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My takeaway from the article: If SEL is essential for students, then music is essential for SEL! Over the past decade, as my school district has made severe cuts to our music program, I am constantly being asked to justify the value and existence of my subject area, explaining in PR terms, how music enhances student learning, achievement and growth. However, my eyes widened and soul lifted as I read about the five core competencies that comprise the SEL framework: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. Together, they offer compelling arguments for hiring more faculty and increasing student contact time, thus expanding the presence of music in school. That’s because everything we do in music is inextricably linked to SEL!

Although I have always had a vague understanding of how music and SEL create environments conducive to student happiness and success (I am the daughter of social workers and a graduate of LaGuardia HS for Music & the Arts), this article helped me parse out, identify and articulate the discrete components of SEL for more pointed use in my classroom. For instance, I was previously confused by students who appeared socially and emotionally lopsided in their core competency profile. Perhaps they possessed confidence, self-esteem and a heightened sense of self-awareness but were judgmental and biased towards people from diverse cultures. The article reminded me that human behavior is complex and children are composites of a unique array of attributes, emotions and ways of thinking, often in contradiction to one another. It is empowering to now have a framework for deconstructing behavior in a way that honors student strength while remediating weakness.

While coaching students for the NYSSMA Vocal Festival, I often host small group lessons during lunch/recess and beyond the school day that nurture close friendships, expand social circles and offer safe havens for children to explore and practice relationship skills. Moreover, I play the piano to offer emotional and moral support for children who are scared and anxious about performing alone for an adjudicator they don’t know.  Partnering and corresponding with parents who are new to the NYSSMA process and welcoming them at the festival site, allay fears knowing a teacher has their child’s back. To create a calming presence, I might add some deep breathing exercises to help regulate and manage stress.

The 3rd Grade International Festival has also been a way for students to learn about the music, language and cultures of different countries. I strive to make participation an immersive experience where children develop empathy and respect through authentic experiences. A favorite is “Gong Xi, Gong Xi” in Mandarin, the most widely performed Lunar New Year tune in Asia. We sing it with a xylophone accompaniment that mimics the sounds of a traditional Indonesian gamelan ensemble. Another highlight is “Siyahamba,” a South African freedom melody in Zulu and English. Children perform it a cappella with dancing and hand drums. I do not take SEL connections for granted, emphasizing the importance of pronouncing the words correctly as a way of honoring and showing respect for cultures different from our own.

We conclude the International Festival with Ginger Littleton’s “Build Me A World,” a heartfelt wish for an end to war, hunger, poverty and illness. It is a promise to do what we can to make the world a kinder, brighter and more hopeful place. In my former elementary school building, this song became a traditional tune that every student learned to sing together at Morning Assembly. Other songs included patriotic ones like the “Star Spangled Banner” that instill social norms like standing tall and with pride, controlling the impulse to fidget, slouch or talk to your neighbor. Community singing became the centerpiece for connection, reflection and  sharing. The principal finished most assemblies with the mantra, “I am loved, I am smart, I am kind, I am capable, I am brave, I AM ENOUGH.” When altercations and conflicts arose on the bus, hallway or bathroom, the principal used Morning Assembly as a forum to address and peacefully resolve them. The opportunity to gather together at the beginning of the day promoted a sense of peace, trust and security. I would love to help bring this experience to my new school. Although we address similar issues on our daily morning TV show, it’s not the same as the face-to-face contact and conversations that unfold in the presence of what feels like friends and family.

And once again….it makes music the cornerstone of community building and sense of belonging - core essentials of SEL!

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Before reading this article, I was familiar with the five domains of social and emotional learning. Back at the end of last school year, my principal tasked me with creating 15 SEL lesson plans for them to occur at the beginning of this school year. I was able to design 3 lessons for each domain: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. What I did not know before reading this article, were the four elements that must be used when implementing an SEL program. The article discusses that an effective program must have sequence, be active, focused, and explicit. When reading, I also wondered, if there are so many evidence-based SEL programs available, why is my current school not using one? In my classroom specifically, I notice an extremely urgent need for more social and emotional learning, and instead, the focus is placed strictly on academic content. This article additionally mentioned that it has been shown that students perform better academically when receiving an effective SEL program. What also stood out to me from this article was the mention that school leaders play a large role in the implementation of a proper system. I wondered how teachers and administration could work together and have more of a collaboration when addressing student behavior or issues that arise. I also read about multi-tiered systems of support and how this is mainly supported by school counselors and psychologists. I began to wonder if the classroom could potentially be a place where SEL small groups could take place with the teacher. Often, I find myself trying to handle various situations at once, mainly after recess. If there were a dedicated time to addressing conflicts within the classroom, I believe there could be an improvement in student behavior. In the future, I also hope to involve parents more in SEL conversations and even provide resources or materials in order to provide the home-school connection that is needed regarding SEL.

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One of my biggest takeaways from the article was that social-emotional learning isn't just something extra we teach. It provides the foundation for students to be successful both academically and personally. I thought it was especially interesting that effective SEL programs not only improve students' social skills, but can also have a positive impact on academic achievement and overall well-being.

As a 2nd grade special education teacher, I see the importance of SEL every day. Many of my students need explicit instruction and repeated practice with skills like identifying emotions, managing frustration, communicating with peers, and solving conflicts. I've found that when students feel safe, supported, and understood, they are much more willing to take academic risks and engage in learning.

Moving forward, I hope to continue weaving character education into my daily lessons rather than treating it as a separate subject. During read-alouds, I plan to have students reflect on characters' choices and connect them to their own experiences. I'll also continue using cooperative learning activities to reinforce skills like teamwork, empathy, responsibility, and respectful communication. I believe these everyday opportunities help students develop strong character while also creating a positive and supportive classroom community.

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The SEL lessons that we teach in my school tend to focus on self-awareness and self-management which Roger Weissberg identifies as essential SEL skills. According to the article, self-awareness is an understanding of a person’s own emotions and self-management is the ability to regulate one’s own emotions. A lack of self-management skills is the biggest problem that I face with my students. These skills tend to challenge the students in my ICT class especially students on the Autism spectrum and ADHD students. .According to the article, regulating emotions and behaviors are necessary skills for safe and positive learning. Students need to know how to delay gratification, control impulses and how to persevere through challenges. Many of the SEL lessons, which are co-taught by the social worker, focus on naming emotions and understanding the brain’s reactions to stressful situations. Other lessons focus on strategies to calm down such as triangle breathing. We use some of the videos on Go Noodle to provide reinforcement and brain breaks. Weissberg also mentions other important SEL skills such as social awareness which is respect for other cultures and backgrounds, relationship skills and responsible decision making.  This is where SEL instruction in my school needs improvement in my opinion. For example, the students learn about holidays of other cultures at our school-wide morning meeting but then it’s left to teachers to extend the information. I look for texts and projects to incorporate learning about other religious or cultural days. Relationship skills are not part of our SEL program and only certain kids are part of social skill groups run by the school psychologist or social worker. They focus on kids who really struggle socially. Responsible decision making seems to be more reactive than proactive in my school. Since a lot of components of SEL are left up to the teacher, I thought this course would be helpful.

The article mentioned that SEL can be taught through literature which we do very well in my school. I like to teach from the book of the month because it is associated with the word of the month. For example, we read The Girl Who Thought In Pictures: The Story of Temple Grandin and the class  learned about autism and how everyone learns differently. The kids researched people who have contributed to society despite having learning challenges. Authentic  SEL instruction is infused in classroom routines according to Weissberg. My co-teacher and I do many lessons on growth mindset which helps kids manage themselves in challenging situations. We also use the power of “YET” which teaches kids that although something may be too hard now, it can get easier as the brain connections grow. According to the article, teacher- student interactions are building blocks for teaching SEL skills. Our interactions with students should set a tone of respect even when they aren’t following directions. The teacher's tone is important because it helps students understand that we can be respectful even when things are not going our way. In my experience, when a student is struggling with self-regulation, I respond in a very calm and quiet manner, and the situation immediately de-escalates.

One area that we need to work on is building family connections with SEL. We just started a Family Connect Night monthly, where students and families take a break from technology and homework to spend meaningful time together. It sounded like a good idea, but many of the kids told us that they had sports to go to and they got home too late to do anything. My suggestions would be to publish  SEL reinforcers for parents to do at home on Parent Square. I would like to learn some activities that we could do for building family connections from this class.

The article mentioned the benefits of SEL instruction including more positive student attitudes and decreased stress and I definitely see evidence of this among my students. I would like to see less bullying and better conflict resolution but we aren’t there yet. I think our lessons need to be more “focused and explicit” to target relationship skills. It would be helpful to get some ideas for relationship skill building from this class.

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Amy Compton - Assignment #3

As I read the article ‘Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential for Students’ the first paragraph stated something I so strongly agree with…that effective social and emotional learning  involves coordinated classroom, schoolwide, family, and community practices. As an educator for 18 years, I feel students have a better chance at success when we are all working together. Social and emotional growth is not the responsibility of teachers alone. Families, schools, and community members all play important roles in reinforcing the same values, expectations, and behaviors. When students receive consistent support and guidance in different areas of their lives, they are more likely to build the SEL skills we are striving to instill. This shared responsibility creates an environment where students can succeed making social and emotional learning a true group effort.

As a librarian working with kindergarten and first-grade students, I see the importance of teaching the five core competencies every day. I especially value self-awareness because it helps young children recognize their emotions, strengths, and challenges while developing a growth mindset. I continually teach children to say, "I can't do this yet," encouraging perseverance and confidence instead of giving up. Self-management is another essential skill.  Students are learning to control their impulses, manage their emotions, and delay immediate gratification. These skills are vital for my young students. Social awareness and empathy are equally important in creating a positive classroom environment. At this age, children are learning to understand and respect the feelings and perspectives of others, which leads to kindness and inclusion. Finally, responsible decision-making teaches students that their choices have consequences, both positive and negative. Helping children think about how their actions affect themselves and others builds responsibility and prepares them to make thoughtful decisions both in school and in everyday life. Because I work with young children, I see how these five competencies strongly provide the foundation for academic success, healthy relationships, and lifelong learning.

I believe that active forms of learning are one of the most effective ways to teach social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. Young children learn best by doing rather than simply listening to a lesson. This article helped to reaffirm that after I read aloud  my lessons should continue to include activities such as role-playing, group discussions and cooperative games, to give students opportunities to practice important skills like empathy, communication, problem-solving, and self-control. As a kindergarten and first-grade librarian, I have seen how interactive lessons help students understand these concepts in meaningful ways. When children are actively involved in learning, they are better able to apply social and emotional skills to real-life situations. These hands-on experiences help students build positive relationships and develop the confidence to make thoughtful and responsible decisions.

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One of the most important takeaways from the article Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students is the emphasis on the five core social-emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The authors explain that these skills are critical not only for students' academic success but also for their overall well-being and future success. As educators, we play an important role in helping students develop these competencies through everyday classroom experiences.

As a high school special education social studies teacher, I see opportunities to foster these skills on a regular basis. Self-awareness is developed when students reflect on their strengths, challenges, and personal connections to historical events. Self-management is often practiced when students learn to stay organized, meet deadlines, persevere through difficult assignments, and regulate their emotions when faced with frustration or disappointment. Many of my students benefit from explicit support in these areas, particularly when navigating academic and social challenges.

Social awareness and relationship skills are naturally embedded within the social studies curriculum. Through discussions of historical events, students are encouraged to examine multiple perspectives, consider the experiences of others, and develop empathy for people from different backgrounds and cultures. Collaborative activities, group projects, and class discussions also provide opportunities for students to practice communication, active listening, and respectful disagreement.

Responsible decision-making is another competency that aligns closely with social studies instruction. When analyzing historical events, students often evaluate the choices made by individuals, leaders, and governments and consider the consequences of those decisions. These conversations help students think critically about their own choices and responsibilities as members of their communities.

While I already incorporate aspects of SEL and character education into my classroom through relationship-building, collaboration, and reflection activities, this article encouraged me to be more intentional in my approach. Moving forward, I hope to explicitly connect lessons and activities to these five competencies and provide students with opportunities to reflect on how they are developing these skills. By intentionally integrating character education and social emotional learning into my curriculum, I can help students grow not only as learners but also as empathetic, responsible, and resilient individuals.

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The article Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students provides a great basic summary of what SEL is, what its key components entail, and how it is beneficial for students. I appreciate how the article explicitly identifies five key SEL skills, which are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making. Each of these skills are interconnected, and build off of one another, for example, one must learn to identify one's own emotions in order to develop strategies to regulate those emotions.

The article touches on how teachers can foster SEL skills naturally throughout the school day through their interactions with students, as well as how they facilitate peer interactions among students. This point really resonated with me because I think that the SEL skills that are best internalized by students are the ones that are modeled and reinforced on a daily basis. If we expect students to interact with their peers in a specific way, then we must model for them what that looks like by treating them the way we'd like them to treat one another.

I incorporate SEL skills into my classroom through integrating them into our daily classroom routines. One example is the ways that we practice relationship skills. We always turn our eyes to the speaker to practice listening skills, and I emphasize to students that this is just as important if the speaker is another student as it is if the speaker is the teacher. Students also practice these skills through their "table teams". We have assigned tables that must learn to work cooperatively together to set up and clean up the art materials. This also provides practice for healthy conflict resolution since it is inevitable that conflict will arise sometimes between teammates. Overall, I believe that it is the day to day interactions between teachers and students that provide an opportunity to reinforce a positive community and school culture.

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After reading Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students, the idea which stuck out to me the most is that SEL is not an "extra" in education; it is the foundation that allows students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. The author, Roger Weissberg, explains that effective SEL programs strengthen students' self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, on top of improving academic achievement. He emphasizes that SEL is most effective when it is intentionally embedded into daily classroom instruction and school culture rather than taught as isolated lessons.

