# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You can also model SEL as a team by intentionally fostering a culture of appreciation among adults, including creating consistent opportunities for public and private acknowledgments of staff. Staff who receive recognition for their learning and collaboration efforts are more satisfied with and engaged in their work (Cataldo, 2011) and are more likely to continue modeling social and emotional competencies for peers and students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Establish a structured, ongoing process to collect, reflect on, and use implementation and outcome data to inform school-level decisions and drive improvements to SEL implementation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Social and Emotional Learning

Educators are working to encourage the development of social and emotional learning competencies through arts education.

©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images

Many arts educators I know informally and pragmatically seek to build social and emotional learning (SEL) skills to help their students appreciate the nuances of art, often by attending to the way emotions are expressed in painting, sculpture, drawing, music, and dance. Teachers of the arts know that observing, analyzing, and understanding art and its production and context builds many SEL competencies. Arts educators know also that building students' SEL capacities will often increase their appreciation of and participation in the arts.

In my home state of New Jersey, there are currently efforts to bring arts education and SEL into better alignment. Arts Ed NJ and SEL4NJ are collaborating to create a pathway between the arts and social and emotional learning competencies. As these organizations work together, a pathway is being designed to tie specific arts activities to visual and performance arts state standards and SEL competencies.

In the SEL area of social awareness, four competencies have been identified:

1. Recognize one's feelings and thoughts.

2. Recognize the impact of one's feelings and thoughts on one's own behavior.

3. Recognize one's personal traits, strengths, and limitations.

4. Recognize the importance of self-confidence in handling daily tasks and challenges.

Consider how these four competencies could be applied to listening to a piece of music. Students could note their emotions, consider how what they heard led to those feelings, relate to other times they listened to music and felt something similar (or different), and practice how they can express their views with confidence.

I recently attended a Very Young People's Concert with my 4-year-old grandson, and the musicians played excerpts from the Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky. Kids not previously familiar with a piece of music, or a song, could identify a range of feelings that different parts of the music evoked in them. With practice, they can expand the initial feelings they express, as well as learn from their classmates.

Examples From Different Grades

To further illustrate the synergy between arts education and SEL, consider the following scenarios.

Elementary grades: It is a shared goal among arts educators and those concerned about SEL that all students build their vocabulary for emotions and feelings. And we can begin this with young children. To the extent that students label works of art as good or bad, or say that seeing or hearing visual or performing arts media leads them to feel sad, mad, or glad, they are limiting what they will absorb from the world around them. They will be less likely to appreciate works of art they experience, and they will be less likely to understand the nuances of relationships they experience.

What this means is that from early on, teachers in arts classes need to be looking to expand the vocabulary of students. For example, some curricula suggest that by the end of first grade, children should, at the least, know and use the words sad, mad, happy, surprised, worried, afraid, upset, and proud.

In an early elementary art class, children can be helped to understand depictions of these feelings in pictures but also in abstract art, making linkages to certain colors and color combinations as well. Collaborating teachers can design ways for students to understand how to detect these feelings in picture books. The Cat in the Hat and other Dr. Seuss books have excellent illustrations of feelings.

Middle and high school grades: In a two-day lesson titled Building SECD Skills Via Analyzing and Creating Art, students examine paintings by Norman Rockwell depicting the Four Freedoms during World War II. This lesson illustrates how teachers of the arts can collaborate with core subject area educators (language arts or social studies) in building SEL competencies.

For the assessment part of this lesson, students create their own contemporary Four Freedoms representations. Students might do this through collage, photography, spoken word, or even dance. Arts educators can greatly deepen students' ability to analyze the paintings as the students plan their own artistic representations. The core subject teachers can help the lesson articulate the school's grade-level arts academic objectives while collaborating with their arts teachers in building SEL competencies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Developing Curricula for SEL and the Arts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Social and Emotional Learning Educators are working to encourage the development of social and emotional learning competencies through arts education. ©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images Many arts educators I know informally and pragmatically seek to build social and emotional learning (SEL) skills to help their students appreciate the nuances of art, often by attending to the way emotions are expressed in painting, sculpture, drawing, music, and dance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tens of millions of students are dealing with massive upheaval to their educations and daily lives with their schools shuttered indefinitely to thwart the spread of the coronavirus.

