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Avoiding Common Mistakes When Implementing SEL

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Avoiding Common Mistakes When Implementing SEL

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According to Maurice J. Elias, achieving SEL in regular program can be complex and difficult to carry on in a high degree way. It requieres integration into the school system and needs to be linked in the pre-existing school routine, and finally it needs a ruler character that can give its best guidance to fulfill it.
Even though the author shows the challenges, he offers some possible suggestions to go for it:
School, teachers, students and everyone involved need to comprehend the necessity of using SEL in a regular basis, understanding how this can help students built character and develop, intentionally, other meaningful skills. It is also important to make it clear that SEL, as any other valuable thing in life, takes time, so there needs to be a systematic integration, expecting positive results by the end of two years. As looking through this expectation, it is necessary, as well, to understand the importance of a specific and high kind of training for each one implementing the SEL as well as a communicative environment to fully achieve it.
Elias says that  no Mental Health Professionals are necessary to implement the program but it does necessary need assistance of those professional with a higher degree because of their qualifications.

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Destin from Smarter Every Day shows in the video a real great statemente: Knowledge is not undestanding.
There are pathways in our brain that are really locked but may, in the future, can be unlocked.
Children has more neural plasticity and we need to get this to help us with the correct SEL implementation, perhaps...
Enjoy this video!

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The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133

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Why do we lose CONTROL of our emotions? 

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Why do we lose CONTROL of our emotions? 

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This video is really useful to present to our students and can help them a lot with understanding.
This video shows similar example a child can be related to when he or she loses the control of their emotions.
Then, it offers some really easy ways to deal with sudden burst of emotions.
A really nice and caring video for children.

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In the seminar, teacher all over the globe were sharing their thoughts about SEL, among other stuff related, and most of those ideas were drew by some artist. Enjoy, as I did, with those fascinating ideas.

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SEL

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 J. Cohen New York,Teachers College Press (2001).Caring Classrooms/IntelligentSchools: The Social Emotional Education of Young Children.

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Social and emotional education refers to the process and methods we use to promote social emotional competencies. Although I suggest that the capacity to “read” ourselves and others is the foundation for social emotional learning (just as the capacity to decode phonemes is the foundation for language learning), competence and learning in this area refers to a broader set of knowledge and skills. Social and emotional competence measures the ability to understand, process, manage, and express the social and emotional aspects of our lives. The degree to which we are able to do so is predictive of life satisfaction and productivity, whereas grades and SAT scores, by themselves, are not (Goleman, 1995; Heath, 1991; Valliant, 1977)! We have also learned that schools can and need to be a forum in which social emotional understanding and related skills are taught. There is a growing consensus, then, that effective social emotional education needs to become an integrated part of the curriculum, pre-K through 12 grade. It is abundantly clear to those who work with young children that how children
feel about themselves and others colors and shapes their ability to learn. Their social emotional capacities powerfully affect--and even determine--the ability to listen and
communicate; to concentrate; to recognize; understand, and solve problems; to cooperate; to modulate their emotional states; to become self-motivating; to resolve conflicts
adaptively; in short, to become a member of the group.
Social emotional learning is a relatively new label for a process that is as old as human kind. It has been a part of schooling since the beginning of formal education 3,000
years ago in Egypt, India, and Greece in one form or another.

For many centuries, only upper class men were educated and the pedagogic content typically reflected the dominant religious teachings of the time as well as the wish to instruct students about social norms. Some ancient education explicitly focused on enhancing awareness of self and others as a valuable educational endeavor in and of itself (e.g., the ancient Greeks). However, it is only in the last century that there has been a more explicit and ongoing appreciation that we can and need to teach all children about the social and emotional dimensions of life in schools. We must provide them with a basic understanding of the concept of social emotional competencies, as well as specific skills with which they can attain them.

The range of social emotional learning (SEL) practices presented in this volume have been nurtured by many overlapping traditions: the progressive education movement,
in general, and elementary school education, in particular; affective education and the reflective educator movement; special education; the civil rights and the woman’s
movement; psychoanalytic and other school-based mental health work; and research in primary prevention and the development of social emotional competencies.