I thought about my experience teaching kindergarten, where we implemented the Harmony SEL curriculum. We engaged in daily Meet-Ups and Buddy-Ups as part of Morning Meetings, and in collaborative learning experiences throughout the day. SEL became part of our classroom culture instead of something we only addressed during designated lessons. In addition, our district's Integrated Curriculum naturally infused character education into academic content, allowing students to practice these skills authentically through literature discussions, cooperative projects, and problem-solving activities. Looking back, many of the practices we used reflected the research highlighted in the article, particularly the importance of giving students repeated opportunities to learn, practice, and apply social-emotional skills in meaningful contexts.

As I begin my first year as a Gifted and Talented teacher, I see even more opportunities to intentionally weave character education into my curriculum. Gifted learners often demonstrate advanced intellectual abilities while simultaneously navigating perfectionism, asynchronous development, heightened sensitivity, and complex social dynamics. I hope to design inquiry-based lessons that encourage students to collaborate respectfully, appreciate diverse perspectives, persevere through productive struggle, and reflect on the ethical implications of their thinking and decision-making.

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The article “Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential for Students” really emphasizes the benefits of incorporating SEL in schools.  The article dives into what an SEL program looks like as well as outlines its importance in the lives of our students.  Incorporating a successful SEL school wide program has been proven to help students inside and outside the classroom.   The article highlights 5 key SEL skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The article also touched upon in learning these skills it can improve academics, it can help to build positive relationships with adults and peers and can decrease depression and stress.

In being a physical education teacher, I feel that building positive relationships is one of the most important skills to have.  This is important because it builds a sense of trust, belonging, and respect with students.  When a student feels valued and supported by an adult they will more likely engage, participate and cooperate with others.  They will take more risks, trying new skills and not being afraid to make mistakes.

As far as school wide my school district has been doing monthly community circles within the classroom.  I find that in our school it creates a more positive school environment.   In our community circles we start out by introducing the focus for the month.  So, for example, the month of September we focused on respect.  In our small groups we start off with a definition of respect. The group will then go over the rules of our community circle.  We have a talking piece which is an object that shows who has a turn to speak, helping us listen carefully and respectfully to each person in the circle. The talking piece is passed from one person to the next.  We respect the talking piece which means everyone listens, everyone has a turn if they choose.  Some other rules are we speak from the heart it’s your truth, it’s your perspectives, your experience.  We as the community should be listening from the heart: and with respect, we need to honor each other’s privacy because we will be sharing things, we should bring our best selves and during our circle say just enough without feeling rushed, be concise and considerate of the time of others.  The community circle is a place where students feel safe sharing their feelings.  They learn to understand other people’s perspective on different topics.  They learn to listen attentively to their peers and teachers.  All the skills being taught in the community circles are beneficial for our students to be successful in the future.

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I have done about 30-35 circles with my 7th grade classes last year. I refer back to topics if I feel they apply to what we are learning about in Social Studies or other topics in circles.

For example, in Social Studies, how could the colonists expressed their feelings assertively to Britain?

Important topics that focused on teaching students on how to respectfully express their feelings and talking to peers assertively. The circles gave sentence frames for students to use. I think I would set up a bulletin board where students can see sentence frames and use these to resolve conflicts with peers. It is important for us to give students tools to help them navigate their emotions in an appropriate way when possible. I feel next year with Enrichment, students will be given plenty of opportunities to make connections to the characters in the novel, Monster and think about how the main character might be feeling and ways he can  express his fears.

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After reading the article, this strengthened the idea of the importance of social emotional learning in the classroom. This will help students achieve success inside and outside of the classroom. According to the article, learning these skills can improve academics, build positive relations with peers and adults, and can decrease emotional stress.  I liked how the article showed the five SEL skills, and showed how they are connected, and not just taught and used in isolation. In the classroom, my goal is to create a safe and comfortable environment for the students. I do this by building relationships, foster inclusivity, and support risk-taking. Through our designated SEL block, we have morning meeting where we share and greet each other. During this time, I also use picture books, activities, and the Second Step program. Second Step teaches and reinforces skills such as empathy, emotion management, and problem-solving. This offers multiple ways in which students can practice these extremely important skills that will not only be used as the continue through school, but also in their lives.

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This article did a great job of explaining exactly what SEL looks like and the importance of it in children's lives. I enjoyed the way the article outlined the five SEL skills- self-awareness, self-management, social skills, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The outline showed the skills as building blocks rather than individual, unrelated skills. Each skill leads into the next skill and lays the groundwork for overall competency in these important life skills. In teaching these skills and concepts, students are, in turn, learning vital life skills which have been overlooked for years. Another importance of SEL in schools is that it helps students feel connected which makes them feel safe. Safety, (physical, emotional, and social) is the most important thing a student should feel in school and SEL activities sand concepts can help a student feel that way.

One way I try to help students feel safe in the gym is by providing a routine. Using concepts from Responsive Classroom, I start all my classes off the same exact way. We start with the "Hello Board" that is my way of greeting my student and telling them what we will be doing that class. The gym can be an intimidating place for students and I believe telling them exactly what is going to happen and what to expect can help make them feel more comfortable in the environment. After the "Hello Board" we recite the class norms which are six rules students are expected to follow each class. This is another way students are made aware of what is expected of them. Lastly, I end class with a 1-4 self-reflection where students give themselves a 1, 2, 3, or 4 based on how they followed the norms. Students are encouraged to be honest and if they chose to give themselves a 1, I say 'no big deal, please try next time.' This way they know I appreciate their honestly in their score.

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The article states, “Social and emotional learning provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life.” This quote resonates with me because, as educators, we are not only creating a space for academic learning but also laying the foundation for our students to become successful, independent, dedicated, and responsible members of their communities, both now and in the future.

The article highlights five key SEL competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Effective SEL programs help students develop all five of these essential skills. One that stands out most to me is relationship skills. In my experience, building strong relationships with students early in the year is the key to a successful classroom. Students need to feel loved, cared for, and supported in order to fully engage and succeed. Without that sense of connection and trust, it becomes much harder for them to thrive in other areas of development.

One way I build these relationships is by having students fill out a beginning-of-year questionnaire where they share their interests, favorite subjects, family life, and personal goals. This helps me get to know each child on a deeper level so I can better meet their individual needs.

I also appreciated learning about the SAFE acronym for effective SEL programs: sequenced, active, focused, and explicit. The word explicit stood out to me the most. Every student has unique needs and may require different tools to be successful. It is our job as educators to be intentional and thoughtful in how we deliver SEL, ensuring we are targeting specific social and emotional skills in meaningful ways.

In my classroom, one of the ways I support self-management is by having a calm-down corner. This space includes tools like fidgets, drawing supplies, tracing boards, and posters with strategies students can use to self-regulate. Students are free to use this space when they need a break, and it often helps them return to class with a clearer, calmer mindset. For some students who need additional support, I use a number scale. If they point to numbers 0 to 4, they are feeling confident. A score of 5 or 6 means they are feeling off-balance, and anything above 6 signals that they may need teacher support or strategies such as taking a walk, using the calm-down corner, or practicing breathing exercises.

One of the most powerful outcomes of SEL is how it fosters more positive attitudes toward oneself, others, and school. Students develop confidence, persistence, empathy, self-efficacy, and a stronger connection to their learning environment. When they feel safe and supported, they are more likely to believe in themselves, form healthy peer relationships, and build a strong sense of purpose and belonging.

In addition to supporting emotional well-being, SEL plays a critical role in character education. When students practice self-awareness, empathy, and responsible decision-making, they are also developing core values such as respect, integrity, and perseverance. These everyday social and emotional experiences, whether it is resolving a conflict, showing kindness, or learning to self-regulate, help build strong character. SEL provides the foundation for students to grow into individuals who not only understand themselves but also care about others and contribute positively to their communities.

The article also touched on the importance of integrating SEL into MTSS. It emphasized that services provided by professionals such as counselors, social workers, and psychologists should align with the universal SEL efforts happening in classrooms and throughout the school. I am fortunate to work with a strong support team where we collaborate regularly to provide both whole-group and individualized services that meet the diverse needs of our students.

Lastly, consistent communication with families is essential. Sharing students’ needs, progress, and SEL goals with parents helps them stay informed and allows them to reinforce these skills at home. This home-school connection strengthens the overall impact of SEL and ensures students are supported in all areas of their lives.

Overall, I found this article to be both informative and encouraging. It reinforced the importance of making SEL a part of everyday classroom life and highlighted how thoughtful implementation can have a lasting impact on our students’ growth, both academically and personally.

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After reading this article I have a better understanding of the skills that are essential for SEL. The article emphasizes that integrating social and emotional learning into our daily instruction helps students to build life skills like empathy, self-awareness, and responsible decision-making. These skills should be carried into all aspects of their education and that is why my goal is to embed these practices into my reading group instruction. In small reading groups, these SEL practices can be naturally incorporated each day. For example, my students can reflect on characters’ emotions and choices to build empathy and perspective. I can help to guide student discussions that encourage active listening, respectful communication, and collaboration. By modeling emotional regulation and creating a supportive space, I can help my students feel safe to share, learn, and grow together. As well as making my students feel comfortable and safe to make mistakes because it is important for them to understand that mistakes will help them to grow as learners.

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I agree with the article that we read in many ways. The five key skills discussed in the article are so important to not only our classroom environments, but in life as well. However, students first need to be taught and exposed to the skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making in order to effectively be able to use those skills. Through direct instruction of these skills and opportunities to practice them students will grow exponentially in their academics, behaviors and all aspects of life. When we show someone that they are important and give them purpose in what they are doing, their effort and engagement increases, affecting all that they (and we) do. The article also showed the many connections and benefits of social emotional learning outside of school. These included both short term outcomes, like “more positive social behaviors and relationships with peers and adults, reduced conduct problems and risk-taking behavior,” and long term benefits like “better mental health, reduced criminal behavior.” There are so many things that are impacted by promoting social and emotional learning in our classrooms and our schools.

This summer I have the opportunity to work with some students to help maintain their skills for the fall.  On the first day that I met them, I asked them questions about themselves to help me better connect with them and connect what we were doing with their interests. The difference from week one, where I just had a reading or math activity for them, to week two where I was able to make it themed to their interests was incredible.  They were so much more engaged, willing to do the work and share what they already knew about the topic as well. Due to the fact that they were more engaged, we had less behavior issues and more students focused on the task. I was fortunate that I have these students in groups of two or three so I can really tailor my teaching to their needs and their interests. I’m also able to let them make a choice in which work that they complete. In allowing them to make the decision, giving them some of the power (to still complete the necessary work), makes them feel good about what they are doing because they chose it.

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The article, “Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential For Students,” reinforced the belief that social, emotional, and character education is vital for student success in school.  It confirmed the idea that when you have intentional, targeted, social emotional instruction, it leads to students who have improved attitudes towards school and achievement, reduced stress, and increased prosocial behaviors.  The article highlights the short and long-term benefits of social emotional learning.  These benefits, including a more positive attitude towards oneself and others, understanding the perspective of others, and making positive connections with others, will help students far beyond just school.

This article just reaffirms all that we have done in our classroom to support our students' social-emotional learning.  Beginning each day with a morning meeting allows our students to build connections and relationships with their peers and focuses on developing key character skills, including empathy,  respect, and compassion.  This designated time in the morning helps to ensure students feel comfortable, safe, and valued in our classroom.  Another way we infuse social emotional learning into our classroom is through different activities.  Students participate in various team-building activities or STEAM challenges that require them to use important skills like communication, compromise, and problem-solving in order to be successful in the activity.  With each of these activities, there is always a portion where students reflect, both on themselves and on how they worked collectively as a group.  This ensures they are consistently thinking about how they can improve their social-emotional and character skills for the future.  Additionally, in our classroom, we infuse character education through our various read-alouds.  These read-alouds are both picture books that support a theme we are focusing on that week or our mentor texts for our reading and writing units.  Both of these types of read-alouds lead to meaningful discussions with our class about specific topics, including kindness, being unique, and achieving the goals we set out for ourselves. I’m eager to explore new ways to weave character development into all areas of our classroom and curriculum, ensuring students leave third grade with a strong foundation in these essential life skills.

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The Edutopia article provides important information about embedding social and emotional learning into our daily practices in school. It highlights how strong SEL programs can lead to improvements in academic achievement, behavior, and emotional well-being. According to the article, students gained on average 11 percentile points in academic performance, while also showing reduced aggression and emotional distress. One aspect of the article that resonated with me the most was the emphasis on the “SAFE” framework (sequenced, active, focused, and explicit) which ensures that social emotional learning is intentional, structured, and rooted in evidence-based practices.

This article confirmed much of what I strive to do on a daily basis as a special education teacher in a third-grade integrated co-teaching setting. It reminded me of the effort my co-teacher and I put into creating a caring and respectful classroom climate. This is critical to student learning and development.

In our classroom, social emotional learning and character education are woven into many aspects of our day. Our daily morning meetings build a predictable routine where students practice relationship skills, empathy, and active listening. They greet one another, share personal experiences, and learn to both express and respect different perspectives. These consistent routines provide a foundation for the development of interpersonal skills.

Our ticket jar, which highlights when students are “caught being kind,” has been one of our more powerful tools for recognizing and reinforcing positive and desired behavior. The purpose of this classroom incentive is to create a n environment in which kindness is visible and celebrated. Students begin to recognize that small actions, such as helping a classmate, offering a compliment, or resolving a conflict in a calm manner, can make a big difference in our classroom and across our school building.

Books such as The Magical Yet, The Invisible Boy, and There’s Only One You provide opportunities for students to reflect on character traits, challenges, and emotions through the literature. These texts encourage conversations, writing responses, and goal-setting that tie directly to elements of social emotional learning which include self-awareness, social awareness, and responsible decision-making. Our “Hopes and Dreams” bulletin board, which is created at the start of the school year, serves as a reminder of students’ goals and promotes a growth mindset.

