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I think the school librarian position is uniquely situated to support a SEL initiative by choosing to share resources on a related topic like mindfulness. I would feel very comfortable implementing this type of programming and look forward to it. I remember long ago as a Girl Scout leader my favorite topics were SEL related (like gratitude and service).  For example for one meeting we read  "Do Unto Otters" by Laurie Keller and practiced the  "10 Social Manners for Children" (below). We also sang camp songs, ate snacks and did lots of crafts, there was fun too :).

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I think SEL fits strongly into a school librarian's role, and I look forward to implementing SEL practices in my own classroom someday. When you think about how much students can benefit from the different elements of SEL, it's pretty inspiring. This lesson made me feel that putting the effort in to acknowledge social and emotional needs in the classroom on a regular basis is a necessary, worthwhile, and completely realistic thing to do. It's not some insurmountable task, it's a manageable, meaningful practice.

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I have been a special education behavior teacher for almost 20 years and so much of the day has been around social emotional learning. We have a specific SEL curriculum that we use in the district that is usually taught by the school psychologists, and reviewed in the classrooms by the teachers. I found this lesson to be so important and exciting to read through and complete. There are so many little things that you can do throughout the day to implement SEL into the daily activities to provide critical thinking and problem solving skills while supporting your students' needs as any staff member, and certainly as a school librarian. I think collaboration among the librarian and other school staff will help provide the most to your students because each of you can build your lessons to coincide with each other to review topics, and cover multiple areas while strengthening others.

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Before becoming a LMS, I was a classroom teacher in an elementary school.  Our district adopted an SEL initiative and we had a program to follow in order to work with our students in order to support SEL in our school.  I believe that SEL is extremely important in the classroom and library - before any learning can occur, social-emotional needs must be met.  I learned this very quickly as a LMS.  The first thing I implemented was a classroom environment where all students felt valued and safe.  I did this though a program called "Five Points."  The Five Points was actually a behavior management system but also incorporated SEL and allowed students to take ownership in the system and their roles in the library.  I worked hard to implement SEL on my own in the library because we did not have a specific program that targeted it.  I did so through the Five Points system, read alouds and other activities I can find online that I think would be beneficial to my students at the time.  I enjoyed reading more about RI's initiative during this lesson.  While I knew a lot about it in general, there were new things for me to learn and ideas for me to put SEL into practice more effectively in my library/classroom in the future.

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As a classroom teacher, I prioritized integrating SEL instruction into my classes so the basics of SEL are not new to me. I appreciated learning more about what the RI initiative requires of schools and the resources it provides to support the implementation. My school uses the Choose Love SEL curriculum. It is a free K-12 curriculum that teaches students about how courage, compassion in action, gratitude, and forgiveness can support their emotional health and well being. There are many recommended picture books that supplement the lessons in the curriculum. I often use these picture books in my library classes or share them with classroom teachers. I feel that as safe and welcoming spaces libraries are the perfect place for embedding SEL.

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Reflect on what you've learned and the importance of supporting SEL in school libraries (ex. Do you feel you would be able to implement the SEL initiative in a school setting? Have you seen SEL implemented before? Do you think SEL fits into a school librarian's role?) Please put your name in your post.

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Reflect on what you've learned and the importance of supporting SEL in school libraries (ex. Do you feel you would be able to implement the SEL initiative in a school setting? Have you seen SEL implemented before? Do you think SEL fits into a school librarian's role?) Please put your name in your post.