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ACT Youth - Article & Activities

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) fosters the ability to make positive choices about how we behave. On this page of the SEL Toolkit, we link to tools and resources for professionals who seek to strengthen young people's decision-making skills.

Promote Problem-Solving Thinking

There are many simple ways to infuse problem-solving thinking and reflection into program activities:

Articulate differences and connections

Identify emotions behind actions

Brainstorm different approaches or solutions to a task

Explore possible consequences

Model and articulate decision-making process

Reflect on past experiences

Evaluate actions - did they meet the goal?

Simulate or role play a task

Thinking Child

Cognitive psychologist Myrna B. Shure describes her approach to teaching children how to think about solving problems.

Web Page

Teach Critical Thinking Skills

Reflective Group Conversation

This worksheet can be used to guide critical thinking within a group.

Worksheet

SWOT Analysis

This worksheet can be used in a discussion of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Worksheet

Edutopia: Resources and Downloads for Teaching Critical Thinking

On this page, educators from the Bay Area's KIPP King Collegiate High School and the KIPP network share critical thinking lesson plans and tools.

Web Page

Advocates for Youth: Values and Behavior

The purpose of this Life Planning Education activity is to examine the relationship between values and behavior.

Activity

Use Media Literacy as a Teaching Strategy for Critical Thinking

Media Smart Youth: 6 Media Questions

This poster poses six questions that promote critical thinking about media.

Poster

Media Education Foundation

The Media Education Foundation offers educational videos on gender, health, race, and commercialism, as well as discussion guides promoting media literacy and critical thinking skills for all ages.

Website

Discussion Guides

ACT for Youth: Media Literacy

In this article, Andrew Smiler explores the importance of media literacy and offers key questions to guide youth.

Article

Involve Young People in Service-Learning

National Youth Leadership Council

This website serves as a clearinghouse for national service-learning efforts and materials.

Website

LIFT: Raising the Bar for Service-Learning Practice

Supported by the National Youth Leadership Council, this multimedia, interactive website provides many resources to support service-learning efforts.

Website

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) fosters the ability to make positive choices about how we behave. On this page of the SEL Toolkit, we link to tools and resources for professionals who seek to strengthen young people's decision-making skills.

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Self-Regulation Using a Hand Model of the Brain

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Self-Regulation Using a Hand Model of the Brain

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Dr. Daniel Siegel - Impulse Control

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Dr Daniel Siegel presenting a Hand Model of the Brain

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Resources for Students, Families, and Educators

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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Common Sense Media - Wide Open School  TK - 5

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Common Sense Media - Wide Open School  TK - 5

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Wide Open School's mission lives on at Common Sense

With schools back in person, we have closed this dedicated distance-learning site designed to guide families and educators through the sudden shift to remote learning.
Discover More Great Resources for Families & Educators
Common Sense is dedicated to providing teachers and families with free resources to help kids learn, grow, and thrive with media and technology. Join our community for more tips and resources to support kids' learning and healthy development.

More Resources You'll Love

Get more free content like what you found on Wide Open School.
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Thank You to Our Supporters & Partners

We are grateful to our supporters and partners for helping to bring these resources to kids, families, and educators everywhere during a global crisis. It is a testament to the power of creativity, collaboration, and a shared commitment to education and digital access for all.

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Wide Open School's mission lives on at Common Sense With schools back in person, we have closed this dedicated distance-learning site designed to guide families and educators through the sudden shift to remote learning. Discover More Great Resources for Families & Educators

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15 Activities for Teaching SEL Competencies

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15 Activities for Teaching SEL Competencies

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Waterford.org

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Social-emotional learning (SEL) is one of the most promising frontiers in educational research. Because intellectual and social-emotional development are linked, teaching both is the best way to promote lifelong success. But many schools don't know how to ensure that their social emotional learning activities are focusing on the right skills.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a leading expert in integrating SEL into school curriculum, has compiled a list of core competencies for students to learn. These five key skills are:

Self-awareness: the ability to identify and assess your thoughts, feelings, and values, as well as how they intersect with your behaviors

Self-management: the ability to not only identify but regulate emotions, thoughts, and actions

Responsible decision-making: the ability to make positive, constructive choices about your behavior

Social awareness: the ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, as well as learning social and ethical behavior

Relationship skills: the ability to get along and make meaningful connections with people in their life

Helping your students learn the CASEL competencies can be as easy as reading books about diversity or holding a class service project. Try these fifteen fun class activities to help your students develop strong SEL skills at school.

Self-Awareness

1. Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness, the ability to focus on the present and accept one's circumstances, is a self-awareness skill that can significantly reduce stress and anxiety.[1] To teach mindfulness in class, put on a guided meditation recording or read one aloud to your students. Encourage them to put their thoughts and feelings aside and focus on the meditation as much as they can.

For younger students, try simpler breathing exercises to help students develop mindfulness without overextending their attention span.

2. Reflective Writing

Reflective writing not only helps students develop self-awareness but empathy and compassion, too.[2] Start each day by giving students five to ten minutes to write about a prompt that encourages self-reflection. By practicing reflective writing every day, this can help students learn to consider their thoughts and feelings in a self-aware way.

Not sure what questions you should give your students? Here are a few prompts that encourage self-analysis:

3. Emotional Vocabulary Lists

Self-awareness activities are a great way to help students understand emotional cues. Include several words that describe emotions to your class vocabulary lists, like "joyful" or "scared." Whenever you introduce a new emotional vocabulary word, take time to discuss what it means and how students can recognize this feeling in themselves and others.

For older grades, try complex emotional vocabulary words like "jubilant" or "apprehensive" to broaden their emotional understanding.

Self-Management

4. Grounding Techniques

Grounding techniques are a stress management exercise used to orient someone in the present when they're emotionally overwhelmed. By focusing on their senses instead of their thoughts or feelings, grounding techniques can teach students how to calm down and manage their emotions when they are upset. Teach grounding techniques as a class and help students practice them when they feel stressed.

Here are a few grounding techniques for you to try out with your students:

5. Self-Management Party Games

Plenty of popular children's games can teach children how to regulate their behaviors. Turn on some music, sort children into groups, and play any of these well-known games that model self-management:

After playing these games, bring your students back together for a class discussion on what they learned about listening and being respectful to others.

6. SMART Goal Challenge

Self-motivation is an essential component to social-emotional learning. If you're not sure how to self-motivate your students, try challenging them to reach their potential by setting SMART goals as a class.

At the beginning of the month or quarter, work with each student to set a SMART goal for themselves. SMART goals must be Specific, Measurable, Agreed-Upon, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Check in with your students several times throughout the month to measure their progress and support them if any challenges arise.

If your students meet their goal by the agreed-upon end date, give them a piece of candy or other reward. If they don't, offer encouragement and work with them to accomplish their goal.

Responsible Decision-Making

7. Class Contract

One way to encourage responsible decision making is by collaborating with your students to create a classroom contract. An effective classroom contract should contain two things: your expectations as a teacher and your students' own hopes and needs for the school year.

Putting a contract together with your students can help them feel like their voices are heard and that you're willing to listen. To make this activity interesting for your students, you can even include "exciting" information like class parties or rewards for meeting academic goals. It's fun and, more importantly, establishes your classroom environment as one where everyone's choices matter.

8. Student Council

Depending on your needs, you could involve your entire class in student council or have them elect representatives. By bringing your students in to discuss classroom needs and upcoming events, student councils can involve your class in the school community while teaching them responsibility.

If you've never held a council before, hold a discussion with your class to decide which student council ideas would work best.

9. "What Would You Do?" Activity

Practicing how to make tough decisions can help your students learn how their actions affect others. Give your students a list of situations in which they would have to make an important choice. Have them write down an answer to each situation by themselves, then discuss their answers as a class.

Here are a few problem-solving scenarios to get your students started:

While playing with your little brother, he accidentally breaks your favorite toy. What do you do next?

You see a new girl playing by herself at recess. What do you say to her?

You're eating a sugar cookie and your friend asks if he can have a bite. How do you respond?

Social Awareness

10. Classroom Service Projects

Service activities are a fun and meaningful way to connect your students to the word around them. By helping others, a class service project can also help students develop empathy. Here are a few service project ideas you can do as your class to make your community a better place:

11. Listening Circles

To begin this activity that teaches active listening, separate your class into groups of four or five students. Have students take turns answering a get-to-know you question. If any student interrupts the person talking, remind them that everyone gets to a turn sharing their answer.

Here are a few question ideas:

At the end of the activity, come together for a class discussion about what they learned in their groups. To make sure every student feels included, try pairing students up and having them share one thing about their partner after the activity.

12. Diversity Story Time

Teaching diversity in the classroom is an essential component of social awareness. During read-aloud story times, try to pick books about people of different cultures, race/ethnicities, religions, and other backgrounds. After reading one of these books to your students, discuss how differences make the world a better place and ask what they learned from the story.

Here are a few popular children's books about diversity to get you started:

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler & David Lee Csicsko

Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne Lang

Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match by Monica Brown

Relationship Skills

13. "Make New Friends" Bingo

"Make New Friends" Bingo is a fun and interactive game for developing social skills, particularly verbal and nonverbal communication.[3] You can play it at the beginning of the school year or anytime you want to have a get-to-know-you activity in class.

To play, make a bingo card with generic traits in each box, like "I have a pet" or "I was born in the summertime." Have your students try to find a different person for each square until they get five in a row. Then, ask each student to share something interesting about themselves that correlates to a box with the class.

14. Team Puzzle Game

Put students into teams of three to five and give each one a jigsaw puzzle to put together. Instruct them that to complete the puzzle, they need to work together as a group. For an added challenge that encourages teamwork, try giving your students a time limit for completing the puzzle.

When students work together, even younger grades can put together complex puzzles. Your students will be amazed by how much they can get done with a little collaboration!

15. Conflict Resolution Read-Along

Helping children resolve conflicts teaches them skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. And, thanks to the timeless lessons they teach, fairy tale read-alongs can help your class get a discussion on conflict resolution skills going.[4]

Choose a beloved fairy tale to read as a class, like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As you read the story to your students, ask them the following questions:

What is this story's main conflict?

What do the main characters want to happen?

How can the characters work together to make everyone happy?

Then, turn the discussion to recent conflicts students have had in their life. Have your children share about times when, like the fairy tale characters, they felt conflict with another person. Ask them how they worked with that person to make the situation better, as well as any advice they have to share with the class.

Why Teach Social Emotional Activities?

Research suggests that the cognitive processes that control social-emotional and intellectual development are interconnected. This means that providing both SEL and academic lessons in class is the best way to help students succeed. Students who attend SEL programs at school are more likely to:

With the five CASEL competencies as a guide, educators can make sure that they're providing effective and well-rounded SEL programs in their classrooms. Use these social and emotional skills activities to give your students the tools they need to thrive in school and everywhere else, too.
Sources:
Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004, July). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57(1), pp. 35-43.[1]

DasGupta, S., & Charon, R. (2004, April). Personal Illness Narratives: Using Reflective Writing to Teach Empathy. Academic Medicine, 79(4), pp. 351-56.[2]

Mascott, A. (2015, August 17). Meet New Friends Bingo Game. Retrieved from scholastic.com: https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/meet-new-friends-bingo-game.html.[3]

The Nemours Foundation. (2016). Personal Health Series: Conflict Resolution. Retrieved from kidshealth.org: https://classroom.kidshealth.org/3to5/personal/growing/conflict_resolution.pdf/.[4]

Hong, S. (2011, March). The Impact of Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions. Child Development, 82 (1), pp. 405-32.[5]

Zins, J. (2016). Social and Emotional Learning. Retrieved from healthyselfesteem.org: http://healthyselfesteem.org/about-self-esteem/social-and-emotional-learning/.[6]

Coholic, D.H. (2011, January 07). Exploring the Feasibility and Benefits of Arts-Based Mindfulness-Based Practices with Young People in Need: Aiming to Improve Aspects of Self-Awareness and Resilience. Child & Youth Care Forum, 40(4), pp. 303-17.[7]

Aber, J. L., Jones, S. M. Brown, J. L. Chaudry, N. & Samples, F. (1998). Resolving Conflict Creatively: Evaluating the Developmental Effects of a School-Based Violence Prevention Program in the Neighborhood and Classroom Context. Development and Psychopathology, 10, pp. 187-213.[8]

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15 Activities for Teaching CASEL Core Competencies

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With these strategies for CASEL competencies as a guide, you can make sure that you're providing effective SEL programs in your school.