Additionally, the Second Step program, facilitated by our school social worker, offers explicit instruction within the areas of emotion regulation, empathy, and problem-solving. It aligns with the SAFE approach described in the article and gives our students a shared language for navigating challenges or difficult moments.

In the future, I hope to further integrate character education across subject areas and make interdisciplinary connections. This includes weaving social emotional learning objectives into content area lessons, such as practicing empathy during reader’s workshop or identifying moments where they persevered during a STEAM challenge. I would also like to plan more student-led reflection routines, where students are given the opportunity to self-assess their emotional responses and choices throughout the week.

Another area I am looking forward to  growing is student leadership and ownership. Students currently have classroom responsibilities such as “Teacher Assistant” and “Messenger” but perhaps by introducing roles such as "Kindness Leader” students will take a more active role in shaping our learning community, giving them opportunities to model the positive character traits that we look for in our students on a daily basis.

I also hope to strengthen the home-school connection around social emotional learning. My co-teacher and I currently have a weekly newsletter, in which we describe the work that we have done across subjects throughout the week and what we look forward to accomplishing in the week ahead. However, by sending home weekly prompts or sharing the social emotional learning vocabulary that is being used within the Second Step program in class, families can more easily support their children’s social-emotional growth at home, creating a strong home-school connection.

The Edutopia article confirms that social emotional learning and character education are necessary for our students and not optional areas of instruction. As an educator, I have seen how character education can improve student behavior and lead to academic success. Through small moves in the classroom involving social emotional learning and character education, students feel seen and valued. I know that I will remain committed to continuing this work and finding new and creative ways to infuse character education into our classroom, ensuring that our students leave third grade as kinder, more confident and connected individuals.

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After reading the article "Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students," I was reminded how important it is to intentionally build SEL into daily instruction. As a reading interventionist, I naturally embedded character education through literature discussions, small group conversations, and moments of perseverance during challenging tasks. I often used stories to spark conversations about empathy, kindness, and resilience. Next year, as I transition into a 5th grade ICT teaching position, I’m excited to build on this by incorporating quick SEL mini lessons tied to character traits we encounter in texts, using reflection journals, and encouraging peer support during collaborative activities. I even just saw on Instagram to do a shout out wall where students can give other students shout outs or send a private not to a peer to give them a shout out. I think this is so nice to give students an opportunity to complement each other instead of it only be out role as the teacher to model that. I hope to create a classroom culture where students feel valued, supported, and are learning how to be both strong learners and kind, responsible individuals.

I also believe strongly in the importance of self-management and teaching students' strategies to manage their emotions, behaviors, and responsibilities so they can be successful both in and out of the classroom.

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After reading the article, I really started thinking about how important it is to build character and social-emotional skills right into what we already do every day. Our classrooms are so diverse, and students bring different backgrounds, strengths, and challenges with them. If I can help them learn how to understand themselves, manage their emotions, and build strong relationships, it will make such a big difference.

One way I plan to do this is by starting the day with morning meetings. These will give students a chance to check in with how they are feeling, set personal goals, and share in a supportive space. It is a simple way to build self-awareness and social awareness while helping the class feel more connected.

I also want to bring character building into group work. Whenever students work on projects together, I will include activities and reflections that focus on listening, cooperating, and solving problems respectfully. After working together, students can think about what went well and what they would like to do better next time. This helps them practice real-life skills they will use everywhere.

Books are another great way to teach these lessons. When we read stories, we can talk about the choices characters make and what we might do in their place. These conversations encourage empathy and help students think about how their decisions affect others.

Finally, I know modeling is so important. I want my students to see what it looks like to stay calm and work through challenges. Whether it is taking a deep breath during a stressful moment or using positive self-talk, I plan to show them strategies for managing emotions.

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I thought that this article did a really great job breaking down what SEL is and why it is of high importance to be taught in schools, especially beginning at a young age. As I began reading this article, the first line that popped out at me was, "Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life." I could not agree with statement more! If students are provided with the supports and comfort that they need, I absolutely think that they will be more likely to perform at a higher level academically. I think often we are so focused on teaching the subject areas such as Math and ELA, and there is only so much time in a day. However, SEL is a critical component and priority in students feeling happy and comfortable in coming to school to learn, and it can be included in almost all of our lesson plans even in the slightest of ways! Students need skills such as how to manage their emotions, handling friendships, and being good citizens in order to set them up for success in the future. Without these skills, it is likely that children will be unable to navigate certain situations and obstacles that they face. This quote really stuck with me after reading the article as well, "In the long run, greater social and emotional competence can increase the likelihood of high school graduation, readiness for postsecondary education, career success, positive family and work relationships, better mental health, reduced criminal behavior, and engaged citizenship" (e.g., Hawkins, Kosterman, Catalano, Hill, & Abbott, 2008; Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015). This makes so much sense as if children are able to handle their emotions and have ways in which to cope with certain situations that arise, it is not surprising that there is an increase in the likelihood of all of those aspects of their lives.

I thought it was very helpful and interesting that the article provided many great ways in which we as teachers can build SEL in our classroom, and also how schools in general can support it as well. I look forward to implementing SEL into my classroom using different strategies that I have learned, and I am excited to keep on gaining knowledge on how I can continue to do so.

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The first line that stood out to me was reading that "School is one of the primary places where students learn social and emotional skills." This was critical to me because I don't believe it is stated properly. I think school is one of the primary places where students socialize, but it does not mean they are necessarily LEARNING healthy social and emotional skills. Those skills must be taught, not simply mimicked by those around them. It reminds me of how we grow up as children in our families, copying how our parents interact and how they manage their emotions. We then tend to grow up with similar behaviors, that are not always healthy. We were not necessarily taught how to manage these emotions, and therein lies the problem. We cannot assume children learn social and emotional skills just by being exposed to other children. It requires overt teaching, communication, and reflection. This is where official SEL programs help to serve this need. "Promoting social and emotional development for all students in classrooms involves teaching and modeling social and emotional skills, providing opportunities for students to practice and hone those skills, and giving students an opportunity to apply these skills in various situations." I think this is so important and often undervalued in schools in the classroom. The biggest obstacle I see currently is incorporating SEL in a genuine way where teachers are able to lead in a manner that is not a simple "check the box" way, but actually helps teach students these interpersonal skills so that they can have healthier professional and personal relationships as they mature.

The way I would like to be able to incorporate this into my own lessons is exactly as that -- to be able to tie it into experiences in a genuine way, almost where students don't necessarily even realize that is what we are doing. There is some push-back when it comes to SEL, where other teachers sometimes view it as "corny" or "🤬 donkey." In those cases, the activities are not developed in a way that fluidly aligns into classroom tasks and experiences. I don't yet know how to do this because I haven't learned a lot of strategies, but that is my goal. I want student buy-in, and I want to be able to do it in a way where middle school students don't see it as something silly.

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While reviewing this article, I was particularly struck by the statement, "Research shows that SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011)." This highlights a significant shift in educational priorities. Historically, schools concentrated on academic performance, but the recent emphasis on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has demonstrated a meaningful correlation between SEL and student achievement.

I often express that "when you feel your best, you do your best," which holds true in the context of education and classroom dynamics. It is now well established that addressing the needs of the whole child and fostering a safe and inclusive environment are directly linked to academic success. I am glad to see that many school districts are recognizing this reality, leading to the integration of character education as an essential component of school communities.

In both my classroom and district, this philosophy is actively enforced through a dedicated 25-minute morning meeting block integrated into our daily schedule. During this time, we do not conduct pull-outs or related services, allowing us to concentrate on building our classroom community using the Responsive Classroom approach. I am committed to implementing Responsive Classroom principles consistently while engaging in ongoing conversations with my students throughout the day, reinforcing their importance and sense of belonging.

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The article, "Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students" by Roger Weissberg discusses the five key skills of social-emotional learning: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making. Weissberg expands on the benefits of SEL as well as ways the school can implement SEL and build strong community partnerships.

As a social worker, I understand how critical it is for children to have their emotional needs met before they are able to learn. As a Tier 1 support, I push into classrooms to teach SEL skills. The lessons are relevant to the student's real life experiences, and the teachings support targeted interventions. For example, conversations about making responsible choices or showing self-control are reinforced during peer mediations, behavior consultations, post-discipline reflections, or social skills groups. It's important for SEL to be integrated throughout the multi-tiered systems of supports.

SEL is essential in today’s diverse educational landscape as it equips students with crucial skills leading to improved academic performance, positive behaviors, and better long-term outcomes in school and life. One area that I can improve is addressing building climate. Staff often feel burnt out, parents angry, and students frustrated. I plan to collaborate with the building administrators to create engaging opportunities and events for staff and families. These community partnerships are fundamental for successful implementation of SEL.

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Having read the article, it was no surprise to me that SEL increases academic achievement. If you improve your overall well-being, it will only help yourself grow and develop into a more functional and productive human being. I recently took a course through Molloy University on how important SEL is and how it impacts your self-awareness and social awareness. This article further justifies why SEL is so crucial to our students. I also recently took a course through Molloy University on mindfulness and how important it is to practice mindfulness in the classroom on a daily basis for students. Like practicing mindfulness, it is important for us as educators to foster a sense of self-awareness to students as well as help them practice self-management. As it has been clearly noted from the article, self-awareness and self-management are foundational to both teaching and learning. The ability to recognize and regulate our own emotions, behaviors, and teaching strategies directly impacts the classroom environment and student outcomes. At first, I viewed self-awareness and self-management as the tools necessary for personal growth, but now I see these tools as essential life skills for fostering a positive learning environment. If we, as educators, model these skills to students, we are creating a productive learning environment for students, where they can feel safe to express themselves, make mistakes, reflect on their learning experiences, grow and adapt to changes, and make necessary modifications to their learning. These competencies allow teachers to be more responsive and adaptative to students’ needs, which in turn inspires a growth-mindset. In my school district, we just hired a new superintendent, and in his mission statement for the school year, it encompasses and pushes for all of us in the district as students, staff, community members, etc. to embody a growth mindset. Having a growth-mindset as the cornerstone for the school year gives teachers the opportunity to demonstrate self-reflection and perseverance to their students. If we, as teachers, model to our students how we respond to setbacks and challenges with resilience, it will only lead to students having a greater belief in their own abilities. When a student learns of and hears how you as their teacher respond to failure, it shows them that we are human and haven’t always been perfect at everything in our lives.
As an educator of 7 years, I have grown in my profession and seen how I can help students grow on their self-management, self-awareness, and ways to help students foster a growth mindset. In my classroom and within a 40-minute period, I allocate time for students to self-reflect. I set aside a few minutes every week to allow for students to self-reflect on their progress and challenges that they may be facing in math class. The reason for this is because I want to give students time to process their thoughts and provide a rationale for how they plan on accomplishing their goals. During this time in class, I walk around the room and see what students are writing down, helping to guide them in identifying their areas of strengths and understanding where their areas of improvement are. In addition, I typically ask for students to set three personal goals for the coming week. By having students write down what their goals are, it not only enhances their self-awareness, but gives them the opportunity to practice self-management, in developing a plan of action, in how they are going to set out to accomplish their goals. In providing in class time, several times a week for students to practice self-reflection, it will foster a growth mindset in guiding students to understand that intelligence and skills can be further developed through effort, self-regulation, and resilience. The effect that self-reflection has on students is powerful, it allows for students to take ownership of their learning, increasing engagement and motivation levels, both of which are essential for long-term academic success.

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"Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students" by Roger Weissberg

This article explains the 5 key skills of social emotional learning (SEL) - self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. It discusses the importance of teaching SEL to students in classrooms, schools, and within the community, and it provides examples on how to do so within each tier. The benefits of SEL mentioned in the article are as follows: improved academic success, reduced stress, reduced behavior issues both in school and out of school, builds positive relationships at school and at home, and leads to better mental health. These effects are both short term and long term.

The article mentions that teachers must model and explicitly teach SEL in their classrooms. I constantly model and teach SEL in my classroom in various ways, but I would like to become more intentional with this in my own classroom objectives. I would like to start adding specific SEL objectives to my lessons to supplement my content objectives. This will allow the students to know which SEL skills are being focused on and practiced in our lesson. Applying the appropriate SEL language to our practices will help the students implement these skills outside the classroom. I would also like to create assignments that the students can bring home with them to involve their families in order to improve the communication and involvement of their families in our SEL practices.

My district has several teams that consist of teachers, administrators, and students to address the SEL needs to students within our school. The article states that these teams are important to promote fair and equitable discipline policies. I like that our school includes the students on the team so it gives them a chance to participate in the decision making. My school also uses community circles - small groups of students that meet with their assigned teachers once a month to focus on self awareness, self management, conduct fun non-academic related activities, and building positive relationships. These practices help make my school a safe and positive climate where students can build positive relationships and practice their SEL skills in various settings.

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The article highlights the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) in helping students manage emotions, build resilience, and develop problem-solving skills. This directly connects to my experience as a math teacher, where frustration is a common barrier to student success. Many students struggle with math anxiety, and I find that taking time for one-on-one conversations helps uncover the root of their frustration—whether it’s a lack of confidence, gaps in foundational skills, or difficulty processing new concepts. By providing personalized strategies, I help them approach problems with a growth mindset rather than defeat.

The article's emphasis on SEL aligns with my approach, as research supports the idea that fostering self-awareness and emotional regulation improves academic outcomes. Strategies like guided self-reflection, mindfulness exercises, and collaborative problem-solving can help frustrated students regain confidence. Research-backed techniques such as metacognitive questioning—where students think about their thinking—or peer tutoring could also be beneficial in building perseverance and problem-solving skills.

