SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING NEWS
SEL - SERVICE LEARNING - CULTURE & CLIMATE
March 2021
Community - Connection - Care
Agency
March is a month that symbolizes new beginnings. The beginning of a new season happens in March. There will be a change in weather, a change in our environments, and for some a return to the school building. The world is beginning to open. As the world begins to open the social and emotional learning and character education department is reminding all our GCS family to remember that community, connection, and care are even more important during times of change. A way to face change with a growth mindset and a feeling of self-efficacy is through direct personal agency. Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. As the quote states, all “children and adults alike need to experience how rewarding it is to work at the edge of their abilities.” This month’s newsletter provides resources and examples of how to create opportunities for student and staff agency. Please use these resources to boost your own professional knowledge as well as your school’s learning environment through the SEL competencies of self-awareness, self-management, and responsible decision-making. Building communities of teaching and learning that promote agency is a place that students and adults can thrive knowing they are heard, seen, and belong.
SEL Focus of the Month
The SEL focus of the month is AGENCY. We want to scream, shout, and sing to the entire district that students learn better when they want to learn. Yes, it seems obvious and something that we have heard over and over again, but the research is very clear that giving a student voice and choice is the way to go. The redefined definition of SEL from CASEL emphasizes how imperative promoting students’ personal identities, agency, and a sense of belonging in the classroom, school, and community is to a student's overall social and emotional development. This month take a moment to ask students what they love about learning and how they learn best. They are the experts in how they learn-not us. When we take a moment to ask questions, we build agency which impact how students experience our classrooms and school. AND friends let's not just ask questions, let's ask the right questions!!! Let's focus on what a student experiences when they enter our learning environment. Some of us may feel like if we ask too many questions of what students need-they may actually tell us and this may mean that we have to give up some control. Guess what? It is ok. Our students can handle it. They are begging for it.
Strategies to Promote Agency
The SEL Spotlight
GCS High School Students
SEL Department
Allen Jay Elementary
School Board Chair Deena Hayes
Peck ES
Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
SEL Quick Wins - Agency
Allow opportunities for voice. Look for ways throughout the day for students to engage and express their ideas and thinking. This can be explaining their understanding of an instructional concept, giving their opinion on a current event, or sharing something about themselves. The same is true for adults. Allow time during meetings for staff members to openly brainstorm, share their opinion or learn more about each other.
Take brain breaks and/or moments for reflection. Allowing students moments of reflection gives them a chance to absorb instruction. They have a moment to examine their understanding and misunderstanding. This allows them to ask clarifying questions or contribute more deeply to discussions.
Allow for choice. In most classrooms, the teacher is the sole decision-maker. Look for places where students can have a choice. Simple choices such as where to sit (which may not be feasible during COVID) can make an impact on students. But, more significant decisions such as how to present their learning and understandings, how to prioritize tasks, or who to work with on certain projects can go a long way to building agency in students and helping them to feel that they matter in their classroom settings.
Engaging SEL Activities
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that many educators are continuing to teach partially or fully online, even as more schools in the United States are slowly shifting towards in-person learning. Hybrid and remote teaching requires educators to navigate new ways to connect with students during an immensely challenging and uncertain time in our communities when students’ (and teachers’ own) social-emotional needs are just as critical as academic goals. We have adapted a collection of teaching strategies to support online learning, with a focus on sustaining community, supporting students, and creating engaging, meaningful learning experiences.
Assigning Roles for Group Work (Remote Learning)
When students are learning remotely, it is especially important for them to have clearly defined roles and tasks to guide their group discussions when they are learning remotely.
Identity Charts (Remote Learning)
Identity charts are a graphic tool that can help students consider the many factors that shape who we are as individuals and as communities. Use identity charts to deepen students’ understanding of themselves, groups, nations, and historical and literary figures.
Gallery Walk (Remote Learning)
Use this strategy to offer students a way to share their work with each other, build class community, or introduce students to new sources.
Big Paper (Remote Learning)
Use this strategy in remote settings to help students explore a topic in-depth, slow down their thinking, and focus on the views of others.
Contracting for Remote Learning
Contracting is an effective strategy for building a reflective and respectful community, especially in remote or hybrid learning environments.
Graffiti Boards (Remote Learning)
Use this strategy in remote settings to help students “hear” each other’s ideas and gives them space to process emotional materials.
Journals in a Remote Learning Environment
Consider how you can bring a practice of student journaling into your remote or hybrid classrooms.
Learn to Listen, Listen to Learn (Remote Learning)
Designed for remote settings, this discussion strategy is especially useful when having conversations about controversial topics.
Save the Last Word for Me (Remote Learning)
Use this strategy in remote settings to facilitate online small-group discussions where students practice speaking and listening.
