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In Action

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Morning Meetings: A Daily Strategy for Teaching Social and Emotional Learning to 1st Grade Students

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Chances are you went into education because you love teaching and you enjoy interacting with young people. But the increased focus on academic benchmarks and testing scores has left teachers with less time to teach "soft skills" - those personal qualities that help students connect with others.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) can be a significant part of a student's overall education. Targeting the development of these skills can translate into higher academic achievement, among other gains.

In short, integrating SEL into the classroom can help prepare students for the future.

What is SEL?

It's important to remember that students develop socially and emotionally at the same time they are developing academically. Ignoring social and emotional skills development will have an adverse effect on academics. That's why it's important for educators to be intentional when implementing social and emotional learning.

SEL consists of five key skills:

Self-awareness - recognition of one's own emotions, personal goals, and values

Self-management - regulation of one's own emotions and behaviors

Social awareness - understanding of and compassion for others' backgrounds or cultures

Relationship skills - ability to establish and maintain healthy relationships

Responsible decision-making - making positive choices involving one's own behavior

These five key skills are essential for success in virtually every area of life, from education to employment to family and community relationships. Integrating SEL into the classroom not only creates better academic outcomes, it also gives students a firm foundation to operate successfully once their academic career is complete.

The Effects of SEL Beyond the Classroom

Investing in students by teaching social and emotional learning in the classroom does more than improve academic success. In the long-term, employers seek individuals with the very traits that SEL develops: problem-solving, teamwork, character, and grit.

Schools that include SEL as part of their curriculum are not only helping to educate academically, they are helping future employees develop critical soft skills. As students complete their education and enter the workforce, they can expect more opportunity, higher pay, and greater success.

And while SEL initiatives help to build a better future workforce, they first provide a significant return on investment for schools. Research indicates that for every $1 spent on quality SEL initiatives, there is an $11 return on investment.

Strong SEL initiatives in the classroom result in:

Schools across the country turn to SEL for these benefits and much more.

Bringing SEL Into The Classroom

Even with the far-reaching and positive outcomes of SEL, schools are sometimes reluctant to add another task to their staff's efforts. However, bringing social and emotional learning into the classroom doesn't have to be difficult. In fact, many educators find that incorporating SEL principles into classroom lessons provides the greatest impact.

Implementing SEL doesn't have to be difficult. Schools can develop SEL initiatives by following some simple steps:

Define goals for your school as a whole, including behavior expectations

Spell out what those goals and expectations look like in all areas

Develop a schoolwide infrastructure that can support SEL including planning cycles and assessment

Coordinate your SEL programs to align with your school's overall goals

Prepare staff to teach SEL through modeling and integrated instruction

Create and provide opportunities for students to practice SEL skills

Connect with and learn from other educators who have greater practice in SEL implementation

Coincidentally, these steps are quite similar to those used to establish a PBIS initiative. Just as PBIS initiatives can help make your school more effective and efficient, incorporating SEL principles can have a positive effect on behavior schoolwide. Helping students to develop the five key skills associated with social-emotional learning will sync with your PBIS initiative in many ways.

Social and emotional learning takes academic learning a step further, helping students to develop resilience in the face of adversity. When combined with a PBIS initiative, SEL can help improve behavior, develop communication skills, and improve leadership among students. It can even help teachers gain more time to teach!

Integrating SEL principles with your PBIS initiative can reap huge rewards. Not only do students learn behaviors and routines that can help class time run smoothly, they also develop lifelong personal skills. Consider including SEL in your lesson plans!

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in the Classroom

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Chances are you went into education because you love teaching and you enjoy interacting with young people. But the increased focus on academic benchmarks and testing scores has left teachers with less time to teach "soft skills" - those personal qualities that help students connect with others.

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5 SEL Components and ways to implement them

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5 SEL Components and ways to implement them

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contributed by Meg Price, the ei experience

Social emotional learning (SEL) by definition is a process for learning life skills, including how to deal with oneself, others and relationships, and work in an effective manner. Although there are many great SEL programs, SEL can also be incorporated into each lesson as a way of teaching for students to really understand how to action the skills in a variety of situations and form positive habits.

All students start school with some level of social and emotional skills and all will develop their social and emotional skills at a different rate. Parents and teachers are both responsible for teaching students life skills and certainly much of what they learn will be by watching our actions.