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The article defines, explains, and gives examples for effective social and emotional learning (SEL) practices in schools. It describes the importance of teaching SEL to our students and how it allows them to grow and develop as fully well-rounded people. I have worked in schools where rewards-based systems are used as extrinsic motivators to get students to behave, and I have seen it fail extraordinarily because the implementers of this system fail to recognize the importance of intrinsic motivation. In order to create a culture of care, we need to help students identify their emotions and learn how to regulate them properly. They cannot do that if they are focusing solely on earning a reward. In my new school, we focus on creating a culture and environment where learning is the top priority. The learning is not just about curriculum, but also includes learning about ourselves, about our community, and learning what it truly looks like to have empathy. There are some obstacles along the way, but this system overall seems to be much more effective.

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“Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential for Students” by Roger Weissberg

Honestly, this article brings about many valid points about social and emotional learning, and yet I am so disheartened by how often programs are implemented ineffectively within school districts. I have witnessed a number of programs come in and out of my building alone, all of which eventually dwindled and were forgotten. My building has had speakers, professional development meetings, and faculty meeting presentations regarding social and emotional learning; however, if there is no follow through with administration, or no “buy in” from the faculty, it doesn’t work effectively. In the article it states, “effective social and emotional learning programming involves coordinated classroom, schoolwide, family, and community practices” (/video/5-keys-successful-social-and-emotional-learning). This demonstrates how everyone must become involved for this to work.

Something that stood out within the article was “SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy)”. This statement is extremely important in the climate of education, motivating students, and engagement. I find that students are often “bored” or “off task”, which can be due to a number of factors, but this also can be detrimental to grades and behavior. Many students lack the initial foundation of kindness, sharing, or empathy. Can students learn these traits, of course, but it must be conducted thoroughly. I think that those traits are the true forefront to students being able to understand and utilize schooling successfully.

“Teachers can also naturally foster skills in students through their use of interpersonal and student-centered instructional interactions throughout the school day.” Some things that I utilize in my classroom already would be a weekly mood meter, my “Check-in” chart, and mindfulness music during classwork. Sometimes I even need to “Check-in” with myself and the students really enjoy being able to state whether they are “Great”, “Meh”, or “Struggling”.

I also usually try to choose supplemental videos, shorts, or excerpts to help express social emotional traits. Some 7th grade students have a difficult time finding characterization while reading books or short stories; these shorts and excerpts help engage their thinking in a shortened frame. Lately, I have been using “Bluey” episodes, as the kids actively engage with their thinking while watching, but understand the concepts quicker. The discussions that follow are usually eye-opening and uplifting. Lastly, I would like to start using “constructive feedback” within small groups and “role playing” to help engage their thinking while reading curriculum leveled text.

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The article explains why social and emotional learning (SEL) is important for students. It states that SEL helps students develop essential life skills, such as managing emotions, setting goals, and making responsible decisions. The authors highlight that students who receive SEL instruction perform better academically and build stronger relationships with their peers and teachers. I agree with this because emotional intelligence is just as important as academic knowledge in real-life situations. Schools that prioritize SEL create a supportive and respectful environment, which helps students feel more confident and engaged in their learning. Overall, I believe SEL is essential because it prepares students not just for school success, but also for their future careers and personal lives. SEL is so important in my classroom because many of my students come from broken homes, experience homelessness, or struggle with emotional issues. It helps create a safe space where they feel supported and valued. By teaching emotional resilience and healthy relationships, SEL gives them tools to manage stress and connect with others. When students feel secure and understood, they can focus better on learning and their future, so I always make sure I create a safe space for my students.

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This article discusses the importance of social and emotional learning in schools. SEL helps provide an effective learning environment where students feel safe to express themselves and helps to build life long skills that enable students to be successful. Five key skills are highlighted in the article; self awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making.

One way I help promote these skills occurs when discussing a lesson as a class. I encourage students to share their thoughts and opinions without judgement, reminding everyone to be respectful of the speaker, put their hands down and look at the speaker. Kind, helpful comments about other's artwork are also stressed. We explore feelings when working on portraits; discussing how to show different emotions through facial expressions and how feelings are normal. I plan to spend more time on this and will encourage students to share emotions by posting a feelings chart.

The article mentions that effective social and emotional learning incorporates the family and community with the classroom. In my school we have many events such as a "Multi-Cultural Night" where families are encouraged to attend and be involved. Students can bring in a dish related to their cultural identity. Each class researches a different country and creates a display representing their country. "Parent Square" is an ap that my school uses to communicate with parents. It automatically translates whatever is posted and you can post a group or private message. I plan to use this more often to share class activities, discuss challenges students may be facing and encourage the school to home connection.

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Character education and social-emotional learning play a vital role in creating a positive and supportive environment. Through activities like group discussions, role-playing, and reflective journaling, I encourage students to explore important values such as empathy, respect, and responsibility. Mini meetings or check-ins provide opportunities for students to practice active listening and share their thoughts, fostering a sense of community and trust.

For example, when working on collaborative projects, I incorporate lessons on teamwork and conflict resolution, teaching students how to navigate disagreements respectfully. Additionally, I integrate mindfulness exercises to help students manage stress and focus on their learning.

I plan to further weave character education into my curriculum by linking it to the academic content. For instance, We discuss historical figures and their decisions and moral dilemmas to highlight themes like integrity and compassion.

Additionally, we analyze historical events through the view of justice and leadership, encouraging students to reflect on the ethical implications of actions taken by individuals or groups.

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The article, “Why Social Emotional Learning is Essential for Students” highlights the role social and emotional learning plays in fostering academic and personal success for students. Allowing students to understand how they are feeling will allow them to be successful in the classroom.  The first quote that stuck out to me was, “ Research shows that SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011). “  I think this quote demonstrates how important SEL is in the classroom. By creating a SEL lesson once a day for even 10 minutes can make such a huge impact on these students' lives. As teachers, when we can find these opportunities it is important to incorporate this. This made me think about a student this year who was feeling unsuccessful in his learning and hated coming to school. Everyday I would make sure to talk to this student and create a relationship and find those connections. Also, at least once a day I would make sure the student felt successful in something they did. By creating these connections and having the student feel proud of themself, the student started loving school. Now, the student loves coming to school and wants to continue to learn. The student is feeling successful as well.

The article discusses that the five key components to successful and effective SEL are self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. After reading this and as I incorporate SEL in my curriculum I will make sure my lesson hits one of these components. I will also make sure by the end of the year I have hit all five components. The research has showed there are many positive outcomes to this. As a teacher I think it is important to teach lessons with SEL, but I have also found many teaching points when situations arise. As a resource room teacher, I have found that my students like to tell me things and if they are having problems they come to me. When I am talking to them about situations that happened it is a great learning time for them, even though they do not realize. Having the flexibility of a small group setting and the students loving to share different things I have found I am able to teach SEL through talking interactions with them. We have discussed how to go about friendships, stress and more.

Another quote that stuck out to me was, “SEL can also be fostered in many settings other than school. SEL begins in early childhood, so family and early childcare settings are important (Bierman & Motamedi, 2015). Higher education settings also have the potential to promote SEL (Conley, 2015).”  As teachers everyday we are trying to incorporate SEL in the classroom, but it is still just as important outside the classroom. I begin to think about my students that come from hard home lives or do not have some of the same opportunities. How as teachers can we help these students so that this is continued in every aspect of their life? I find that the students that come in with harder home lives have a harder time navigating SEL lessons. How can we help these students outside of school? This quote discusses that these settings are just as important as school.

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The article opens with talking about how schools are increasingly multicultural and multilingual. This immediately brings me back to one of my students from last year. He was still learning English and only spoke Spanish. Coming into the grade he had a flag for behaviors. The year before he used to run out of his classrooms and used to hide to see if anyone would even notice he was missing. This clearly raised concerns for me about his teacher and what kind of environment they had in their classroom. I knew immediately this student was going to need Social Emotional Learning throughout the year.

The next paragraph goes into research that was done about SEL and how things improve so much for students. My student from last year came into my class on a kindergarten level for both math and ela. After leaving my class he was on a late second grade 3rd grade level in math and late 1st early 2nd grade level in ELA. Working with him through his behaviors and things that made him upset and finding coping skills to teach him on his own how to get through how he is feeling allowed him to excel in the classroom. This students parent reported mid year he used to hate reading and never believed he would be able to read. Mom reported at the end of the year my student was using YouTube and searching up things to help him learn how to read. This student and his success is clear that without Social Emotional Learning last year he would not have shown the success he did.

"SEL can also be fostered in many settings other than school. SEL begins in early childhood, so family and early childcare settings are important (Bierman & Motamedi, 2015)." This quote taken from the article made me sit and think about multiple students I had last year and others. A couple of my students have difficult home lives and those students struggle with their emotions and their outlook around school. What more can schools do to support these types of students? Where students are homeless and parents have to work day and night just to put food on the table, or where students have parents/ or a parent in and out of their lives with no home stability. The students that have these things going on in their life need as much support throughout our schools as possible. Social Emotional Learning is so important to teach all students, but especially to teach those students who don't always get that support else where besides school.

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The article "Why SEL is Essential for Students " a highlights the critical role of social and emotional learning in fostering both academic and personal growth among students. It emphasizes the development of key SEL competencies, such as self-awareness, emotional regulation, and relationship-building, which are essential for success in school and beyond.

My school district is rapidly becoming more diverse the many of the things highlighted in the article are crucial for us to implement in order to facilitate the new demographics of our district. One area is discipline, we need more restorative practices to meet students where they are and give them the support needed to reach their best educational outcomes.

Additionally, parent outreach is increasingly important. Many of these parents come from different cultures or may speak different languages, and we need to work harder to make them part of the process of learning and supporting the their children. As the article says-"Family and community partnerships can strengthen the impact of school approaches to extending learning into the home and neighborhood. Community members and organizations can support classroom and school efforts, especially by providing students with additional opportunities to refine and apply various SEL skills"

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The article highlights the importance of social and emotional learning for students and identifies five keys that  should be taught including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making. According to the article there are short and long-term benefits to SEL including understanding the perspective of others and relating with them making sound choices about personal and social decisions and more positive attitudes towards themselves and others. I have found that consistently finding moments throughout the day to explicitly teach these skills help students really remember them. One example of teaching responsible decision-making is reminding students when they come to the carpet to choose a good listening spot so that they can do their best learning.  Since the students are having this reminder every day now, it is helping them to understand what is expected of them and to choose somewhere to sit where they won't be easily distracted.  Moving forward I want to incorporate more SEL by taking more moments to ask my students questions about their decision making and self management and modeling the thought process for them. I also want to create visuals that help them as they think about these concepts.

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When thinking about SEL and these key skills that students need in life, it is clear that this topic has come up a lot in recent times. Many schools are becoming more aware and focusing more on the SEL components to ensure all children are available and able to learn. One thing that stood out to me from the article was the section on family and community partnerships. The article emphasizes the importance of building family partnerships to strengthen key SEL skills, highlighting that collaboration between educators and families is critical to a child’s development. At my school, we work hard to foster these connections through regular communication, parent workshops, and activities encouraging parents to practice these skills at home with their children. In my classroom, I find that students benefit from the repeated practice of these skills. For example, after reading about a character in a book, we may consider how the character acted and felt as we move on with our day, practicing the skills we learned from that character. When practicing these skills common language is critical for students. Using common language across teachers and classrooms, and even into the home, can help to ensure that the same message is being shared and students know what to expect.

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The article "Why SEL is Essential for Students" refers to the importance of teaching these skills. It highlights the research that has been done proving the academic and personal success of students taught with an SEL curriculum. In my classroom we have a focus on strengthening Executive Functioning skills. These skills can be taught through explicit SEL instruction. This framework helps students build skills like emotional regulation, impulse control, and social awareness, which are critical for improving executive functioning. The article argues that SEL should be incorporated daily into the classroom and I agree. SEL can be integrated into many different subjects, however my favorite is through reading. By connecting stories to the SEL instruction you are able to practice many different skills such as role playing and perspective taking. One of my favorite stories to read at the beginning of the year is, “The Recess Queen” by Alexis O’Neill. This story is about a playground bully and how a new student is able to defeat her with kindness. I use this story to teach the students about playground rules, citizenship, decision making, emotional regulation and more! By using such a polarizing character with relevance to my learners, they are able to make connections during reading and even after reading. I use this story and many others throughout the year to teach explicit SEL skills.

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One of my initial reactions is that many educators are aware of the importance of integrating SEL practices into the classroom daily. It is clear that social emotional competence can impact us far into adulthood and beyond. However, I love that the article further emphasized the need for families and communities to be a part of that practice as well. Finding a common language among classrooms, schools and home has been a helpful method for my students in transferring skills across the different settings in their lives. In the area of self-awareness, I find it helpful in the classroom to teach into different feeling/trait words so that kids develop the language for describing their feelings. This can be built on each year to include more precise synonyms for feelings (sad, upset, distraught, etc). Although it may seem informal, unstructured times in the classroom such as during snack or free time is an extremely valuable time to support students in developing relationship skills. I often try to provide students with prompting, examples, or facilitate desired behaviors. Although the article reflects on the importance of explicit teaching and modeling of skills, it should also be known that SEL can be seamless integrated throughout the school day. I know teachers can feel overwhelmed having another thing added to their plates. I hope to continue to learn new ways to integrate these important skills without added a separate entity.

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It is so important to incorporate SEL into the classroom. This article is a great resource to support the significance of SEL and why it is essential for students. There are so many short-term and long-term benefits of SEL, and a variety of ways to incorporate it into daily lessons. This won’t only support students on a daily basis, but will also help them with future events. I found the “Building SEL Skills in the Classroom” section of the article to be very helpful and relatable! In my classroom, at the start of the day students complete a writing prompt. Students know that they will have the opportunity to share their response to the prompt with the class during our daily morning meeting. After students complete their morning work, students gather on the carpet and we have a morning meeting. This provides students opportunities to practice applying SEL skills in a variety of ways such as developing positive relationships, listening to others, communicating effectively, being sensitive to others’ feelings, and expressing their own feelings. Morning meetings are a great way to start each day and build a classroom community where students feel respected, safe, and valued. In addition to this, throughout each school day I am constantly reminding students to have a growth mindset. I reiterate to my students daily that mistakes help our brains grow! Completing group work is a great way for students to continue to develop SEL skills. In my classroom, students complete a variety of STEM challenges. These challenges give students an opportunity to work together. They are responsible for making smart choices, asking for help appropriately, communicating with others, respecting others’ opinions, and compromising. It is very important for teachers to incorporate SEL into daily lessons. This impacts students tremendously and sets them up for success in a variety of ways!