Wraparound (Remote Learning)
Use this strategy in remote settings to invite all students to share brief responses during a synchronous session or asynchronously.
Taking Found Poems Online11 Strategies for
This strategy helps students review material and synthesize their learning by creating a found poem.
One District One Book
The Browning of the South
Reading Corner for Students
Elementary: The Day You Begin
There will be times when you walk into a room
and no one there is quite like you.
There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.
Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and Rafael López's dazzling art remind us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.
Middle School Pick: Restart
Chase's memory just went out the window. Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof. He doesn't remember hitting his head. He doesn't, in fact, remember anything. He wakes up in a hospital room and suddenly has to learn his whole life all over again . . . starting with his own name. He knows he's Chase. But who is Chase? When he gets back to school, he sees that different kids have very different reactions to his return. Some kids treat him like a hero. Some kids are clearly afraid of him. One girl, in particular, is so angry with him that she pours her frozen yogurt on his head the first chance she gets. Pretty soon, it's not only a question of who Chase is--it's a question of who he was . . . and who he's going to be. From the #1 bestselling author of Swindle and Slacker, Restart is the spectacular story of a kid with a messy past who has to figure out what it means to get a clean start.
High School Pick: Under the Mesquite
As the oldest of eight siblings, Lupita is used to taking the lead—and staying busy behind the scenes to help keep everyone together. But when she discovers Mami has been diagnosed with cancer, Lupita is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit Mexican American family. Suddenly Lupita must face a whole new set of challenges, with new roles to play, and no one is handing her the script.
In the midst of juggling life as a high school student, testing her wings as an actress, and dealing with friends who don’t always understand, Lupita desperately wants to support Mami in whatever way she can. While her father stays with Mami at an out-of-town clinic, Lupita takes charge of her siblings. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she escapes the chaos of home by writing in the shade of a mesquite tree. Overwhelmed by change and loss, she takes refuge in the healing power of words.
Told with honest emotion in evocative free verse, Lupita’s journey is both heart-wrenching and hopeful. Under the Mesquite is an empowering story about the testing of family bonds, the strength of a young woman navigating pain and hardship with surprising resilience, and the kind of love that cannot be uprooted.
Positive Behavior and Bullying Prevention
In November 2020, the SEL Department-Bullying Prevention collaborated with the elementary and middle school counselors to implement the first Cyberbullying Prevention Pilot Program. To date, twelve Elementary and Middle Schools successfully implemented Cyberbullying: A Prevention Curriculum for our 3rd through 8th-grade students.
As we continue to take steps to improve our school climate, SEL Department will continue its collaboration with eleven additional elementary and middle schools by offering lessons on Bullying Prevention by implementing Dr. Allan Beane's "Bullying Prevention Program Curriculum," which will continue the focus on dealing with attitudes and behaviors associated with bullying behavior. In addition, the SEL Department Bullying Prevention Coordinator Tawanda Carpenter and Jacob Hicks- Service-Learning Specialist will offer an opportunity for High School Students to attend and participate in 5 bullying prevention lessons and activities. Upon completion and participation in the program, students can create an informative project detailing what they have learned and how to eliminate bullying within the school environment.
All sessions will begin from February 15th -April 29th.
Shout out to the following schools that will implement Dr. Allan Bean's Bullying Prevention Program Curriculum:
Wiley Elementary School, Hairston Middle School, Vandalia Elementary School, Pearce Elementary School, Washington Montessori, Shadybrook Elementary School, Almanance Elementary School, Northwest Middle School, Foust Elementary School, Parkview Elementary School, and Triangle Lake Montessori Elementary
The Media Center
Quotation Station
GCS SEL Newsletter Feedback
Our Team
We are always here to serve you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of our team if we can provide any support. To find out which SEL Specialist is assigned to your school, click here. http://bit.ly/SELSP
LaTrayl Adams, MS
Social-Emotional Learning Specialist
adamsl2@gcsnc.com
Lisa Brenner, MSW
Director of Social-Emotional Learning
brennel@gcsnc.com
Cynthia Brown, M.Ed
Social-Emotional Learning Specialist
brownc2@gcsnc.com
Tawanda Carpenter, MS
Positive Supports and Bullying Prevention Coordinator
carpent@gcsnc.com
Shan J. Carter, MPA
Social-Emotional Learning Specialist
carters6@gcsnc.com
Jacob Hicks, MS
Service Learning and Character Education Specialist
hicksj@gcsnc.com
Sherry Rogowski, Ed.S.
Positive Culture and Climate Coordinator
rogowss@gcsnc.com
Tinisha Shaw, MS
Social-Emotional Learning Specialist