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Social-Emotional Apps for Special Ed (Edutopia) - Kaeley

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Social-Emotional Apps for Special Ed (Edutopia) - Kaeley

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From this article what I found interesting is that children who are in special education they would need their confidence, courage, and emotional awareness nurtured in order for them to be successful in their academics.  Young children utilize their social skills through playing and shared activities and it will form their first interpersonal interactions and develop social skills.

From this article, a question that I had is how does the use of technology help the young children to focus more in school due to having SEL?
Implications from this article would be using different apps to figure out what would work for each student and see their progress throughout the year and see if their SEL would improve in the students.

This can be applied to the setting that I plan to teach because since I would like to teach in a preschool special education setting I would like to use the use of technology to help the students develop their SEL and improve it when it comes to academics.

This article represents the use of ISTE standards because when the students are using the use of technology it is helping them to improve their SEL in their academics and to help them focus and with the use of technology apps it helps the young children enhance their social and emotional health skills.

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Here are nine apps to help special ed students of all ages build emotional literacy, learn self-regulation, and focus on problem solving and task planning.

Photo credit: Jayne Clare

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, as these abilities do not come naturally for some special education students. Children in special ed settings need to have their confidence, courage, and emotional awareness nurtured in order to successfully play, work, cooperate, and be productive in their studies. We have all heard that technology can be a great playing-field leveler in a classroom with diverse learners. It can also assist in providing social and emotional skills. Let's face it -- the digital lifestyle is here to stay, so using digital technology to enhance SEL makes perfect sense.

However, I have yet to encounter research that focuses on the effectiveness of using apps designed solely to enhance the social and emotional health of children. Researchers and educators have only begun to closely investigate the impact of these technologies on SEL. For special ed teachers, that research can't come soon enough.

Young children acquire and utilize their initial social skills mostly in the context of play and shared activities. Through play, they form their first interpersonal interactions and develop important social skills related to empathy, cooperation, conflict resolution, and self-control, which will be used throughout life to maintain healthy relationships with others.

9 Skill-Building Apps

1. Breathe, Think, Do (Sesame Street) teaches children to keep calm and carry on by introducing three possible strategies for working through problems. It touches on familiar emotional challenges such as problem solving, self-control, planning, and time on task. Intended for very young children, this simple app gives players different scenarios in which the Blue Monster character needs to regulate his or her emotions using the breathe-think-do technique.

2. Touch and Learn -- Emotions (Innovative Mobile Apps) is chock full of wonderful photographs representing four different feelings per page. The child is prompted to match the verbal cue with the appropriate photo. This app focuses on helping kids read body language and understand emotions by looking at pictures and figuring out which person is expressing a given emotion.

3. Avokiddo Emotions provides opportunities for younger children to explore a wide range of feelings through several silly characters and a plethora of props. This app incorporates activities to help children understand the subtle cause and effect of facial expressions. The main idea is exposing young children to a variety of feelings and helping them grasp emotional connections with those feelings.

4. Emotionary (Funny Feelings) is designed to give a wide age range of kids the tools and skills to express themselves well in our world of emoticons. The app has become a popular resource for the special needs population. This collection of emotions and funny feelings now allows users to draw their own emotionary "selfie" to match how they are feeling.

5. GoNoodle is a wonderful web-based way to get younger kids out of their seats and moving. These short physical activities provide brain breaks that can help keep them focused throughout a long day. Studies have shown that physical activity increases blood flow, which increases concentration and attentiveness. This enhances students' ability to acquire and recall information. These activities make them cross the mid-line of the body, engaging both sides of the brain. GoNoodle provides teachers with fun, interactive ways to get kids moving and feeling good about themselves.

6. IF. . . The Emotional IQ Game (If You Can) promotes teamwork and collaboration, accentuating how to be in touch with our own feelings and the feelings of those around us. With this app, kids (recommended ages 9-11) learn to listen, make friends, and deal with bullying in an adventure story/game format. IF's motto: "Play Learn Grow: Succeed at school with friends in life!" This pretty much says it all.

7. The Middle School Confidential series is a powerhouse of SEL lessons by tween/teen expert Annie Fox. The book/app series for ages 8-14 is a graphic novel sequence focused on making stepping-stones out of stumbling blocks on the road to becoming a teenager. Readers follow the adventures of a group of seventh-grade friends trying to navigate the ever-changing drama of their friendships, families, and school. Excellent resource!

8. Stop, Breathe & Think (Tools for Peace) promotes mindfulness, meditation, and compassion for middle and high school students and adults. Research has shown that people can develop kindness and compassion by focusing on them through mindfulness and meditation practices. You can cultivate your frame of mind in a very short timespan with simple meditation.

9. I would be remiss if I didn't include the The Social Express in this collection of apps. Its quality content keeps students engaged and on the path to mastering healthy social and emotional skills. Research-based webisodes give kids the exposure necessary to develop meaningful relationships and become more socially competent in all realms of life. This program covers the gamut from preschool through high school with a robust SEL curriculum.

Several apps can be used in the classroom or at home to assist in reinforcing social and emotional learning while also helping kids cope with the pressures that we all face. These apps can help teachers and parents in addressing students with special needs, and many are also available in a web format.

The Puzzle of Tech Use

Most students with or without disabilities can and do benefit from SEL-focused technology in the classroom. Incorporating these tech tools should increase student incentive to learn through individualized lessons, especially when tailored to a student's specific needs. When done well, tech not only reinforces key SEL skills that children need to learn, but it can also drive student enthusiasm and promote self-assurance.

This topic may seem like an oxymoron since we want children to learn how to focus during "real time" and how to live with less tech. A wonderful TED Talk addressing this conundrum is Sherry Turkle's " Connected, but alone?"

Do you know of any digital SEL resources for special education students? Please tell us about them in the comments below.

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Here are nine apps to help special ed students of all ages build emotional literacy, learn self-regulation, and focus on problem solving and task planning. Photo credit: Jayne Clare Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, as these abilities do not come naturally for some special education students.

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Free Tech Tools Teach Social Emotional Learning in Classrooms (EdSurge) - Kaeley

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Free Tech Tools Teach Social Emotional Learning in Classrooms (EdSurge) - Kaeley

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From this article what was interesting is that the students use a technology tool called Character Playbook which is used for the students to label and manage emotions, make smarter decisions, and intervene when they see someone in crisis and it will help the students learn more than 150,000 learning hours and teaches the students how to understand the key social-emotional topics.  With using Character Playbook it helped the students believe in themselves that they deserve to be treated with respect, raised their expectations on how to treat others, helped them identify actions to treat people with respect, and they defined the role that they can play in resolving conflict.

After reading this article a question that I have is if the Character Playbook is partnered with NFL and it worked it the year 2016-2017, is the Character Playbook still being used today?

The implications of this article is that I believe that students who have SEL have trouble with their feelings especially related towards the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” because the characters in that series react towards the challenges that they are facing in their everyday lives just like people that have SEL who deal with challenges in their lives that make them feel a certain emotion which can trigger them into doing something that isn’t a good idea for them.  With the technology being used within this generation it would help the students with SEL on how to develop healthy relationships with one another by using the digital technology and it would help the students learn how to manage their feelings as well.

Applying this technology with the students who have SEL would help them to different skills and be confident in believing in themselves and knowing that they can do it and it would help them to manage their emotions and make the right decisions when they are dealing with challenges that overwhelm them.

The ISTE standards that applies to the students is the Global Collaborator which is when the students use the tool “Character Playbook” which helps them collaborate with the instructors and their peers in order for them to learn and broaden their perspectives and be open into trying new things and how it would be able to help them succeed and manage their emotions to make the right decisions.

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Netflix's "13 Reasons Why" depicts fictional characters reacting to weighty challenges they encounter within their everyday lives, but provides little guidance to young viewers about how to process or handle these issues, including suicide. The National Association of School Psychologists, in an unprecedented response, issued guidance to school mental health professionals across the country on how to discuss "13 Reasons," stating "there is concern in the way that the suicide is portrayed and the buildup to the suicide . . . could trigger suicide contagion or copycat behavior."

Indeed, in a day and age ruled by unlimited data plans and on-demand television, it's impossible to separate the impact of the realities streaming on our digital screens from those in the real world. Whether a parent, teacher or family member, we have all come face to face with a young person who is struggling to identify how the images apply to real life challenges. We have a duty to consider whether our children are equipped to respond to the negative influences they encounter in the media, and must ask ourselves if young people are truly prepared to filter this exposure. The answer, of course, is not without adequate support. The way people consume media content has changed dramatically since we entered the Information Age. Studies confirm that young people who have grown up in this environment consume significantly more content than their older counterparts. If young people have reinvented how they interact with media, then we have a similar duty to update how they are taught to respond. The prevailing challenge has become how to teach young people to develop healthy relationships in a traditional learning environment within this digital age. Educators must rethink the way they teach important life skills and social issues to Generation Z. At EVERFI, we concluded that technology can and must be used to modernize this process and encourage adolescents to consider their social and emotional health from an early age. This was the inspiration behind the creation of Character Playbook, a partnership with United Way Worldwide and the NFL. The digital course reached 80,000 sixth through ninth grade students across nearly 1000 schools in all 32 NFL cities during the 2016-2017 school year. Students that used Character Playbook followed digital interactive scenarios that depict how to label and manage emotions, make smarter decisions, and intervene when they see someone in crisis. With more than 150,000 learning hours completed nationwide, students' understanding of key social-emotional topics rose by an average 41 percent based on pre- and post-assessments.