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New to SEL? Check out the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

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Social and emotional learning can serve as an organizing principle for coordinating all of a school's academic, youth development, and prevention activities (Shriver & Weissberg, 1996). It provides a common language and coordinating framework for communicating not just about SEL but about a wide range of programs and teaching approaches that schools normally provide (Elias et al., 1997; Devaney et al., 2006).

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Creating a Safe, Supportive Environment for Learning

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Creating a Safe, Supportive Environment for Learning

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"We believe in the power of education to teach nonviolence, promote understanding, endow children with purpose and meaning, and provide the skills and behaviors that can create a more inclusive, healthy, and positive future. This work is vital, perhaps now more than ever."-Karen Niemi, CASEL President & CEO

Creating a safe, supportive environment for social and emotional learning (SEL) has been, and remains, a high priority for CASEL. It is inherent in our focus on integrating SEL into all aspects of school and district practice through a systemic approach.

The environment for learning has become particularly important to educators at a time when young people are experiencing unusual degrees of stress throughout our society. Whether it be the horror of school shootings, the anxiety many children feel about the threat to their families' through the proposed changes in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), or violence, children are deeply affected by these societal pressures.

Research tells us that children and adolescents take their cues from adults. As adults, we set the tone for what is acceptable in our society, and this contributes in powerful ways to the social norms of our schools' culture. One of the pillars of CASEL's approach to SEL implementation is a strong commitment to promoting a positive school climate. For many years we have worked closely with colleagues and organizations with a similar mission-for example, the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments and the National School Climate Center.

We hope all our partners, colleagues, and collaborators, including the families and communities whose support is essential to successful schools, will be part of a renewed effort to bridge the gaps in respect and human relationships in today's world, including peaceful ways to resolve conflicts. We hope you will continually emphasize the importance of accepting and understanding others, recognizing and celebrating individual and cultural differences, and engaging in civil, tolerant dialog even when there's disagreement about specific policies.

For excellent resources on how to teach social and emotional learning and embed it in the culture of your school, we recommend the numerous highly rated SEL programs reviewed and described in our CASEL Guides for both the preschool/elementary level and the secondary level.

We also highly recommend the work of our colleagues in the SEL field, which we share below.

Resources from Our Colleagues and Collaborators
Resources to help children in the wake of a school shooting Other resources
Anti-Defamation League: After Charlottesville-Teaching about Racism, Anti-Semitism and White Supremacy.
ASCD: Resources for Addressing Racism and Hatred in the Classroom. Austin Independent School District, one of our Partner Districts: Video of a town meeting to ease post-election tensions. ChildTrends: Moving Beyond Trauma: Child Migrants and Refugees in the United States.
Committee for Children: Helping Kids Feel Safe and Supported Post-Election. Also: Response to Charlottesville-A Call for Empathy and Inclusion.

CASEL Statement on the Final Report of the Federal Commission on School Safety (Dec. 2018)

We welcome the completion of the School Safety Commission's final report, published on December 18, 2018, with the aim of improving school safety and learning environments for students and staff. As we emphasize in all our work with schools, districts, and states, school safety and a positive, supportive school climate are foundational to social and emotional learning (SEL). Also, when students learn and apply social and emotional skills in their daily interactions, school climate improves and schools become safer. Therefore, we applaud the report's authors for including an emphasis on a "climate of connectedness" in schools, implementing evidence-based social and emotional learning and character education, and increased mental health services. At the same time, we share the concern of many of our colleagues that the report proposes rolling back research-based strategies to address school discipline. As noted in the report, that guidance suggests that even ostensibly "neutral school discipline policies may violate federal law if they have a 'disparate impact' upon members of certain racial groups in rates of suspension, expulsion, or referral to law enforcement." Fortunately, the School Safety Commission leaves the specifics of implementing school safety and school climate policies to the states. As we advance our Collaborating States Initiative work with a majority of states throughout the country to develop and implement SEL policies and practices, we will continue to make equity and social justice a guiding principle to create safe and welcoming environments for all students.

Confident Parents Confident Kids: Expanding the Circle: Teaching Children the Values and Actions of Inclusion. Denver Public Schools. Creating a safe and supportive school district for children and families.
Facing History and Ourselves: How to Move Forward Together After a Divisive Election.
Greater Good: How to Help Diverse Students Find Common Ground. Huffington Post: Supporting Refugee and Immigrant Children.
Learning First Alliance: What Does the 2016 Election Mean for Public Schools? Also: Resources on School Culture.

Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility: Teachable Moments-Debating the Fate of DACA and Discussing Daca. Also: Post-E lection Resources for Teachers.
National PTA: Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit. New York Times: Resources for Teaching and Learning About the Las Vegas Shooting. NPR Education: How teachers and schools can help when bad stuff happens. Open Circle: Helping Children Deal with Traumatic Events.
Psychology Today: The Psychological Toll Facing Immigrants in Today's America.
Sacramento City Unified School District: Safe Haven School District-Protecting Our Students and Families. Sesame Street in Communities: Truamatic Experiences.
Teaching Tolerance (A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center): Begin Within. Also: The Day After.

Always Relevant-the Basics of SEL

If you aren't already well-acquainted with the basic principles and practices of SEL, we encourage you to learn about it in the following specific sections of our website:

Understanding social and emotional learning-"What Is SEL?"
Approaches for school-based implementation of SEL.
How it's done in practice-the work of our Partner Districts.

If you know of other guidance and resources that may be helpful, please share them with us. You can send new resources to info@casel.org.

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Creating a Safe, Supportive Environment for Learning

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"We believe in the power of education to teach nonviolence, promote understanding, endow children with purpose and meaning, and provide the skills and behaviors that can create a more inclusive, healthy, and positive future.

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The Single Most Essential Requirement When Designing a Fall Online Course

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The Single Most Essential Requirement When Designing a Fall Online Course

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Let's start the week by repeating that a summer of planning for better online learning this Fall will be wasted if we do not begin from the premise that our students are learning from a place of dislocation, anxiety, anger, and trauma. So are we.

This is the single essential that must be built into the structure, assignments, thinking about what and how we will teach online in the Fall. Face to face too. Imagine the classroom of students in face masks sitting six feet apart, one part of the brain focused on school, another on parents or partners dying, on an uncertain future, on a crashing economy.

Trauma is not an add on. From everything we know about learning, if the trauma is not addressed, accounted for, and built into the course design, we fail. Our students fail. None of us needs another failure.

This means thinking about access in all its dimensions: technological, intellectual, personal, financial, medical, educational. And cognitive. Distraction is the single biggest deterrent to learning. Physical and emotional distress are the single biggest causes of distraction we have. Period.

In considering what we assign and how, it means we might, at least as a metaphor, think of the complex of trauma and anxiety as a cognitive burden comparable to a full-time job. We should be building our courses around the reality our students are carrying that emotional workload (even if they are partying, pretending they are invisible, not caring about their future: don't believe that for a second). Again, so are we.

We need to build our courses thinking about empowerment and agency, desinging ways for students to interact with one another and with us. We need to think about meaningful activities beyond the screen that extend the lessons of the course, building in ways students can be co-teachers as well as co-learners, actively contributing to the course. We need to think about what we all can offer one another--curiosity, imagination, knowledge, power--as antidotes to the present disruption and trauma, as tools towards building a future.

As educators, we offer ways that help students not just learn content but also how to have a pathway towards accomplishment. We can encourage them not just to learn from us, as experts, but support them in the process of learning how to become experts. That's an excellent tool to have in the face of uncertainty.

I've learned of someone at Adelphi University who teaches video editing including to several students with cognitive differences. Now, online and sheltered during a time of COVID, he has pivoted so his students are filming what exciting things and ways they see anew in their restricted and socially distanced lives--on walks alone on formerly busy city streets; or talking to grandparents they live with; or video'ing the different forms of friendship that blossom on Zoom. They are making interesting films and also they have a tool for coping with the new social distancing constraints of their lives.

I know political scientists whose students are modeling fall voting patterns and coming up with positive (nonpartisan) ways to get out the vote, despite sheltering. Or safe ways to stand in line at polling places. This gives students agency. In a COVID world, we all need agency.

I know a lit and history prof, Steven Berg at Schoolcraft Community College, who begins his early American culture class with the 1793 Yellow Fever plague in Philadelphia. History helps us understand the present and feel a little more optimistic that there will be a future too.

I know an urban planner who has challenged students to reimagine urban space in the short and long run, from outside seating at entertainment venues to rent control and subsidized housing to redress gross inequities that existed in NYC long before COVID-19.

I know a critical learning theorist (i.e. me) who invited students, after reading extensively in Indigenous and decolonial pedagogy, to collaboratively write the course "learning outcomes" for remote learning during a global health crisis.

A distinguished professor of African American literature, Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin of Columbia, maintained a sense of community in her large lecture class by asking them to write one or two sentences online in answer to profound questions such as: What one book from class would you want to take with you? 2. What, if anything, from your old life do you want to leave behind?" [See "Comments" below for all the questions]

And we all know artists and writers and performers putting their own creativity out there online for free. Students as consumers and makers of all the arts provide an ideal antidote to isolation and anxiety. A little joy is a wonderful "learning outcome" to build into a class design.

There is almost no field untouched by this COVID pandemic or irrelevant to it. I do not mean we all have to suddenly become trauma therapists. That's dangerous (unless we are trained to that role). And it doesn't mean making every class "about" the pandemic (that would be awful). It means being sensitive to the devastating historical moment in which we are now living.
Before we even think about a syllabus or videos or Zoom, think about what it means to be a student. Now.
First, what defines higher education, more than any other feature, is that it is voluntary. No law forces you to be in school. Your parents may want you to be but, if you are over 18, they can't force you. Humans are terrible at voluntary activities that are good for us (our gym is based on a business model of 80% of annual, paid members not showing up after Feb 1).

Add to the difficulty of volunteerism the pressure of trauma, anxiety, illness, economic hardship, and dislocation. Think about attending college without the social enhancements that help support students in schools. I predict that, with an abolition of extracurricular activities, even the wealthiest, most elite private residential schools will soon be seeing higher drop out rates, some perhaps even comparable to public commuter schools (where students face such pressures all the time--and now exponentially so).

Before we begin to design our fall syllabus, before we make clever instructional videos, we all need to think from a student's point of view. We need to try to understand what it means to be studying for a future you don't know that you will have. No one knows what lies ahead in the best of times. Now, all the predictions seem like some dystopian futuristic novel. Total social breakdown? Total economic collapse? A health emergency in which millions die over the next three or four years? How do you study to prepare for this future?

What do our students need now? That is the essential question for going on line. Whether teaching algebraic geometry or sociology or literature or art or religion, we need to begin with the question of: what would I need if I were a student in this historic moment? A great place to start? Ask them!

