” Greco said. “This cumulative effort recognizes that emotional health counts and forever plays an integral part in one’s health and happiness.”

Web development instructor Tina Ostrander, who team-taught IT 355 alongside agile coach Ron Quartel, was equally pleased with the end result. She sees Emotions Count as a testament to the power of project-based learning.

“I’m extremely proud of all my students, including Satinder, Jami, Benjamin and Joshua. They built a product that solves a real-world problem for a real-world client, and they did it in just two months, which is no small task,” Ostrander said. “I love this particular course (IT 355) because it teaches students how to work in small teams and communicate effectively with a client. Having Ron Quartel team-teach the course with me was an added bonus. As an experienced software engineer, he was able to provide an industry perspective and offer valuable product feedback to all students.”

The story of Emotions Count also demonstrates the win-win nature of project-based learning. In this case, Green River students gained valuable project experience while a local teacher received free software that will enhance her ability to serve students.

“It was a pleasure working with the software development program at Green River College,” Greco said. “I’m excited to pilot Emotions Count in my classroom this fall. From there, I plan to invite other teachers in the district to begin using it in their classrooms, too.”

Like students in IT 355, Greco’s future looks exceedingly bright. Emotions count, after all.

Andy Orr, program manager, BAS in software development, can be reached at 253-833-9111, ext. 4304, or aorr@greenriver.edu. Learn more at greenriver.edu/software.