Student testimonial about Character Playbook; source: EVERFI

Specifically, by the end of year one a majority of students say the course:

Made them more likely to believe they deserve to be treated with respect (74%)

Raised their expectations about how to treat others (70%)

Helped them identify actions they can take to treat people with respect (69%)

Defined the role they can play in resolving conflict (66%)

Regardless of their attitudes going into the course, students need to be adept in these areas to engage responsibly with their peers. By learning these techniques during this critical developmental stage, students will have a firm grasp of how to build healthy relationships as they enter their critical adolescent years.

The New York Giants' Mark Herzlich

If it truly takes a village to raise a child, we must continue this discussion and invest in the emotional well-being of our young people so when they are confronted with the next popular show, app, or real-life scenario, they know the healthiest path forward.

Test Your Knowledge

For Students-Test what you know about healthy relationships

For Parents and Coaches-Share what you know and receive further resources about character education

For Fans-Select an NFL team and discover local community efforts to support character education

Source: EVERFI; full size image here

Course details:

Course Time
* 6 Modules (20 min. - 30 min. each)
* Total time 2 - 3 hours

Teaching materials
* Training resources and available one-on-one assistance
* Real-time student scores on a personal teacher dashboard
* Curriculum Guide with a detailed course outline
* Supplemental lesson plans
* Alignment guide with your state-specific standards
* Answer key for all course assessments
* Discussion guides

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Free Tech Tools Teach Social Emotional Learning in Classrooms - EdSurge News

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Netflix's "13 Reasons Why" depicts fictional characters reacting to weighty challenges they encounter within their everyday lives, but provides little guidance to young viewers about how to process or handle these issues, including suicide.

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I Teach Because...the Spark of the CEC Conference (Mindful Practices) - Anuhea

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I Teach Because...the Spark of the CEC Conference (Mindful Practices) - Anuhea

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This blog post really stood out to me, because not only does it address the student and their well-being, but the educator as well. The post is about a conference that occurred last year in Indianapolis, the “Conference of Exceptional Children” or CEC put on this conference with the drive that 2019 would be the year of change in education.

Their Keynote speaker, Clara Tantillo Philibert, explained her views on the 2 issues that are having a major effect on education today, that is; “Students falling through the cracks” and “Teachers leaving the profession.” Her solution for this is for educators to utilize technology to remain connected with each of their students, and to have educators connect with each other using a site called “I TeachBecause.com” to collaborate, and inspire one another.

My question for Clara, would be what would be a way to take those tools of connecting through technology, into a face-to-face interaction that promotes SEL and hands-on connection and interaction?

This conference, to me, represents all 4 of the ISTE standard for the Collaborative educator, by integrating technology to engage with not only their students but peers as well. To many, this conference was believed to have begun a spark in the great shift that is happening in our education system right now because it gave them something to think about.

They were given the tools to not only help their students but help themselves as well. I believe applying this in my educational setting will be nothing but second nature, to remain connected with your students is key in their development, to know they have another strong adult figure in their life that is there to support them, that is how genuine, inspired, empathic leaders, grow.

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I Teach Because...

When educators look back at this moment, they might say 2019 was the year when everything in education started to shift. We think it will be in large part because of a spark that began at the Conference for Exceptional Children in Indianapolis. We already will remember this day for the record cold temperatures that stormed across the country. But something really special happened at that conference and we were lucky enough to witness this bit of history.

Mindful Practices' founder, Carla Tantillo Philibert was asked to be the keynote speaker at the inspiring Conference for Exceptional Children. Carla and CEC go back years and the community of educators at this conference have become like family. So this historic day was years in the making. Record low temperatures hit Indiana and all across the United States but that did not deter so many of the fearless, rockstar teachers from attending. The warmth and energy of this conference made it easy to forget the incredible polar vortex looming outside.

The Keynote

During the keynote address, Carla emphasized two major issues that are affecting education.

Problem 1: Students falling through the cracks.

Problem 2: Teachers leaving the profession.

For years, Carla's Mindful Practices team have addressed the growing problems of teacher and student wellness across the country. They have addressed this with school programming, professional development, and innovative SEL books. But something else has been stirring in all of us at Mindful Practices and we can feel it across the country as well. During Carla's keynote, she talked about how her staff were listening to the problems around the country and getting a very clear and urgent message: Something else is needed and something else can be done.

The CEC conference was just the moment to take this first step, to wake up that persistent tug at our hearts that made us want to be an educator in the first place.

Next Steps

So what do we do now? How do we solve this? Carla shared two very real and tangible actions we must take as educators.

Solution 1: Connect with Students. Use new technology tools to connect with every one of your students so that every student has a caring adult in contact with them everyday. The Class Catalyst tool was born out of this very need to connect teachers with students.

Solution 2: Connect with other teachers. Join I Teach Because.com and be part of this amazingly strong and talented community of positive, inspiring educators that restore respect for themselves and for this noble profession. Teachers need to take care of themselves to be able to take care of their students. #ITeachBecause

The attendees at the CEC conference took that first step and answered their own I Teach Because reasons. Their responses were as diverse and awe-inspiring as the students we serve. We will look back at that unbearably cold day in Indianapolis and remember: there was a burning hot spark in that cold that started it all. We will say that was the moment teachers and the education of our nation's children began to change.

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I Teach Because...the Spark of the CEC Conference | Social-Emotional Learning | Mindfulness | SEL | Events

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When educators look back at this moment, they might say 2019 was the year when everything in education started to shift. We think it will be in large part because of a spark that began at the Conference for Exceptional Children in Indianapolis.

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We All Teach SEL: Empathy Activities and Tools for Students (CommonSense Education) - Anuhea

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We All Teach SEL: Empathy Activities and Tools for Students (CommonSense Education) - Anuhea

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This article gives readers access and knowledge to so many different sites that show the ability to incorporate edtech into an SEL environment, which in this article is extremely useful as its main topic is encouraging and teaching Empathy through SEL learning, empathy is known to require “face-to-face” interaction and communication. With that being said they share a number of EdTech sites and sources that can supplement that in-person interaction, and not substitute it.

A few ISTE standards that stood out to me were; 3.a, 5.a, 5.b, and 5.c. All of these standards relate to one essential thing, the teacher is focussed on each individual student growing and progressing throughout the school year.

My only question would be how would teachers specifically be able to incorporate these sources into a lesson plan that does not center around the use of tech?

The implication of this article subject is the knowledge for educators to understand that while technology is important for success, it is not the key and that it is possible to allow students to develop their empathy with human connection, while effectively applying it in technologies that will strengthen their ability to learn for the future.

This article includes links that take you directly to the commonsense.org page, where they give you a review and show you how effective this has been for real educators in the field. I would utilize the sites that require involvement from not just the student, but the educator and parents as well, ensuring that they remain helped and secure throughout the year.

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Resources to help foster empathy in every classroom, every day.

Building SEL (social and emotional learning) skills such as empathy requires face-to-face interactions, meaningful discussion, and reflection. Edtech is no complete substitute for that, but there are tools that can supplement the development of character in the classroom and at home. According to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, empathy is "the ability to sense other people's emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling."

While some tools focus specifically on empathy, the websites and apps that you use daily (in all subjects) can be used to promote perspective taking, too. You don't have to stop using the tools you love or toss out your lesson or curricular plans to start developing SEL. Below we have included some tips, tools, and actionable ideas for seamlessly integrating empathy and life skills-building into your content classroom.

Why empathy?

Classrooms are complex, collaborative, and diverse spaces. An enriching, engaging, and supportive classroom environment is one in which students reflect on themselves and their peers as learners and as people, full of similarities and differences. A group culture that encourages trust and friendship -- that practices empathy -- functions better as a whole and can better tackle tough concepts. Some schools are recognizing how impactful empathy can be, like the one in Pennsylvania where students shared their deepest, most painful secrets before 500 of their peers. The leaders of this school believe that events like this -- free of criticism or judgment -- create openness and understanding rather than discord and isolation. It's through this cultivation of empathic students that schools become communities.

Take action

Don't be afraid to tackle hard topics as a class -- get students thinking about their similarities and differences.

Set high expectations, and find opportunities to help students see how their feelings are connected to behavior.

Treat each student as an individual, and use a problem-solving approach when helping them overcome an obstacle.

Make sure the technology you use doesn't take the place of, but instead supplements, face-to-face interaction.

Using our Digital Citizenship Curriculum? Both our student interactives and lessons already foster key SEL skills.

Use some other excellent SEL resources, including CASEL, Character Lab, Edutopia, and Ashoka.

Think about the digital tools you're already using in the classroom. Can you find a creative way to use them to model empathy? Check out our suggestions below!

Directly target empathy

See our Top Games That Teach Empathy list for more empathy-focused tools.