Asking that question also turns it: what do I know that will be most of value to my students now? What have students learned that they can share? Maybe it is a study skill, a focus trick, a way we have discovered meaning amid uncertainty that we can pass on. Perhaps it is "meta reflection" (the single best way to ensure retention and applicability apart from applying, experientially, what we learn): have students think, talk, communicate with one another, about what they learned in class today or last week and what it meant for them.

Or, even with videos and other asynchronous learning, reduce some of the homework while adding a component: ask your students to apply what they learned in class today to some aspect of their life and write a 25 or 50-word "report back" on a course blog or other secure course site on what they did and how it worked out. This is far better for learning than studying for a test. The report-back helps students communicate with others, see their work in school as relevant and meaningful to their disrupted lives, and lends a sense of community when that is exactly what this pandemic has shattered. It helps them realize why they are in school, why it is worth it to make the effort.

Whatever you are feeling and experiencing, it's likely your students are too--and probably in a greater degree. If you, as a professor, are having a hard time concentrating, being productive, think about a student just beginning the way to mastery who suddenly has to stay focused on a field, a subject, that seems utterly tangential to their traumatized lives, at home, with parents, no job, internship canceled, paying tuition for a bunch of idiotic videos, etc etc.

Adjust accordingly. We need to be human first, professor second. We need to design as humans for humans in a global crisis. We need to design our courses with the awareness of pain, dislocation, uncertainty, and trauma now central to all our lives. It's a lot to ask. It is the one and only essential as we design our courses for this disrupted fall.

Beginning by addressing students where they are now, in Fall 2020, at this historical moment, means providing a space and structure where they can think powerfully about themselves and the world beyond Fall 2020, beyond this plague, beyond trauma. It does what the best education is designed to do: it offers students a tool that helps them be stronger in the present and build towards their own and society's better future.

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The Single Most Essential Requirement in Designing a Fall Online Course

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Let's start the week by repeating that a summer of planning for better online learning this Fall will be wasted if we do not begin from the premise that our students are learning from a place of dislocation, anxiety, anger, and trauma. So are we.

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Free online circles for educators and other resources.

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To build a healthy community we must turn toward one another, as we do when we gather together in a circle. Circle ways come from people who lived close to the earth and the cycles of life, who knew something many of us forget-that we belong to each other. No one is expendable, least of all our children. We gathered in circles to dance and to drum, to celebrate and grieve, to share stories, make decisions, govern, dream, do justice...and more.

At Circle Ways we are part of the remembering and the continuing of these ancient ways and of their practice and development in schools. With more than 30 years of experience in public, private, and parochial schools, Circle Ways provides training, coaching, facilitation, materials, and other support to help schools implement circle practices, including: way of council, restorative justice, and nature connections.

Circle practice is not an add-on program requiring additional time in the school day, but a pedagogy that shifts the way we interact and learn. With Circle Ways' support, educators and administrators bring this shift to the academic curriculum, social-emotional skill building, and student-directed curriculum, as well as in the engagement of staff, students, parents, and community members in the art of collaboration.

Read about our offerings on this website. Contact Us with your inquiries or comments. Scroll to the bottom of this page to subscribe to our email list so we can keep you informed about our events and happenings.

Register for one of our Upcoming Public Workshops, our free monthly Educators Circle (last Wednesday of the month) , or come for a free sample of council at a Friday happy hour-and-a-half Circle Ways Taster. We look forward to being with you in the circle.

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To build a healthy community we must turn toward one another, as we do when we gather together in a circle. Circle ways come from people who lived close to the earth and the cycles of life, who knew something many of us forget-that we belong to each other.

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Want support with circle? Here are a few folks who would happy to help!

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Tk-12

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The goal of this website is to collect and share resources for families, students, and educators in response to protests across the country calling for justice after the death of George Floyd. We hope these resources will be helpful in guiding important and difficult conversations about racism and social inequities. This site is a living document, and we will strive to continuously update it. If you have a concern, a suggestion, or a resource you'd like to share, please email GreatIdeas@venturausd.orgor go to the Thank you for your support, and we are honored to be learning alongside you as we engage in this crucial work.

1. Open a search engine and go toYou don't need a Google account to access it; it's free for everyone.

2. In the text box on the left, type the full URL (including of the website you want to view.

3. On the right, choose the language in which you want to view the website.

4. Click "Translate". Click on the new link on the right, and enjoy!

...............................................................................................................

La meta de este sitio es a colectar y compartir recursos para familias, estudiantes, y educadores en respuesta de las protestas en todo el país pidiendo justicia después de el muerte de George Floyd. Esperamos que estos recursos sean útiles para guir conversaciones importantes y difíciles sobre el racismo y las desigualdades sociales. El sitio está cambiando, y vamos a intentar a actualizarlo continuamente. Si tiene una preocupación, una sugerencia, o un recurso que quiere compartir, favor de mandar un correo electrónico a GreatIdeas@venturausd.org o va a la . Gracias por su apoyo, y estamos honorados a aprender con ustedes cuando hacemos este trabajo importante.

2. En la casilla de texto a la izquierda, escribe el URL completo (incluyendo el del sitio web que quiere ver.

3. A la derecha, elige el idioma en que quiere ver el sitio web.

4. Haz clic en "Translate" (traducir). Haz clic el nuevo link a la derecha, y ¡disfrute! ​

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The goal of this website is to collect and share resources for families, students, and educators in response to protests across the country calling for justice after the death of George Floyd. We hope these resources will be helpful in guiding important and difficult conversations about racism and social inequities.

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AVID - Time Management - Upper Elementary, Secondary

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CASEL

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SEL Integrated Lesson Planning Checklist

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This tool helps teachers identify where within lesson plans SEL practices are already present, or where they might be included.

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Teaching the Whole Child - Teaching Practices that Promote SEL Competencies

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Teaching the Whole Child - Teaching Practices that Promote SEL Competencies

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American Institutes for Research
Note: See Page 10

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AVID - Organization - Upper Elementary, Secondary

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Kahn Academy - Goal Setting - Upper Elementary, Secondary

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- [Narrator] Welcome back. So we've learned that it's important to keep working through your frustrations by using the right learning strategies. The more you work through your frustration, the more your brain grows, right. But it can be difficult to work through that frustration without a clear direction. That's why it's important to make smart goals. It's an acronym. It goes like this. Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, timely. Because look, you can wish all you want and say one day I'm gonna go to the moon. And you can want that like your life depended on it. But a wish is not a goal. An example of a moon plan that consists of smart goals would go something like this. In 20 years, I will have studied enough physics and chemistry, flown jet planes in the Air Force, worked out four times a week, and gotten a job as a astronaut for NASA. And this will enable me to fly a spacecraft to the moon and put my feet on it for science reasons. Specific. Put your feet on the moon. Measurable. Are your feet touching the surface of the moon? Actionable. It is actionable, that is to say doable, to study physics and chemistry, enlist in the Air Force, and go to the gym. Realistic. It's hard, but it's not impossible to become an astronaut. Timely, here's where more realism kicks in. You won't be able to go to the moon as an astronaut overnight. 20 years seems a little more reasonable. But let's take this back to a more sensible time scale and look at our friend, Thinky Pinky. Hey buddy. TP here is interested in pull ups, wants to be able to lift their entire mass with just the arms, this one. But pull ups are hard. So let's take a look at Thinky Pinky's reflection journal. Quote, I want to be able to do two consecutive pull ups by the end of the year by practicing pull ups at the gym three times per week. Why is this a smart goal? S is for specific. TP wants to work on pull ups. And they're not interested in biking or weight training. There's one skill that Thinky Pinky wants to work on and that's pull ups. M is for measurable. What's the metric for TP's success? Two in a row. Two pull ups, one right after the other. You've either done it or you haven't. Measurable. A is for actionable. Can it be broken down into individual tasks. Yeah. Go into the gym three times a week to practice feels very actionable indeed. R is for realistic. TP's not training to lift a car. Just some pull ups. T is for timely. There's a time limit on this. Thinky Pinky wants to do this in a year's time. All together, that's smart goal you got there, TP. With the power of persistence, smart goals, and the right kind of help, you can do anything you set your mind to. You can learn anything. Happy goal setting.

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SMART goalsWe want to set ourselves up for success by creating the right type of goal. Good goals are SMART: S for specific. A goal should be linked to one activity, thought, or idea. M for measurable. A goal should be something you can track and measure progress toward.

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University of San Diego - Goal Setting - Upper Elementary, Secondary

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PearDeck - Ideas for Check-ins

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(SEL) Social Emotional Learning  Secondary

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Stress Management

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Activities for Self-Care and Self-Awareness

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Activities for Self-Care and Self-Awareness

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Secondary - Bilingual

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Secondary - Bilingual

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EQ in your PJ: Managing Stress Part 1 (Find a clue to use in Part 2)

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Navigating Relationships in Tight Quarters

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Navigating Relationships in Tight Quarters

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Secondary, Bilingual

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EQ in your PJs: Understanding Group Dynamics Part 1 (Find a clue to use in Part 2) / Cociente Emocional en sus pijamas: Comprender La Dinámica de Grupo Parte 1 (encuentra una pista para usar en la parte 2)

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Stress Management - Secondary

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Sometimes life can be stressful or overwhelming. This is a virtual calming room to help students and staff use strategies to overcome those difficulties. Here are some new ways to help you find new ways to manage life and emotions.

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Here at Lemonwood School we know that these current times may be challenging. Change occurred in everyone's life from one day to the next. You may be feeling scared, confused, lonely, numb, angry, grateful, or calm. Your resilience and determination in getting through these times is admirable.

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Routines - Elementary

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Tk-12

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Identifying Emotions Activities and Resources

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Upper Elementary, Secondary

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Importance of Self-Efficacy Animation Video

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For educators Tk-12

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Transforming Education

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TransformEd partners with school systems to support educators in fostering the development of the whole child so that all students, particularly those from underserved populations, can thrive.

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TransformEd partners with school systems to support educators in fostering the development of the whole child so that all students, particularly those from underserved populations, can thrive. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest information, best practices, and

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Heart-Mind Online is for all those who are searching for evidenced-informed resources that educate the hearts of children. The collection of resources builds capacity in individuals and communities to support the Heart-Mind well-being of children, and promotes their positive social and emotional development. This website was developed by the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.

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Self-Efficacy: How to Foster in Children

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Self-Efficacy: How to Foster in Children

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Stress Management, k-12

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5 Ways to Teach Students Respectful Disagreement

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5 Ways to Teach Students Respectful Disagreement

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Secondary

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One of the most important things I teach my students is respectful disagreement - how we should engage-not dismiss-the people who disagree with us.

This is a lesson that is easy to get up and teach, but is much more difficult to live out. Disagreeing respectfully with others, especially on issues we're passionate about, isn't easy. Disagreeing respectfully requires time. It requires patience. It requires creativity. It requires looking inward, not just outward.

Here are some tips on teaching students how to disagree respectfully. It's one of my favorite concepts to teach. It's highly engaging for students and helps contribute to a warm and stimulating classroom environment.

1. Teach logical fallacies and how to avoid them.

We don't have to look far for examples of logical fallacies in this political climate-examples of ad hominem and red herrings are everywhere. A great place for students to start is looking for logical fallacies in advertising with this lesson plan from readwritethink.org. It's for 9-12 th graders, but can easily be adapted for middle school.