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This article emphasized the importance of SEL and how impactful in can be to a child and a classroom as a whole. Children are able to learn skills such as self-awareness, empathy, and responsible decision-making through SEL. There are many positive comes in SEL programs such as improving academic performance, reducing behavioral problems, and enhancing students' emotional resilience. I always make an effort to remind myself that my responsibility as a teacher is not to just teach academics and curriculum, but to care for the child as a whole. I hope to infuse character education any opportunity I get whether that is through social play, literature, or conversation. I am able to see the positive impact it has on my students and how natural the outcome is when character is taught and encouraged authentically and consistently.

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I plan to incorporate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into my 4th-grade classroom through explicit SEL lessons and morning meetings. I will integrate lessons that teach specific skills such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making into my existing curriculum, particularly in subjects like language arts and social studies. Starting the day with a class meeting will help build a sense of community and provide a platform to discuss feelings, set positive intentions, and practice empathy through sharing and listening activities. This combination of structured SEL lessons and daily community-building practices will foster a supportive classroom environment, promoting both academic and social success for my students.

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One of the best parts about being a kindergarten teacher is having the awesome responsibility of "setting the stage for success" with my students! Since this is their first experience in a formal school setting, the feelings they develop about academics, and more importantly, relationships with others and how they see themselves are formulated during this crucial year! I agree that Social Emotional Learning provides equity and "a level playing field" for all students regardless of their diverse backgrounds. Students learn best when they know they are supported and valued by their teacher and classmates. I explain to my students that we are a class family and we can respect and learn from one another. We are free to take chances and make mistakes. Our class motto is "Mistakes are Welcome Here!" I explain our philosophy to the parents during Back to School Night, and I firmly agree with the article that family support of SEL skills is crucial.

Most of my teaching of the five components of SEL are explicit lessons with ample opportunities for student involvement and time to practice different skills. However, many picture books and social studies units lend themselves beautifully to embedding SEL topics within them. In the area of Self Awareness, students learn to identify their feelings and more importantly, what is creating those emotions. In the Self Management Tier, we have a "reset button" hanging on the wall. Children can tap this button and reset their behavior when needed. We always have a chance to learn and change anything that no longer suits us. I'm always amazed at how Social Awareness comes so naturally to some and how it needs to be explicitly taught to others. Teaching empathy, to truly feel what another person is feeling can take effort at this age but the benefits will be lifelong! Relationship Skills such as communicating, negotiating, cooperating and active listening are reinforced during partner work throughout the day. Children learn that we all have opinions and they don't have to be the same as one another. We learn the art of negotiating and agreeing to disagree peacefully. Finally, Responsible Decision Making is a skill that ensures we are making the best choices we can. When students deeply know who they are, understand the perspectives of others, and learn to make sound choices, they will go far in life.

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This article offers many valuable aspects of social emotional learning.  SEL is one of the most important aspects of education today, howevre due to time restraints and many academic obligations SEL can often get pushed to the side and not focused on to the extent that it should be. SEL needs to be taught, modeled, practiced and applied consistently. The different aspects of SEL touched open in this article are very relevent and vital for today's students. The five key skills targeted in this article are the building blocks for life long learners: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

In my district we do a lot of SEL throughout the year. Some is on the building level, others are specific to a certain grade level.  One in particular that I enjoy is how every month a new topic/ skill is introduced through a children's book. The whole school engages in reading the book and completeing corresponding activties and lessons. Each grade level can modify the lessons as needed and add to them when they feel necessary.  This is a great way to build community and a sense of SEL across the building.

Each year I look forward to focusing on SEL in a new way. It truly is a way to connect with my students and it helps to create a safe and respectful classroom enviornment. I usually take the first few days of school to focus on SEL activities and team building for it will set the tone for the rest of the school year!

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This article made me think about how more and more kids, especially in middle school, are looking to their peers to make decisions about their own social worlds. Friendships begin to impact responsible decision making and self-awareness. It is imperative that kids have a strong foundation of learned social emotional skills to equip them when peer pressure begins to compete with teachers and parental input. Teaching students how to manage their emotions, navigate friendships, and be good citizens both in person and online is the imperative foundation that students need.

Reading the list of short and long term outcomes from SEL programs is encouraging. In our ever increasingly anxious world, it is positive to know that these initiatives can and do make a difference.

In my classroom I use poignant pictures book such as Enemy Pie, Ruby Finds a Worry, and The Invisible Boy to cultivate a classroom language around Social Emotional learning. Students often see themselves in stories and find ways to problem solve by learning from characters.

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As a second grade teacher, I find the insights on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in this article incredibly relevant. The statement that "SEL provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life" resonates deeply with my classroom experience.

I've observed firsthand how SEL improves not just academic achievement, but also prosocial behaviors and overall student well-being. As the article notes, "Research shows that SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy)."

To infuse character education and SEL into my curriculum, I use targeted read alouds and leverage teachable moments. For instance, I'll choose books that demonstrate key SEL skills like resilience or empathy, followed by discussions on how we can apply these skills in our own lives.

Teachable moments offer spontaneous opportunities to reinforce SEL concepts. When conflicts arise during group work, I guide students through understanding each other's perspectives and finding solutions together, promoting "Relationship Skills" and "Social Awareness" as highlighted in the article.

By integrating SEL into daily interactions, I create a classroom where students learn to "know and can manage themselves, understand the perspectives of others and relate effectively with them, make sound choices about personal and social decisions." This approach not only enhances academic achievement but also equips students with essential life skills.

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This article explains the importance of SEL and it's connection to student success. Allowing students the time in class to explore their emotions and relate them to the curriculum can not only benefit them academically but socially and emotionally. I am always trying my best to incorporate SEL and character into my lessons by challenging students and their self awareness, relationship skills and decision making skills. Some of the ways that I teach these things or plan to use in the future are choosing books and texts that feature characters facing ethical dilemmas, navigating emotions, or demonstrating positive character traits as discussion starters for SEL topics. Also, I incorporate regular group discussions into my lessons where students can share their thoughts and feelings about the characters, themes, and moral lessons in the texts they read.

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It is important to introduce students to the new method of learning that includes Social and Emotional learning. The article "Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students" by Roger Weissberg gives a deeper understanding of the benefits of teaching kids how to deal with their emotions. Teaching kids how to deal with their emotions within their everyday lives is crucial because it teaches them how to express themselves. Many people today, struggle with their mental health because growing up they were not introduced and taught how to express themselves. Social and emotional learning teaching kids self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making, and many skills that we need to use in our everyday lives. As head teacher in my facility, one way that I introduce social and emotional learning in my classroom is by making sure my kids know that each and every one of them feels that they are worthy. We do daily affirmations that students repeat, such as... "I am smart!", "I am special!", "I can do this!" "I am loved!". Students are very engaged in this affirmation gathering before we start our day because it makes them feel happy, worthy and loved. Kids are learning their worth at a young age to know that their feelings matter. Another way that students are introduces to social emotional learning in my classroom is by making sure that they are able to express their feelings. I teach my kids that is a wonderful feeling to feel happy, but it is also ok to be sad, to be upset, to even be frustrated. No one is ever always happy, and it is important to teach kids that. Social and emotional learning is important to address within the lives of our future, because after all, these kids are our future.

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The article "Why SEL Is Essential for Students" gives insights into the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) for students' academic success, well-being, and overall development. It offers evidence-based research, practical strategies, and real-world examples to highlight how SEL enhances students' social skills, emotional resilience, and positive behavior contribute to a supportive learning environment and preparing students for success in school and life. One point that I found interested was the brief section regarding Family and Community Partnerships. Family and community partnerships play an important role in supporting students' social-emotional learning by providing additional opportunities for reinforcement, access to resources, diverse perspectives, and collaborative efforts that promote positive social and emotional development both inside and outside the classroom. An example of this is families can reinforce SEL concepts learned at school by incorporating them into daily routines and discussions at home. Parents can talk with their children about their emotions, teach conflict resolution skills, and encourage empathy towards others.

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The article highlights the importance of SEL for students, emphasizing its role in promoting academic success, positive behavior, and overall well-being. It discusses how SEL skills like self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making are crucial for students' holistic development. In my own experience, integrating character education and SEL into the curriculum has been immensely beneficial. Not only does it create a more positive and inclusive classroom environment, but it also equips students with essential life skills that go beyond academic knowledge. Through activities, discussions, and reflective exercises, students learn to understand and regulate their emotions, communicate effectively, collaborate with others, and make responsible choices.

Infusing character into my curriculum involves embedding SEL principles into various subjects and lessons. For example, during literature discussions, we explore characters' emotions and motivations, encouraging empathy and perspective-taking. In math or science, we emphasize teamwork and problem-solving, fostering collaboration and resilience. Additionally, dedicating specific time for SEL lessons or activities ensures that students have dedicated opportunities to develop these skills intentionally. Moving forward, I aim to continue prioritizing character education and SEL in my classroom by incorporating more interactive and experiential learning opportunities. Whether through role-playing scenarios, community service projects, or mindfulness exercises, I hope to create a supportive learning environment where students feel valued, respected, and empowered to thrive not just academically, but also socially and emotionally.

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After reading "Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students" it reminded me again that social and emotional learning is so important in a students' life. They need a safe and positive learning environment that will in turn enhance their ability to be college and career ready. Students face so many different obstacles in today's world. They need ways to cope with anxiety and stress. SEL is a great way to provide different coping skills when a child is faced with depression and stress. It allows a child to understand themselves and manage their emotions. It also helps with understanding other peoples perspectives and to understand where that person is coming from. SEL is important for both school and home because children need different levels of support.

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The article “ Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential for Students” by Roger Weissberg discusses the positive impact social emotional learning has on students. According to the article SEL increases positivity, achievement and prosocial behaviors. It has also shown to decrease stress and anxiety among students. On the first day of school, I ask my students if anyone has traveled recently. This gives us some time to get to know each other before the academics and structured curriculum take over. I often have students who have traveled to China or South America. I ask questions about the trip, their cultures and their families. This sets the tone for acceptance in my classroom and sharing about our uniqueness as well as similarities that may bond us. One year I had two students travel to Japan during the summer to see their families. We talked about their trips and what commonalities they shared. This positive interaction reinforced social awareness and respect for one another. The two students were also able to share their stories with each other that otherwise they may not have interacted much outside of the classroom. This also modeled relationship skills. We practiced active listening, taking turns speaking and asking appropriate questions. The students took turns listening to each other and responding in respectful dialogue.  Positive adult and student interaction can help grow SEL skills and more meaningful student engagement within the classroom.  Administration and school leaders play an important role in the development of SEL skills. Schools have a responsibility for fostering a safe environment creating policies that promote positive social interaction.

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This article was a nice reminder and addition to my SEL toolkit as a teacher and person. I know how important and even crucial SEL practices are in the classroom. The importance of it is students gaining the ability of the five keys: self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. I feel like my main way of students practicing is through experiences as they come and conversating through the experience. If we are reading a story, I will ask questions that get the students thinking about the character may feel and ask if they can or can't relate. I find even if student's can not relate, it still allows the practice of thinking of feelings and establishing the connection of themselves and others.

This article serves as a nice reminder because some days I am more confident of taking the time where others I am not. On those days I don't feel confident in taking the time or that my efforts are not working, I remind myself that my students love coming to school and they love sharing with the class or with me.

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After reading the Edutopia article, “Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential for Students”, I was able to learn more about SEL and connect the information to my students and myself.  One part of the article that I found interesting was the five keys to successful SEL.  Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making are all important skills for students to have in order to be successful both academically and socially.  Working in both kindergarten and 5th grade, I have noticed that both groups of students need SEL.  Even though they are in different stages of their lives, they both need these 5 keys to help them with their social and emotional skills.  It is important for teachers to utilize an SEL approach in their classrooms as well as in their lessons to provide students with the necessary strategies to grow as a student and person.  In both of my classrooms, we have morning meetings where students are able to share with the entire class or in pairs about different topics of conversation.  This allows students to communicate with each other and feel more comfortable in the classroom environment.  Also in my classroom, my co-teacher and I try to teach our students, especially our kindergarten children, about self-awareness.  We use a mood meter when we ask students to think about their feelings.  It’s crucial to have students identify their feelings and to be able to express it in an appropriate way.  Overall, SEL is an important component to incorporate in school.  It will help students to know and manage themselves, understand the perspectives of others, and make sound choices.

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I am a big believer of SEL and promoting within the classroom at any grade level. There are many benefits to implementing SEL within the classrooms. Implementing SEL into the classroom helps not just with an increase in achievement, but also helps improve students behavior and attitude about school and with their peers. This article was able to break down the five different components that make up Social-emotional learning. The five key components are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. The article mentions the short and long-term benefits of SEL. Through reading this article, I was able to learn how to identify the most effective SEL programs, using the acronym SAFE. The article discusses the importance of the support of using an SEL. Having an effective and successful SEL program begins with support from family, different school level departments and building support amongst the students within the classroom.

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The article starts with the five key skills that are a part of social emotional learning. I never really thought about the difference between self-awareness and self-management. We have to teach students how to notice their emotions before they are able to regulate them. This is something that we, as teachers, need to help our students practice and learn from a young age. Self-awareness can help build the remaining skills related to social emotional learning. It is needed for students to build their self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. On paper, it seems like teachers teach these lessons by reading a book to the class, but it is much more than that. As stated in the article, teachers can foster these skills organically within daily interactions and lessons. This can be interactions between adults and children and among adults. Throughout my school, teachers model positive interactions with students and with other adults in the building. This helps build a safe and positive school culture  that can help promote social emotional learning within a school building.