Peekapak
Each Peekapak topic (including empathy) consists of an introductory storybook, eight activities to do in the classroom, and eight activities to send home for kids to do with their parents. Lessons for grades K-5 help kids explore SEL concepts from a variety of angles.

Florence
This incredibly relatable story about navigating adult love and life has some mature themes, but the controls in the game are mapped so well to emotions that kids learn how to traverse the nuances of fresh relationships in a compassionate way.

Build empathy in all subjects

For ELA classrooms

Pictello
Have students use this storytelling app to upload pictures, videos, and their voices to illustrate an emotional experience in their lives or to describe likes and dislikes. Through sharing, students will begin to see what it's like for their peers.

Facing History and Ourselves
Use Facing History's resources to discuss and reflect on students' experiences and beliefs about tough topics such as racism and prejudice. Students can also create and share bio-poems as part of a community unit.

For math classrooms

Pattern Shapes
Ask students about personal situations and have them use the app to construct a depiction of their feelings. Students can annotate the design, and after that a discussion can help students learn from each other while they study geometric shapes.

Spent
Illustrate the crippling financial quandaries of poverty. Have students discuss their play, using correct finance terms such as "minimum wage" and "inflation," and host an honest talk about how Spent oversimplifies the issue of choice.

For science classrooms

TinkerCAD
Use this 3D-design tool to address people's needs. Students can research societal problems (such as water quality or climate change). Once they build understanding and empathy, they can go through design processes to create a prototype solution.

WWF Free Rivers
This augmented-reality app immerses students in a river ecosystem. Students will gain perspective as they learn how rivers affect people and wildlife. Have students discuss the pros and cons of building dams for historical societies and for their own community.

For social studies classrooms

Teaching Tolerance
Videos and photo essays depict life experiences around the world. Use the Mix It Up activities to have students identify social boundaries at school, and then have them use primary-source documents to find similar boundaries in history.

Global Oneness Project
This site showcases global life stories. Let students view the videos on climate change or sustainability, and then have them go out and create their own videos capturing a cultural experience in school or their own community.

For all classrooms

Shadow Puppet EDU
Start a project where students search for images directly in the app (from art museums or NASA) to tell a story of the personal connection they have to the book they read, the organism they observed, or an event in history. Share as a class.

Skype
Skype is great for communicating with students from around the world. Hook up with another class and have students share their stories, solve an engineering solution together, or practice another language to gain perspective about other cultures.

Engage families

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We All Teach SEL: Empathy Activities and Tools for Students | Common Sense Education

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Building SEL (social and emotional learning) skills such as empathy requires face-to-face interactions, meaningful discussion, and reflection. Edtech is no complete substitute for that, but there are tools that can supplement the development of character in the classroom and at home.

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Digital Citizenship and SEL Learning (CommonSense Education) - Anuhea

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Digital Citizenship and SEL Learning (CommonSense Education) - Anuhea

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This is a guide in teaching Digital Citizenship, through SEL. While SEL is huge in hands-on, face-to-face interaction in learning, it can also be a key way to develop a student’s digital citizenship and online maturity.

What I found really interesting about this guide as well as extremely useful and supportive for SEL, is its clear distinction between its digital and in-person teaching tools. They clearly state how to encourage emotional awareness in the classroom, followed by helpful links and websites to create an extra layer for students to fully absorb and understand the lesson.

My question for this piece would be how and if they believe SEL would’ve effected educators in their years as students, for their future in their chosen field?

There are so many positive implications from applying this lesson plan guide into everyday teaching, students will learn the do’s and don’t’s of social media, i.e what is appropriate vs what is not. They will be given discussion questions that make them think about their actions and take a second look at their judgment, that it is always important to be curious and courageous but to know when to have self-control, integrity and empathize with their peers online.

As a future educator, I would utilize this tool in settings with older students, pre-teens and young adults that are entering a hugely digitalized world, by remaining checked in on their positive habits without interfering in their privacy.

This could also be applied with younger students, as the digital age is starting younger and younger, we must adjust as educators to be conscious of young children being exposed to the world of technology.

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SEL Is Good Teaching (Edutopia) - Kaeley

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SEL Is Good Teaching (Edutopia) - Kaeley

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From this article what I found interesting is that teachers care about their students and would devote their time to check on their students if they are feeling themselves in school.  In teaching, social and emotional skills have an important role in a students learning because when students bring their emotions in school from the outside teachers are able to comfort them and in their teaching, they would find different activities to have the students lift off some stress off their shoulders and make them have fun.

A question that I had when reading this article is why the teachers didn’t have an SEL program at the time?

Some implications from this article are that the teachers would comfort the students when they are feeling socially and emotionally not good and they would take their problems from home in school which would make the students not feel good to do anything in class.  Students also experience SEL through taking tests or public speaking even if the teachers didn’t have an SEL program they used their teacher instinct and used their emotions towards their learning so they are able to improve.

The 4C’sfor the 21st-century learning I related to this article because the teachers and students work hand in hand together by pinpointing the problem of the students, teachers being creative when figuring out how to use their students’ emotions within a lesson, collaborating with others on how to support SEL students in a classroom, and teachers communicating with their students about what is going on with them and how they feel in the classroom.

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When working with schools, I often hear, "I don't have time to teach SEL. I have a lot on my plate right now." It is true that in order to successfully implement social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and services, teachers and schools need to invest their most precious resource: time. Teaching an SEL curriculum, creating school-wide activities, or receiving professional development also requires commitment and some strategic planning. Are you discouraged by this? Don't be! The good news is that there's another side of the story: many teachers already use teaching strategies that support students' growth in this area. Do your students reflect on their work? Do you use pair-shares in your instruction? Do you celebrate your students' accomplishments? If so, you might already be supporting students' social and emotional development!

Effective Teachers Already Do It

Many teachers intuitively know that connecting with their students at an emotional level is key for young people's academic, social, and emotional growth. These teachers care deeply about students, paying attention to the climate in the classroom, their students' engagement during instruction, or their response to feedback. Research in the field of SEL has proven what effective educators already knew and had been doing all along: social and emotional skills have an important role in learning.

Students bring emotions to the classroom from life outside of school. They might be dealing with a stressful situation at home like a parent losing his or her job, or maybe something more momentary like an argument with a friend. Teachers can see when something is off with their students from the moment they enter the classroom, and know that students may need support in cooling off or letting go of the emotion before they can focus on academic content.

Students also experience emotions that originate in the classroom and are especially relevant to learning. For example, achievement emotions are feelings of success or failure (and everything in between) that result from classroom activities. In the charter school where I taught a few years ago, teachers openly discussed with students the anxiety and stress that came with certain activities, such as taking tests or public speaking, and helped students develop strategies that they could use in those situations. Although the school didn't have an SEL program at the time, teachers knew how to incorporate students' emotions during class to improve their disposition toward learning. Students can also experience emotions related to the topics addressed in class. Do you know students who get excited at just the thought of working in the lab or participating in an art contest? What about students that shut down in front of math problems or poetry? Great teachers care about the subjects they teach and have meaningful ways to share this passion in the classroom. Planning engaging lessons is a great way to incorporate social and emotional skills. Start by asking yourself, "What do I want students to know, feel, and do at the end of this lesson?"

Teaching Through an SEL Lens

Incorporating social and emotional skills in teaching and learning means creating an environment conducive to learning. That is to say, creating a classroom where students:

Actively engage in learning activities relevant to them

Develop skills necessary to reach positive life goals

Feel safe and academically challenged

Connect with their teachers and peers

Have a sense of belonging

The Center on Great Teachers & Leaders has identified ten teaching practices that promote students' social and emotional skills. Although these strategies are often used in schools, they are not often thought of as resources to develop students' social and emotional competencies. We'll conclude this post by focusing on three of the strategies:

1. Classroom Discussions

This practice addresses students' communication skills and offers an opportunity to engage in academic discourse. For meaningful participation in classroom discussions, students should listen attentively to others, pick out their ideas, and agree or disagree in respectful ways. Classroom discussions engage students' social and self-awareness, and enhance their ability to get along with their classmates.

2. Responsibility and Choice

To what degree do teachers allow students to make decisions about their work? This might include developing norms and procedures for the classroom, but also giving students choices for ways in which lessons and activities can be completed. Providing choices in the classroom increases students' sense of ownership over their learning and develops their responsible decision-making skills.

3. Teacher Language

It matters how teachers talk to students. From an SEL perspective, teacher language should encourage students to monitor and regulate their own behavior, while providing warmth and support. Teachers are powerful role models when it comes to social and emotional skills. Students can learn from their teachers about positive ways to encourage others, display empathy, or solve conflicts.

These three examples illustrate how teaching practices can support and enhance students' social and emotional development. In the next few days, observe your practice from an SEL perspective. How does your teaching support students' SEL growth? What other strategies could you incorporate to develop your students' social and emotional skills? Please share your thoughts and observations in the comments below.

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When working with schools, I often hear, "I don't have time to teach SEL. I have a lot on my plate right now." It is true that in order to successfully implement social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and services, teachers and schools need to invest their most precious resource: time.