2. Teach students about reliable sources, including how to cite them and evaluate the sources used by others.

Most teachers know about the Stanford University study revealing the disturbing truth that 80% of secondary students couldn't distinguish between real news and sponsored content, so make media literacy a part of your curriculum if it isn't already. There are a ton of resources out there on the topic of reliable sources, but I particularly like the questions listed with number 4 in this article on evaluating the quality of online info.

3. Set an example for students in the way you handle disagreement and conflict.

How do you respond-verbally and non-verbally-when a student corrects you? When, during class, you realize that the person who volunteered to make copies for you forgot to make them double-sided? Your students are watching you all the time, and your responses-whether you smile and respond creatively or roll your eyes and say something dismissive-speak volumes about the way to handle conflict with others.

Equally important is acknowledging when you miss the mark. I am far from having perfected the art of respectful disagreement, so when I mess up in front of students, I make sure to apologize and point out where I went wrong.

4. Give students the words.

The actual language of respectful disagreement is incredibly important. Create a list of sentence stems for students to use while practicing disagreement. Here are some examples:

"I want to understand your point of view better. Can you explain to me why you feel this way?"

"I see your point. However..."

"I disagree, but would like to know more about your point of view."

"I can tell this is an issue you're passionate about. Can you tell me about how you arrived at this viewpoint?"

"Since I've listened to your point of view, can I tell you more about what I believe?"

I start by having my students "debate" on which pizza toppings are best. It's so fun to hear them say things like, "While I don't personally support olives being on pizzas, I'd like to hear more about why you like them. Do you prefer green or black?"

5. Teach students empathy so they learn to seek out the compelling underlying reasons WHY another person may think differently.

And there are always compelling reasons. Many times, the deepest, sometimes hidden reason behind someone's viewpoint is fear-of safety, of freedom, of being able to provide, of inadequacy. And aren't those things we all fear? When we teach students that there is ALWAYS common ground between them and those with whom they disagree, we may be teaching them the most important lesson of their lives.

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5 Ways to Teach Students Respectful Disagreement - WeAreTeachers

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One of the most important things I teach my students is respectful disagreement - how we should engage-not dismiss-the people who disagree with us. This is a lesson that is easy to get up and teach, but is much more difficult to live out. Disagreeing respectfully with others, especially on issues we're passionate about, isn't easy.

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Brené Brown

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Perspective Taking, Respect for Others - Secondary

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When?

During and after reading

Why?

The world looks different depending on who and where you are, and students need practice understanding multiple points of view. The study of texts that reflect their own identities, experiences and motivations (mirrors) and also provide insight into the identities, experiences and motivations of others (windows) can move students toward more nuanced perceptions of the world around them.

How?

Before you begin

1. Read Emily Style's essay "Curriculum as Window and Mirror."

2. Sign up for a free account on polleverywhere.com. (With the free account, polls process up to 25 responses.)

3. Create a poll asking, "Is this text a window or a mirror for you?" Provide two answer choices: window and mirror. Note: polleverywhere can receive responses via text message or through a tablet or computer.

4. Choose a text to use with your students. Read the text and highlight sections that could be a window or a mirror for your students.

With students

1. Introduce students to the theory of windows and mirrors.

2. Share the text. Read the author and title. If necessary, have students conduct research about the identities of the author(s) and the background of the text. Alternately, provide that information for students.

3. Have students compare the author's identity groups to their own identity groups (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, class, ability, religion). What identities are shared? What identities are not shared?

4. Read the full text. Re-read the text if necessary.

5. Assess students' understanding of the text. Require students to cite textual evidence in order to demonstrate their understanding of the text's central message.

6. Ask students to take out their cellphone or device to participate in the real-time poll.

7. Display polleverywhere question with directions for voting. If possible, project the poll for the whole class to see. If projection is not an option, write the directions on the board.

8. Read one of the preselected excerpts of the text aloud to students.

9. Ask students to consider if the text excerpt offers a window or a mirror for them, make their selection and vote.

10. Announce the poll results to the class. Display them if possible.

11. Use the following questions to discuss poll results.

Why was this a mirror for you? Use text-based evidence to explain.

Why was this a window for you? Use text-based evidence to explain.

12. Conclude by having students discuss how the text-based evidence relates to the text as a whole.

English language learners

Excerpting the text will help English language learners isolate a smaller portion of the text and increase their comprehension. Highlight the excerpted section of the text ahead of time for ELL students. Chunking the text in this way can aid their understanding and increase their participation.

Connection to anti-bias education

Text as Window and Mirror incorporates identity and diversity domains of Teaching Tolerance's Anti-bias Framework. Seeing their identities mirrored in texts can foster positive social identity development in students by increasing their pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem, and recognizing traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures (Identity). Viewing a text as a window allows students to explore the lived experiences of others, building empathy and understanding while examining diversity in social, cultural, political and historical contexts (Diversity).

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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The SEL Collection

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Newsela + Pear Deck Templates: Social-Emotional Learning

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Reflection

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PBIS World

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We learn from reflecting on experiences, good and bad. A Reflection Sheet is a very effective tool to use when a student is displaying unacceptable or acceptable behaviors and can be used in conjunction with the Class Rules.

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Edutopia

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Scaffolding Student Reflections + Sample Questions

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Scaffolding Student Reflections + Sample Questions

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Rusul Airubail - Edutopia

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Scaffolding Student Reflections + Sample Questions

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Scaffolding Student Reflections + Sample Questions

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PBS

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Responsible Decision-Making | Social-Emotional Learning | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn ways to teach children to make responsible decisions by developing the ability to think through all parts of a problem, analyzing a situation, understanding its ethical implications, and evaluating the consequences.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances the ability to communicate and connect with a range of people in healthy ways. In this section of the SEL Toolkit, we link to strategies and resources that will help youth work professionals teach relationship skills.

Model and Promote Positive Communication Skills

Active Listening and Feedback

These handouts were designed to help youth work professionals model and explain positive communication skills.

Active Listening

Positive and Constructive Feedback

The U.S. Department of State "Diplomacy in Action" site includes a helpful page describing the positive use of "I" messages.

Web Page

Teaching Resources for Youth Educators - A Source Book

Created by Wisconsin 4-H Youth Development, this collection of teaching materials includes activities, games, exercises, handouts, and worksheets that deal with interpersonal communication skills, relationships, conflict resolution, and public speaking.

Manual

Communications Toolkit

Created by Michigan 4-H Youth Development, this toolkit provides activities to engage young people in creative expression and communication activities using different media.

Manual

Communication Skills

This Advocates for Youth lesson plan uses role plays to teach communication skills.

Lesson Plan

Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning

This manual from the John W. Gardner Center includes many exercises aimed at building communication and social skills.

Manual

Teach Social Skills

101 Ways to Teach Children Social Skills

This free book by Lawrence E. Shapiro includes strategies for teaching social skills to children, particularly those with social problems.

Activities

Use Group Learning Strategies

Collaborative Learning

This handout includes collaborative learning activities and tips.

Activities and Tips

Jim Cain's Raccoon Circles

This collection of team-building activities is for both small and large groups. Many of the activities are intended to be done outdoors.

Activities

Group-Games.com

This is a database of free group games, icebreakers, and team-building activities.

Activities

Youth Adult Partnership Manual

This Innovation Center manual offers activities for youth and adults, both separately and jointly, in preparation for working together.

Manual

Teach Conflict Resolution Skills

Six Steps to Solving Problems

The Raising Children Network describes six steps for working with a young person in order to reach a solution together.

Web Page

Consensus - Action Planning

This handout describes an inclusive process for group planning.

Planning Process

Out on a Limb: A Guide to Getting Along

Developed by University of Illinois Extension, this interactive site teaches children conflict resolution skills. A teachers' guide is included.

Website

Research

Assessing Peer Conflict and Aggressive Behavior

This Child Trends brief discusses peer conflict and aggressive behaviors, ways to reduce these behaviors, and assessment.

Research Brief

What Works for Promoting and Enhancing Positive Social Skills

This Child Trends literature review of 38 programs identifies practices that work, or do not work, to promote positive social skills.

Research Brief

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances the ability to communicate and connect with a range of people in healthy ways. In this section of the SEL Toolkit, we link to strategies and resources that will help youth work professionals teach relationship skills.

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Welcome to The No-Fault Zone® - where you can transform communication challenges in your family, school, and business, and within yourself. We offer effective Communication Solutions and The No-Fault Zone Game -
a break-through communication tool making conversations, problem solving, and conflict resolution easy, effective, and fun for all. Colorful No-Fault Zone Game mats and card decks make visible the stages of the communication process and help you track your path to mutual clarity and understanding. The No-Fault Zone Game levels the playing field for ages 5-95. View our new video and hear what people are saying about the Game...

Visit us on

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conflict resolution skills. conflict resolution training

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Welcome to The No-Fault Zone® - where you can transform communication challenges in your family, school, and business, and within yourself. We offer effective Communication Solutions and The No-Fault Zone Game - a break-through communication tool making conversations, problem solving, and conflict resolution easy, effective, and fun for all.

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Affirmation Cards for Kids – Centervention®

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Self affirmations are a great way to help build self esteem and overcome doubts. Instead of listening to the voice in our head saying “I can’t,” we focus on words that create a positive mindset and the confidence to keep trying. Helping our students to pay attention to their inner voice and concent…

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How to Teach Relationship Skills Grades 7-12

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How to Teach Relationship Skills Grades 7-12

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Positive friendships are critical to students' mental health. But being a good friend is easier said than done.

Share the article " How to Be a Good Friend" with your students to show them how they can be a supportive and thoughtful companion.

This fun text features three tricky friendship scenarios, three rules for friendship and tips on coping when a friend does something hurtful.

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How to Teach Relationship Skills | SEL Tool Kit

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Positive friendships are critical to students' mental health. But being a good friend is easier said than done. Share the article " How to Be a Good Friend" with your students to show them how they can be a supportive and thoughtful companion.

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Road Map - High School to College (English)

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Road Map - High School to College (English)

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Sonoma County Office of Education

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Road Map - High School to College (Spanish)

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Road Map - High School to College (Spanish)

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Sonoma County Office of Education

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College and Career Readiness: Roadmap to Success (Long and Short Term Goal Planning)

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College and Career Readiness: Roadmap to Success (Long and Short Term Goal Planning)

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Includes Lesson Plans and Student Handouts

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Guide to Equity and Antiracism for Educators

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Guide to Equity and Antiracism for Educators

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Teachers shaken by recent events and wondering how to work for change in our society and schools can start with these lesson plans, videos, and other resources.

John Minchillo / Associated Press

Protesting the killing of George Floyd, a crowd gathers for a rally at Cadman Plaza Park in New York City on June 4, 2020.

"I'm a White educator, where do I start?"

"How can I help?"

"What if I get it wrong?"

Recent events have shaken me to my core, and the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd suggest that people across the country are similarly shaken. These are dark times, but if there's anything that seems like a glimmer of light to me at the moment, it's the fact that so many teachers are reflecting on how to fight racism:

For me, a Black educator and mother to a Black 16-year-old who has reached the appearance if not the legal age of manhood, these questions stir hope. Folks who don't look like me are embracing the idea that the fight for equity has to be everyone's fight. But fighting racism is a big job, and when the fires of outrage cool, we teachers will be confronted with the reality of planning deadlines, testing schedules, and another hundred things that are all in a day's work. The difficult work of equity may become just another item on a desk crowded with to-do lists.

What Can Teachers Do?

The answer, an old joke: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course-and achieving equity is no different. Take small bites that can have big impact and don't worry about getting it wrong sometimes, as you inevitably will. If you keep going, you can do something that brings about change.

