NAEA Open Studio Conversation: Feelings Reboot: Utilizing the Arts To help Our Students Regulate their Emotions

Jenalee (Jena) Hinds is an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky whose work blends education, creativity, and well-being. Her research focuses on identifying the best interventions and practices, including visual storytelling, design, and aromatherapy, to reduce test anxiety and support student success. She is the developer of the Stress Performance Evaluation (SPE) app, designed to measure and manage stress during testing and other high-stress situations. In addition to her research, Hinds is a children’s book author who utilizes visual arts and storytelling to spark curiosity, foster cultural connection, and promote emotional growth in young learners. She is passionate about bringing the arts into math education, showing how creativity enhances problem solving and resilience. Through teaching, writing, talks, and community engagement, she empowers future educators and students to view knowledge in new ways, combining research-based strategies with imaginative design to build confidence, well-being, and lifelong learning.

Harlie Blauw is a nationally certified school psychologist who holds a doctorate in educational leadership. During her time serving students at the Mississippi School of the Arts, she created an arts-focused grief retreat for teens, and she has also organized student support groups for cultivating self-compassion and mindfulness through the arts. As a practitioner she is currently focusing her energy on her nonprofit organization, Anchored Christian Grief Camp, to help support grieving children through the arts.

Beverly Johns has spent a majority of her career working with public school students with significant emotional or behavioral challenges. She has worked with students who have experienced trauma or came to school “angry at the world.” As a professional fellow at MacMurray College, she has also trained future educators to work in special education, and she has trained general education teachers to work with students with special education needs. She is the author or coauthor of 28 nonfiction books, as well as the president of the Learning Disabilities Association of Illinois. Johns believes the arts are a powerful way for students to express their emotions in an appropriate way, as well as a restorative tool to help students appropriately reboot their feelings.