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While reading the article, "Why Social and Emotional Learning is Essential for Students,"  I couldn't help but think of two students in my current class.  They face daily challenges with the five key skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.  They are both supported throughout the day with positive behavior plans, which include daily rewards as well as rewards from home when their daily and weekly goals are reached.  However, it is a challenge for them to reach their daily goals.  I must admit, I am very generous on their 'charts' so as to encourage them.  Since the plan's inception, by observing their daily activities independently and with their peers, I do believe that they have improved a bit in the areas of self management and self awareness.  The other areas are still challenging for them.  Though their behavior plans have different goals, they both continue to work on strengthening their social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making.  They both need prompting to consider different points of view in different peer situations throughout the day.  For my part in these areas, I do believe that class discussions are very important.  This is difficult with 5-year-olds.  So I often like to try to share personal stories and include my feelings as I tell them.  They are usually very attentive, given that my stories help them to see me as a real person and not just a teacher who MUST live in the classroom!  The other way I like to infuse character education into the curriculum is just to simply either choose appropriate literature that focuses and main characters' feelings, or just simply stop ANY subject area lesson where there may be a main character that would be feeling certain emotions and share what they might be.  As a Kindergarten teacher, I'm also aided by the children's vivid imaginations during discussions.  I have the luxury of personifying 'things' in stories.  For example, I could ask this question during an Earth day lesson, "How do you think the lake felt when somebody dumped a sugary soda and bottle into them?!"  This is one of the many reasons I love teaching Kindergarten!

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The article explains that with increasingly diverse cultures and backgrounds in schools SEL can create a safe space and learning environment for all students to find success. SEL can influence and improve students grades but SEL also "increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students"(Durlak et al., 2011). SEL is broken down into 5 skills including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. I like how the article showcases the short and long term benefits of SEL. It is important to note that schools and districts should support SEL such as an SEL committee to address the school climate, create policies and rules to promote a positive school environment and develop expectations throughout the building. My school for example has a character trait of the month and teachers select students who demonstrate that particular skill like honesty, fairness, or respect. I think it is also very valuable that the article states SEL should go beyond the classroom and school and reach other programs in the community. For example, a school can work with a local organization to promote a positive school environment like a school assembly or spirit week to get the school excited and connected as a whole student body. As a physical education teacher I hope to infuse the 5 key skills into our sports units and activities in the gym. This can be done throughout a lesson, explaining to students that the objective of the lesson or game is to work on one of the 5 key skills instead of winning or losing the game.

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The article begins with addressing the need for social emotional learning- the increase of students from diverse backgrounds who benefit from a school environment that is "safe and positive in learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life." The purpose of social emotional learning is to develop the key 5 skills: self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. The benefits of incorporated explicit social emotional instruction into our practices are positive attitudes about oneself, positive social behaviors, problem solving skills, decreased emotional stress and improved test scores. A lot of social emotional teaching are things teachers are already doing but being more conscious of it and mindful of our language. For example, knowing our students well is very important but we must be more conscious because we may think we know our students and then we realize we don't know what home life is like, we don't know what financial struggles or family dynamic struggles students are experiencing. It is important to know our students well but also know how much we don't know. I also know as a 6th grade teacher, it is hard to know every one of my students since I have almost 70 of them. I should do a better job of doing get to know you activities and finding a way to file and record their answers to use as reference. Another great social emotional practice is building family relationships. This is making sure you're communicating with parents on good days and bad days. Some students have only had bad calls home and that could effect their relationship with their teachers. When they see you care and are looking to share their accomplishments as much as their challenges, it goes a long way.

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In our ever-changing society and diverse communities, promoting social and emotional development as well as learning how to help develop young people is so crucial. This article really breaks down the importance of Social and Emotional learning. As educators, nothing could be more important than to be conscious of how we model character and decision making in our interactions with students and even other peers.

In my classroom, I believe I do teach some of these skills but not on the level I would like to. I hope to incorporate more character building throughout my lessons with the right resources.

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After reading the article, it is noted that “social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life” (Weissberg, 2016). I learned that the five keys to successful Social-Emotional Learning are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. With these components, students will be able to understand and relate to others, manage their own emotions and behaviors, and create positive relationships with others. It is essential for educators to implement a variety of SEL strategies into daily lesson plans, as our classrooms are becoming more and more diverse. It is important to educate the students as a whole, socially, emotionally, and academically. With a variety of SEL strategies, students develop a sense of belonging and are provided with the opportunity to thrive in school and life.

One way I incorporate character education and SEL into my classroom is by explicitly teaching about a character trait. Each month, we read stories and watch videos about the character trait. We then have students reflect on the trait and share ways they can demonstrate this character trait in and out of the classroom. Every morning, I greet students at their door. Students have the choice of waving, fist pumping, high fiving, hugging, or dancing to greet their teacher. With this greeting, students feel welcomed and safe. I have one student who told me they do not like hugs, but ever since I have developed this warm and safe environment every day, this child gives me a hug almost every morning. It is a great feeling knowing that this child has adapted and feels safe in my classroom. I am still looking forward to learning more about incorporating character education into my classroom.

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The article states, "Research shows that SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011)." This quote really drives home how important social-emotional learning is for educating and shaping the whole child - academically, socially, mentally, and emotionally. By teaching the 5 key skills, we help to build individuals that know themselves deeply, can manage and regulate their emotions, show understanding and empathy to others, and have the ability to make sound decisions throughout life. The article effectively portrays the point that SEL is not a "bonus," but an equally important curriculum to the academic curriculums we teach each day. Through SEL, we can produce students that are both prepared for life and will make positive contributions. The article also emphasizes how one approach to SEL is to embed this instruction into content areas and how an important component of an effective SEL program is to integrate it into multi-tiered systems of support in all settings for schoolwide implementation. This really resonated with me because it was one of my primary reasons for selecting this course. My school does an incredible job of delivering character education and social-emotional learning. I very much value this and do my best to integrate it into my reading classroom, as well, always emphasizing the character trait of the month and "catching" students who are exhibiting it by giving them a "little spot of kindness" sticker to wear. Still, I am looking to learn more about how to incorporate this incredibly important curriculum into my role and into my small groups with my students. One way I know I can do this is through the texts that we read, as literature is a wonderful tool for delivering character education and social-emotional curriculum.

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The article states "Promoting social and emotional development in the classroom involves teaching and modeling social and emotional skills. We need to provide opportunities for students to practice these skills . The district I work in has developed a Characters in Education program in which every month a new skill is addressed. Teachers are provided books, lesson plans and activities to use in the classroom. Every month students get nominated when a teacher observes them using skills they have been taught. My school promotes a safe and positive school climate and culture which positively affects  academic, behavioral and mental health outcomes for students.

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From this article, I learned the five keys to successful SEL include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. When these components are implemented into a classroom, behaviors such as kindness, sharing and empathy are increased. When students are given independence they can start to know and manage themselves which leads to positive confidence and healthy relationships with peers and teachers. Discussions about SEL in addition to providing opportunities where students can practice and model these skills should take place often in classrooms throughout a school building. The more opportunities students have to practice the more successful in SEL they will be.

In my classroom, I hope to incorporate more activities where students can turn and talk to one another about the material we just learned to build new relationships and conversation skills.

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As I was reading the Edutopia article, I realized that much of these important points become essential in the age group I teach, third grade. SEL is present throughout a person's education, but I would argue that third grade is where they really start to need this kind of education. Many of my students do not have a high view of themselves and it saddens me to see so many that doubt themselves. I have been integrating an approach of teaching that shows them they do know what is going on and highlighting it to each individual whether it be in front of the class or individually. I think that I will also use the 5 key skills spoken about in the article as a checklist from now on, to make sure that SEL is really being taught in my classroom for each of my students. I want to make them see that just because someone picks something up faster than they do does not mean that they are not smart or will never get it. I think that this article was very helpful in breaking down SEL bit by bit to really make sure that the reader understands what is being said and how to implement this into their own teachings. I think that every subject has an opportunity to apply SEL into how it is taught and I think that this is effective in helping students understand the basic curriculum as well as an SEL curriculum.

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This article gave a broad picture of different techniques you could use in your classroom to promote successful SEL instruction. When I taught ICT science in Brooklyn, we tried incorporating SEL by having the students research a scientist with a similar background to them. Students were looking up scientists with the same ethnicity, culture, etc. and the students were mentioning how excited they were to find someone who might not normally be represented earning the Nobel Peace Prize or some other distinguished award. It really boosted egos and gave the students the affirmation that they can follow their dreams and do amazing things.

Currently, I am in an autistic 6:1:2 classroom where we try to incorporate these skills on a daily basis, yet much more simplistically. We work on knowing all the students/teachers names, sharing, giving items to classmates and saying please/thank you when someone helps us. The 5 key skills mentioned in the article are all delayed with my students so regulation of emotions, etc. has a lot to do with the student/teacher/TA relationship. My staff and I try to know the students before we push more difficult academics on them. We never yell, unless there is something extremely serious taking place which is not often. We are also constantly on the same page. If "mom" says no, you can't ask "dad" in my classroom. The students pick up on this fact and trust us when we say something. This decreases emotional distress when they know the outcomes don't change by the day. We have to be a team, for this to effectively work!

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The Edutopia article highlights the importance of adopting SEL instruction and practices. Now more than ever, it is crucial for teachers to utilize SEL strategies in their instruction because our classrooms are becoming more diverse than ever before. Diversity in the classroom does not just mean students of different backgrounds who may speak different languages, it also means students with different cultures and upbringings. Specifically, the article focuses on the five tenets of SEL: Self awareness, Self management, Social awareness, Relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The two areas that are most applicable to my ninth grade students are self management and responsible decision making. Self management involves regulatory skills. For example, many students may struggle with focusing or exemplifying a positive attitude if there are issues within their friend group or at home. In adverse scenarios, a students inability to self regulate or self manage can lead to adverse behaviors such as fighting, cutting school, and/or speaking inappropriately to friends/teachers. The second area that ninth graders struggle with is responsible decision making. During early adolescence, students are more likely to partake in risky behavior.

In my lessons, I address the main tenets of SEL by conducting community circles and mindful Monday activities. Community circles allow students a safe place to discuss how they are feeling and promote self reflection. Questions may be simplistic like "how are you feeling today" to something more deep like "How do you respond in a time of crisis"

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The article effectively conveys the 5 major elements of successfully using SEL in the classroom. Research backs up the effectiveness by showing the increasing benefits of positive social behaviors while at the same time, reducing stress and depression among students. Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making are the 5 key skills aimed for students to develop and furthermore aid in their social and emotional learning.

I relate to each of these skills on many levels in my adolescent life skills classroom. Working with students with disabilities requires building and sustaining social skills to help them thrive in relationships with peers, friends, coworkers and family members. Our students in the High School go to jobs both in the building and out to job sites. That being said, its imperative that they gain the skills necessary to problem solve and navigate through social situations independently. For instance, before specific events or affairs we will often role-play the anticipated situation and model appropriateness for students.

The article provides a variety of strategies on both the building and the school levels to promote SEL. Being a home provider as well, I look forward to creating opportunities for social skills groups  in the community and the homes to enhance social connections and emotional development.

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This article highlights the importance of well-designed SEL instruction across all grade levels and content areas.  SEL is supported by research that shows it boosts student achievement and improves attitudes toward school- two major factors I deal with on a daily basis as a secondary special education teacher.  Even students at this level need sequenced, active, focused, and explicit instruction in the 5 key SEL skills.  It is also interesting to me that so much of the foundation of SEL is self-awareness and self-management. I tend to think about SEL and character education in terms of how students relate and interact with one another.  But in reality, they must develop the ability to recognize and regulate their own emotions before they can think about interpersonal relationships.  Many special education students struggle in these areas and going forward I will be sure that I am modeling these skills for my students.  I will also build in more time for explicit skills instruction in this area in my self-contained classroom.  It is evident that the benefits of taking the time to teach these skills will have positive impacts across student attitudes and achievement.

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I found the article interesting when it talks about the 5 key skills that will be developed by a successful SEL program. I have a student this year who very much needs help with these 5 key skills, and we have been focusing on these with him and even after only 3 months we have seen more smiles and less meltdowns from him. He has a very difficult time with self-awarness and self-managment. Letting him have choice in his learning and his reactions has been really helpful for him. Using positive reinforcement is also something that really works for him. We have put him on a behavior plan that focuses on the positive things he is able to accomplish and this helps him see positive reinforcement when he makes nice choices for himself and other around him.

My co-teacher and I try to implement SEL into all subject areas because taking care of how they are feeling is not something that is only done during certain parts of the day, but skills that should be readily available to them at all times. We also try to lead by example, we use language to express how we are feeling. We talk things through with the class and we try to make personal connections to all of the students in order to read them on their level.

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The article really dove in and highlighted the important factors that contribute to promoting SEL in the classroom. As a high school special education teacher the section on responsible decision making jumped out at me. This is the last chance we as teachers get with students before they venture off into the "real world" and are really on their own. Teaching and preaching responsible decision making is such a key factor to help students become the best version of themselves. Teaching them that every action has a consequence and instilling the life lessons we wish we knew sooner can hopefully make the lasting impression they can carry with them.

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The article gave a nice overview of the essential skills (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making) that school districts need to focus on in order to incorporate an effective SEL program.  Implementing a strong character education program is foundational to creating a safe space for students to feel seen and heard while also enhancing the students’ ability to succeed in school, career and in life.