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In the Age of 'No Excuses' Schools: A Case for Compassion and Better Social Emotional Learning (EdSurge) - Kaeley 

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In the Age of 'No Excuses' Schools: A Case for Compassion and Better Social Emotional Learning (EdSurge) - Kaeley 

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From reading this article what I found interesting is that there are “no excuse” schools which can mean different things as it says in the article and also in the beginning reading the part about 7,400 students in Louisiana got suspended for having aggressive behavior made me feel as if the teachers at the school didn’t care to try and help those students to manage their aggressive behavior.

A question that I have from reading this article is why they didn’t try to help these students in Louisiana who got suspended to manage their behavior instead of just automatically taking their behavior personally and suspending them?

From this article it shows 4 steps into having a compassionate schooling and the 4 steps are to know and employ the crucial components of a restorative culture which is having the teachers know about what they are getting into and by that it is given a handout to the teachers on how to help the students manage their behaviors, really get to know your students both inside and outside of the school day, don’t take challenging behaviors personally, and an excellent education is always the ultimate goal.

For these steps applying it to the classroom would help the teachers into knowing their students and being able to help them throughout the school year and also it would make the students feel comfortable with the teachers and knowing that the teachers care for their students and how they feel.

The 4C’s is shown within this article because it shows how teachers should be communicating with their students about things that go on within their lives and being able to communicate with them by working on how to manage their emotions with others.  It also shows the collaboration of students and teachers working together to make a compassionate schooling environment for both the students and the teachers.

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Take a minute to ruminate on your own K-12 academic experience. Was it a pleasant experience that left you with a love for lifelong learning? Or was it an exercise in drudgery that left you wishing every Monday was Friday?

I used to see this imbalance every day. When I was a first-year teacher to thirty 6th graders, I was excited and fully expecting the students to share my enthusiasm-but my students were there for safety, a hot meal, to see friends, and to have shelter for the day. Needless to say, the educational benefits of school were not the top priority for many of these students. Survival was their focus.

Some folks- such as those at "no excuses" schools-believe that an excellent teacher and zero tolerance for bad behavior are the only things that students need to be successful, and that success comes in the form of a college acceptance taking the child out of their offending environment. But the impact of this approach in Louisiana has yielded mixed academic results and disastrous results on disciplinary records, particularly for children of color and special education students. Last year alone, some 7,400 Louisiana students in grades K-3 were suspended-with the most frequently stated reason being aggressive behavior. The majority of these children are living in homes and neighborhoods where violence, poor education and poverty are the norm.

What Vera writes about isn't just happening in Louisiana. A UCLA report released earlier this year showed that U.S. charter schools black and special education students. disproportionately suspend

Through no fault of their own, these students have learned neither the communication skills, nor the behaviors to express themselves and their needs-what many these days refer to as social-emotional learning. All too often, these children are placed in classrooms where they do not have the skills to meet behavioral expectations; as a result, they feel blamed for things beyond their control. Without the tools to understand and express these emotions, they turn to anger, aggression and apathy-behaviors that create barriers to learning for themselves and their classmates.

To be clear, I believe that the no-excuses movement means different things to different people. To some, it means that there are "no excuses" for the adults in the building to fail at providing an excellent education to all students. To others, it means that students should not be excused from meeting the expectations of learning, regardless of the challenges they are facing outside of the school environment.

But here's an important message: I believe that we can make a case for active compassion in the face of the no-excuses movement. Not only compassion for students, but for the adults as well.

So, how do we deliver education both compassionately and effectively? How do we build a culture of high academic and behavioral expectations, while also taking into consideration the challenges that students bring to the table?

Four Steps Towards More Compassionate Schooling

#1: Know and employ the crucial components of a restorative culture.

At Noble Minds Institute for Whole Child Learning, we require that the adults managing our educational environment understand themselves, and know why they are engaged in this very difficult work. So, the first step is self-examination, a key step of restorative justice. In fact, we use a handout adapted from the Creating Restorative Culture organization to drive our professional development discussions. The handout addresses the six most crucial components of a restorative culture:

Self-examination

Treating all others as you would like to be treated

Creating a welcoming environment

Incorporating student ideas

Helping students understand the relevancy of a restorative culture, and

Preserving everyone's dignity when discipline is necessary.

To ensure that our human capital pipeline is strong, we use this handout during the interview process, and throughout the duration of the school program. Restorative justice is part of teachers' required discussion and examination almost daily.

The six components of restorative school culture:

Self-examination

Treating all others as you would like to be treated

Creating a welcoming environment

Incorporating student ideas

Helping students understand the relevancy of a restorative culture

Preserving everyone's dignity when discipline is necessary

#2: Really get to know your students-both inside and outside of the school day.

Next, it's vital to employ a comprehensive process for getting to know the students that you are educating. We often think of students as being one-dimensional, but we learn so much more about them when we invest in parts of their lives outside of the classroom. I routinely go to students' birthday parties when invited, while my staff and I have lunch with our students daily, attend their sporting events and other extracurricular activities.

This accomplishes two things: The kids are happy to see me and feel really invested in by me, and I am able to learn infinitely more about them outside of the classroom environment-more than I ever would inside those four walls.

Knowing your students is key, especially if you're looking to bring more self-directed learning into schools-something that schools in Louisiana and the U.S. at large hope to do. In fact, out of the top ten favorite edtech tools chosen by educators in 2015,* five of them were chosen because they "allowed student independence" or "captured student engagement."

* TEACHERS KNOW BEST, 2015

#3: Don't take challenging behaviors personally.

Resist the temptation to personalize students' challenging behaviors-it's not about you. Remember that one of the seven crucial components of a restorative culture is preserving the dignity of everyone involved in a disciplinary action-meaning both you and your student. Many power struggles happen in classrooms because the adult wants to win and prove they are in control. But truthfully, the minute you engage in a power struggle with a student, you lose your power.

There are three main motivations for a student's challenging behavior-feelings of distraction, a desire for attention, or demonstration of a need. When you engage in a power struggles with them, you provide both distraction and attention, but you don't meet that need-which means that that poor behavior will inevitably return.

#4: An excellent education is always the ultimate goal.

Finally, compassion doesn't mean that we are giving students or teachers a pass on providing an excellent education for all students. What it means is that we are employing more humane methods of bypassing the barriers that are legitimately impacting the educational environment.

Let's be clear: I don't assume that institutions are intentional bad actors. But I do believe that there is a lack of knowledge about how to be both effective and nurturing in an age where your survival as an institution is predicated on academic outcomes alone.

Students who complete college do so in part because they have learned to find value in and a love for education. You don't get that from rote memorization, line-walking, zero tolerance and chants. You develop it from genuine, meaningful, loving interactions that build confidence and resilience through both accountability and compassion.

Dr. Vera Triplett (@VeraTriplettPhD) is the founder and CEO of the Noble Minds Institute for Whole Child Learning in Louisiana.

This post is part of the EdSurge Fifty States Project (representing the state of Louisiana). The project is supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors alone and do not reflect the views of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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In the Age of 'No-Excuses' Schools: A Case for Compassion and Better Social-Emotional Learning - EdSurge News

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Take a minute to ruminate on your own K-12 academic experience. Was it a pleasant experience that left you with a love for lifelong learning? Or was it an exercise in drudgery that left you wishing every Monday was Friday? I used to see this imbalance every day.

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Social-Emotional Learning: Why It Matters and How to Foster It (EdSurge) - Cristian

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Social-Emotional Learning: Why It Matters and How to Foster It (EdSurge) - Cristian

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This website offers an overview of why Social-Emotional Learning matters and how it should be implemented into the classrooms. It also contains some other articles on how to implement Social-Emotional Learning into the classroom and it varies between kindergarten to PK-12 types of classrooms.

As I was checking through this source I wondered which setting would be the most useful for Social-Emotional Learning. I believe that Social-Emotional Learning can be really helpful at any stage of learning. However, after reading this article I wondered in which of the stages in the education journey does Social-Emotional Learning becomes more relevant and can achieve a higher level of effectiveness. I believe that the major implication in regard to Social-Emotional learning on this website is that SEL is a very useful technique that can improve students learning when used correctly.

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We know that social-emotional learning (SEL) empowers students with abilities that directly impact not only their academic lives, but their success and happiness as adults. Figuring out how and when to teach and assess SEL skills, however, can be daunting to even the most seasoned educator. So we've created this guide to social-emotional learning, packing it full of questions to consider and techniques to try.

You'll learn why investment in SEL is crucial, explore how to nurture a positive school culture, and gain insight on new approaches to SEL assessment. Looking for innovative ways to teach social-emotional learning skills in your classroom? How about by using AR and VR, or weaving SEL into everyday literacy instruction.

Like all learning, SEL must address issues of equity. We highlight efforts to better support LGBTQ students, involve educate parents and caregivers, and share PD experiences that helps teachers develop their own SEL competencies. Coming soon: how SEL can help students who've experienced trauma.

Please check back soon for more articles on integrating SEL into academics and the role of parent engagement.

-Mary Hossfeld, Guide Editor

This illustration highlights the relationship between school climate and social and emotional competence.

Source: The Intersection of School Climate and Social and Emotional Development, 2018, American Institute for Research.

Social-emotional learning is often broken up into five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making.

Source: CASEL

Many teachers feel their schools put too little emphasis on developing the life skills of students, which includes social and emotional skills.