Reading: Even if you only have 10 minutes, you can learn something to help you create a more equitable classroom. Websites like Teaching Tolerance, the NEA's EdJustice, and KQED's Mindshift feature resources for lesson planning as well as lessons for you as a teacher. Teaching Tolerance is the perfect place to start, whether you want to use bias-free language to teach tolerance through reading with young learners or plan a social action campaign with high school students.

In addition to a rich collection of K-12 classroom resources, the website features self-guided PD, on-demand webinars, and podcasts that may enable you to earn a certificate-check with your administration first. Those can easily be broken up into small chunks of time. And note that many of the site's feature articles list recommended actions at the bottom.

If your goal is to understand the Black community better, sites designed for Black audiences like The Root, The Undefeated, and Huffington Post's Black Voices are good places to start. These non-mainstream media outlets feature content by minority and minority-supporting journalists. You'll find content on topics not covered in mainstream media, like coverage of historically Black colleges and universities, news about Black brands and influencers, and stories like this one on MIT's first Black female student body president in its 159-year history. If you're teaching Black children who are generally inundated by media that does not reflect them, these are priceless ways you can enrich your current events and show-and-tell circles.

Watching: You can improve your cultural competence and learn about Black Lives Matter by watching " 4 Black Lives Matter Myths Debunked" on YouTube, which will answer quite a few questions on social justice issues, probably including some you didn't even know you had. And if you want help in having real discussions on complex issues with young children, the YouTube show LivingRoomProtest will lead you through conversations on being Black, politics, pride, and even death and the afterlife-try the episode " Education Is a Human Right " for starters.

If you want entertainment with a cultural component, Netflix has a host of shows that cater to a Black audience, as well as original content that regularly features diverse character lineups. Hulu has not only a small curated selection of Black Stories but also six seasons of the binge-worthy, socially conscious Black-ish and its spin-off prequel Mixed-ish. While Black-ish might be a little campy, it tackles real issues surrounding racism, bias, and social justice issues that arise within the Black community.

Taking action: For the civic-minded, the Kellogg Foundation has put together a website that lets you create your own personal plan to support, donate, or volunteer in the way you find most relevant. This site can help you focus your attention on one or two civic tasks with broader impact.

Social action is also a great way to involve students, which multiplies your impact. You can teach students how to write emails or letters by asking them to write to your local government in favor of policy changes banning the eight most deadly policing strategies listed at 8 Can't Wait, which has ideas on how to call or email your government yourself-there's a script you can use or adapt.

Looking within: Finally, and perhaps most importantly, take inventory of your feelings. It's normal to be most comfortable around people who are like you. It's just not good when that makes you and those like you an "us" and those who aren't like you a "them." Use a journal to sort through your personal feelings on racism or read books that provide perspective on systemic inequities and bias. These long-haul strategies will produce change in you while you take more immediate action in other ways.

The devastating events of the last days have left me shaken. I have felt anger, fear, grief-so many emotions. But I have also felt buoyed by the great outpouring of support from my less melanated colleagues who want to listen, learn, and find out how to do better. So many of them are already doing amazing things with diverse students. This piece is dedicated to them. They give me hope that this time, we will fight racism together and bring about lasting change.

Don't stop now. How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time.

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A Guide to Equity and Antiracism for Educators

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Teachers shaken by recent events and wondering how to work for change in our society and schools can start with these lesson plans, videos, and other resources. John Minchillo / Associated Press Protesting the killing of George Floyd, a crowd gathers for a rally at Cadman Plaza Park in New York City on June 4, 2020.

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Teaching Tolerance

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Skip to main content

A Framework for Anti-Bias Education

The Social Justice Standards are a road map for anti-bias education at every stage of K-12 instruction. Comprised of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes, the standards provide a common language and organizational structure educators can use to guide curriculum development and make schools more just and equitable.

Divided into four domains-identity, diversity, justice and action (IDJA)-the standards recognize that, in today's diverse classrooms, students need knowledge and skills related to both prejudice-reduction and collective action. Together, these domains represent a continuum of engagement in anti-bias, multicultural and social justice education. The IDJA domains are based on Louise Derman-Sparks' four goals for anti-bias education in early childhood.

Each of the IDJA domains has learning outcomes and school-based scenarios organized by grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

Download the Standards

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The Social Justice Standards are a road map for anti-bias education at every stage of K-12 instruction, providing a common language and organizational structure educators can use to guide curriculum development and make schools more just and equitable.

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Elementary

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Secondary

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Tk-12

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Bouncing Back From Challenges / Recuperándose de los desafíos

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Bouncing Back From Challenges / Recuperándose de los desafíos

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Subtítulos en español: Para subtítulos en español, haga clic en un enlace de vídeo en la sección "Enlaces de vídeo" y luego elija el botón "Configuración" y luego elija "Subtítulos/CC" y, a continuación, elija "Traducción-Automática" y, a continuación, elija "Español" o "Spanish."

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Subtítulos en español: Para subtítulos en español, haga clic en un enlace de vídeo en la sección "Enlaces de vídeo" y luego elija el botón "Configuración" y luego elija "Subtítulos/CC" y, a continuación, elija "Traducción-Automática" y, a continuación, elija "Español" o "Spanish."

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Lost at Sea - Working Together to Make Responsible Decisions (Teambuilding and Communication, too)

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Lost at Sea - Working Together to Make Responsible Decisions (Teambuilding and Communication, too)

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Secondary

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EQ in your PJs: School From Home Part 1 (Find a clue to use in Part 2) / Cociente Emocional en sus pijamas: Aprendesaje en casa con exito Parte 1 (encuentra una pista para usar en la parte 2)

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Middle School

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AMLE - Association for Middle Level Education

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The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) emphasizes the importance of creating a successful school for young adolescents that is inviting, supportive, safe, and joyful in order to support students' emotional well-being. As a middle level teacher educator, it has become apparent that teaching future educators the power of leading the restorative practice of community circles in the middle school classroom is just one powerful way to build healthy relationships in a classroom community. Further, as a Professional Development School (PDS) liaison who actively observes community circles in practice and who leads community circles with my own middle school teacher candidates, I can attest to the power of the community circle.

In this article, I offer just one encounter with a community circle to show its positive effect on relationships in the classroom. I have constructed a scenario that demonstrates the structure and power of community circles and that is set in a fictitious classroom. In closing, I provide two more community circle questions and the healthy community and relationship building skills that can potentially result for any practitioner who is willing to implement community circles in their own classroom.

It is a Monday morning in October. A group of chatty, eighth grade students walk into Mrs. Silverman's classroom. Several students are already in the room. Jon and Bryan are two of those students. They do not get along. They are like oil and water. If you ask their peers, they'll confirm it. A friction follows the boys throughout their day and they are in several of the same classes together.

Like many of their peers, Jon and Bryan were best friends once upon a time when they entered sixth grade just two years ago, but have since grown apart. Jon has found friends with others who love music as much as he does, and he can be found practicing with his band every chance he gets. Bryan has exceled on the soccer field. He is everyone's first pick in gym and he is the team captain of several intermural sports.

As the bell rings, the students promptly place their backpacks by their desks and move their chairs into a large circle, large enough to seat 21 students. It is a quick movement. What may appear as chaos at first glance is, in reality, a well-orchestrated set of motions that have been rehearsed time and time again. Jon and Bryan pull chairs on opposite sides of the circle and take a seat.

Students are very aware of Mrs. Silverman's classroom expectations and routines. Monday morning circles are one of those. "Good Morning everyone," says Mrs. Silverman. "Good Morning Mrs. Silverman," chirps a chorus of students. Mrs. Silverman continues, "Today I'd like to open our community circle by asking: What is something we are excited about concerning our upcoming eighth grade team talent show on Friday night?" Mrs. Silverman passes the talking piece, a hot pink and blue squishy ball, to her right. The circle begins.

Enter Restorative Practices

What Bryan and Jon, as well as the other students in Mrs. Silverman's class, do not realize is that the community circle question Mrs. Silverman posed to the class this Monday morning has been crafted with intention. Mrs. Silverman knows that Jon and Bryan do not get along and she knows that recently there has been a particular tension between the two. But she also knows that her eighth grade team of teachers and students have been working hard on their upcoming talent show for the school. She knows the students are excited for this event, and despite their different talents, Mrs. Silverman has a feeling that both Jon and Bryan are excited to highlight theirs this Friday night at the talent show.

Why does this matter? Because as the community circle unfolds, each student shares why they are excited for the talent show. Jon happens to receive the talking piece first because he is seated to the right of Mrs. Silverman. When he does, Jon says he's excited about showing off his talent for performing the most consecutive knee juggles of a soccer ball on stage. As she listens to Jon, Mrs. Silverman looks across the circle at Bryan. She observes him give a quick glance across the circle at Jon and smile. A small moment, but an important one. Because after Jon contributes, the talking piece is passed to his right and to the next student's right until it reaches Bryan who also shares his excitement, but for playing a drum solo with his band. Again, Mrs. Silverman looks out, but this time at Jon who she notices has also looked across the circle and has nodded in acknowledgment of his old friend.

So what's the big deal? It's just one question. But is it? There is power in the restorative practice of community circles that Mrs. Silverman has led with her class this Monday morning. She understands that Jon and Bryan are struggling in their relationship, and that perhaps others are experiencing social struggles. After all, they are young adolescents. By creating a question that results in the exchange of common feelings, individuals who think they no longer have anything in common might just realize that they aren't such polar opposites after all. Will this result in Jon and Bryan becoming best friends again? Probably not. However, the tension that exists between the two might be relieved as a result of one community circle.

The students in Mrs. Silverman's classes enter her room with a sense of calm and safety. They know that they will start their day in a space that invites them to express their feelings, and that their voices will be received with respect from the entire classroom community. Mrs. Silverman has built a healthy and safe community by implementing the restorative practice of community circles.

A Closer Look

At a conference I attended on the topic of Restorative Practices (RP), the facilitator mentioned that teachers don't have classroom management problems. They have community relationship problems. What occurred in Mrs. Silverman's classrooms is the restorative practice of community circles. According to Ted Wachtel, the International Institute for Restorative Practices founder and president (2013), "the use of restorative practices helps to: reduce crime, violence and bullying; improve human behavior; strengthen civil society; provide effective leadership; restore relationships; and repair harm" (p. 1). There are many specific ways to address the proactive, community building piece of restorative practices. Community Circles is one of them.

Community circles build communities of trust and respect. The power of community circles is that they offer students the opportunity to express themselves. As a result, students are able to identify with their peers. Community circles highlight common successes and struggles that students are experiencing. Empathy often results. Wachtel (2013) suggests that "circles give people an opportunity to speak and listen to one another in an atmosphere of safety, decorum and equality" (p. 8).

There are also important implications for teachers. Community circles provide teachers a window into the social, emotional, and academic needs of their students that they otherwise may not learn. Teachers can use this data to build lessons that respond to the needs of the community expressed in the circle. By creating time each week or even daily to come together in community circles, many important social-emotional building skills are learned and healthy, respectful classroom communities result.

Consider the healthy community that Mrs. Silverman has built by implementing community circles. In figure 1, find two additional community circle questions teachers of young adolescents can implement in their classrooms and the lessons teachers and students might learn as a result.

Figure 1
Community Circle Questions

References

Wachtel, T. (2013). Defining restorative. Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices. Retrieved from http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/Defining-Restorative.pdf

Jamie Silverman is currently a lecturer in the Department of Secondary and Middle School Education at Towson University, Towson, Maryland.
jsilverman@towson.edu Published inAMLE Magazine, August 2019.

