What’s a good way to get students and staff curious about how an AI-powered app can support mental health?
Here’s one idea: Dress like a llama!
At EdCouch Elsa ISD in south Texas, school administrators, counselors and teachers are seeing improvements in student behavior and mental health after introducing Kiwi, Alongside’s AI-powered llama chatbot, to students this year. To get students excited, a special education teacher at Carlos Truan middle school put on a llama costume and visited classrooms to introduce the app. In addition, the district has garnered buy-in from many adult stakeholders, including staff and parents, and even attracted some media attention in the process.
News Coverage
The rollout of Alongside in EdCouch Elsa has been so successful that the local Fox News affiliate took note. Check out their coverage, then scroll down for our interview with a school counselor.
Counselor Q & A
Carlos Truan’s school counselor Gabriel Hernandez joined us for a virtual interview to share more about how Kiwi the llama is helping students, teachers and counselors.
Check out the interview for answers to the following questions:
- What’s the biggest challenge your school faces in supporting students’ mental health?
- How did you get your staff/faculty to embrace Alongside?
- How is Alongside helping your students?
- How does Alongside help you in your day to day role as a counselor?
- How is Alongside helping your classroom teachers?
- How would you describe Alongside to another counselor?
Here’s a transcript of the interview…
1. What’s the biggest challenge your school faces in supporting students’ mental health?
Lack of resources. We're such a small community and remote rural area, so to get resources to come to us is a huge challenge. And it's unfortunate because mental health is a pretty big issue all the time. So to have that obstacle in our way really makes things very difficult for us.
2. How did you get your staff/faculty to embrace Alongside?
I was just so honest about this app, how we can get to everyone as opposed to fighting cell phone use. We can use it and bring it on as an ally, and kids can start working through their own emotional situations and challenges. They can also use the journal writing as bell ringers. They can also inform students about different hot topics that are going around the world without taking too much time and putting too much on them in the classroom. So they really enjoyed that idea that we use it as a bell ringer. Give them time to lesson plan and also give the power back to the students as far as self-improvement and self-management.
3. How is Alongside helping your students?
They take control of their situation as opposed to feeling helpless and hopeless. And with this app, they can use it at any time of the day, in between classes, which I've seen, during lunch, recess. And they enjoy little activities, I hear them talk about Kiwi and how they're naming their llama. So it's very empowering seeing that they're taking ownership of their struggles as opposed to being helpless and hopeless at the same time.
4. How does Alongside help you in your day to day role as a counselor?
I can have students be on the app while I am attending to another student so they can already look into a situation. I either direct them to a self-calming activity or breathing activity and there they are on their phone very discreetly. No one knows what they're doing because it’s very discreet.
So while they're waiting to be seen by me, they're already doing some work. By the time they get to see me, they already have an idea and they start using some of the calming technique strategies that they've been learning. And I just enable them more and teach them more about how it's useful in different ways. So it's very useful. It's like having a little sidekick at my disposal that is available 24/7.
5. How is Alongside helping your classroom teachers?
It alleviates so much pressure from the daily routines of the teachers as far as having to worry about STAR testing and lesson plans. It takes off some, I guess I don't want to say the word responsibility, from the teachers, but attention I guess. And the students are well-behaved. They get to use their phone. They're engaged… when I walk in to see they're using the app, I see them showing off how they named the little llama.
It gives them back control as far as what they're revealing and not worrying about being sad or depressed as much as they used to be. And that improves the overall energy in the classroom because the kids are more willing to participate in the lecture as opposed to being reserved and quiet because of what they're going through at home and outside the classroom. So that's one of the benefits that I noticed: that the teachers have regained back control and student involvement in their daily lectures and their classroom activities because of the power that the students are getting back from using the app.
6. How would you describe Alongside to another counselor?
Being another sidekick if you will, another tool in their ongoing, growing toolkit as far as reaching students when they're not available. We're very limited in our time, and with Alongside they can spread the news of how to strengthen and empower students with their mental health and their wellbeing and the social emotional component that is very important in today's times.
So I would talk about that. This is a great tool to help them in a classroom, outside of the classroom, in case they're tied up with another duty or workshop. The students can directly message their counselor for any assistance or if they need someone to talk to, someone to just check up on them. And the app just opens up so many more possibilities that make our job that much more meaningful and impactful. And we can also get the students to be on the same page as to how strengthening their mental wellbeing will open so many doors as they progress in grade to grade, day to day, and moving on forward to adulthood.