In recent years, there has been growing concern that more and more children are distressed, disturbed, and not motivated to learn. We all know that psychological and, too
often, physical violence complicate and often derail educators’ capacity to teach and children's capacity to learn. In America, a child is abused or neglected every 11 seconds;
a child is arrested for a violent crime every 4 minutes; a child is shot dead every 98 minutes. On a typical school day, over 135,000 students bring weapons to school. Twenty-five percent of 10 to 17 year old American children suffer from school adjustment problems, problems that are predictive
of later, more serious problems. Recent studies show that as students move into the adolescence (14 to 17 year olds), 35% of them engage in high-risk behavior. Between 15 and 22% of our nations youth experience social, emotional, and
other problems that necessitate mental health treatment. And, approximately 80% of them are not receiving needed services. These and related findings about the
distressed state of children nationally and internationally have intensified our search for more effective ways by which we can help them develop into responsible, caring and
healthy individuals.

https://thechangeforum.com/readings/SEL-vol2chapter1_2.pdf

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5 Easy Ways to Incorporate Social Emotional Learning into your Classroom

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5 Easy Ways to Incorporate Social Emotional Learning into your Classroom

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1. #1 – Set aside 15 minutes every day and be intentional with your Social Emotional Learning lessons.

2. #2 – Have a weekly or monthly SEL focus.

3. #3 – Start your day with a morning meeting.

4. #4 – Choose Your Read Alouds Wisely.

5. #5 – Teach Your Students How to Manage Their Emotions.

#1 – Set aside 15 minutes every day and be intentional with your Social Emotional Learning lessons.

I know you’re thinking that you don’t have time to squeeze in anything else. I get that. There is already SO much to do in a school day!

But I have good news for you – SEL doesn’t take a ton of time. Fifteen minutes each day can be very effective. Take some of the ideas further down on this list and sneak them in when you find yourself with an extra few minutes before gym class. Or make it something kids look forward to in the last ten minutes before school is dismissed. My personal favorite is to start the day with an SEL-focused morning meeting.

#2 – Have a weekly or monthly SEL focus.
This is also the order I follow. However, if your district has certain pillars of character you need to stick to at certain times, or if you just prefer to start the year with a focus on manners, you can move the order around.

The approach I’ve found most effective is to focus on character traits while also rolling in specific SEL strategies (i.e. how to calm down, or managing emotions).

#3 – Start your day with a morning meeting.

This is the most practical way to incorporate SEL intentionally.

I like to start with a simple greeting. I’d recommend Greg and Steve’s good morning song. This is the signal for kids to get up and say hello to each other. You can high five, wave, or handshake with good eye contact and a smile. Practicing social skills is more important than ever if you’re teaching online. I’d recommend spending a short time waving at each other through the camera!
The next part of the morning meeting is sharing time. I like to pose a question, then whip around to hear everyone’s answers. You can ask things like – what’s your favorite pizza? Or what does it mean to be a friend? Teachers have had great success with this routine online too!

After sharing, I lead a group activity. Often I give my students relatable scenarios. These are open-ended situations that lead us into a discussion about the best and most appropriate ways people should respond.
Other great SEL activities are role plays, sorts, or games. You can even do something as simple as creating a quick chart with your class.

Here’s an example of a chart I used when I was teaching the concept of respect. One side of the chart paper was labeled “respectful” and the other side was labeled “not respectful”. Students enjoy coming up with different examples that could be sorted into either side.
Finally, wrap up my morning meetings with a morning message. You can type it and display on a screen or smartboard or write it out on chart paper. The morning message sets expectations for the day. You can also fit in a bit of editing practice if you include some well-placed grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes!

#4 – Choose Your Read Alouds Wisely

There are a plethora of wonderful SEL read alouds! Include a great read aloud during morning meeting, or weave this in at another time of the day.

#5 – Teach Your Students How to Manage Their Emotions

Give them the ability to be self aware and mindful

When students are taught about how to manage their emotions, you’re giving them the ability to be self aware and mindful. They will be able to read and name the emotions they’re feeling (like jealousy, anger, frustration, overwhelm, stress, or fear). And thanks to explicit teaching and practice, they’ll know how to respond appropriately when these emotions come up!

Calm Down Corner or Bucket

Another suggestion is to reserve a space in your classroom for a calm down corner. When kids need them, they have the tools to get themselves centered and back to learning. If space is limited in your classroom, a calm down bucket full of tools and resources works too! If you’d like more information on what you can use for calming tools, check out this blog post.