The 5 strategies below are will not only benefit students SEL but will also be beneficial to teacher's well-being.
5 Strategies For Incorporating Social Emotional Learning Into Your Classroom 1. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is: paying attention, in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non- judgmentally.

We are hearing more and more about the benefits of mindfulness for children. Increased attention leads to better performance academically and increased emotional and social intelligence. Children are better able to learn, to nurture themselves, and to be aware of their emotional needs.

Mindfulness practices helps students pay attention to their breath, body, thoughts, feelings and the world around them. When they can observe their thoughts and feelings they have the freedom to choose how they will speak and act. And this can lead to a happier, more harmonious classroom.

There are many mindfulness activities on the Internet or via apps today. Why not start each lesson with a different mindfulness activity.
2. Clarify that thoughts leads to feelings
Research shows that students who are more resilient are more academically successful. Resilient students bounce back quicker, they are mindful of their thinking, understand their beliefs and importantly are able to challenge their beliefs and thoughts to create more positive outcomes.

This is an important concept because we may not always be able to influence what happens to us but we do have a powerful influence in how we interpret what happens to us and how we deal with it. Many students are unaware that their thoughts play a large role in influencing how they feel. No matter what happens to you, nobody can take this away from you and it is an empowering lesson to teach when ever you hear a student express frustration, anger and other negative emotions. Listen for the emotion, catch the moment and help your student challenge their thinking.
3. Model persistence and determination
A really important aspect of wellbeing and SEL is the ability to accomplish things in life. Many students naturally strive to better themselves in some way, whether they are seeking to master a skill, achieve a valuable goal, or win in some competitive event.

Other students need some coaching in this area. Teaching students each and every lesson that to accomplish things takes effort, patience and perseverance is really important. Praise for effort is critical in this area of SEL. Each student will need to be encouraged to set stretch goals during lessons to feel a sense of accomplishment. By being mindful, and challenging negative thoughts students can be encouraged to dig deep to find the determination to succeed.
4. Listen with empathy
Put another way, listen to be surprised.

Part of SEL is an understanding of the importance of positive relationships. To have these relationships we need to have empathy. Teachers have a wonderful ability to model empathy. Encourage students to listen to others, ask them to listen to be surprised and try to understand how other students might be feeling. What opportunities do you have each class to find ways for students to help each other and learn something new about other people's ideas?

Use the opportunity in class to teach students to ask questions framed to encourage response not encourage defensiveness. For example when John says "Sam, why can't you just follow the instructions"- encourage John to re-frame his question for a better understanding of what Sam is seeking "Sam, can we work through these instruction together to ensure they make sense?
5. Emphasize gratitude
Once again research is showing us that a really important aspect of well-being is gratitude. This research indicates those who regularly express gratitude have more energy and enthusiasm, less stress and better physical wellbeing. There are some very simple ways to increase your experience and expression of gratitude; however, this may require that we train ourselves to think differently. For students this can be done by incorporating some simple exercises into each lesson.

At the end of each class ask students to reflect on the class using these three questions:

- What aspects of this class did you enjoy today?

- Who did you enjoy working with today?

- What areas of this topic would you like to learn more about?

Most importantly above all have fun each and every class; learning should be fun and play is a really important part of SEL!

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5 Strategies For Incorporating Social Emotional Learning Into Your Classroom

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contributed by Meg Price, the ei experience Social emotional learning (SEL) by definition is a process for learning life skills, including how to deal with oneself, others and relationships, and work in an effective manner.

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Social emotional learning (SEL) helps students understand their thoughts and emotions and how to express and feel these emotions. While SEL can increase self-awareness, it can also help individuals show more empathy toward others because they're better able to understand what another individual may be feeling. Social emotional learning can help to improve a student's attitude toward school and other individuals. It can also lead to reduced depression and stress, which can ultimately increase self-esteem and boost performance in school.

In our diverse world, it's becoming increasingly important to incorporate SEL into the curriculum. The good news for educators is that social emotional learning does not need to be a single designated subject like math or science. Teachers can leverage SEL strategies to promote learning in everyday classroom activities. Here are some ways teachers can connect with students and incorporate SEL in the classroom in a remote and in-person environment.

How to Incorporate SEL in the Classroom

There are many simple, creative ways to encourage social emotional learning in the classroom. While some lessons and subjects may lend themselves better to this type of learning than others, try some of these activities with your students to see which ones they respond to best.

