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The idea of "SEL" is not new. It's something we all know we need to address, but there's been less and less time for it.

Knowing we all address SEL in our classroom, what is the simplest thing you do in your classroom that you would share with your peers in this course?

What does your school/district do to support you or purchase for you? (curriculums, etc)

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Something simple that I do is a Motivational Monday question that I post on my Google Classroom to my students each week. The questions vary from week to week but help to get to know students and help them to reflect about different topics.

My school district does not have any curriculum but we do have an advisory period each week that focuses on SEL activities that teachers do with a small group of students.

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Something we do in Kindergarten is Alphabreaths The ABC'S of Mindful Breathing. My students enjoy learning all the different Alphabreaths. They are able to utilize different breaths when they are upset.

The curriculum our district uses to support SEL learning is Strong Start.

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I use Diane Albers- A Little Spot Series to help my little ones understand, recognize, and regulate their emotions. I love her books and materials. My students find it really easy to attach their feelings and emotions to certain colors.

My District does not have a specific SEL curriculum for our PreK Program.

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I am currently at home with my three kids, but maintaining my license for when I return to teaching. I am looking forward to diving deeper into SEL and CASEL. When I was teaching third grade, students needed a little transition time after recess to get their bodies and minds ready to learn. As a class we would do the Bubble Breathing on Go Noodle. Practicing breathe work while the animated bubble moved up and down seemed to help students get in a calm state of mind. We also talked about how deep breathing extends beyond the recess transition. It can help when you're frustrated, nervous, worried, or angry.

My district used the Open Circle curriculum at the elementary level to support SEL learning. The curriculum provided a common language for teachers and students to use to problem solve or recognize feelings. The curriculum also focused on weekly 5-10 minute class meetings that focused on a particular topic, a team building activity, or a problem the class was having and ideas to address it.

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Something simple I do in my preschool classroom is a daily affirmation (with an adorable animal picture!) during my morning meeting. I also implement the Zones of Regulation and have the chart available to students in my calming corner.

My school supports me by allowing our school adjustment counselor to come in once a week of "snack packs" and SEL lessons. Snack Packs are a smaller group of students that are joined by our school adjustment counselor. During these sessions they discuss more specific topics of SEL that all the students could benefit from. Her SEL lessons are taught whole group with a group discussion, scenarios, a read-aloud story, and a small coloring activity.

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I teach 8th grade science. We have used Wayfinder in the past as a SEL curriculum. I have also been trained in restorative justice. SChoool admin is supportive, but there are so many students with unmet social and emotional needs , that it is sometimes hard to keep up. School counselors are in the building.

I use humor to diffuse situations. It usually works. Kids want to laugh and at the same time see the absurdity in their conflicts. That doesn't take away from the fact the many students are coming into school from difficult circumstances.

I introduce every class with a short google slide invitation that always includes a kindness video.

See above

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Life Vest Inside is a non profit on a mission to inspire, empower and educate people of all backgrounds to lead a life of kindness! Life Vest Inside focuses on empowerment and helping people see just how awesome they truly are. When we truly love ourselves, loving others is easy!

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Something simple we do in my Pre-K classroom is regularly practicing breathwork through short videos like belly breathing, rainbow breathing, box breathing, butterfly breathing, and even incorporate simple yoga poses.

We are also fortunate to have Miss Erin from Happy Humans Mindfulness come in for eight weekly sessions to teach about mindfulness. She usually focuses on a whole group discussion where she will sometimes incorporate a story or short activity and then wraps up her time with a coloring page that reviews what concept she discussed with our class. These lessons range from things like different types of breathwork, mindfully listening, feeling and naming our emotions and more.

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My district does not currently have an SEL program or plan we are using with students. We have had one half day PD with a speaker but did not gain any tools or strategies yet (maybe to come in future PD??)

In my third grade classroom we have a parent who is a yoga instructor come in each Friday to teach yoga and breathing that we utilize throughout the week. (We started after December break.) We also have a daily morning meeting where we review the schedule for the day and any changes to routines and have a small amount of time to check in with students about what is going on in their worlds.

We also created a class expectations chart at the start of school together with things each of us needs to have a successful day in school and we discuss how those are working each day. (Expectations include statements like "We are kind, honest and fair. We are a friend to all and include others always" etc) These do provide some excellent discussions believe it or not, especially when emotions get high or frustration arises in class.

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In my third grade classroom, the class and I set classroom expectations during the first week of school. This helps students develop a sense of belonging and it helps students get to know the expectations and routines of the classroom. I also use the Little Spot series to help address feelings and other issues that may arise in the classroom. The school library also has the Little Spot series so my students love checking them out of the library to read at home.

My school has provided online resources for teachers to utilize in the classroom. Each class also received a soft blue chair for our "cool down" corners. The cool down corner is a place for students to go and use different types of tools, such as fidgets, to help them calm down.

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Currently we have no curriculum to support SEL learning. Anything that we do with our children are from previous curriculums such as mindfulness and growth mindset. Witht that said, I use movies, you tube videos, books, that address topics I would like to cover. This is what I hope to gain from this course is a set of tools to teach SEL in a short amount of time, but that I can refer back to as issues arrise in the classroom.

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I am currently a first year ELL teacher for students in grades 2-5 (primarily grades 2 and 3). I spent the last 10 years of my career as an ETL, and the 7 years prior to that as a Special Ed teacher.

