SEL: Just what is it?
Amy Jacques, School Counselor
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL): Education's newest acronym and "buzz" word (or is it really all that new?)
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is an organization that was formed in 1994 in a collaborative effort of researchers, educators and child advocates to design high quality evidenced based social emotional learning as a part of preschool through high school education. CASEL is a huge resource for this newsletter's foundation. CASEL defines social and emotional learning (SEL) as the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. This definition comes directly form CASEL's website https://casel.org/what-is-sel/
CASEL's SEL Wheel: CLIFF NOTES OF SEL BASICS
- Self-awareness: Know your strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a “growth mindset.”
- Self-management: Effectively manage stress, control impulses, and motivate yourself to set and achieve goals.
- Social awareness: Understand the perspectives of others and empathize with them, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
- Relationship skills: Communicate clearly, listen well, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate social pressure, negotiate conflict constructively, and seek and offer help when needed.
- Responsible decision-making: Make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety, and social norms.
CASEL speaks to the importance of teaching these competencies to our students and how they put them into practice across all areas of life such as; family, community and in school. We can teach these competencies across all curriculum and throughout instruction, they can be embedded in schoolwide practices and policies. Many will be surprised to see how much this is already happening and how easily it is to actually input many of this into practices, policies, curriculum and lesson planning. Having a strong common language and consistent theme throughout the school and community will help our students become emotionally intelligent, socially confident and more resilient people. These qualities can only strengthen the quality of student we turn out and send out into the workforce and into colleges and universities and ultimately into the world of adulting.
THERE ARE MANY "CANNED" PROGRAM OR "APPROACHES," HERE ARE A COUPLE:
RULER: This is a major program that creates school culture change
Ruler Institute
Ruler Implementation Coaching
Ruler Online Resources
There is training for teachers and leaders.
Developmentally appropriate lessons are mapped directly onto the core curriculum and align with state standards. Students hone their emotional intelligence skills, enhance their writing and critical thinking skills, and develop the creativity, empathy, and advanced perspective-taking abilities they need to build mutually supportive relationships and make healthy decisions.
Family Engagement with parent lead workshops and student led family activities disseminated by principals to homes.
This was created by Mark Bracket in collaboration with Yale.
Second Step: Middle School SEL
Some thoughts and ideas for the delivery of these types of canned programs are to add an advisory period or to work it into a PLC/EXCEL and for all teachers to participate with the already made lessons online. Or quite possibly it could be support staff using the canned lessons depending on the possibility of new schedule for the next year. With block scheduling and PLC being at the same time for all grades this would need to be done in an Advisory period or during a school wide PLC time with all hands on deck. All TBD, if this is a program our school would even consider.
Odysseyware + BASE Education: Social Emotional Learning
- Students engage with relevant SEL curriculum that leverages a strengths-based approach to support meaningful follow-up dialog and more thoughtful, informed decision-making and behavior.
- Schools extend the reach and effectiveness of skilled staff members, while providing access to a flexible set of SEL courses that can be used in creative ways across the school.
- Parents/Guardians have access to adult companion courses helping them discover ways to understand and communicate with their students about difficult topics.
- Communities gain confidence in the safety and positive climate of schools supported by an effective, systemic SEL program.
At this point and time NFHS is looking at this program and researching the 6-8 software. Middle School counselors have reviewed it briefly and discussed a couple of concerns with the head of guidance a few months back. We are still waiting to hear back.
Shouldn't this be support staffs job? It is the emotional stuff.
On a larger scale, when there is more buy in and staff members are feeling more prepared and confident, embedding the SEL into curriculum is most effective. This link will take you to a Eutopia article (that has other links to videos) with ideas for incorporating SEL into ELA, Math, Social Studies and Science curriculum: https://apertureed.com/sel-integration/four-ideas-integrate-sel-core-curricula/
The Stats of it All
A survey of 762 educators from 15 countries by The Economist Intelligence Unit:
https://edudownloads.azureedge.net/msdownloads/emotion_and_cognition_ai.pdf
A direct quote from the scientist of the Aspen Institute that collaborated on the SEAD Research Brief: Evidence shows that high quality programming focused on SEL makes a positive difference for children’s academic achievement and behavior. Full Brief with resources cited: https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/content/uploads/2017/09/SEAD-Research-Brief-9.12_updated-web.pdf
And CASEL reports that our students have a whole lot to say as well:
https://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Respected.pdf
Students and young adults believe schools that integrate SEL would create a more positive social and learning environment. A majority of both current and recent high school students say that going to an SEL high school would help each of the following a lot or a fair amount:
■ Improve teacher/student relationships (72 percent current students, 68 percent recent students).
■ Improve relationships with friends/other students (67 percent current students, 71 percent recent students).
■ Reduce bullying (63 percent current students, 64 percent recent students)
■ Learning academic material (69 percent current students, 64 percent recent students).
■ Preparation for college (76 percent current students, 69 percent recent students).
■ Learning real-world skills for after high school (74 percent current students, 70 percent recent students).
■ Preparation for jobs/careers (73 percent current students, 67 percent recent students).
■ Preparation for giving back to the community (66 percent current students, 64 percent recent students).
CASEL November 2018
Our kids need RELATIONSHIPS that help to SPARK their passion and allow them to discover and use their VOICE.
This is an 19 minute video that is worth your time. Think about SEL in our school and about the impact a boost of SEL could create.
Links to Apps and such......
Ideas of things to have on hand in the classroom:
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2016/12/getting-smart-gift-guide-10-gifts-that-teach-sel/
Happify app (I will be checking this out in depth, for the school!):
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2015/07/happify-the-science-of-emotional-wellbeing-in-a-mobile-app/
Mightier (I am also checking out for our school, this is very cool!) Mightier also has biofeed back technology that helps teach kids how to regulate and manage emotions. I've sent info to Cheryl and she is also looking at it.
Cheryl and I are interested in the coaching piece they have for families. It could so easily be used in schools. We think. It looks like a great biofeedback tool that maybe we could use with some of our students having a more difficult time regulating. Check it out, it is pretty cool, and I think it would be a shoe in for buy in from the kids!
Amy Jacques, School Counselor
2018 Personalised Faculty Meeting Newsletter
Resources used not already cited in this newsletter:
CASEL , 2015 Guide
Effective SEL Programs, Middle and High School Programs
http://secondaryguide.casel.org/#Approaches
CREC Central 111 Charter Oak Ave, Hartford, CT
Social and Emotional Council
The new council will focus on new trends, research and interventions related to SEL. Members will be able to network with staff from other districts, have access to resources, and learn form the most current developments in the area.
2/22/2019
New England League of Middle Schools
38th Annual Conference & Exhibits
Mindful in the Middle: Making Every Day Awesome! March 21 & 22, 2019
Keynote Address: 180 days of Awesome: Celebrating Every Day of Education
Passion, Purpose, and Positivity (3 Ps)
Monica Genta
The Power of Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom
Mark Holt, The Beech Hill School, Hopkin, NH
The Aspen Institute @AspenInstitute
What I read that I did not use in newsletter:
Classroom Habitudes by Angela Maiers
Revised Edition, Solution Tree Press 2012
Teaching Kids to Thrive by Debra Silver and Dedra Stafford
Corwin Amle, a Sage Publishing Company, 2017
The Orange Frog by Shawn Achor
International Thought Leader Network, 2016