Emotional Check-In for Students

Start or end the school day with an SEL check-in. Ask each student how he or she feels. Visual aids that depict various emotions may help younger kids articulate their feelings. Make sure to follow up with any students who express negative emotions like anger, frustration, or sadness.

It's important to gauge each student's comfort level during these check-ins. If it seems certain students are reluctant to share, you may want to have one-on-one check-ins throughout the day instead doing this in a group setting.

Incorporate SEL Into Story Time

Whether you're reading aloud to the class or your students read on their own, you can turn story time into a lesson in SEL. Ask the students to describe what happened to the protagonist or another character and how they think this character feels based on their circumstances. You can also delve a little deeper and ask students to put themselves in the character's shoes and think about how they would feel in a similar situation.

As an added bonus, you'll be able to make sure the students are able to comprehend what they're reading.

SEL Journal Prompts

Give your students time to write in their journals. You can mix up the routine by designating some journal time for free writing and using prompts or guided topics during other writing sessions. Try to use thought-provoking prompts like "describe how you're feeling today," or "write about a time you felt scared/brave/happy/loved." The options are endless, the goal is to encourage your students to engage in self-reflection and articulate their feelings in writing.

Need some more ideas? Try these journal prompts for kids .

Art Projects

Some kids may not love journaling. Self-reflection through art is another fantastic way to help students understand their feelings and express them in creative ways. Ask your class to draw or paint their feelings or tell a story through a picture they've drawn.

Social Emotional Learning Strategies While Teaching at a Distance

Many of the activities mentioned above can be adapted for remote learning, but we also want to equip you with some specific SEL strategies you can use with students who are home schooled or who may be completing classes online or via Zoom. Here are some ways to connect with students while teaching at a distance.

Schedule Virtual Check-Ins

With social distancing, it's more imperative than ever to check in regularly with your students. Whether it's touching base on how they're feeling emotionally or getting a gauge on how they're adapting to their new learning environment, try to schedule recurring time to connect with your students.

You may also want to set aside some time to connect with parents who can provide some insight into how their child is doing with stay-at-home measures and remote learning.

Apps, Games, and Websites

Take advantage of technology and have your students use these apps to practice social emotional learning.

Breathe, Think, Do: From Sesame Street creators, this free app for iPhone and Android teaches problem solving, self-control, planning, and task persistence.

Sanford Harmony SEL App for Teachers and Students: This mobile app from National University offers new ways for teachers to incorporate social emotional learning practices into classroom activities. The easy-to-use interface can be used to create lesson plans and activities to strengthen classroom relationships.

Emotional ABCs: You can use this teacher-led SEL tool in your (virtual or in-person) classroom to teach your students emotional skills. This workshop-based program teaches kids to identify their feelings and how to respond and make good choices based on their emotions.

GoNoodle: GoNoodle uses movement and mindfulness videos to promote physical wellness, academic success, and social-emotional health.

Of course, be sure to check in with parents about any screen-time rules or hesitations they may have about their children using mobile devices and apps.

Reading Strategies

There's no reason you can't incorporate reading for social emotional learning at home. You can read aloud to the class via Zoom or assign a book to your students to read on their own. Ask the students to write about what's happening in the story and how they think the characters are feeling as a result. Then, take turns asking students to share what they wrote. This will give you the opportunity to discuss various emotions with the kids and talk about appropriate responses to particular feelings.

Journaling is another activity that can be done at home with little to no additional materials. You may not have time for all of your students to share their entries, but you can rotate or ask students to share their journal response with a family member.

Social emotional learning takes education beyond academia and equips students with important lessons they can use in school and in the real world. Whether teaching in person or in a remote-learning environment, you can encourage social emotional learning in everyday activities to help your students understand their emotions and learn to empathize with others. Try these activities in your classroom, whether in person or remote, and help your students learn important life skills that will stay with them forever.

Earn a Certificate or Master's in SEL From National University

SEL is becoming increasingly important in academic environments and it's important for teachers to continue to hone their knowledge and skills in this area. National University offers no-cost tools from Sanford Harmony to equip teachers with tools and strategies to promote SEL in the classroom. For educators who wish to broaden their skills and enhance their qualifications, National University offers a Master of Arts in Social Emotional Learning. With flexible class schedules and online and in-person options, teachers can complete a certificate or master's degree around their busy schedule. Education professionals may also qualify for a full-tuition scholarship from the Sanford Harmony Scholar Program .