Teachers at high poverty schools are even more supportive of SEL than the average.

Source: The Missing Piece: A National Teacher Survey on How Social and Emotional Learning Can Empower Children and Transform Schools, 2016, CASEL.

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Social-Emotional Learning: Why It Matters and How to Foster It - EdSurge Guides

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We know that social-emotional learning (SEL) empowers students with abilities that directly impact not only their academic lives, but their success and happiness as adults. Figuring out how and when to teach and assess SEL skills, however, can be daunting to even the most seasoned educator.

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Social Emotional Learning is the Rage is K-12, so Why Not in College? (EdSurge) - Kaeley

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Social Emotional Learning is the Rage is K-12, so Why Not in College? (EdSurge) - Kaeley

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The interesting thing that I found from this article is that there is an organization called the Collaborative for Academic Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) which is a program for the grades of K-12 grade schools across the US and with using that program it helped the students with reducing anxiety, depressions, drug problems, sexual behavior, and many more.

From this article they mention about the different programs that would help the students manage their SEL and help them develop the skills for it.  Having different programs for these students would help throughout college because since college is a big step after high school it would make them develop SEL by starting off with freshman imposter syndrome.

Implicating different programs that would help these students with SEL in college would be able to have them manage their emotions more as they are in college when it comes to becoming overwhelmed with things like homework, exams, being away from family, and so much more.

Applying the different programs towards my future classroom would help the students manage their emotions once they reach into their college life because they would be able to feel relaxed and also help them to reduce any health problems that they might have.

The 4C’s would be in this article because the faculty and staff are collaborating with different programs to help these college students with SEL to manage their emotions throughout their schooling in college.  Students communicating with the programs would help them to freely speak about their life story about SEL and how the community are able to support each other.

With the programs it would help the students do some creative activities to help them relax and get their mind off of things which would make them feel more relaxed.

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Whether you believe the purpose of college is to foster intellectual curiosity or simply to land a job after graduation, emotional well-being is a prerequisite to both. Research links learning ability to social and emotional health, which will become increasingly important for workplace success in the coming decades.

Yet, mental health is a growing crisis within both secondary schools and universities, where demand for counseling services is rapidly outstripping supply. Given the critical importance of mental well-being for student success both in school and after, how can schools evolve to better serve students in this area?

According to 30 years of research, the answer lies in the power of prevention. The logic works like this: if we embrace preventive care for our bodies (like rushing to remove healthy wisdom teeth), why are social and emotional issues only addressed through reactive services after they mature to the point of crisis?

Seeing this irony, organizations like the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning ( CASEL) and researchers like Dr. Valerie Shapiro at UC Berkeley have worked to develop, implement and evaluate Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) programs in thousands of K-12 schools across the US.

And the results are incredible-over 50 programs have been found effective for reducing anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug use, risky sexual behavior and other behavioral health problems. As if that wasn't enough, the largest meta-analysis of 213 SEL programs across 270,000 K-12 students also demonstrated an average 11 percentile point increase in academic achievement (eg. test scores increasing from 60/100 to 71/100).

If SEL programs can improve both mental health and academics in K-12-then why not in college?

Existing College SEL Programs

Seventy percent of mental disorders begin prior to age 25, and college is a time when students face unique challenges like freshman year impostor syndrome and living away from family for the first time. Are we learning from the success of SEL in K-12 and building preventive programming for students' formative college years as well?

For some colleges, the answer is yes.

The 2015 edition of the Handbook of SEL Research and Practice describes 113 short-duration college intervention programs in SEL-related areas like mindfulness, meditation, relaxation, social skills development, and cognitive-behavioral change. Of these, mindfulness programs seem most promising, and programs are only effective when they are skills-based with built-in supervised practice (ie. lecture alone doesn't work).

In addition to intervention programs, which are largely run by researchers and dissociated with curriculum, a few colleges have begun to create courses that directly incorporate SEL content.

Widener University has a freshman seminar on the successful transition from high school to college, where SEL competencies like relationship skills and emotional management are taught alongside academic skills like test taking, time management, and active learning. Community colleges are also getting involved, like Bronx Community College, which built SEL content into its communications course to provide students with job interview skills.

Although it's certainly encouraging to see individual professors and researchers taking interest, colleges need to ask themselves whether band-aid courses and programs are ultimately adequate to meet students' needs.

According to the Handbook of SEL Research and Practice: "To date, programs that promote social and emotional competencies in higher education tend to be researcher-initiated, relatively brief interventions that are disconnected from the institutions' curricula, staff, and goals".

If SEL and preventive emotional care are truly critical to student success and well-being, why don't we place them at the center of our curriculum? How can we evolve these early programs and courses into the integrated, long-term, university-wide approaches students need?

What's the Future of College SEL?

At the Minerva Schools, we've prototyped what an integrated approach to college SEL might look like.

Our thesis is that one route to effective SEL and preventive mental health lies at the intersection of character education, community building and traditional counseling center services.

We start by explicitly teaching character development. All incoming freshman are part of a Supper Club, communities where students meet every two weeks for workshops and discussions on our seven character values: Curiosity, Empathy, Resilience, Focus, Collaboration, Initiative and Respect. Some sessions are designed to build a common language and norms for understanding and managing emotions (like traditional SEL programs), while others are student-only spaces for sharing and reflection.

Next, community programs provide spaces for students to practice these values. On Sundays, students gather to cook food from their respective countries and share the culture and values they grew up with (#Curiosity, #Collaboration). A weekly Minerva Talks program allows students to distill their life story into an hour-long talk and share it with the rest of the community (#Focus, #Respect). And a half marathon hike as part of Spring re-orientation provides the opportunity to practice values like #Resilience, and #Initiative.

Finally, we foster preventive mental health by closing the gap between traditional counseling service and SEL / character development programs. For example, community Fishbowl discussions and a Student Support Network bystander training program provide spaces for students to talk candidly about mental health issues and how students in the community can better support each other.

We see this trinity of character education, community development, and mental health programming as key to adopting an integrated, long-term approach to SEL and preventive mental health across the institution.

A few other schools are also moving toward a program-wide approach. Deep Springs college is well known for its labor program, where all students develop skills like leadership, community building, and responsibility by working to complement their academics. And Stanford Graduate School of Business's " Touchy Feely " course, which helps students develop healthy professional relationships, has become a staple of the curriculum and the school's most popular elective for over 45 years.

It's strange that preventive emotional care and character education are rarely taught explicitly, though they are prerequisites for learning and long-term student success. We hope that other college programs will be similarly inspired to build their own frameworks combining SEL, preventive mental health, and traditional classroom education.

If you are a college administrator, faculty or staff member, I encourage you to start this conversation on your campus. The world needs colleges that embrace the social and emotional aspects of education, in addition to the purely intellectual pursuits.

Norian Caporale-Berkowitz is Student Experience Manager at Minerva Project and will begin a PhD in Counseling Psychology at the University of Texas-Austin this Fall

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Social-Emotional Learning Is the Rage in K-12. So Why Not in College? - EdSurge News

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Join the professional network for digital learning leaders Sign up now! Whether you believe the purpose of college is to foster intellectual curiosity or simply to land a job after graduation, emotional well-being is a prerequisite to both. Research links learning ability to social and emotional health, which will become increasingly important for workplace success in the coming decades.

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Inspire Empathy in Your Students - (CommonSense Learning) Cristian

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Inspire Empathy in Your Students - (CommonSense Learning) Cristian

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This website contains a couple of videos and a quick explanation of empathy and how this is important for students, how to make empathy a tool to inspire students. Also, the website has a quick video explaining the difference between sympathy and empathy.

As I was watching the video I thought about the benefits that this practice has. In order to motivate a student you need to understand their background and help them succeed based on that. This really shows the importance of using Social-Emotional Learning in the classroom setting.

Students will feel supported on a personal level which would then make an impact on their academic performance. This concept of empathy into education can be used in any setting of learning.

All of the students no matter their age have problems and if we as educators can relate to these problems and help the students overcome them then the academic results of the students will be positively affected.

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The Social & Emotional Learning Exchange - Anuhea

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The Social & Emotional Learning Exchange - Anuhea

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This website is a hub of information, the ability to sign up and attend, what is known as the “SEL EXCHANGE”. The 2019 SEL Exchange was the first of many annual conferences that will be held, all for the purpose of promoting and encouraging SEL in classrooms.

Last year the conference held 1,500 people, and is gathering welcoming various members from; “state and district school leaders; classroom educators and practitioners; researchers and scholars; policymakers and funders; as well as parents and youth”. Attendees will learn with and from each other sharing various knowledge and research from the “frontiers of SEL research and practice”.

There are so many aspects of this conference that I admire, my only question would be for years to follow how will they plan to continue to improve and integrate new systems and new possibilities without overwhelming the students?

The implications of this event are, I believe, astronomical for the development of SEL in general learning environments. It will allow educators to be a person with their students and understand they have feelings and emotions and that those hugely impact their abilities in the classroom. It will also show students that they are cared for as an individual.

This conference exemplifies the use of so many standards and fundamental learning frameworks, for example, the 4c’s. By encouraging students to critically think, by starting simply with assessing and evaluating their own emotions and overall well being. Communicating with each other and their teachers, as well as their parents, these different emotions are key for children to grow and become self-aware and secure future adults.