I have found that programs can be a good start, but SEL programs must be infused within every aspect of the school community (classroom, hallways, lunchroom, recess, etc…).  Administration and teachers modeling the behaviors and attending PD that focus on improving their competence in this area is a key.  As a middle school teacher, a great deal of the “teachable moments” are during the transitions from class to class. As small as this may seem, being present in the hallways and speaking with the students while passing or entering your class does create positive relationships and makes students feel welcome.  Within the classroom, it is important for students to create the “norms” or “rules.”   Once these are established and understood, holding them accountable and capitalizing on the teachable moments is crucial.  When students make comments that are unkind (in any capacity), they need to be addressed immediately.  Making sure the classroom environment is inclusive of all!

Another area where teachers can infuse character education into the curriculum is through the types of questions being presented as well as during collaboration. In the beginning of the year, my students and I practiced using sentence starters to help enhance the dialogue while communicating in small groups and/or in a class discussion. I have a bulletin board with examples (in different languages) that foster deeper discussions and support the development of each student.  Having students collaborate with others, not just their friends is important as it allows students to develop empathy, kindness, social skills, and effective communication skills.

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Article Response 11/11/23 Jennifer Artusa

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Article Response 11/11/23 Jennifer Artusa

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This article provided a really great explanation of social-emotional learning and why it is so important in the classroom. Social- emotional learning in classroom supports and increases self- awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The big factor that helps is decreasing emotional distress. With more and more students needed the social emotional learning, it increases the student as a whole. As teachers, implementing lessons throughout the day in math, science and social studies is a way to increase social-emotional. When kids feel safe and comfortable, they have less distress in school and with relationships with others. For a period of the day, we have a social-emotional time of day, that we share out and we play social games to build classroom community and development. We also throughout the day will meet together as a class to discuss and pick a card to promote questioning and empathy for others. As a whole, I am excited to learn new ways I can increase social-emotional learning in my school and classroom.

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This article provided a clear understanding of why Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is highly imperative to student success. I feel that in-order for my students to be successful in school, we must bridge home and school. This is something that always been apart of my own teaching philosophies. Teaching students and their families how to promote SEL has help shift negative behaviors into positive social behaviors. In my classroom setting, we are managing behaviors at all times. As a kindergarten ABA teacher, early SEL will set up students to recognize and enhance their own self-reflections. The article speaks to the importance of early childhood education of SEL. I really would like to look for curriculum that incorporates the four elements of SAFE (Sequence, Active, Focusing, and Explicit) .

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This article gives an excellent overview of the components of SEL. I like how it broke down this larger topic in to manageable pieces. The importance of teaching SEL cannot be overlooked. I am so happy that schools are placing a focus back on this important work of educating the WHOLE student. The benefits of SEL instruction are vast. It improves academic achievement but more important increases pro-social behaviors necessary to being productive and positive members of society such as kindness, sharing and empathy. I like how the article highlighted a variety of ways to include SEL instruction in the classroom as time constraints are a very real battle for teachers. I try to incorporate both explicit lessons as well as read alouds and activities and class discussions. I would like to increase my SEL instruction time by incorporating morning (or afternoon) whole class meetings as well as daily check-ins using the Mood Meter. This year the students made kindness bracelets and every time another student "caught them being kind" they earned a bead. Students were able to take the bracelets home once they filled them. This made the abstract idea of kindness more concrete for the kids and rewarded them through peer recognition. I look forward to learning even more strategies for incorporating SEL topics throughout my day!

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This article provided an insightful overview of essential components necessary to teach SEL in the classroom. In my personal experience, I have not been formally trained in any character development program. However, from my experience, I love using PBIS in my classroom. I do this by using a token system, through ClassDojo. The students earn points based on the classroom expectations we developed in the beginning of the school year. The expectations are reviewed during morning meeting each day. At the end of the week, students can cash in their points for reward. In the beginning of the year, students earned toys or fidgets. Now, students are earning certificates (free homework, flexible seating for the day, lunch/movie with me, etc.). Since it has been utilized consistently by myself and the classroom staff, students have been able to self-reflect and will tell me if they have earned and explain why or why not. Students are encouraged to save their points for bigger certificates and will receive "interest" (15 pts) for doing so. I hope to infuse character development in my lessons by providing more "real-life" situations that are related to academic topics.

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The description of self-management really resonated with me. "Self-management requires skills and attitudes that facilitate the ability to regulate one's own emotions and behaviors. This includes the ability to delay gratification, manage stress, control impulses, and persevere through challenges in order to achieve personal and educational goals." These listed abilities are definitely challenges for my students. Controlling impulses is something I discuss with my class often. This article reminded me that SEL is not only learning about emotions, it is also learning about how to manage impulses and socialize appropriately. I am already prioritizing positive interactions between myself and my students. I think I also need to prioritize more explicit SEL lessons with follow-up opportunities. I would like to prioritize morning meetings that incorporate explicit SEL instruction. I can then refer back to these lessons when students need the different skills taught.

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I think this article does a great job explaining how important it is to promote a classroom that encompasses SEL. The article not only provided ways to do it, but also all of the positive effects that it has on students and the environment in the classroom. It should be something that is incorporated into the classroom every single day and sometimes as teachers, we don't even know that it is something we are doing. One thing that truly stuck out to me was the section about short and long term benefits of SEL. It helps students in every aspect of school life and daily life. It promotes better and stronger relationships, better decision making skills, and a more positive attitude. When we are interested in what our students have going on in their lives, we form stronger connections with them and it allows them to open up to us in a way that they may not have if we didn't push to get to know them on deeper levels.

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This article did a great job explaining why social and emotional learning is essential for students. The five keys to successful SEL are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. I hope to infuse character into your curriculum and current lesson plans by incorporating it more into my morning meetings. One of the biggest long- term benefits for SEL is having students be able to manage their emotions, understand the perspectives of others and relate to them and make positive choices about personal and social decisions. This will affect the classroom in a positive way by allowing students to have positive behaviors and relationships with peers, reduce conflict problems and risk-taking behaviors and decrease emotional distress.

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This article does a wonderful job explaining the different components of social emotional learning for students and how each component can be addressed in the classroom. The research shows that SEL can increase students' engagement and academic achievement by 11 percentile points. The two components that stuck out to me most for kindergarten are self-awareness and self-management. In kindergarten, we do a lot of work around self and body awareness and how our words and body can affect the peers around us. Teaching students how to manage their emotions and stress, delaying gratification and having them see the connections between themselves and their peers is crucial. I currently address these topics during morning meetings, through turn-and-talks for students to answer prompts or scenario task cards. The students look forward to this practice each day and I make it a point to have them work with different students so they are being exposed to different opinions and perspectives. I would love to expand my morning meeting practices into different lessons including literacy and math. I currently have many social emotional literacy lessons paired with books that the students equally enjoy.

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Social Emotional Learning is important for students in order to help them build self awareness skills, self management skills, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making skills. A strategy to effectively implement SEL learning is through an acronym called SAFE (Sequenced, Active, Focused, Explicit). This is a great way to teach students about SEL and help them master these skills.

I implement a SEL check-in biweekly or monthly. This gives me a glimpse at my students social emotional status. After reading this article, I would like to incorporate more activities in my speech sessions to teach SEL. I think a great activity to target this is a "what would you do if...." activity. This allows them to use their problem solving skills and dive deeper into their social/emotional thinking. It would also allow for my students to try and see others perspectives.

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The article, Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students, explored how important SEL is to students and how teachers can incorporate it in specific lessons as well as in their curriculum lessons.  The article notes that SEL improves achievement, behavior, children’s attitudes towards school, and reduces depression and stress in students.  Because of all these reasons, it is essential that all teachers and administrators focus on incorporating SEL in their everyday classrooms.

The article digs deeper into focusing on the 5 key skills of SEL.  As I read them, I stopped to think which areas I had incorporated into my day and which I would need to focus more on.  The one thing I can say is that I truly put a lot of effort into building a positive teacher-student relationship.  I take time to get to know my students, learn what their interests and struggles are, allow one-to-one or small group interactions between us and praise as much as I can.

One key skill that stood out to me in the article was that of Social Awareness which involves the ability to understand, empathize, and feel compassion for those with different backgrounds or cultures.  Celebrating and exposing my students to different cultures, religions, celebrations, etc. is a big part of our kindergarten life.  During this time of year we expose our students to different holidays around the world and talk about the differences between our traditions.  I have been told by parents that my students come home and share what they have learned.  During Divali, one parent said that their child had their family actually have a Divali celebration at home.  He made that home-school connection.  What else can we ask for as educators?

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Erin Lee Holtkamp- SEL Learning and why it is essential.

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Erin Lee Holtkamp- SEL Learning and why it is essential.

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The article did a fantastic job breaking down what social emotional learning is and why it is so important. I teach ENL students and we have had an influx of unaccompanied minors enter our district. For those of you who do not know that means they enter this country alone via a border and are flown from wherever they entered alone and sent to multiple states and foster homes until the agency that handles these cases can find a "host" or family member to vouch for them and take them in and care for them. They are then enrolled in the local school and begin coming to my school with no English learning (usually). Most of my students are Spanish speakers from around the world, but we have had Russian, Chinese, Urdu speakers, and Turkish to name a few. We (my ENL coworker and I) have seen first hand the toll this has taken on these students and families. The article points out the importance of making connections with the students and families and that is one of the first things we work on. We use apps, translations, talk to text and I actually happen to speak Spanish so I am blessed to be able to use it to make special connections to these students that need me. Their social emotional well being is complex and ever-evolving. The article reminds me of how important it is to stay in tune to their needs or they will have even more difficulty academically, socially and emotionally.

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I think this article does a great job at breaking down how to target SEL in the classroom. One thing that stuck out to me was the section about self awareness. I think kids doubt themselves and don’t necessarily realize their full potential. As a special education teacher, I feel that my students focus on their limitations and not always their strengths. I often have to remind my students that they are their harshest critics and to go easy on themselves! In my classroom, I try to encourage a growth mindset, remind students of their strengths, and make them know that their disabilities don’t define them. I also practice fostering a safe classroom environment by building relationships. I take interest in the students’ interests, ask them about their weekends, family, etc. I like to make sure my students feel seen and heard.

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I really enjoyed reading this article. I think it articulated both the importance of SEL in our schools as well as defining what it is and how it can look in the classroom. After the COVID shutdown my district started to focus on incorporating SEL districtwide. There was an intense pushback from parents and community members who were vocal about their disregard for the need for SEL for our children. After reading this article I think that the problem is that most people don't fully understand what SEL is or how it benefits students. They believe that incorporating SEL takes away from the ability to learn staples like math and science. This article clearly establishes that the opposite is true. Students who have a solid SEL education perform better, have less stress and an overall more positive attitude toward school, themselves and others.

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Why Social & Emotional Learning is Essential for Students - Madison Cascio

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Why Social & Emotional Learning is Essential for Students - Madison Cascio

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This article was very informative. I understand how important social emotional skills are for students to learn.  According to the article, SEL practices improve achievement by 11 points, as well as promote positive feelings within students. Having positive feelings towards school is so important in order to keep students excited to come to school and working hard.  There are five main skills for them to learn.  The five are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making.  All of these skills are crucial for becoming successful and competent adults.  I believe the earlier these skills are taught, the easier it will be for children to embody them. In my classroom, I try to teach a different skill every Wednesday alongside our school’s social worker. We have taught certain skills from maintaining eye contact, to personal space.  We also teach perseverance and grit. No matter what age group you teach, I believe SEL should be at the forefront of education.  In my eyes, social emotional learning is more important than academics.

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Dena Giacobbe - Response to SEL Article (#3)

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Dena Giacobbe - Response to SEL Article (#3)

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After reading "Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students" on the Edutopia website, it caused a great deal of reflection.

Having never taken a course in SEL, but knowing it as a buzzword in education, it was helpful to read a clear definition and understand its short and long-term benefits. It was not the least bit surprising to me how beneficial it is to students’ personal and academic success and the overall operation of a school.

Now more than ever, SEL is needed in the classroom. The pandemic created learning gaps and exposed inequities in education. Students, as well as adults, suffered trauma from the loss of loved ones and isolation. While it seems that this shared experience should have created more compassionate, empathetic individuals, it seems that in many cases, the opposite has occurred. Look at the spate of violence that plagues the news. In most cases, the news stories are extremely violent and merciless. Sometimes the violence is purely random, and other times, it is targeted at a certain ethnic group.

Since I now have a clearer understanding of what SEL is, I see how I have unintentionally been infusing it in the classroom. In an ENL classroom when students possess different cultural backgrounds, the social awareness piece is always at the forefront.

Over the years, I have observed many of my Spanish-speaking 6th graders, when learning about world religions in social studies, insist that any other religion (not Catholic) is wrong. I must frequently remind them that this is not so. This year, I had a student insist that his social studies teacher was trying to convert him to another religion. He didn’t like learning about other religions. Despite the efforts of his social studies teacher and me to explain to him the importance of learning about other people and their beliefs.

I found it interesting that when reflecting on my own experience in a K-12 classroom, SEL was always present, even if it didn’t have an explicit identity. As someone working in education, I seek to enrich my students academically through English language instruction but ultimately hope to make them better human beings and lifelong learners. I believe this is the philosophy of any teacher. I will certainly be more purposeful with my lessons and seek to work on as much SEL as possible in my future lessons.

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The website does a great job explaining social and emotional learning (SEL). It explains the importance of SEL, short and long-term benefits, how schools can support SEL, how to incorporate it into the classroom, and how to build family and community partnerships. Character education and SEL should be incorporated into curriculums and daily lesson planning to meet individual student needs and set them up for success both inside and outside of the classroom. Character education is so important, and educators should act as role models and lead by example for their students.

I promote character education in my classroom by teaching students core ethical values such as respect, justice, civic virtue, and citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. I believe that all of these can be taught in the classroom and positively impact students so that they can grow up and become caring, respectful and productive members of society. In elementary Physical Education, I feel that it is easy to implement character education in every lesson I teach. In the beginning of the year, I create rules, routines, and expectations (RRE’s) in which students know what exactly is expected of them, and the consequences of unacceptable behavior. It is crucial to stay consistent with these rules in order to hold students accountable, which also helps your classroom management.