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The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) emphasizes the importance of creating a successful school for young adolescents that is inviting, supportive, safe, and joyful in order to support students' emotional well-being.

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Building Community with Restorative Circles

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Building Community with Restorative Circles

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Tk-12

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A technique for proactively building the skills and relationships students will need when challenges arise.

Our students come to school with many issues on their minds and in their hearts. As educators, we can help them process their thoughts and feelings so they can better handle their situations and be more present in class.

Restorative circles are a useful practice to do just that. While frequently used to replace punitive forms of discipline, restorative circles are equally important in proactively building the relationships and skills students need to support one another and collectively address the challenges they face.

Restorative circles are most effective when they're an integral part of school culture. After all, you can't "restore" a community that you haven't built or sustained.

7 Steps for Facilitating Meaningful Circles

1. Cocreate a safe, supportive space: Circles work best if teachers invest time up front to build relationships, skills, and practices to draw on throughout the school year-especially if the going gets tough.

Early in the process, teachers and students together explore values-like empathy, patience, kindness, courage, and open-mindedness-that need to be respected for people to be willing to share openly and honestly in circle. They also determine best ways of working together (circle practices). These include honoring the talking piece, which goes around the circle as an invitation to share while everyone else listens (participants may pass if they don't wish to talk). People are encouraged to speak and listen from the heart. And what is shared in circle, stays in circle, though educators should let students know at the outset that we are mandated by law to report when a student threatens to harm themselves or others, or when students divulge abuse.

2. Be prepared: Make sure that you, the facilitator, are well rested, calm, and focused.

To hold the circle space effectively, it's important to be fully present and able to sit with other people's stories and feelings as well as your own. Center yourself. If you're exploring sensitive issues that may require follow up, consider alerting support staff.

3. Plan ahead: Decide together on a topic or theme that sustains students' interest.

Find a relevant opening ceremony to open the circle space, such as a poem, quote, or piece of music. A mindfulness activity can also be used to bring students into the space after a particularly stressful class or noisy hallway experience.

Look for information to ground the conversation, and develop questions and prompts to invite student perspectives into the circle.

Keep in mind that the bigger the circle, the more time you'll need for the talking piece to go around. Think about how things might unfold and be ready to adapt to what comes up.

Make sure to leave time for a closing ceremony, giving students a chance to transition into spaces that may be less conducive to being vulnerable. A closing ceremony can be a commitment to safeguarding the stories shared in circle, or a breathing exercise in which we provide students with prompts and time to put themselves back together again.

4. Invite student experiences into the space: Encourage students to connect with the circle content by sharing stories from their own lives.

Include storytelling rounds by asking students to talk about "a person in your life who..." or "a time when...." Share authentically of yourself. This gives others permission to do the same. Model good listening as the talking piece goes around the circle. Be fully present as others speak. Remind everyone that listening is the key ingredient in circles. True listening can create the kind of welcoming space that encourages even the quietest voices to speak.

5. Acknowledge, paraphrase, summarize, and practice empathy: Listen closely to what students share so that you can build on their experiences.

When the talking piece comes back to you, touch on what you felt, noticed, or heard. If you sense that there's more than surfaced in the first round, send the talking piece around a second or third time, asking students for their connections, reflections, or additions.

If challenging or painful issues come up, model agreed-upon circle practices for students to follow. Listening mindfully and being present with other people's ordeals and hardships can create supportive, healing experiences that strengthen community connections and build empathy.

If needed, let students know you're available to check in with them later in the day or week. You might also have them consider speaking with other supportive adults or students to find solace if they're troubled.

6. Explore what it means to be an effective ally: Beyond creating a supportive listening environment, ask what else, if anything, students need from you and from each other.

Explore how to be better allies in circle so that students know they don't need to face their challenges alone. Invite them to talk about a person in their lives who is a good friend or ally, or a person they'd like to be a better friend or ally. Discuss the qualities these people have (or lack) and how they make us feel. Invite students to talk about a time they've been a good friend or ally themselves, and what gets in the way of being our best selves with one another.

7. Zoom out to promote understanding on the systems level: Explore whether there are larger systemic forces that underlie the challenges students have touched on (such as racism, sexism, or lack of access to resources). Introduce information, stories, and voices that might shed light on how these systems operate. Look for examples of people who took action to interrupt these and other oppressive systems.

Invite students to connect to this information by sharing their thoughts, feelings, and related experiences.

Studying larger, systemic forces in society can help students better understand their situation, and can be a useful starting point for students to become more active themselves. Action and activism can inspire hope, connection, and healing.

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Building Community With Restorative Circles

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A technique for proactively building the skills and relationships students will need when challenges arise.

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Restorative Justice Center - UC Berkeley

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Restorative Justice Center - UC Berkeley

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Circle Practice

RJ practitioners from the RJ Student Leaders group can facilitate and/or train your group in the facilitation of circles. Circles promote equity and inclusion, in that each person is invited to speak, while everyone else engages in active listening and listening to understand. In circles, communities check in, and develop shared values and agreements to promote trust, respect, engagement, vulnerability, active listening and more. People tell their stories, hear each others' stories and talk through the issues in a respectful space. Some circles focus on specific issues, such as trauma and resiliency for survivors, or something happening on campus, or just give people a way to process what's happening in the world.

Benefits of Circles

Circles build and strengthen communities, and increase compassion and solidarity. They also increase social and emotional learning skills of self-reflection and interpersonal communication that are highly prized in today's work environments.

Contact us for a circle

It's easy to contact us to facilitate a circle for your community, or guide you in a circle training. You can email us at rjcenterberkeley@gmail.com or contact us through the intake button on our website, at this link. You can also contact Julie Shackford-Bradley, Coordinator of the RJ Center directly at jsbradley@berkeley.edu.

There are many types of circles to choose from:

Community-building Circles

With guidance of the circle practitioner, participants collectively identify guidelines and values for communication and relationships, and get to know each other on a deeper level through storytelling and active listening. These circles can be of any length (usually one hour or longer) and can be held at any time.

People with common interests and/or experiences can create support circles where they meet on a regular basis to share accomplishments and challenges, and to forge deeper relationships.

Welcoming/Celebration Circles

Returning from a break, celebrating birthdays, accomplishments, graduations... get together in a circle to appreciate and plan for the future.

In cases of trauma or tragedy, these circles can be called to provide people with a safe space in which to voice their experiences and emotions and to collectively support others as they come to terms with loss and grief. Through the process, people have a chance to imagine and engage paths to healing and repair.

When s erious harm events occur that involve multiple parties, harm circles may be called to address the events, recognize accountability and adverse effects, and collectively develop a plan for repair and the restoration of community. These circles are designed to draw in anyone who has been effected, giving them the chance to tell their story of the experience and hear others. Typically, a harm circle requires extra preparation-circle practitioners will interview those who harmed and were harmed ahead of time to ensure they are ready to commit themselves to this process.

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Circles | Restorative Justice Center at UC Berkeley

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RJ practitioners from the RJ Student Leaders group can facilitate and/or train your group in the facilitation of circles. Circles promote equity and inclusion, in that each person is invited to speak, while everyone else engages in active listening and listening to understand.

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Community, Circles, and Collaboration: the First 10 Days

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Community, Circles, and Collaboration: the First 10 Days

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Secondary (See Week 7.)

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Subtítulos en español: Para subtítulos en español, haga clic en un enlace de vídeo en la sección "Enlaces de vídeo" y luego elija el botón "Configuración" y luego elija "Subtítulos/CC" y, a continuación, elija "Traducción-Automática" y, a continuación, elija "Español" o "Spanish."

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Subtítulos en español: Para subtítulos en español, haga clic en un enlace de vídeo en la sección "Enlaces de vídeo" y luego elija el botón "Configuración" y luego elija "Subtítulos/CC" y, a continuación, elija "Traducción-Automática" y, a continuación, elija "Español" o "Spanish."

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A to Z of C oping S trategies / Un a Z de estrategias de adaptación

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Kindness Curriculum: English | Kindness in the Classroom | PBS LearningMedia

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This document is from PBS Wisconsin Education's Kindness in the Classroom, a multi-part video series designed to give educators insight into the positive impacts of teaching mindfulness in a classroom setting. The series focuses on implementing the Kindness Curriculum; a free 24-lesson mindfulness guide designed for pre-k and kindergarten classrooms, researched and developed by the Center for Healthy Minds at UW-Madison.

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Kindness Curriculum: Spanish | Kindness in the Classroom | PBS LearningMedia

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This document is from PBS Wisconsin Education's Kindness in the Classroom, a multi-part video series designed to give educators insight into the positive impacts of teaching mindfulness in a classroom setting. The series focuses on implementing the Kindness Curriculum; a free 24-lesson mindfulness guide designed for pre-k and kindergarten classrooms, researched and developed by the Center for Healthy Minds at UW-Madison.

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Kindness in the Classroom | PBS LearningMedia

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Kindness in the Classroom is a multi-part video series designed to give educators insight into the positive impacts of teaching mindfulness in a classroom setting. The series focuses on implementing the Kindness Curriculum; a free 24-lesson mindfulness guide designed for pre-k and kindergarten classrooms, researched and developed by the Center for Healthy Minds at UW-Madison.

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PBS Video Library - Responsible Decision Making  TK-1

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PBS Video Library - Responsible Decision Making  TK-1

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Responsible Decision Making | PBS LearningMedia

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Find lessons on Responsible Decision Making for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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PBS Video Library - Self Awareness TK - 1

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PBS Video Library - Self Awareness TK - 1

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Find lessons on Self Awareness for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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PBS Video Library - Social Awareness TK - 1

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PBS Video Library - Social Awareness TK - 1

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Find lessons on Social Awareness for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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Find lessons on Relationship Skills for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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PBS Video Library - Self Management TK - 1

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PBS Video Library - Self Management TK - 1

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Find lessons on Self Management for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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Resources to promote self-control in every classroom every day.

Building SEL (social and emotional learning) skills such as self-control requires face-to-face interaction, 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 Character Lab, self-control is "controlling one's own responses so they align with short- and long-term goals."

While some tools focus specifically on self-control, the websites and apps that you use daily (in all subjects) can be used to promote mindfulness, 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 self-control and life-skills-building into your content classroom.

Why self-control?

Having self-control (some prefer the term "self-regulation") is about appropriately managing your thoughts, feelings, and impulses. It starts with being consistently mindful of yourself and others and working toward a high emotional intelligence. So much of the way we use technology today challenges the idea of restraint, from tweeting in anger to posting for "likes." There has been a large body of research suggesting that self-control is a key factor in determining success as an adult, so many schools are creating programs that address it, including this school that is embracing glitter jars and breathing balls. Whether or not we get caught up in what self-control is, most teachers would agree there is value when students are able to regulate themselves, leading to increased focus and accountability for their actions.

Take action

Teach a lesson that helps students think about possible outcomes before posting on social media.

Host a discussion around our digital impulses (clicking on junk articles, scrolling on social media, or posting for likes).

Praise students for effort and action, rather than for general traits such as intelligence.

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.

Visit 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 self-control? Check out our suggestions below.

Directly target self-control

See our list Top Tools for Building Mindfulness in the Classroom for more resources focused on self-control.

Pause & Think Online
Our online video uses music and characters based on familiar body parts to teach students to stop and think before acting and to make the connection that behaving responsibly online is a lot like behaving responsibly offline.

Smiling Mind
Find a comfy spot, plug in your earphones, and just press play. Smiling Mind is an app that helps students practice meditation through breathing exercises and visualizations. Kids will learn lifelong skills to cope with stress and stay calm.