Add to that fears over a pandemic that could sicken them or loved ones, students now more than ever need strong coping skills to adjust to this new reality that will likely, for many, extend through the end of the school year and beyond.

But should social-emotional learning really be a focus for educators right now as they scramble to figure out how to teach their classes remotely?

And how can educators even continue to foster students' social-emotional skills when they aren't in class together?

To answer that first question, yes, said Marc Brackett, a professor at Yale University and the director of its Center for Emotional Intelligence.

Social-emotional learning is critical to managing anxiety at this time, he said.

"Because if you don't know how to deal with the lack of control of your future, or the feelings of uncertainty that you're having, your brain is going to stay in a constant fight or flight mode," he said. "And if our brain is in fight or flight mode, then it's not in learning mode."

To answer that second question-about how to teach social-emotional skills remotely-EdWeek talked to experts to ask what SEL skills, exactly, schools should be encouraging and how teachers can do it.

Simple Things Teachers Can Do

One place to start, said Brackett, is to try a technique he calls psychological distancing.

Teachers can encourage students to stop thinking about themselves and instead ask: "'Well, what would I do to support my best friend who was telling me they were really worried about the coronavirus? What would I say to them?'" Brackett said.

"And all of the sudden, they start thinking about all of these strategies that they would use to be compassionate to someone, but that they may not use for themselves."

Students should examine what they are saying to themselves-consciously or not-inside their heads and to ask themselves, 'is their self-talk helpful?'

"It's about doing [something], as opposed to being in your head all the time about it," Brackett said.

Many educators are already trying out different tactics to teach or infuse social-emotional learning into their remote lessons, said Karen VanAusdal, the senior director of practice at the Collaborative of Academic and Social Emotional Learning, or CASEL.

"It can be simple things, such as sending daily notes, or, as some educators are doing, morning meetings with their classes where they can build community and do check-ins with young people to see how it is going," said VanAusdal. For younger students, some teachers have been reading books aloud to their students virtually and then reflecting on the social-emotional skills of the characters in the books, said VanAusdal.

For older students, VanAusdal recommends teachers ask students to examine the social-emotional attributes they're seeing in leaders right now and to ask students how those qualities are helping the country through the crisis.

Some SEL skills educators should be highlighting in others and fostering in their students, said VanAusdal, are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and responsible decision-making.

Showing Kids They Can Reduce Risk

Examples for when those skills are necessary abound, said Catherine Bradshaw, a developmental psychologist and professor at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education and Human Development.

"Kids may have a lower risk of contagion so they have to be mindful that while they may not get sick, they have to wash hands to reduce other people's risk," said Bradshaw.

"So that's a clear opportunity to understand how their actions and choices affect others."

It's also important to keep traditions and build supportive environments even when the class is scattered well beyond the classroom walls, said VanAusdal.

"Keeping up rituals, like a spirit week," she said. "Have students wear crazy socks and take a picture of it and send it in."

VanAusdal said she has seen several examples of principals and teachers making videos of supportive messages and sending them to their students.

Those are also ways to reach students who may be struggling to connect because they don't have a computer or internet access at home, said VanAudal.

"I think we're finding that students do have cellphone access, and there are ways they can still see video messages," she said.

Some SEL curriculum providers are offering resources that are easy for students to use on their own and don't require teacher or parent supervision, she said.

There are other exercises that students can do largely on their own.

Simple breathing exercises are beneficial.

Journaling is another. Teachers can provide students with prompts.

"It's helpful for expressing emotions, but it's also an interesting artifact to look back on when kids get older," said Bradshaw.

But, while it's important to talk to students about what's going on in the world, it's also important not to overwhelm students with too much information about the pandemic, said Bradshaw.

Teachers need to be sensitive to that, she said, and parents probably should not have cable news on in their house all day long.

And, she said, it's important for educators to recognize that these are uncharted waters, and that there's nothing that can really prepare people emotionally for dealing with a pandemic.

Kids-and adults-rely on social connections to get through difficult times. But the era of social distancing has upended all of that.

"So, we have a lot fewer tools in our tool kit to manage stress in these situations," said Bradshaw.