Something simple that I do weekly in my pull out groups is SEL Reflection Prompts. These reflection prompts pair well with the Speaking and Listening components of ELL instruction, as well as vocabulary development. I found these prompts on learningtogive.org. I do have to simplify language and ideas at times due to student's age and often ACCESS Scores. However, when simplified, these prompts have lead to meaningful conversations where students learn more about themselves, their peers and their teacher.

All teachers in my district have access to Second Step. I have looked at it briefly. In my role, where i only have students for a short time each day or only several times per week, it seems overwhelming unless specific situations were to arise.

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In my classroom we used the zones of reflections. At the beginning of the year we learn about the different zones and different strategies to use when they are not in the "green zone". We also have a calming area where students can go when they need time to decompress. We also talk about different social situations and how they can navigate them during our question of the day.

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In my classroom each morning I have a feelings board. When the kids come in they tell me how they are feeling. This is really helpful for me each morning to see where the kids are when they enter the room. It is also really helpful as I can check in with kids who might be feeling sad etc. and see if I can help. This also helps the kids see that we all have different feelings and they can feel similar to their peers. Also, we talk about how feelings can change throughout the day. I also use the Alphabreaths book and we learn a new mindful breath for each new letter we learn.

Our school supports us with Strong Start and Social Thinking.

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We are lucky to work collaboratively with our school adjustment counselor to teach SEL and strategies around the 5 core (CASEL) competencies. The counselor comes in once per week to teach a lesson, often on the Zones of Regulation, and sometimes using lessons from the Panorama Playbook. I do my best to supplement these lessons with Zone checks and frequent (movement or calming) breaks referencing the Zones. We have a calm area in the class that is useful for students to use when feeling any emotion or to take a moment when they just aren't ready to learn at that point.

Finally, I find that using the Responsive Classroom Model and that our morning meeting routine helps students to build relationships that help to foster stronger SEL skills overall.

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I start every morning with a with some sort of SEL lesson as part of morning meeting. The topics range from perseverance to kindness and everything in between. There is some sort of video/read aloud daily with questions to consider and a group discussion to follow.

Years ago we used to use Second Step but we don't currently have an SEL curriculum.

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I am a library media specialist and see grades K-5. Many teachers have their own strategy for SEL in the classroom. I try to talk with teachers to see what they do and try to use those same strategies/language in library class for consistency. A lot of times we focus on breathing or have a 'mindful moment'.

Our school used to use the Open Circle program when I first started here. They no longer formally use it but some teachers still use it. Our new-ish principal holds Restorative Practice circles with several different grades/classes each week and encourages teachers to try them in their classroom.

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In my school district, we have a year-long daily Advisory Program for each grade level (6-8), largely emphasizing elements of SEL. One example of this is the usage of Mood Meters, which are not only manually updated by each student (and teacher) every Monday morning in advisory class (the first half hour of school), but are supplied by the district to every classroom in use. Students are encouraged to create their own magnetic avatars or symbols to represent themselves--and their moods--on the chart.

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We use Second Step as our SEL curriculum. There is a weekly lesson focusing on a specific skill and visuals, songs, and strategies that you can implement in your classroom. I like to use the "How's your engine running" concept for self-regulation in my kindergarten classroom. We check in with our engines and choose strategies that we know can help us to get our engine running just right. We have a variety of strategies and tools available to kids throughout the day, as well as a designated spot where they can go to utilize these strategies as needed.

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Something that I do for SEL right now is that in the context of my daily morning meeting I try to focus on any competency that my class might need based on what I am observing in the classroom by reading a book that is related to this competency and then we discuss. So for example, this week I noticed that my class was really struggling with being kind to one another. As a result I read a book called Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson. After reading the book we chatted about the book and then I asked the class to write about an act of kindness that they participated in recently.

Our district does not have a curriculum for SEL.

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Something I currently do in my classroom is I have a break space where students can go willingly or be offered time there. At the break space there is a mirror, positive affirmations, kinetic sand, and a calm jar.

Our district is supportive of SEL. We have SEL lessons scheduled with the school counselors once a month where they explicitly teach social skills or emotional strategies. Our students were fans of the calming tools, yoga session, and mandala coloring stations offered during one scheduled lesson.

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When I was an elementary school principal, I met with the school staff and we decided that we needed a school-wide program to help children succeed both in and out of school. The staff visited a school in Dorchester that was implementing Skills for Life. We found it to be an effective program, and we implemented it at our school. Parents, teachers, all school staff including custodians, aides, and cafeteria workers attended workshops and were trained to use the same words to provide consistent understandable messages to students.

One calming tool we used was self-control time. Teacher directed students after lunch, recess, back from gym etc., to sit calmly for less than a minute with eyes shut. Afterwards, the students would resume activities. Same for students having a problem, they would use self-control time to regain composure and then a staff member would help the student with the issue.

When I was principal, school district had a full-time guidance counselors in every elementary school. Also, SEL at Peabody Public Schools was featured on May 24, 2022 on WBZ news.

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Right now I focus on SEL in my classroom by doig a new lesson each week on Fridays, depending on my classes needs. I do a whole group lesson and then an acitvity for students to show what they have learned. We cover topics like growth mindset, kindness, sharing, and equity.