Not only this but inspiring collaboration and creativity by opening their minds to new and different ways of learning, as well as giving educators the means and knowledge to put these tools to use. I believe this conference is the start to an incredible shift in the belief system and thought processes of our education system today, and open it up to new, innovative, and creative ways to help students excel and see their greatness.

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DID YOU MISS THE LIVE EVENT ON OCTOBER 13, 2022?

All sessions and content from the 2022 SEL Exchange Virtual Summit, Weaving a New Tapestry: Schools, Families and Communities Together, were recorded. On-demand access is available for purchase ($100/person) through April 14, 2023.
Register for On-Demand Access
The SEL Exchange is a unique and timely opportunity for those who are committed to creating caring, productive, and equitable schools and communities that develop the whole child and ensure that all students can thrive.

The 2022 SEL Exchange Virtual Summit is supported by organizations that are making a difference in communities nationwide. Thank you to this year's underwriting organizations: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BMO, The Fetzer Institute, and Stuart Foundation.

Thank you to our 2022 SEL Exchange Virtual Summit Sponsors

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DID YOU MISS THE LIVE EVENT ON OCTOBER 13, 2022? All sessions and content from the 2022 SEL Exchange Virtual Summit, Weaving a New Tapestry: Schools, Families and Communities Together, were recorded. On-demand access is available for purchase ($100/person) through April 14, 2023.

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Integrating SEL, Equity and Trauma Work for Multiplied Success (Edsurge) - Cristian

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Integrating SEL, Equity and Trauma Work for Multiplied Success (Edsurge) - Cristian

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This article contains information about the benefits of Social-Emotional Learning when dealing with students who might have had a traumatic experience and are suffering the symptoms such as anxiety.

As I read this article, one of the questions that came to my mind was how to implement this in a classroom while keeping the integrity of the students safe and personal. This video implies that students with some sort of trauma would be greatly benefit by the use of Social-Emotional Learning in the classroom because they would feel supported and understood.

I believe that this would be one of the main points of integration in my teaching style because students who have been abused in any way are more likely to fall short on their academic performance therefore they need the most care in the classroom.

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These days it's hard to miss the compelling evidence that shows social emotional learning (SEL) improves learning and life skills. Educators are also becoming increasingly aware that high numbers of students face trauma that impedes their learning and that understanding and addressing it are critical. They're also learning that racial inequities hamper the success of certain groups of students, and acknowledging and ameliorating them is necessary if all children are to thrive.

There is great overlap across these three areas: SEL, trauma-informed work and equity. A student of color who cumulatively experiences racist taunts, reduced expectations and micro-aggressions, for instance, is challenged socially and emotionally, experiencing trauma and suffering inequity - all at once.

Below is the latest research that shows your school can't ignore these three areas of student support, why they should be integrated, and resources to achieve it.

SEL Shows Results

Last year, the Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social Emotional and Academic Development's Council of Distinguished Scientists-leading researchers across character education, emotional intelligence, health and mental health promotion, neuroscience, SEL and mindsets-released a consensus statement to solidify research findings across their disciplines. Most importantly, they agreed that social, emotional and cognitive capacities are intertwined and interdependent. This means that academic learning has its basis in social emotional learning, and that development in one area supports the other. They also agreed that SEL yields results: two sweeping meta-analyses show academic gains, one up to 3.5 years after students' last SEL intervention, in addition to improved behavior and life outcomes. In sum, SEL shouldn't be a "maybe" in schools.

Trauma Can Have Dire Effects

There is growing awareness of the seminal ACEs study, which showed that the more adverse childhood experiences or trauma children experience - including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; family and community violence; and the cumulative impact of poverty, racism, and oppression - the more they're at risk for negative life outcomes. In the US, two-thirds of children have experienced at least one potentially traumatic event by age 16. When research emerged showing that traumatic stress "hijacks the brain", making it incapable of learning, trauma became an education problem. Yet, by making educators aware of students' trauma and giving them tools and strategies to address it, these barriers to learning can be reduced or removed.

With Equity Come Gains

Students of color face increased adversity both outside and inside of school. Outside, they're more likely than white students to suffer socially and financially. Inside, they're often the subject of low expectations, micro-aggressions and bias. Zaretta Hammond, in her book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, describes how these biases put students of color at a learning disadvantage and backs it up with neuroscience. Yet powerful research out of the New Zealand Maori population shows steep academic gains when educators "double down" on incorporating cultural identity and relationship work. By leveraging students' cultural identities and assets, educators can facilitate growth mindsets and learning gains.
Social-emotional skills support student achievement, but embedding SEL into the school day can be complex. If you're launching a new SEL program or enhancing an existing one, these tips will help you avoid common implementation mistakes.
Why Integrating These Areas Is Necessary

Schools provide a unique opportunity to build kids' social emotional assets, address their trauma, and move towards educational equity. Many are focused on doing so, but too often they make these interrelated domains of support separate.

"A trauma-informed, SEL, cultural awareness model of supports allows (educators) to create a safe environment to address trauma and SEL skill build, while also tapping into the strengths and opportunities of students' culture. In this way, prevention assets don't just build on each other, they multiply," says Dr. Gregory Leskin, Ph.D, Director at UCLA/Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.

American Institute of Research's David Osher and Juliette Berg, Harvard's Todd Rose, and Turnaround's Pam Cantor and Lily Steyer corroborated this in a series of research papers that synthesized knowledge from multiple scientific domains regarding how humans develop and learn. They concluded that relational, environmental, instructional and curricular factors - factors that include SEL skill building, addressing trauma and building cultural competence - must be integrated to produce effective learning.

There are also unintended negative consequences of failing to integrate these domains. These include an exclusive focus on the deficits or trauma of students of color, failing to leverage their strengths and resilience.

Where to Start

Aspen SEAD's recently released "Pursuing Social Emotional Development Through an Equity Lens: A Call to Action" and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's June report, "Applying an Equity Lens to Social, Emotional, and Academic Development" both offer broad strategies for integration. These include addressing the root causes or trauma underlying SEL skill deficits, such as a lack of impulse control; and ensuring that supports specifically focus on injustice and related trauma. Zaretta Hammond gets more granular in her book's "learning moves", which operationalize two of three (SEL and equity). Helping students process content using methods from their own cultural traditions is one example. This practice honors students' cultural history while modeling how to connect with others. It also makes student learning "stickier".

There are few evidence-based programs or interventions that successfully integrate the three. Ripple Effects, where I serve as director of K-12, offers a digital program that stands out: it builds SEL, resiliency assets and cultural identity development in its interactive lessons, many of which address trauma. The personalized program empowers students to identify what they think are the biggest challenges in their lives, then choose from nine different evidence-based learning modalities to address them.

"We don't always know what's going on with kids - often they don't want to share," says implementer Marni Parsons, Director of Student and Family Services at Bright Star Charter Schools in Los Angeles. "Kids want to explore their challenges with Ripple Effects, and almost every lesson encourages them to connect and get help from people they trust." The program boasts over 430 topics including racial bias, poverty, suicidal thoughts, anxiety and homelessness. Data shows improved behavior and academic gains, specifically in underserved student populations.

Educators can also learn from other educators who are recognizing the value of integration and creating their unique "how-to" maps. Dr. Julie Frugo, Head of School at the high-performing Premier Charter in St. Louis, Missouri is one to watch. She focuses on developing adult culture to achieve equity, address trauma and build SEL skills in her students, who come from 14 different ethnic backgrounds-including a substantive number of Bosnian refugees-and 20% of which have special needs. A multi-tiered system of supports serves as the school's structure, yet her key to integration is staff development and relationships. "We need to be bonded warriors working together," says Frugo, "in order to be truly student-centered and do the arduous work of meeting each student's needs."

There is a long road ahead to achieve educational equity, provide SEL for all, and address the range of trauma that prevents students from learning. Yet by intentionally integrating these three areas, we can move faster and more efficaciously in our efforts, empowering more young people to overcome their barriers and thrive

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Integrating SEL, Equity and Trauma Work for Multiplied Success - EdSurge News

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These days it's hard to miss the compelling evidence that shows social emotional learning (SEL) improves learning and life skills. Educators are also becoming increasingly aware that high numbers of students face trauma that impedes their learning and that understanding and addressing it are critical.

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3 Helpful Resources to Help Teachers Integrate SEL and Academics (EdSurge) - Cristian

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3 Helpful Resources to Help Teachers Integrate SEL and Academics (EdSurge) - Cristian

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This article provides three practical resources for teachers to integrate Social-Emotional Learning into their classrooms. These are “planning lessons with integration in mind” which consist of purposely design lessons to be supportive of Social- Emotional Learning.

“Seeing classroom in action” which would help educators see the results of including Social-Emotional Learning in their classroom and lastly “Time to debrief with other teacher” this is giving other educators feedback and receiving it as well which is important to see what is working and what is not.

The question that came to my mind while reading this article involves which would be the most efficient technique to implement SEL and should it also be a requirement for all teachers to have this type of involvement. The major implication in this article is that Social-Emotional Learning is extremely beneficial in the classroom therefore educators should take these resources and utilize it in their classrooms.