"That's why a lot of interpersonal skills are really going to be critical to helping kids manage this kind of stress."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Teach Social-Emotional Learning When Students Aren't in School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Experts offer tactics to teachers on how they can tend to students' SEL development in this chaotic time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
neatoday.org needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As the ambassadors of adult SEL, school leaders set the tone for a positive school climate. This involves shaping how staff collaborate and develop professionally while cultivating and modeling their own social and emotional competence.

Research shows that school leaders who foster collaboration among teachers create strong school climates that ultimately lead to academic gains for students ( Allensworth & Hart, 2018). School leaders with strong social and emotional competencies are also better able to build and maintain positive and trusting relationships-a critical component of creating a positive, supportive, and effective school climate (Patti & Tobin, 2003). By consistently modeling SEL, prioritizing time for reflection and planning around SEL, and intentionally working to build relationships with school staff, administrators become visible ambassadors for schoolwide SEL.

Administrators also model SEL through collaborative leadership. Hank Rubin, president of the Institute of Collaborative Leadership, defines a collaboration as "a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to accomplish a shared outcome." In collaborative leadership, leaders create an inclusive decision-making process. Using all five SEL competencies, collaborative leadership encourages a sense of ownership, responsibility, and trust among organization members. Collaborative leadership has also been found to positively impact student learning (Hallinger & Heck, 2010).
Administrator Actions:

Identify and prioritize opportunities for staff to learn, plan, and reflect on SEL.

Create protected time for staff to regularly collaborate with each other.

Embed into existing staff meetings intentional opportunities for adults to connect personally, interact in meaningful ways, and share appreciations and reflections.

Identify ways to explicitly model your own social and emotional competencies and development as you connect with individual staff members and seek feedback.

Ensure those who will be affected by decisions are included in decision-making processes, and that all decision-making teams are representative of the school community.

Administrator Resources:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Social Emotional Learning Activities for Adults | CASEL - Casel Schoolguide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The CASEL School Guide supports adult social and emotional learning with activities, professional development, and resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Build social and emotional skills into any class.

Summit students rip up their stress.

Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The school has developed an HCC curriculum for grades nine through 12 and hired two full-time teachers for HCC, but Summit's academic teachers also use some of these activities to build SEL skills and deepen their relationships with their students. Cady Ching, a biology and AP environmental science teacher at Summit, incorporates opening activities into all of her classes: "In my freshman classes, we do them every class period."

Visualization to release stress: Have your students imagine what stress looks and feels like inside their body, and then ask them to release it. "The mindfulness practice makes you think the stress is coming off your body," says Geoffrey, a 12th-grade student.

Noise isolation: There are a variety of sounds that your students hear when they're in your classroom, from students walking in the hallway to outdoor construction noise. Have your students focus on one noise and describe it to themselves and recall the last time they interacted with it.

Here are some of the opening, group sharing, and closing activities that teachers use at Summit:

Opening Activities

Summit students practice mindfulness.

2. Name the emotion you're bringing to class: Have each student call out the emotion they're feeling. This helps each student know how they and other students are feeling, what different emotions look like, and how to better interact with their peers based on how they're feeling.

3. Write down, rip up, and throw away your stress: Have your students write down their expectations and insecurities, rip them up, and throw them away. This emotional check-in takes about three minutes. By acknowledging how your students are feeling at the start of each class, you'll acknowledge their barriers to learning and create a safe space for your students to overcome them.

5. Quote of the day: Introduce a quote relevant to what your students are learning or to a shared experience-for example, an act of violence in the community. You can facilitate a whole-class discussion, group students into pairs, or have each student share a one-word response to the quote. This gives students the space to reflect on their beliefs and experiences and whether they agree or disagree with the quote and other students' opinions, and it gives them insight into their peers' perspectives and feelings.

6. Where we came from: Collect baby pictures from your students. Project one baby picture at the start of class, have your students guess who it is, and then have the featured student share something about their childhood.

7. Starting positive: Have each student tape a sheet of paper to their back and then walk around and write positive qualities about their peers on their backs.

8. Motivational moment: Have two students start the class with a three- to five-minute presentation-and come up with two or three discussion questions-based on their interests. The presentation must be related to the course content in a real-world context. "Many students include a video for visuals and increased engagement, but it's optional," says Ching. Have the rest of the class partner up to discuss their questions for one minute and then give them the opportunity to share out to the whole class. This exercise gives your students insight into their peers' interests.