Whether you want to level up professionally or add some SEL strategies to your teaching toolkit, there are several resources at your disposal to help you to develop emotionally-aware, empathetic students. Leverage these SEL resources to help your students learn valuable lifelong lessons and set them up for success in the classroom and beyond.

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7 Social Emotional Learning Strategies for Remote Teaching | National University

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Social emotional learning (SEL) helps students understand their thoughts and emotions and how to express and feel these emotions. While SEL can increase self-awareness, it can also help individuals show more empathy toward others because they're better able to understand what another individual may be feeling.

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Social emotional learning in the classroom has changed the way many teachers approach everything from the primary academic subjects to free time and recess.

Social-emotional learning helps children develop positive self-esteem, manage their emotions, set and achieve goals, show empathy for others, and handle stress.

Nearly 33% of teens age 13 to 18 will experience an anxiety disorder, according to the National Institutes of Health. The number of children and teens with an anxiety disorder has risen in recent decades. Providing children with coping mechanisms through emotional learning may help reduce the prevalence of anxiety, especially if teachers introduce SEL in early childhood.

Many educators view SEL as an essential piece of the puzzle to help students learn the soft skills they need to be productive, successful adults.

Further reading: What is SEL? / Social-Emotional Learning Defined

How to Implement SEL in the Classroom?

Teachers can integrate social-emotional learning into the learning environment side by side with academic curriculum, teach it separately from Math, ELA, and other subjects, or implement it as an overall classroom philosophy.

By teaching parallel, yet age-appropriate, units at all grade levels, students benefit from continuity in SEL lesson plans. Early childhood teaching creates a solid foundation for more advanced SEL concepts.

Districts looking to implement SEL should first decide upon a comprehensive curriculum designed to:

Help students identify their own self-concept

Build self-esteem

Treat others well

Strive for self-improvement in all areas

These seven strategies that can help instructors ensure consistency across all grade levels to achieve the greatest results from teaching SEL.

1. Help students identify their self-concept

A student's self-concept, or self-awareness, stands as a basic tenet of SEL in the classroom. A person's self-concept relates to how they perceive themselves. Interactions with teachers, parents, and peers can shape a person's self-concept.

A person's self-concept relates to their strengths, weaknesses, and self-esteem. Presenting activities that let students get to the heart of who they are, what they believe, and how they feel about themselves forms the bedrock of SEL in the classroom.

Teachers can use activities into other subjects, such as ELA and social studies, or introduce separate discussions and activities that permit students to explore their self-concept.

2. Introduce positive actions for body and mind

Students feel good about themselves when they successfully complete positive actions. Taking even one positive step can set off a cascade effect leading to more positive actions and, ultimately, positive outcomes.

Teachers can easily integrate positive actions for the body into health class, physical education, and, for younger students, on the playground. They can take time out from the school day to let the children play a cooperative sport outside. They can also teach proper nutrition at snack time and hygiene by encouraging hand-washing throughout the day.

Educators can introduce positive actions for intellectual health during any subject by encouraging problem-solving and creative thinking.

Emphasizing positive physical and intellectual health as part of emotional learning helps students establish good habits to set them up for a lifetime of success.

3. Teach students to manage their feelings and their resources

If positive thoughts lead to positive actions and positive feelings, students must learn how to manage their thoughts and feelings to help foster positive behavior.

Integrating SEL in the classroom includes teaching students how to manage not just their thoughts, feelings, and actions, but also their:

By doing so, students will gain a sense of responsibility that improves their self-concept and boosts their self-esteem.

Strategies to teach students responsibility could include giving them assignments with multiple components that need to be completed on a deadline, asking questions to get them thinking about their feelings and reactions to events, and even giving them opportunities to handle money in the school.

4. Teach empathy

Teachers from decades ago used to call it "The Golden Rule": Treat others how you would like to be treated. Today, empathy plays a key role in social-emotional learning in the classroom.

Once students learn how to manage their feelings and reactions, they can learn how to treat others with kindness and respect. Teachers can embrace multiple opportunities to teach and demonstrate empathy.

They can reward positive student behavior by offering a small reward when a student performs a good deed. Some teachers put marbles or tickets in a jar or create a chain of paper links. When the jar is full, or the chain touches the ground, the students receive a party or special treat.