I believe these three resources are very useful when it comes to using SEL in the classroom and I would definitely utilize them in my classroom.

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Over Memorial Day weekend, I was with two of my friends who coach teachers at a San Francisco Bay Area school district. They told me that while there is a lot of talk about social-emotional learning (SEL), the guidance educators receive about integrating SEL into academics is more theoretical than practical.

In the past year, the Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (SEAD) has produced timely and helpful briefs focused on integrating social-emotional learning into academics, aligning professional development with curriculum, and a practice base for how humans learn. While there is growing momentum and interest among educators to learn more about SEL, my friends are right that few resources have been developed to help teachers adopt these practices and integrate SEL into their everyday academic instruction.

In a recent survey conducted by Holly Yettick, Director of EPE Research Center, district leaders reported that one of their biggest questions about SEL focused on the types of professional development teachers would need for its implementation. In order to scale the integration of SEL into academics, teachers are going to need support rooted in classroom practice.

In our work at Center for the Collaborative Classroom, we support teachers in their professional learning and develop lessons so they can seamlessly integrate SEL and literacy every day. Educators new to planning lessons with integration might be curious about which social skills can best be taught and practiced. Examples of social development skills that can be explicitly taught, practiced, and reflected upon include the following:

Take turns listening and speaking

Participate in partner work and class discussions

Build on one another's thinking

Contribute ideas that are different from others

Share partners' thinking with the class

Take responsibility for learning and behavior

Reflect on one's own behavior

We have found that academic learning is strengthened when we create experiences that build on the fact that children are naturally curious, and need ample opportunities to be active, collaborative, and reflective in their learning process. We see integration as necessary for deep learning to occur. Here are three resources to support that integration:

1. Planning Lessons with Integration in Mind

"The Lesson Planning Handbook" by Peter Brunn focuses on developing lessons that integrate SEL. This book serves as a great resource for any teacher looking to shift their pedagogy as they can adopt Brunn's process:

Establish the lesson's purpose-considering the academic and social focus of the lesson.

Create a plan for introducing the lesson-considering how to prepare students to work together and what background they will need to access the lesson.

Make decisions regarding how to facilitate the lesson-noting where students will benefit from working together, where they might struggle, and what facilitation techniques the teacher might use.

Decide how students will share and reflect on their work-generating questions about what they learned and/or how they worked together.

Review and revise the teaching plan-based on where the students struggled and where the teacher spent the most teaching time.

I have talked a great deal about the need to be intentional-about our academic objectives as well as our social ones. These intentional steps make the difference between lessons that shine with the brilliance of student thinking and ones that are void of imagination. It is our choice. We do make the difference!

-Peter Brunn

By using Brunn's guide for lesson planning, teachers can develop their own approach to integrating SEL into academic instruction.

2. Seeing Classrooms in Action

Source: Center for the Collaborative Classroom

When digging into this type of lesson planning process, teachers also benefit from seeing classroom examples. The following video shows a first-grade teacher who has planned for both the social and academic goals in her writing lesson. As you watch this lesson, what do you notice about the social skills students use to deepen their learning?

I have seen so much growth in the communication skills of my students. The turn and talks have taught students how to look at the speaker and to use discussion stems to build onto one another's thinking and to disagree respectfully.

-Second grade teacher, Spokane WA

Social-emotional skills support student achievement, but embedding SEL into the school day can be complex. If you're launching a new SEL program or enhancing an existing one, these tips will help you avoid common implementation mistakes.
When students experience lessons shown like the one in this video, we find gains in students' sense of community and improved academic outcomes. We hear from teachers throughout the year how this approach to lesson structure and consistent teaching techniques has improved their teaching.

3. Time to Debrief with Other Teachers

In addition to professional reading and seeing lessons in action, teachers need time to plan together, observe one another's classrooms, and reflect together when adopting new practices. Protocols and processes help support teachers in this journey. One of my favorite resources, Consultancy Protocol, helps define challenges, gain expertise from colleagues, and allows time for reflection. It can also be useful when pursuing new teaching practices.

Dan Brown, a National Board Certified Teacher and author of "The Great Expectations School," recently wrote about his optimism for SEL taking hold in classrooms. I share his optimism, but also recognize that teachers need support through high quality teaching materials and professional learning experiences.

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3 Practical Resources to Help Teachers Integrate SEL and Academics - EdSurge News

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Over Memorial Day weekend, I was with two of my friends who coach teachers at a San Francisco Bay Area school district. They told me that while there is a lot of talk about social-emotional learning (SEL), the guidance educators receive about integrating SEL into academics is more theoretical than practical.

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How VR is Being Used to Teach SEL (EdSurge) - Cristian

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How VR is Being Used to Teach SEL (EdSurge) - Cristian

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This article contains information on how Virtual Reality is  partnered with Social-Emotional Learning to boost the learning experience of the students. This article contained information about some of the projects in which students are involved. One of them is the Mid-Pacific’s homeless learning here in Hawaii. Students are engaged in learning by experiencing the situation which they are studying. Therefore, they will be more sensitive to the topic and might have a more complete opinion on the topic.

My question when it comes to this topic is related to the amount of experiences that we should share with the students. Would there be too much information sharing and also could these VR experiences generate a trauma in the student.

The combination of Social-Emotional Learning with Virtual Reality is a great partnership that will open students to have a more complete understanding of the situations that are being taught.

If I were to be able to use this tool in my classroom I would most likely do it. Although I would be very careful picking the experiences that I want to show my students because there might be some experiences that could be too overwhelming for them also I would try to provide a lot of concepts beforehand such as reading books and a lecture about the topic to prepare my students to assimilate this topic.

I believe this topic is related to the SAMR concept, more specifically the R which is redefinition because this technology allows new tasks that could not be used/assigned before.

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This past year, a group of eighth graders in Texas got upset about a train that didn't stop for bathroom visits as it headed toward a concentration camp. In Hawaii, another group of students had to decide which of their possessions to sell so they wouldn't lose their homes.

The students were taking part in virtual reality experiences in Chris Caldwell's language arts classes at Chisholm Trail Middle School in Texas, and in various classrooms at Hawaii's Mid-Pacific Institute.

But they weren't just learning about history and the human condition. Schools can use virtual reality to help students develop empathy and the ability to look at life experiences from different perspectives.

'Reality of The Horror'

In his book, "Experience on Demand," Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, writes, "No medium, of course can fully capture the subjective experience of another person, but by richly evoking a real-seeming, first-person experience, virtual reality does seem to promise to offer new, empathy-enhancing qualities." Bailenson contrasts experiencing virtual reality with reading news accounts and watching documentaries. Those latter activities, he writes, require "a lot of imaginative work," whereas virtual reality can "convey the feeling" of, say, a refugee camp's environment, and the "smallness of the living quarters, the size of the camp."

Caldwell-who used Google Expeditions to deliver a virtual reality experience set in the Holocaust-says that when his students first put on the goggles, they viewed them as a novelty. But within a minute or two, the students became quiet, absorbed in what they were seeing; they realized the "reality of the horror of what was in front of them." Questions ensued. Caldwell said the students had stronger reactions this time around-using virtual reality-than when he's taught the same subject without the technology.

At Mid-Pacific, the eighth graders took part in a homelessness simulation developed by Bailenson's lab at Stanford, says Paul Turnbull, the school's president. Brian Grantham, Mid-Pacific's Director of Education Technology, says that as a private, college prep school, many of the students come from middle class or upper class families. Students who come from this background typically don't have an understanding of homelessness, he says, and becoming homeless in the virtual reality simulator broadened their perspectives about that situation.

'A Broader Framework'

Ron Berger, the Chief Academic Officer of EL Education, points to another factor schools should consider. He thinks virtual reality can be a powerful way to introduce kids to situations that require empathy or adopting different perspectives. However, he thinks no one tool or experience will bring results unless it is "nested in a broader framework of a vision and goals and relationships."

"There's no magic bullet," he says.

Berger says virtual reality experiences have to be accompanied by work beforehand and follow-up afterwards. Kids, he says, need to be reflective and think critically. Both Caldwell and the instructors at Mid-Pacific have prepwork and postwork related to using virtual reality in their classrooms. Specifically, Caldwell has students read "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and the play version of "Anne Frank" before embarking on the virtual reality experience. At Mid-Pacific, the simulation on homelessness was part of a larger overall project. In both instances, the students took part in class discussions afterwards.

Berger also believes that immersion experiences like virtual reality should be "embedded in positive" adult and peer relationships. He adds that ideally, there's also a resulting action where kids do something productive with the information they've learned, to help their own growth and to help others. He mentions an example where students interviewed local immigrants and refugees, then wrote the stories they heard. They published the stories in a book, and the profits went to legal fees for local refugees.

Berger thinks students can initiate that type of action on their own, but it's "best that schools plan to support students with time and structures to make that action coordinated and meaningful."
Social-emotional skills support student achievement, but embedding SEL into the school day can be complex. If you're launching a new SEL program or enhancing an existing one, these tips will help you avoid common implementation mistakes.
Safety Considerations

Bailenson believes that if schools are thinking about using virtual reality as a classroom tool, they should keep safety in mind. He tells EdSurge that he advises saving virtual reality for "very special experiences," keeping it "relatively short" and not getting students dizzy or disoriented. A report Bailenson co-authored for Common Sense Media highlights the research that has-and has not-explored the effects of virtual reality on children. It states that the "potentially negative outcomes of VR include impacts on children's sensory systems and vision, aggression, and unhealthy amounts of escapism and distraction from the physical world."