Grades 9-12 | Redwood City, CA

Enrollment

388 | Charter, Suburban

Per Pupil Expenditures

Free / Reduced Lunch

47%

Data is from the 2014-2015 academic year.

Group Sharing

9. Circle sharing: To encourage active listening, create small groups. Have your students position their chairs in a circle so everyone can make eye contact. To strengthen empathy, you can facilitate deeper discussion around what a student shares by asking, "Why did that student share what they did?" or "What perspective is that student coming from?"

When discussing emotionally charged topics, it's important to have guidelines to foster a safe space. Summit uses the Courageous Conversation protocol created by Glenn E. Singleton when discussing race. The protocol is guided by four agreements-stay engaged, experience discomfort, speak your truth, and expect and accept nonclosure. Here is an example of elementary school discussion guidelines from School 21.

Summit students sit in a circle for a whole-class discussion.

10. Write a poem from someone else's perspective. Have your students choose someone they don't know. This helps them to understand that they don't "need to be best friends with someone to empathize with them," explains Ballard.

11. Have a conversation with someone you don't know. Have your students pair up with a student they don't know and provide the pairs with five questions to ask each other. Each student introduces their partner to the class, speaking as if they were their partner, while the rest of the class looks at the student being introduced. "We don't see people sometimes," says Ballard, "and this exercise helps students to see each other more deeply."

12. Play interest and identity-related bingo. Instead of squares filled with numbers or vocabulary words, create cards with information relating to your students. Summit's Bingo cards have things like "'I like to read' or 'I was born in a different country,'" says Armando, a ninth-grade student.

I would like to appreciate Brenda for facilitating the conversation in our small group.

I would like to thank everyone for taking this class seriously.

I apologize to everyone for having my headphones in for half of the time.

Closing Activity

13. Appreciation, apology, aha: Have your students get in a circle and share an appreciation, apology, or realization with the group. Students in Ballard's class have shared things like:

Encourage authentic and timely apologies. Apologizing for something that happened a long time ago has less impact than apologizing for something that happened that day or week. Let your students know that they don't have to name who they're apologizing to when they apologize for what they did.

Help students share helpful, not harmful words. "I often say, 'Appreciations, apologies, and ahas should be something that you genuinely think will be useful for people to hear,'" says Ballard.

Have your students snap, clap, or shake both hands when they hear something that resonates with them. "We snap to let people know that we hear them without exerting our own voice in their narrative," explains Ballard. Students shake their hands when peers share things that are emotionally charged. Ballard often gets this started by saying, "Let's shake it up for that."

"When you pay attention to each other, not only does it build a sense of community, but we're more able to understand other people," says Janet, a 12th-grade student. "If you're able to understand people at a younger age, you could work better with them as adults. That changes how the future generations will be. People can be more accepting, more helpful towards each other."

What makes this a SCHOOL THAT WORKS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Build social and emotional skills into any class.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
SEL in Digital Life: Perseverance & Activism

In this lesson, students will discover the meaning and effects of perseverance and activism real in the digital world. They will also reflect on what might keep them from showing perseverance online.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SEL in Digital Life: Perseverance & Activism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SEL in Digital Life: Perseverance & Activism In this lesson, students will discover the meaning and effects of perseverance and activism real in the digital world. They will also reflect on what might keep them from showing perseverance online.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
SEL in Digital Life: Communication

In this lesson, students will discover the importance of practicing good communication online and the social impact of practicing good communication online. They will also reflect on what might keep them from having good communication while online.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SEL in Digital Life: Communication In this lesson, students will discover the importance of practicing good communication online and the social impact of practicing good communication online. They will also reflect on what might keep them from having good communication while online.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
SEL in Digital Life: Integrity & Sharing Online

In this lesson, students will discover the meaning and effects of integrity in the digital world. They will also reflect on what might keep them from showing integrity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SEL in Digital Life: Integrity & Sharing Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SEL in Digital Life: Integrity & Sharing Online In this lesson, students will discover the meaning and effects of integrity in the digital world. They will also reflect on what might keep them from showing integrity.

# data[].attributes.headline
Strategies for Support SEL in Virtual Settings 

# data[].attributes.subject
Strategies for Support SEL in Virtual Settings 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SEL Strategies in Virtual Setting 4-6-20