5. Teach students to face the truth

Even the best students don't behave kindly all the time. They might make mistakes in their work or lose focus too easily sometimes.

Social-emotional learning can help students recognize shortcomings so that they can improve. Teachers may integrate self-assessments following tests in major subjects. They can also ensure that students take responsibility for their actions by making sure they complete homework assignments.

Group projects give teachers an excellent opportunity to use SEL strategies related to working together, taking responsibility rather than blaming others, and dividing tasks based on each students' strengths and weaknesses.

6. Help students practice self-improvement strategies

Once students recognize their weaknesses and learn to own up to their mistakes, they can focus on self-improvement.

A growth mindset, or understanding that everyone can learn new skills, plays a key role in knowing how to successfully implement SEL.

Teachers at this phase of integrating social-emotional learning in the classroom should help students identify, set, track, and achieve goals. These goals could be related to academics, personal behavior, or physical and mental health.

Self-improvement ties into all the other elements of SEL, as students strive to grasp the soft skills related to their social and emotional development.

7. Review all aspects

As students continue to strive for improvement, teachers should implement a review of these six facets of SEL incorporation, helping students identify their weaknesses and study the areas where they might feel "stuck."

An important thing that teachers should remember is the Thoughts-Actions-Feelings (TAF) Circle. Positive thoughts lead to positive actions, which lead to positive feelings, which, in turn, create more positive thoughts.

Outcomes of SEL Implementation

Social and emotional learning can help create more confident, kinder students who are better poised to face the stress of the outside world.

But you may be even more surprised by some of the positive academic outcomes teachers have discovered. Positive Action outcomes has been shown to:

Reduce bullying - Using SEL at school has been shown to reduce bullying by 51%, according to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Improve math scores - Students who develop greater self-confidence through SEL may show up to 51% improvement in standardized math tests.

Improve literacy - Students who benefit from an SEL curriculum score an average of 20% better in reading achievement, according to the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.

Reduce violence in the school - From a reduction in violence in the classroom to a reduced number of threats, social-emotional learning gives students the tools to cope with their anger rather than resorting to violent words or acts.

Reduce suspensions - SEL implementation led to a 73% reduction in suspensions, indicating students are better behaved and following rules.

Reduce alcohol use - SEL in the classroom has helped reduce alcohol use by students, with the numbers of students who have ever tried alcohol dropping by 29%.

Reduce absenteeism - SEL can substantially reduce absenteeism, perhaps by reducing the number of "mental health" days students take or by instilling a greater responsibility to go to school.

Increase family bonding - Parents and children saw a reduction in family conflict and an increase in family bonding.

Increase overall positive development in early childhood - Based on multiple markers, pre-K students showed an increased positive development in areas ranging from self-esteem to physical health.

Perhaps more importantly, the core SEL competencies that students learn, carry through the graduation and their working years. SEL helps create young adults who are secure in themselves, better able to cope with the daily stresses of life, and more empathetic toward others.

How Positive Action Can Help?

Many different programs promise to teach students the skills they need to become emotionally intelligent adults able to cope with life.

By teaching a program that emphasizes how our thoughts become actions, which lead to positive (or negative) feelings, Positive Action makes social and emotional learning easy to understand and easy to integrate.

We guide you every step of the way with strategies to achieve buy-in from the administrators in the district and gradually deploy the program beginning with the earlier grades, where quick and easy lessons can make a significant impact.

During what we call the "Feeder Effect", teachers will soon be able to recognize those students who used SEL. Seeing the difference between students who did and did not experience SEL encourages buy-in from the rest of the district and prompts secondary education teachers to continue with the program so they can continue to achieve a classroom full of emotionally intelligent, confident, empathetic students.

From Pre-K through secondary education, Positive Action can help you integrate our strategies seamlessly. Want to know more about Positive Action? Contact us.

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How to Integrate SEL in the Classroom? 7 Effective Strategies

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Social emotional learning in the classroom has changed the way many teachers approach everything from the primary academic subjects to free time and recess. Social-emotional learning helps children develop positive self-esteem, manage their emotions, set and achieve goals, show empathy for others, and handle stress.

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50+ Simple Social-Emotional Learning Activities for All Ages

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Teach self-control, emotional awareness, and more by incorporating these easy social-emotional learning activities into your daily routine.