Brain Breaks

Taking plenty of brain breaks throughout the day is a great way to be proactive instead of reactive with emotions! Basically, everyone stops what they’re doing for a few minutes to get their wiggles out and to refocus. I have brain break cards that I attach to jumbo straws and when it’s brain break time, we simply pick a straw!

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5 Easy Ways to Incorporate Social Emotional Learning into your Classroom

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The Tennessee Department of Education (2015). Social and Emotional Learning into	Classroom Instruction and Educator Effectiveness. 

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Teaching Practice 1: Student-Centered Discipline - Such discipline occurs when students have opportunities to be self-directive and have some say in what happens in the classroom. Teachers should not attempt to over manage their students, nor should they use punitive measures to get students to behave. This strategy allows students to connect the rules to the overarching vision of how the classroom is run and increases student buy-in.
Teaching Practice 2: Teacher Language - Teachers should encourage student effort and work, restating what the student did and what that student needs to do in order to improve. Teacher language should not be simply praise but should encourage students. In addition, teacher language should encourage students how to monitor and regulate their own behavior, not just tell students how to behave.
Teaching Practice 3: Responsibility and Choice - Give students specific choices to select from during lessons and activities, and hold students accountable for their decisions. Other ways to get students to feel responsible in the classroom are peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring, or participating in a service-learning or community service program. When students extend their learning to help others, they often feel more responsible in the classroom.
Teaching Practice 4: Warmth and Support - Teachers can demonstrate that they care about their students by asking students questions (academic and nonacademic), following up with students when they have a problem or concern, providing the teacher’s own anecdotes or stories, and acting in ways in which students know that taking risks and asking questions are
safe in the classroom.
Teaching Practice 5: Cooperative Learning - Teachers ask students to do more than group work; students are actively working with their peers around content in a meaningful way. To implement cooperative learning effectively, teachers include five basic elements: positive interdependence, individual accountability, promoting one another’s successes, applying interpersonal and social skills, and group processing.
Teaching Practice 6: Classroom Discussions - Teachers ask more open-ended questions and ask students to
elaborate on their own thinking and on the thinking of their peers. When classroom discussions are
done well, students and teachers are constantly building upon each other’s thoughts, and most of the
dialogue is student driven.
Teaching Practice 7: Self-Assessment and Self-Reflection - Students need to learn how to assess more rigorous work against performance standards that have either been provided by the teacher or co-created in the classroom. The process should not stop there, however; students also need to think about how to improve their work on the basis of their self-assessment. In order to assist students with this process, teachers need to develop goals and priorities with students.
Teaching Practice 8: Balanced Instruction - Most programs and SEL scholars promote active forms of instruction in which students interact with the content in
multiple ways, including games, play, projects, and other types. Although active forms of instruction are typically engaging for students, these activities should not just be for fun; teachers should use strategies that represent one of the best ways for students to learn and engage with the content.
Teaching Practice 9: Academic Press and Expectations - Academic rigor does not mean that you should be overly strict with your students. However, students should feel pressure to succeed, and feel responsible for accomplishing or failing to accomplish their academic work.
Teaching Practice 10: Competence Building - Competence building occurs when teachers help develop social and emotional competencies systematically through the typical instructional cycle: goals/objectives
of the lesson, introduction to new material/modeling, group and individual practice, and
conclusion/reflection. Each part of the instructional cycle helps reinforce particular social and
emotional competencies, as long as the teacher integrates them into the lesson.

https://gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/SELToolkit.pdf

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Using Oral History Projects to Boost SEL

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Using Oral History Projects to Boost SEL

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Social Emotional Learning, as the article mentions, can be boosted in many ways as simple as sharing stories.
This tool can be used in many levels and can be successful when using active listening as well. There's no complete communication when nobody is listening to your story.
According to  Cliff Mayotte and Erin Vong, authors of the article, this method can develop empathy by creating engaging connections.
The authors propose two ways to come up with this.
One is the Artifact Interview Activity which is basically students sharing their own stories, whatever they feel confident to share, giving each students a safe space. This method is based on an artifact, as the name proposes, which is a thing such a stuffed animal or a photograph that students can use to develop their story, starting with simple questions about it. The important thing is the conduct of further questions about the initial ideas proposed by the first student, 20 minutes would be enough for each one and, at the end, a brief feedback is proposed just so everyone can understand what's has happened.
The other proposal, the longest one, is the ORAL HISTORY IN YPAR PROJECTS, longest because it remains on the idea that everyone's story is not just a sum of facts but the depth of the stories and how they are important for their families or even their communities. This method proposes a presentation of the information at the end of the project, could be in the way of a photography exhibition or a theater play.
This Oral History Project can be added into the curricula and help students develop their SEL further.