Build self-control in all subjects

For ELA classrooms

Write About This
Building self-control involves first paying attention to one's emotions. Use the tons of prompts and images here to get kids writing and thinking about how they feel. Keep a daily journal or have them practice listening to stories they narrate in-app.

For math classrooms

Time Timer
With Time Timer, students will learn the numbers and sequences involved in telling time and use it to focus behavior. Kids can time themselves during assignments and transitions and create an infographic showing how the results change over time.

Choreo Graph
Students will want to jump right in to this fun animation and geometry app. Let them, but go back and make a second animation, this time planning out each step ahead of time. Compare the two results and discuss how being mindful can have a huge impact.

For science classrooms

For social studies classrooms

For all classrooms

ClassDojo
With ClassDojo, teachers can send students daily text reminders of homework. Students will need to make choices that affect their goals, answering questions such as: Is it more worthwhile to keep playing this game or to finish my work?

Twitter
Show students some of the consequences that have arisen from people who tweet based on emotion or impulse. Have students tweet about a topic from class but also have them write out beforehand how they think people will react to it.

Engage families

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We All Teach SEL: Self-Control Activities and Tools for Students | Common Sense Education

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Building SEL (social and emotional learning) skills such as self-control requires face-to-face interaction, 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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Common Sense Media - Wide Open Schools 6 - 12

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Common Sense Media - Wide Open Schools 6 - 12

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Wide Open School's mission lives on at Common Sense

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Wide Open School's mission lives on at Common Sense With schools back in person, we have closed this dedicated distance-learning site designed to guide families and educators through the sudden shift to remote learning. Discover More Great Resources for Families & Educators

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Build social and emotional skills into any class.

Summit students rip up their stress.

Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The school has developed an HCC curriculum for grades nine through 12 and hired two full-time teachers for HCC, but Summit's academic teachers also use some of these activities to build SEL skills and deepen their relationships with their students. Cady Ching, a biology and AP environmental science teacher at Summit, incorporates opening activities into all of her classes: "In my freshman classes, we do them every class period."

Visualization to release stress: Have your students imagine what stress looks and feels like inside their body, and then ask them to release it. "The mindfulness practice makes you think the stress is coming off your body," says Geoffrey, a 12th-grade student.

Noise isolation: There are a variety of sounds that your students hear when they're in your classroom, from students walking in the hallway to outdoor construction noise. Have your students focus on one noise and describe it to themselves and recall the last time they interacted with it.

Here are some of the opening, group sharing, and closing activities that teachers use at Summit:

Opening Activities

Summit students practice mindfulness.

2. Name the emotion you're bringing to class: Have each student call out the emotion they're feeling. This helps each student know how they and other students are feeling, what different emotions look like, and how to better interact with their peers based on how they're feeling.

3. Write down, rip up, and throw away your stress: Have your students write down their expectations and insecurities, rip them up, and throw them away. This emotional check-in takes about three minutes. By acknowledging how your students are feeling at the start of each class, you'll acknowledge their barriers to learning and create a safe space for your students to overcome them.

5. Quote of the day: Introduce a quote relevant to what your students are learning or to a shared experience-for example, an act of violence in the community. You can facilitate a whole-class discussion, group students into pairs, or have each student share a one-word response to the quote. This gives students the space to reflect on their beliefs and experiences and whether they agree or disagree with the quote and other students' opinions, and it gives them insight into their peers' perspectives and feelings.

6. Where we came from: Collect baby pictures from your students. Project one baby picture at the start of class, have your students guess who it is, and then have the featured student share something about their childhood.

7. Starting positive: Have each student tape a sheet of paper to their back and then walk around and write positive qualities about their peers on their backs.

8. Motivational moment: Have two students start the class with a three- to five-minute presentation-and come up with two or three discussion questions-based on their interests. The presentation must be related to the course content in a real-world context. "Many students include a video for visuals and increased engagement, but it's optional," says Ching. Have the rest of the class partner up to discuss their questions for one minute and then give them the opportunity to share out to the whole class. This exercise gives your students insight into their peers' interests.

Grades 9-12 | Redwood City, CA

Enrollment

388 | Charter, Suburban

Per Pupil Expenditures

Free / Reduced Lunch

47%

Data is from the 2014-2015 academic year.

Group Sharing

9. Circle sharing: To encourage active listening, create small groups. Have your students position their chairs in a circle so everyone can make eye contact. To strengthen empathy, you can facilitate deeper discussion around what a student shares by asking, "Why did that student share what they did?" or "What perspective is that student coming from?"

When discussing emotionally charged topics, it's important to have guidelines to foster a safe space. Summit uses the Courageous Conversation protocol created by Glenn E. Singleton when discussing race. The protocol is guided by four agreements-stay engaged, experience discomfort, speak your truth, and expect and accept nonclosure. Here is an example of elementary school discussion guidelines from School 21.

Summit students sit in a circle for a whole-class discussion.

10. Write a poem from someone else's perspective. Have your students choose someone they don't know. This helps them to understand that they don't "need to be best friends with someone to empathize with them," explains Ballard.

11. Have a conversation with someone you don't know. Have your students pair up with a student they don't know and provide the pairs with five questions to ask each other. Each student introduces their partner to the class, speaking as if they were their partner, while the rest of the class looks at the student being introduced. "We don't see people sometimes," says Ballard, "and this exercise helps students to see each other more deeply."

12. Play interest and identity-related bingo. Instead of squares filled with numbers or vocabulary words, create cards with information relating to your students. Summit's Bingo cards have things like "'I like to read' or 'I was born in a different country,'" says Armando, a ninth-grade student.

I would like to appreciate Brenda for facilitating the conversation in our small group.

I would like to thank everyone for taking this class seriously.

I apologize to everyone for having my headphones in for half of the time.

Closing Activity

13. Appreciation, apology, aha: Have your students get in a circle and share an appreciation, apology, or realization with the group. Students in Ballard's class have shared things like:

Encourage authentic and timely apologies. Apologizing for something that happened a long time ago has less impact than apologizing for something that happened that day or week. Let your students know that they don't have to name who they're apologizing to when they apologize for what they did.

Help students share helpful, not harmful words. "I often say, 'Appreciations, apologies, and ahas should be something that you genuinely think will be useful for people to hear,'" says Ballard.

Have your students snap, clap, or shake both hands when they hear something that resonates with them. "We snap to let people know that we hear them without exerting our own voice in their narrative," explains Ballard. Students shake their hands when peers share things that are emotionally charged. Ballard often gets this started by saying, "Let's shake it up for that."

"When you pay attention to each other, not only does it build a sense of community, but we're more able to understand other people," says Janet, a 12th-grade student. "If you're able to understand people at a younger age, you could work better with them as adults. That changes how the future generations will be. People can be more accepting, more helpful towards each other."

What makes this a SCHOOL THAT WORKS

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Build social and emotional skills into any class.

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Practice mindful breathing with these animal-inspired breathing exercises!

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CASEL - For Educators

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CASEL is committed to advancing equity and excellence in education through social and emotional learning (SEL). CASEL's definition and framework for SEL provides a foundation for all communities to use evidence-based SEL strategies to advance the goals of equity and excellence in ways that are most meaningful to their local context.

Developing and Refining Transformative SEL toward Equity

CASEL is refining a specific form of SEL implementation that concentrates SEL practice on transforming inequitable settings and systems, and promoting justice-oriented civic engagement-which we are calling " Transformative SEL. " Through our long-term learning agenda and ongoing collaboration with practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, CASEL continues deepening what we know about how to implement Transformative SEL toward equitable learning opportunities and developmental outcomes. Together, we will continue learning through our collective commitment to continuous improvement.

Defining Transformative SEL

"Transformative SEL" is a process whereby young people and adults build strong, respectful, and lasting, relationships that facilitate co-learning to critically examine root causes of inequity, and to develop collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being.

This form of SEL is aimed at redistributing power to promote social justice through increased engagement in school and civic life. It emphasizes the development of identity, agency, belonging, curiosity, and collaborative problem solving within the CASEL framework.
Core features of Transformative SEL include:

Authentic partnering among students and adults with a deep focus on sharing power and decision-making between young people, educators, families, and communities.

Academic content that integrates issues of race, class and culture.

Instruction that honors and makes connections to students' lived experiences and identities, and scaffolds learning to build an understanding of others' lived experiences.

Enhancing and foregrounding social and emotional competencies needed for civic engagement and social change, such as reflecting on personal and social identities, examining prejudices and biases, interrogating social norms, disrupting and resisting inequities, and co-constructing equitable and just solutions.

Prioritizing students' individual and collective agency to take action for social justice.

Focus on creating belonging and engagement for all individuals.

Read more:

Transformative SEL: Toward SEL in Service of Educational Equity and Excellence (2019). This article first introduced Transformative SEL with a focus first on race and ethnicity. Access the research article.

Equity and Social and Emotional Learning: A Cultural Analysis (2018). This brief explored the alignment between equity and SEL, eventually informing the updated definition of SEL in 2020. Access the brief.

Identifying Effective Programs, Practices, and Strategies for Implementing Transformative SEL

While our research and learning agenda informed our definition of Transformative SEL based on current science and developmental principles, in practice, there are currently limited options for evidence-based programs and implementation models for Transformative SEL.

To address this need, CASEL is leading collaborative efforts with partner organizations to develop a more robust foundation for Transformative SEL that supports researchers and practitioners in identifying and refining evidence-based programs, professional learning, and assessments. Through our research-practice partnerships, we are also learning alongside schools and districts how specific practices, policies, and processes can best be implemented to achieve the goals of Transformative SEL.
Read more:
Rising Up Together: Spotlighting Transformative SEL in Practice with Latinx Youth (2021). This research brief is part of our initial efforts to illustrate transformative SEL in practice based on surveys with youth, interviews with teachers, and observations during dedicated SEL instruction time in a predominantly Latinx school in a large urban district. Read the brief.

Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) Framework: CASEL is part of a collective of diverse educators committed to tackling the inequities in our school system. The collective developed a framework to guide the redesign of public school systems that center the experiences of young people with evidence-based practice and resources to support lasting change. View the framework.

Sharing Practical Insights and Expertise

As Transformative SEL is being tested and refined, we will continue sharing practical insights as we learn them and lifting up expert voices with the broader field.
Read more:

Emerging Insights on Advancing SEL as a Lever for Equity and Excellence" (2020). This report provides five key, emerging insights from our partner school districts working to leverage SEL in service of equity. Read the report.

CASEL CARES Webinar Series: SEL as a Lever for Equity and Social Justice (2020). These are recordings from our 5-Part Webinar Series discussing equity and racial injustice through the lens of social and emotional learning. Watch the series.

Equity and SEL: Districts Share Strategies and Best Practices (2018). This webinar features two CASEL partner districts, Chicago Public Schools and Tulsa Public Schools, on their efforts to integrate SEL and equity in their community. Hear from partner districts.
For more recommended resources on Equity and SEL, click here

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Transformative SEL as a Lever for Equity & Social Justice

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CASEL is committed to advancing equity and excellence in education through social and emotional learning (SEL). CASEL's definition and framework for SEL provides a foundation for all communities to use evidence-based SEL strategies to advance the goals of equity and excellence in ways that are most meaningful to their local context.

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Teaching Tolerance

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Shira Ackerman

So much of the first few weeks of school are about helping your students feel respected, valued, and a part of something great- your class community! Establishing a warm, welcoming environment, increases student engagement and sets a positive tone for the year. Furthermore, as explained in an article in Education Week, a Stanford University study found that "When students sense that their teachers respect them, they trust them more and, consequently, misbehave less."

