Breathing Life Back into the School Environment:

Utilizing the Systems and Structures of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to Increase Motivation and Engagement through Social-Emotional Support

Alberto Juarez • Cahn Fellow 2020

This paper will take you on our journey through operating a school through a pandemic while participating in the Cahn Fellows Program. At the start of the program our project centered on strengthening Tier 1 instruction with an emphasis on differentiating instruction for Diverse Learners and English Learners. But, when the COVID virus forced everyone online the pressures and stress created by remote learning led to school-wide issues centered around motivation and engagement. Thus, we began to focus on the social-emotional health of our students and staff. As COVID persisted our project began to evolve and we started to align our school efforts and project with increasing student motivation and engagement through the implementation of social-emotional learning supports. Our project seeks to answer the question: How do we utilize the systems and structures of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to increase student motivation and get social-emotional support to students who need it?