Social & Emotional Learning and Critical Perspectives on SEL Related Initiatives

By Krista Rundell
 

"It wasn’t until my fourth year of teaching that I really “got” it.

I loved my job; teaching American History allowed me to facilitate important conversations related to the world around us and link events to explain the “whys” of our society. This was a thrilling part of my day. Discussion flowed and my students thrived on sharing their opinions while I encouraged them to cite evidence to back up their statements, not just rely on emotion.

When I started my first job, I was 21 years old, teaching students four and five years younger than me. I held high expectations for their academic growth (primary) and their behavioral choices (secondary). I put my heart and soul into preparing them for the “real world” and ensuring their success beyond high school through learning about American History.

However, about 13 years ago, I realized that my students could have all the knowledge in the world, but if they didn’t know how to manage their emotions (which run amok in a high school setting), recognize emotions in others, communicate effectively, or make appropriate decisions – they would not be given a chance to show how much they knew. I knew this already, as most of us do, deep down. But I had failed to explicitly emphasize the purpose and outcomes of the affective learning in my teaching and in the students’ learning."...

For full post, click on title above or here: 

http://blog.remind.com/building-relationships-through-social-and-emotional-learning/

"Babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, parents and grandparents all have the same emotional needs. Meeting these needs in childhood provides the foundation for success in school, work, relationships, marriage, and life in general. How to Raise Emotionally Healthy Children, a parenting book by Gerald Newmark, PhD, has a compelling and provocative message about parent-child relations. It provides powerful and practical concepts and tools that enable parents, teachers, and childcare providers to interact with children and with each other in emotionally healthy ways. In the process, children learn to interact with each other in the same way.

The book is also a “wake-up call” to America that we are abandoning our children emotionally. Failure to support our children’s emotional health at home and in schools is jeopardizing their future and that of our nation. The Children’s Project, a nonprofit, grass roots organization is dedicated to providing a solution to this problem, and offers a way for families, schools, and even cities to become emotional-healthy-friendly environments. The book, and accompanying trainings and other resources, have attracted attention across diverse ethnic, religious, socio-economic, and age groups. It provides a universal language regarding emotional health that is easy for anyone to understand and use.

Visit our free resources page for tools that parents, teachers, and others who work with children can use in supporting children’s emotional health http://emotionallyhealthychildren.org/?page_id=3744

http://emotionallyhealthychildren.org/

"Over the last 20 years, our scientific understanding of human development has skyrocketed—and it’s creating a paradigm shift in how we educate our children. Scientists are now suggesting that cognitive development is only 50 percent of the education equation. The other half is social and emotional development.

Research reveals that developing students’ social and emotional intelligence improves their academic achievement and overall well-being. At the Greater Good Science Center, we go one step further: We believe that cultivating positive qualities such as compassion, happiness, gratitude, and mindfulness will lead to a wider transformation, as children mature into young adults who place care, empathy, and social connection at the center of their lives and society.

Studies suggest that the seeds of these positive qualities are present from early in life; we often just need the right factors to nurture them. One of the most important factors is a caring teacher, who can model these qualities and weave them into their lessons. Indeed, one of the keys to successfully implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools is the degree to which teachers and school leaders understand the value of SEL and develop their own social and emotional intelligence.

Yet studies show that both teachers and school leaders are burning out, unable to tend to their own well-being, let alone that of the students. It’s little wonder why: Not only is their work enormously stressful but, as a recent report discovered, most education professionals receive little to no training in SEL. However, 83 percent of them want it. 

The Greater Good Science Center is helping to fill this gap."... 

For more, please click on the title above or visit the following website: 

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/

A school-wide mindfulness program starts with reaching out to faculty members who can help or hinder, and then addressing parent questions and concerns before beginning.

Empathy is the characteristic where innovation begins.  It is crucial to put yourself in the place of those that you serve if we are going to create something that is better moving forward. 

"Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) and the National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) have teamed up to bring you this ground-breaking policy brief that examines the role of school districts in promoting family engagement.  

Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement spotlights how six school districts across the country have used innovative strategies to create and sustain family engagement “systems at work.”  Our findings point to three core components of these successful systems: creating district-wide strategies, building school capacity, and reaching out to and engaging families.

Drawing from districts’ diverse approaches, we highlight promising practices to ensure quality, oversight, and impact from their family engagement efforts. We also propose a set of recommendations for how federal, state, and local policies can promote district-level family engagement efforts that support student learning."...

For full post, main link to Harvard Family Research Project, and to download report, click on title above or here: 

http://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/publications-resources/seeing-is-believing-promising-practices-for-how-school-districts-promote-family-engagement