As for content, Bailenson writes in that same report that "a good rule is, if you wouldn't want your children to live with the memory of the event in the real world, then don't have them do it in VR." According to that report, with the "exception of VR devices specifically targeted toward child users, most companies recommend that no children younger than 12 or 13 use them."

Mid-Pacific's Grantham says that the school doesn't let students younger than age 13 use virtual reality technology. He adds that, in the end, the school leaves the decision to participate up to the family and the student. Caldwell explains that his school, students "take frequent breaks" and don't have to engage with the Holocaust expedition if it bothers them. "They can opt out and continue on with the in-class activity."

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How VR Is Being Used to Teach SEL - EdSurge News

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This past year, a group of eighth graders in Texas got upset about a train that didn't stop for bathroom visits as it headed toward a concentration ...

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Three Ways Teachers Can Kick-Start Social-Emotional Learning During Back-to-School (Mindful Practices) - Anuhea

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Three Ways Teachers Can Kick-Start Social-Emotional Learning During Back-to-School (Mindful Practices) - Anuhea

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This article talks about the different ways to integrate SEL (Social, Emotional Learning) into their classrooms and lesson plans from the jump-start of their year. In a concise post, this article shows 3 specific ways to incorporate mental, physical, and emotional check-ins that support a productive semester of work. What stood out to me in these 3 helpful tips is how its focus really involved spending time with the individual student and assessing their overall well being, mentally, physically, and emotionally.

The standard that I believe is shown in this blog, are the 4c’s because by starting a students day by focussing on their mind and body using the emotional check-in tools, combined with a minute of activating the body through movement and breathing exercises, it gives the students minds a chance to relax and prepare to focus more clearly on the lesson ahead of them.

Implications of these tools can be and are a number of things; a healthy student to teacher relationship allowing open conversation and to give the student the comfortability to talk to their teachers and let them know how they’re doing throughout the year, it can also promote a more conscious learner by allowing them the ability to learn at their own pace and learn how to self-assess.

My question would be are there added benefits to continuing these practices throughout the school year? Not only does this help nurture the individual, but it opens the class up to group discussion at the start of the year, activities where they get to know each other in a fun way, giving them the opportunity to feel relaxed and become acclimated to a new school year, classmates and even all new teachers.

For myself, this is something easily applied to any classroom and in any setting, also truly at any age. Throughout the year, however, I would continue to incorporate it in small ways, as a way to remain checked-in with my students.

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Back-to-school can be a stressful time for students and teachers alike. Students may be upset, worried, or restless as they adjust to a new schedule, and teachers have to manage all of these emotions while dealing with their own stress. Since the first few days in the classroom help set the tone for the rest of the school year, it's important to establish a positive learning environment from the beginning.

Teaching social-emotional learning in the classroom has known benefits for both students and teachers. These techniques can help individuals manage their own emotional wellbeing during stressful times, which creates a better learning environment for everyone. Here are three mindfulness activities teachers can use to kick-start their students' social-emotional learning and help them adjust to those first days back at school.

POP Check

A big challenge for teachers is not knowing what student emotions they will be dealing with at the start of a new school year. Having a mindful check-in with your students those first few mornings can be a good way to gauge the state of the room. We recommend a designated place in your classroom to hang a Pause-Own it-Practice poster.

Students should be introduced to the steps initially, then they should visit the POP chart just after putting away book bags, coats, etc. Each student should have a magnet, clothespin or something similar, and each morning the students move their own magnet to one of three spaces labeled appropriately for your age group: smiley, neutral and sad faces; thumbs up, sideways or down icons; or emotion words. Beside each icon, list some suggestions for getting ready to learn. For example, a student pauses to take a deep breath and body scan to ask herself how she's feeling at the moment. If she is feeling great, she can share her good feelings by giving a classmate a compliment. If a student reports "thumb down," he might benefit from writing or drawing about his feelings. When students acknowledge their emotions, they are already better equipped to manage them.

Movement-Based Activities

After a summer of playing outside, students will likely feel restless when asked to sit down for most of the school day. Movement and active play are a big part of student's social-emotional development, so take some extra time that first week to focus on movement-based activities. Yoga can be a fun, classroom-friendly activity that has plenty of positive benefits for children. You can also teach social-emotional learning skills through team-building games. Not only are these great get-to-know-you activities for new groups of students, but they also help encourage active listening and group decision-making.

Mindful Breathing Exercises

Give your students time to clear their heads and diffuse from the stressful emotions of the day with guided breathing exercises. One easy exercise to teach is called "Take 5." Students trace the outline of one hand with the index finger of their other hand, inhaling as their index finger moves up and exhaling as it moves back down. This slow-breathing activity can be used to help students regain focus when they're feeling restless. It's a great 2-minute mindfulness activity to use when children are returning to class after recess, lunch, or PE, as it helps them settle back into a stationary activity.

These three activities can also be used throughout the school year as part of a holistic approach to social-emotional learning. To learn more about how to incorporate social-emotional learning and mindfulness into the school curriculum, visit Mindful Practices' student services page.

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Three Ways Teachers Can Kick-Start Social-Emotional Learning During Back-to-School | Social-Emotional Learning | Mindfulness | SEL | Health

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Back-to-school can be a stressful time for students and teachers alike. Students may be upset, worried, or restless as they adjust to a new schedule, and teachers have to manage all of these emotions while dealing with their own stress.

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1. 2020 SEL Exchange: October 14-16, 2020. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://selexchange.casel.org/

2. Berlinski, J. (2018, December 27). Integrating SEL, Equity and Trauma Work for Multiplied Success - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-07-02-integrating-sel-equity-and-trauma-work-for-multiplied-success

3. Brian. (2020, February 24). Three Ways Teachers Can Kick-Start Social-Emotional Learning During Back-to-School: Social-Emotional Learning: Mindfulness: SEL: Health. Retrieved from https://mindfulpractices.us/2018/09/21/three-ways-teachers-can-kick-start-social-emotional-learning-during-back-to-school/

4. Caporale-Berkowitz, N. (2018, December 27). Social-Emotional Learning Is the Rage in K-12. So Why Not in College? - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-05-04-social-emotional-learning-is-the-rage-in-k-12-so-why-not-in-college

5. Chapman, J. (2018, December 27). Free Tech Tools Teach Social Emotional Learning in Classrooms - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-11-06-free-tech-tools-teach-social-emotional-learning-in-classrooms

6. Clare, J. (2015, November 2). Social-Emotional Apps for Special Ed. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-emotional-apps-special-ed-jayne-clare

7. Digital Citizenship & Social and Emotional Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/tlr-asset/document-cse-digitalcitizenship-sel-0-0.pdf

8. EdSurge. (2019, January 18). Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/social-emotional-learning-why-it-matters-and-how-to-foster-it

9. Inspire Empathy in Your Students. (2018, September 27). Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/teaching-strategies/inspire-empathy-in-your-students

10. Martinez, L. (2016, May 5). SEL Is Good Teaching. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/sel-is-good-teaching-lorea-martinez

11. Nazerian, T. (2018, December 27). How VR Is Being Used to Teach SEL - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-05-29-how-ar-and-vr-are-being-used-to-teach-sel

12. Rob. (2020, February 24). I Teach Because...the Spark of the CEC Conference: Social-Emotional Learning: Mindfulness: SEL: Events. Retrieved from https://mindfulpractices.us/2019/03/15/i-teach-because-the-spark-of-the-cec-conference/

13. Stuart, K. (2018, December 27). 3 Practical Resources to Help Teachers Integrate SEL and Academics - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-06-25-three-practical-resources-to-help-teachers-integrate-sel-and-academics

14. Triplett, V. (2018, December 27). In the Age of 'No-Excuses' Schools: A Case for Compassion and Better Social-Emotional Learning - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-07-13-in-the-age-of-no-excuses-schools-a-case-for-compassion-and-better-social-emotional-learning-strategies

15. Wagner, D. (2019, November 18). We All Teach SEL: Empathy Activities and Tools for Students. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/we-all-teach-sel-empathy-activities-and-tools-for-students

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Social-Emotional Learning is the topic that our group ( SEL-ebrate ) picked for the showcase project. Social-Emotional Learning is defined as the set of skills, knowledge, and behaviors involved in understanding and managing emotions, setting positive goals, feeling empathy for others, engaging in positive relationships, and solving problems effectively. In other words, it teaches students to do more than memorize and flip through pages of a book or scroll through a website, they are given tools to create meaningful relationships, as well as learning to be an upstanding citizen. It is with a combination of help from educators, parents, and students with the same goals to help shift our education system to focus on the individual learner. In order to gather all the information we used websites such as MindfulPractices.us which is a blog site with postings from teachers all over the country with the same values needed to inspire SEL teaching. Also, EdSurge is a website with many articles that are related to SEL and how it influences teaching at many levels.