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This video, made by Committee of Children, gives an ample view of what is SEL and why is important.
It help viewers understand how children can benefit from SEL when managing their emotions, show empathy, solving problems, take responsibility about their decisions and maintaining healthy relationships.
Strong emotions and impulsive behaviors, with the help of SEL, are less catastrophic and more easy to deal with. Also, the recognization of other people's emotions, independent of their background, are important and they are able to stand up for.
Assertive communication and the solve of problems in a peaceful ways can help both in the school and in real life, helping them to ask their classmates or adults the assist they need, if necessary.
Having a brighter future is one of the reasons of SEL existence, including better academic and better behaviors.
Even bullying is less probably to exist if can achieve successfully SEL.
It's a great tool for the rest of their lives.

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Social-Emotional Learning: What Is SEL and Why SEL Matters

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Austin Independent School District. (2019). Social and Emotional Learning:Best Practices and Barriers to Successful Implementation.

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Best practices to overcome the barriers that emerged from implementing SEL. 

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Best practices to overcome the barriers that emerged from implementing SEL. 

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Recommendations

Continue Developing SEL Leaders
Strong, empowered SEL facilitators were discussed as key change agents for building SEL into the school culture.
Their leadership is crucial to building internal SEL capacity, especially at the middle and high school levels, where
are fewer opportunities for teacher-student connection results in less consistent SEL implementation. Supporting the growth of school SEL champions through continuous, relevant coaching and support by SEL specialists should empower them to effectively leverage opportunities for SEL implementation.

Enhanced Change Management Support
More responsive change management support from the district could minimize disruption to
a schools’ sense of organization, consistency, and agency. Moreover, the district should reconsider the current process
of determining how schools qualify for third-party services and what happens when schools no longer qualify, as the
elimination of services was discussed as a significant stressor on staff and students.

Strengthen Parent, Caregiver, and Family Engagement
Teachers and administrators consistently discuss the importance of connecting with parents, caregivers, and families as a reinforcing mechanism for SEL growth; however,  doing so is a significant challenge due to
limited time and resources. PSSs were discussed as beneficial to increasing engagement, but some teachers indicates that their school no longer qualified for PSS services or that they were not aware of the work done by the PSS. At a minimum, schools need to identify and leverage opportunities to connect with students’ families.

Culturally and Developmentally Relevant Evidence-Based SEL Curriculum
Evidence-based curriculum that speaks to students’ cultural and developmental reality would encourage greater buying for SEL activities. High school focus group participants were emphatic that SEL content was frequently irrelevant to
students’ lives outside school. Coupling relevant SEL curriculum with frequent capacity building from SEL specialists and facilitators could empower teachers, especially at the high school level, to deliver SEL content in meaningful ways.
Moreover, recruiting students to serve on the SEL committee would provide valuable insight on SEL curriculum relevance.

Advisory Class
SEL specialists and facilitators would benefit from working with school leaders to revise the structure of advisory
classes, such that (a) advisory teachers would be more likely to have an existing relationship with their students,
especially at the middle school level, and (b) teachers would be incentivized to use advisory classes to implement
culturally and developmentally relevant SEL curriculum. As mentioned, greater buy-in could be achieved by providing
teachers with more relevant content but also through school-wide or grade-wide SEL initiatives based on culturally and developmentally relevant goals. Additional involvement from administrators (possibly through regular participation
in advisory SEL activities) could also increase buy-in and better instill SEL into school norms and expectations. Ideally,
schools would have the capacity to develop an SEL course, possibly interwoven with study skills, as a means of increasing engagement, awareness, and fidelity of implementation.

https://www.austinisd.org/sites/default/files/dre-surveys/18.08_sel_best_practices_barriers_0.pdf