2022_09_New_Jersey_Monthly

Our STATE of EDUCATION
“
signs with positive messages such as, “You
are strong,” “You are beautiful,” and “You can
do it.” On other occasions, students will leave
anonymous “kindness notes,” complimenting
or encouraging a classmate.
“You can make someone’s day just by saying
hello to someone,” says Joseph Fleres,
the assistant superintendent.
The district also enhanced its social-emotional
learning agenda by adding the Wingman
program, which trains students to be leaders
in creating an empathetic and inclusive environment.
The program was created by another
Sandy Hook parent, Ian Hockley, whose
6-year-old son died in the massacre. Hockley
says he liked the concept of the wingman, a
term in the Air Force for someone who has
another’s back.
Gina Rosamilla, the principal of the
Watsessing Elementary School in Bloomfield,
says that at-home learning during
the pandemic was particularly trying for
her students. “Our socioeconomic status
is lower,” Rosamilla says. “Some kids were
sitting at the kitchen table [doing schoolwork],
and they had to take care of their
younger siblings. Some lost family members
[to Covid-19], and they were trying to learn
as they were dealing with loss. They were trying to learn as their
relatives worried about keeping their jobs.”
With Covid surges and outbreaks not yet things of the past,
Bloomfield schools, like others across the state, are prepared
to continue mental wellness remotely, they say. Earlier in the
pandemic, Mike Bruno, the district supervisor of guidance,
WE WILL be
talking to
students about
setting Internet
boundaries
and using screen
time in a way that
promotes
good social and
emotional
well-being.
Tabitha Rice
Media Specialist, Bloomfield Midle School
pushed for programs like Wingman to continue
even as schools were forced to shift to
remote learning. If ever the kids needed an
emotional boost, he told district officials,
it was then.
“We had student leaders join students
in lower grade levels for sharing circles on
Google Meet to have a true sense of inclusivity,”
says Laura Foster, a teacher at Watsessing
and a Wingman program coordinator.
Wingman student leaders in the upper
middle school grades work with younger
”
students on social and emotional learning,
even succeeding in motivating some who
are introverted to become Wingmen.
The program is so popular that enrollment
in the middle school for the coming
school year has nearly doubled to more than
80 from 44.“It’s the most, by far, we’ve had
sign up,” says Greg Murray, a computer science
teacher involved with the Wingman
program at Bloomfield Middle School.
“There was one student who didn’t want
to participate,” says Wingman and ninthgrader
Sophia Sorge. “She didn’t want to
speak to anyone she didn’t know. So any
time we went to her classroom, we’d pair
her with a Wingman so she could share her
ideas on the activities we were doing. Each time, she got a bit
more comfortable.”
One boy was often teased because of speech issues, Foster says.
He was usually alone on the playground while other kids socialized
with friends. A teacher encouraged him to be a Wingman leader.
“He really took on the role,” Foster says. “It shifted the dynamic
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN NORMAN
TAKING
THE LEAD
In Bloomfield,
the Wingman
program participants
help peers
develop empathy
and inclusivity.
Left: Wingman
students with Michael
Bruno, district
supervisor of
guidance (in the
rear). Right: Staff
member Gregory
Murray, left,
works with two
students.
60 SEPTEMBER 2022 NJMONTHLY.COM