I have incorporated SEL’s five key components (Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making) into my curriculum and the students are very receptive to them. During some lessons, students are required to utilize their relationship skills and responsible decision making by working cooperatively with their peers and teammates to achieve their objectives of the game. One of my favorite lesson’s requires students to work collaboratively to assign roles such as defender, offense, goalie, team captain, etc. Since incorporating this into the classroom, students work very well together and use communication skills and decision making to implement a plan and work towards achieving their objectives. I plan to continue incorporating character education and SEL into my daily lessons because it helps students learn knowledge and skills that will translate to real life. One lesson plan I have used was SEL tag. When students were tagged, they had to display an emotion such as arms crossed (Angry, mad, frustrated.) and to be unfrozen the other students would have to guess their emotion. This activity led to a great classroom discussion about social awareness and self-management, and we were able to discuss healthy ways to cope with certain feelings or emotions, as well as helping a friend that may be experiencing these emotions.

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I agree with the article’s statement that SEL can increase students’ intrinsic motivation for learning. I feel that many times, students’ behavior is a result of them not knowing how to process their emotions. If we provide students of all backgrounds access to social-emotional intelligence, they can further understand how their brains work and why they think and feel a certain way. It is almost like a domino affect; when students understand their emotions, they can form relationships with others better, and therefore have a better experience in school. Students would feel less withdrawn or antisocial.

When students have increased self-awareness, they can better understand their current levels of progress and what they may need to do to achieve their future goals. The 5 pillars of social-emotional learning all work in conjunction to make a healthy, well-balanced child.

When my students are in a crisis or are having trouble problem solving, I often ask them “What do you want to happen now?” This can help “get them out of their own head” and look into the future at what the best possible outcome is. Once we determine what they want to happen, we can work to get there. They can either self-regulate and problem-solve on their own, or ask an adult for help.

One thing I am constantly trying to instill in my students is that their actions affect everyone else in the room. Students who realize this often participate less in destructive or disruptive behaviors in the classroom. A book I like to read to my students in the beginning of the year is called “What if Everybody Did That?” and it really helps students see how their actions can affect the flow of the day and everyone else in the room.

Students who receive a proper social-emotional education have an understanding of themselves, how their emotions affect their actions, and how their actions affect those around them. They can become productive members of society and can make positive change.

The article mentions that while lots of SEL occurs organically in the classroom, teachers need to be explicitly trained to then explicitly teach much of it to their students. Opportunities to teach SEL happen all day, every day – while students are doing independent work, working in groups, or even in the lunchroom. There has to be a balance of organic and explicit teaching of SEL.

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As I read the article “Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students, I reflected on my classroom environment and the students I teach.   In the school district, I teach different cultures, languages, traditions, and diverse social and economic backgrounds.  As educators when teaching SEL and character education, we need to incorporate respecting and understanding of other cultures.   As an ENL teacher, one of the ways I teach SEL and character education is through our reading books.  I plan different activities and I always encourage students to make a connection to their culture or societal norms in their country.  I think this helps students understand American culture and learn to respect others and their cultures.  As stated in the article  SEL helps improve prosocial behaviors; kindness, sharing, empathy, and understanding of others.  It promotes social awareness, feeling compassion for those of different backgrounds.  Most of the stories we read as a class highlights different cultures, languages, beliefs, and traditions.  Some school-wide projects that encourage students to have the ability to be socially aware are our cultural biographies at the beginning of the year.  Students and teachers fill out a template that shares pictures and facts about their culture.  Students and teachers shared; traditional foods, holidays, languages, and a special tradition celebrated with their families.  We display the cultural biographies in the main lobby of our entrance, this way the entire school can see the biographies and any guests can read them as well.  This shows how we celebrate diversity, respect other cultures, and encourages students to be self-aware of the cultures in the building.   An important concept highlighted by the author is building relationships with families and the community.  We want our parents to practice and communicate the importance of character education and SEL topics.  I think this will help students practice and also discuss it with their families.   It provides families with information, ways they can enforce these topics and more parental involvement.  I think this year I will try to incorporate more family involvement for SEL and character education lessons, maybe by assigning a book and activity to be done at home with parents.  Also, having parent workshops every quarter explaining our House Hero recognition program and the topics we will cover that quarter.

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Many would argue that the fundamental skills we develop and the experiences we have shape the way we approach the world later in life. In thinking about the arts and early childhood, I am often reminded of the time I volunteered for a community service center back when I was in college, which provided programs and assistance for active-duty military personnel and their families. During that time, I helped lead activities in the arts for a playgroup for parents and toddlers: the highlight of my day was seeing children experience pure joy when painting. They were able to express their feelings whether joyful or otherwise and explore ways to get those feelings out in non traditional or deliberately structured ways. This article really touches upon how important it is for us to incorporate outlets of SEL into our daily lessons, so it becomes more of a natural thing for our students instead of something that is one and done.

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Why SEL is Essential for Students - Lauren Cani

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Why SEL is Essential for Students - Lauren Cani

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Social Emotional Learning is an important aspect of the curriculum because, as many of us know, until the students feel comfortable and safe, learning will not be done. The article discusses the 5 Keys to Success, which is very similar (if not the same) as what CASEL uses, which is what Patchogue-Medford uses in their curriculum.

I find that I spend the most time on self-awareness and social awareness and how it relates to characters. I am constantly asking students to put themselves in the character's shoes and to imagine how the character is feeling, which teaches empathy.

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This article highlights the need for social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools. It shows how incorporating SEL in schools can help improve student's academic success, as well as, success in their future.  Using a SEL program can help students develop five keys skills which are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.   These skills help students better develop their relationships, ability to understand perspectives, and make positive choices both personally and socially.  These skills also promote positive attitudes, positive social behaviors, reduced behavioral issues/problems, less emotional distress and an increase in grades and attendance.  I think the idea of after-school activities to help provide opportunities for our students to connect with supportive adults and peers is a great way to help them develop their SEL skills.

As a speech language pathologist, I often work on improving my student's social and emotional skills.  I work on role-playing to help them build their interpersonal communication skills. We also work on building social problem solving and perspective taking skills.  I like to use social maps to help students identify how what they say or do can impact another person.  Then we work on deriving what someone else may be thinking or feeling based on what we said or did in the social situation. It helps students visually see how what they say or do can impact another person and it helps them understand various perspectives.

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This article is a great source for educator to reference for incorporating SEL and Character Education into their classrooms. This article states that within the classroom SEL and Character education involves teaching and modeling social and emotional skills, providing opportunities for students to practice these skills and giving students an opportunity to generalize and apply these skills. The 5 Key Skills to Social Emotional Learning, were mapped out and explained in detail in a manner that I could adapt for my classroom. As a physical ed. teacher, I am consistently working on team building and working together. After reading this article, I will will proactively incorporate the 5 key skills into my lessons.

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As I was reading through this article, I tried to put myself in the shoes of former students who have had a hard time with social emotional skills.  For example, when I read through the 5 key skills to SEL, I immediately related to my special education population of students who struggle with all 5 of those components: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making.

When reading through the section on the short term and long term benefits of SEL, I started to think about how these are skills that are (for some) not learned in a short-term manner.  Some students pick it up quickly, whereas some need more practice, role-playing and working through real-life experience.

I think for the population of students that I teach, 1st/2nd graders, a lot of the growth with SEL happens in realtime, during teachable moments in the classroom. I hope to continue to incorporate SEL through read alouds, role playing and with the support of our school programs.

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This article really opens your eyes to how much social development a person goes through during their adolescence. It is crazy to think that there used to be little emphasis on this in schools. A child needs to learn how to identify and deal with their emotions, self-management, relationship skills and decision making. I liked the SAFE acronym that lays out how a SEL learning problem should look like (sequenced, active, focused and explicit). We live in a period of time, regardless of political views, where recently socioeconomic differences has been a focal point in the news and in society. I think students should have a space to express their experiences and learn to accept each others differences in order to create a unified classroom "family". Personally, I went to a school that was almost entirely white, and it was not until college and my first job where I was consistently around people that grew up very differently than me, so giving students the opportunity to talk about these differences without getting political is valuable. I also think decision making is important, as students are dealing with conflicts in their life for the first time (and certainly not the last time). Giving them strategies to think and plan out a strategy before acting will help them alot. Not only will this help them outside of the classroom but according to the article it can grow their achievement by 11 percentile points. Too often as teachers we assume that students know how to handle daily life (organizing, conflicts, identifying and understanding differences) or that they are taught it by their parents at home. I definitely agree with this article that students need a SAFE SEL learning program that helps grow their character, which according to the article can grow their performance in the classroom as well.
I plan to incorporate this SAFE learning SEL plan at the beginning of a lesson, maybe 5-10 minutes 3 times a week where we can talk about organization, acceptance, and identifying feelings using the RULER or mood meter. I am lucky that my school gives me a double block for math time, so I have flexibility in being able to incorporate this into my lessons.

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The article clearly spelled out the four effective elements of a SEL program. It used the acronym SAFE. I had never heard this before and I know it will stick with me. It explained that the four important elements were: Sequenced (sets of activities to foster development), Active (forms of learning), Focused (develop personal skills) and Explicit (target specific social skills).

As a Speech Pathologist, I target pragmatic skills in almost all of my sessions. It might not be part of the student's IEP goals but pragmatics usually come up when engaged in a lesson. I have learned that teaching skills explicitly is the best way for students to learn. My small group sessions are a perfect setting to infuse SEL and help my  students to develop solid social and personal skills.

I plan to infuse SEL into my lesson plans in a more structured way this coming school year.

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I really enjoyed reading the article. I thought it was very impressive that SEL in the classroom also improves achievement by 11 points. I appreciated how simplistic the article into 5 simple skills being Self awareness, Self management, Social awareness, Relationship skills, and responsible decision making. School is a premier place to build SEL. It is part of our role as educators to foster this inclusive and encouraging environment.
Two ways I see that I can quickly incorporate SEL in the classroom is through interpersonal, student-centered instructional interactions and family/community partnerships. It is important to be positive in your relationships with the students and to encourage them to be themselves. Additionally, family/community partnerships can be a great help for SEL programs. With virtual enterprise, I should be able to partner up with local community members to support our budding entrepreneurs and the "businesses" that they create in class.

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I think it's so important as educators that we incorporate SEL lessons into our daily curriculum because essentially young learners spend most of their day in school. It's the primary place where students learn their social and emotional skills, building these skills in the classroom is essential for students to grow.

One factor of SEL that stuck out to me from the article was building family and community relationships. The article stated that Family and community partnerships can strengthen the impact of school approaches to extending learning into the home and neighborhood. It's important to be able to communicate with parents and the community so that students are supported not only in the classroom but at home and after school activities as well.

I would like to continue to build these relationships with my students, parents, and community. In doing so I hope to infuse lessons that students can take home and build conversations with their parents about what and why they learned from my art room! From the school wide SEL art projects, I also hope to create positive dialogue among my students and staff so that SEL is transitioned throughout the whole building!

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The article brought up some very important points.  I agree that school is one of the primary places that students learn social and emotional skills.  As a result of this, I feel it is crucial that SEL programs are a part of our school curriculums.  Our students need the support of their teachers, schools, and communities in order to effectively develop social and emotional skills.

There are so many benefits for our students such as understanding how to manage their emotions and gaining perspectives on others, especially those who may be different from them.  This is so relevant in our world today, more than ever, and I hope we can help our students to become more understanding and accepting of others. Another benefit of SEL is that students can develop more positive attitudes and gain confidence, which can lead them to make better choices for the future.

I feel we must teach and model social and emotional skills explicitly for our students and provide them with many opportunities where they can practice these skills and further develop them.  I would hope to embed SEL instruction into my current lessons in English Language Arts.  I would use fictional characters and subjects in non-fiction texts to model character education in a cohesive way.  I always strive to make connections with my students and check in with them regularly to see how they’re feeling.  I share things about my own personal life with them, which they seem to enjoy listening to.  I think this is important so that they see me as a human being, and not just a teacher.  My hope is that this is helping to improve their communications skills as well as their self-awareness skills so that they may learn how to understand their own emotions and have a more positive mindset.  I make sure they are aware that I am here to support them.

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Mary Corrado - Assignment 3 Article Reflection

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Mary Corrado - Assignment 3 Article Reflection

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I also found this article to be extremely informative and shared this with my building administrators. I like that there was a focus on safety and long term benefits. "Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in school, careers, and life." I teach seniors College and Career Writing, and in our career unit we discuss interview skills such as body language, eye contact, etc. I usually have students work with a partner to brainstorm possible questions and practice responding with each other. I encourage my students to practice this also when the time comes with a family member or someone who has experience to offer constructive criticism. I can certainly include more character education in our journal topics, questions and class discussions throughout additional units of the curriculum. Even for college essays, the common app essay prompts offer a wide variety of mentor texts to process for narrative techniques and topics. I think I need to offer students more opportunities to learn from each other using their own experiences. Even by using more questions like "What do you think you would do in that situation?" and "How do you think they feel?" to be given time to write about it and then discuss with a partner and then the whole class discussion. Hearing how someone else may handle a situation in a positive way can encourage a classmate to rethink and find a more beneficial way to manage. Such student-centered learning can help them in more ways other than for purely academic objectives. I often try to explain that in the workplace, how you communicate with others is important so that you can all collaborate and achieve the same goals. Furthermore, learning from their peers can be more effective than learning from their teacher in this way. We must provide them with more opportunities to do this to prepare them for life after their high school graduation. With the pandemic and online "learning," teachers may have not had as many chances to do so. I am thankful for this opportunity to take this course to learn more ways to incorporate into my curriculum.