GoNoodle videos can serve as ideal community-building activities; with everything from ice breakers to dance parties students can bond, learn about each other, and of course have a blast together! Check out some of our favorite GoNoodle community-building videos below.

Partner activities like Triangle Dance serve as great "Ice-Breakers" and encourage students to work together, get to know each and most importantly, have fun!

Mindfulness videos like Be a Team Player and the SEL video Mood Walk can help students identify both their own and others' feelings and build relationships. Activities like these celebrate students' individual backgrounds and experiences to build a tight-knit community that is sewn together by diversity as well as unity.

And of course, a fun, fabulous dance party with any of our energizing dance videos like NTV's Footloose are a great way to build community as your class let's loose and laughs together!

For more information, ice breakers, and back to school activities check out these great articles from Scholastic: 10 Fun Back to School Activities and Icebreakers and Building Community in the Classroom. And check out the GoNoodle Categories Page for more partner and mindfulness activities.

Ready to start GoNoodling?

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Back to School with GoNoodle: Build Classroom Community With Partner Activities; Ice Breakers; Mindfulness and SEL - GoNoodle

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Much of the first few weeks of school are about helping your students feel respected, valued, and a part of something great- your class community! GoNoodle videos can serve as ideal community-building activities; with everything from ice breakers to dance parties students can bond, learn about each other, and of course have a blast together!

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Today, school leaders-superintendents, principals, and department heads-are faced with a challenge: uniting and inspiring their school communities in the midst of COVID-19.

© Cory Doctorow / CC BY-SA 2.0

This formidable task will not only be about implementing new safety guidelines. And it's not just about the hard, strategic work of adjusting curriculums and programs to accommodate all the educational issues raised by school closures.

It will also involve the deep, human work of establishing a climate of care, one in which school leaders care for returning teachers, and returning teachers, in turn, care for the children and families they work with, creating ripples of support across the school community.

Three key mindsets-informed by research from education, leadership, and positive psychology-can help with this work of caring for school communities: a strength-based approach, collective leadership, and kindness.

1. Take a strength-based approach

A strength-based approach to teaching and learning focuses on what is working-what children and teachers can do. Leaders with this approach articulate for their community the ways in which they have been strong, and help to leverage those strengths to face the new work ahead of them.

Bonnie Bennard's and Sara Troubridge's research, as well as work by others, has connected a strength-based educational approach to the development of resilience in children and teachers. Now, more than ever, a strength-based approach is needed to build the resilience necessary for the many setbacks and disappointments inflicted by the pandemic.

How? School leaders can ask teachers to share how they have taken care of themselves during a challenging time, and how this experience has enhanced their abilities to cope, to persist, to learn digital skills, and to teach-the best they could. These discussions with teachers serve not just to honor the work they have done during challenging times, but also to help them recognize that the challenges they experienced have morphed into strengths and interests, ones they can apply to a new learning environment in a new school year shaped by the pandemic.

Similarly, with children, teachers can take a strength-based approach by encouraging them to share and draw on the strengths and interests they gained while at home during school closures and the summer months. The child who helped to assemble a table and chairs during quarantine, or the one who regularly watered the family houseplant, or the one who navigated a complex video game-each child learned something. Children are always developing and growing based on their experiences, even when their realities change.

Without failing to recognize the very real suffering and hardship experienced by many children during the pandemic, teachers can provide opportunities for children to share, extend, and reflect on how the learning they did at home made them stronger and more capable of succeeding at what's next.

2. Cultivate collective leadership

Collective, or distributed, leadership assumes that input from teachers and families matters to the running of schools. Why this might be essential to creating a sense of belonging and connection is obvious. What may be less obvious is the way that collective leadership can potentially make a school more innovative and successful in its approach to problem solving, a vital skill as schools navigate the uncharted waters of reopening.

In a recent essay, Jonathan Supovitz at the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues explain why distributed leadership can help schools face adaptive challenges. That is to say, challenges where there is no known solution to the problem, or challenges where there are too many solutions but no clear choices-the very kinds of problems that schools need to solve during the pandemic. As they write:

Particularly when addressing adaptive challenges, distributed leadership encourages the involvement of a diverse set of people with different expertise, perspectives, and backgrounds to grapple with the root causes of a problem. . . . And it is exactly because of the diversity of people's experiences and perspectives that innovative solutions become more visible.

This diverse approach to adaptive challenges, enabled by distributed leadership, could be useful to school leaders and school communities during reopening.

For example, many school leaders and school communities are trying to address the issue of children reading at levels lower than those typically associated with their grade level as a result of disrupted instruction. A principal or reading specialist trying to address this challenge might see only a few solutions to the challenge-while a broader group that includes teachers and parents may brainstorm a wider range of innovative solutions that consider how children learned effectively at home during school closures, and what literacy practices they observed that really motivated and inspired children. These might include things like more time to read and write on topics of their own choice, and the integration of literacy learning with learning about the world around them.

Together, such a diverse group of faculty and families may even come to the recognition that reorganizing the school day to prioritize high-impact practices could address learning loss in dramatic ways. Having helped to find a range of innovative solutions together, a school community is then motivated to try them, adjust them, and persist with them until they work.

3. Enact kindness

In his recent book, The War for Kindness, Stanford psychology professor Jamil Zaki reminds us of how important benevolence is to organizations such as schools, not just in the lives of individuals:

Organizations that emphasize kindness flourish. . . . We are not merely individuals fighting to empathize in a world of cruelty. We are also communities, families, companies, teams, towns, and nations that can build kindness into our culture, turning it into people's first option.

How can school leaders turn kindness into their first option as schooling continues through the pandemic?

The answer to this question will, of course, be unique to different school communities, but it is easy to imagine that most efforts to enact kindness will entail deep listening, thoughtful communication, and empathy. Empathy in this case takes the form of listening to-and really acknowledging -another's pain and suffering, without attempting to "solve" it. This can be a hard stance for school leaders to adopt, as their jobs often cast them in the roles of "doers" and "solvers."

In Dare to Lead, psychologist and author Brené Brown recommends the following steps for enacting empathy, in the form of a list of what "I" could do to be empathic:

First: I take the perspective of another person, meaning I become the listener and the student, not the knower. Second: I stay out of judgment. And third and fourth: I try to understand what emotion they're articulating and communicate my understanding of that emotion.

For school leaders, Brown's "empathy steps" could help with staff and family discussions around stress and tribulations likely to arise throughout the year. Imagine if a teacher, who confides that he cannot concentrate on his class because he is still mourning the loss of a parent to COVID-19 while getting his own children comfortable with going to school again, were met by a principal who listened deeply to him and took the time to let a real conversation unfold without judgment. This teacher will more likely be motivated to meet his challenges with confidence because he felt appreciated and supported, rather than told how to quickly "fix" everything.

With the key mindsets we have looked at-a strength-based approach, collective leadership, and kindness-school leaders can establish a lasting climate of care in their school communities. Useful now, in the throes of a pandemic, these mindsets are likely to be equally valuable down the road, in a future where sustaining school communities, in person and virtually, will depend on the cultivation of care.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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How to Create a Climate of Care in School This Fall

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Today, school leaders-superintendents, principals, and department heads-are faced with a challenge: uniting and inspiring their school communities in the midst of COVID-19. © Cory Doctorow / CC BY-SA 2.0 This formidable task will not only be about implementing new safety guidelines.

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Larry Ferlazzo's 7 Tips for Remote Learning

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Larry Ferlazzo's 7 Tips for Remote Learning

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Check out Larry Ferlazzo's video; it is excellent!

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Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo

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As regular readers know, I did a popular video with Education Week on "7 Tips For Remote Teaching" two weeks ago (I've also embedded it at the bottom of this blog post).

Wendi Pillars, who is a contributor to this column, created an amazing illustration of those seven key points. Calling it an infographic is certainly an understatement. It is being published here with her permission.
Wendi Pillars, NBCT, has incorporated visual notes into her teaching for more than two decades and believes deeply in fostering creative thinking in her students.

Here's the actual video again:

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Infographic: '7 Tips for Remote Teaching'

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As regular readers know, I did a popular video with Education Week on "7 Tips For Remote Teaching" two weeks ago (I've also embedded it at the bottom of this blog post). Wendi Pillars, who is a contributor to this column, created an amazing illustration of those seven key points.

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The 6-year-old boy's eyes welled up with tears. His teacher, 30-year veteran Leigh Yelton, could see the explosive anger building in the first grader. After his mother died unexpectedly in his kindergarten year, he struggled with what his grandmother called "mommy days," or periods during which he would often cry uncontrollably. Instead of asking him what was wrong or trying to distract him, Yelton asked him to do something simple and unexpected: go to a private part of the room and push against a wall. It worked.

Yelton learned the technique from a resilience training program that shows teachers how to help themselves-and their students-calm the central nervous system. Stress and trauma can trigger a response in the amygdala, the part of the brain that sends the body into fight, flight, or freeze mode, hijacking the rest of the brain so it becomes focused solely on responding to or fleeing the perceived threat.

"Our thinking brain is where we process language, so if I have flipped my lid, and you talk to me, you sound like the Charlie Brown teacher," says Ann DuPre Rogers, executive director of Resources for Resilience, the nonprofit organization that conducts the training. When a person is triggered and can't be reached through conversation, the training directs them to take a sip of water, press against a wall, or try a quick walk while paying close attention to their physical sensations.

For example, when drinking a sip of water, a participant might try to feel every droplet of water in their mouth. How does it feel as it passes over the lips? Is it cool or warm? Does it have texture? This process of closely examining sensory details called sensing-in is similar to mindfulness practices which are increasingly backed by research, and even prescribed by doctors, for addressing acute stress and trauma.

"You notice all the sort of sensory elements of the sip," said Rogers, explaining one of the strategies that allows teachers and kids to calm their brains and bodies. Once the amygdala is calmed, she continues, "then the brain can come back and we can talk it through. We can make a plan."

Understanding Triggers

The simple techniques, called rapid resets, are designed for "anyone with a nervous system," Rogers says, but they can be especially helpful in the school setting where teachers and students of all grade levels experience different levels of stress and trauma. Students or teachers who have had many adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as living in an abusive household or having an incarcerated parent, may be more easily triggered.

Rogers and her staff train teachers, counselors, and other school personnel to recognize the triggers that cause a person to "flip their lid," or activate the stress response. Triggers in a classroom can seem minor: a student takes another student's pencil or a student teases another student about their appearance. But even these events can spark a response rooted in mounting frustration or underlying trauma and disrupt learning-for both the student and the wider classroom.

While the methods tackle the immediate problem-getting the child to calm down is the first step-the program advises teachers to follow up and address the deeper issues as soon as they can. Getting brains back "online" is a vital prerequisite for exploring the student's challenges and making plans to help the child or teen self-regulate in the future.

"These are quick strategies that you can implement into your classroom with a little effort, but get a big response," says Susan Puckett, a counselor at Forest Park Elementary.

Put On Your Mask First

Despite initial skepticism, Yelton calls the training "the most valuable workshop experience that I have ever been to." Like the flight directive about putting an oxygen mask on yourself before helping a child, the training encourages teachers to use the strategies for their own fight, flight, or freeze responses before teaching them to students.

After learning the rapid resets, Yelton tried them first on herself and then her husband. When she found herself growing angry, she would practice the grounding technique by focusing on the sensory experience of feeling the floor beneath her feet. The strategy brought Yelton back to a place where she could interact again.

The skills she learned in the training had immediate application in her classroom and transformed how she relates to her students. She taught her kids to imagine that their amygdala-which produces the first inkling of anger or anxiety-is like a barking dog. When the "lid is flipped," the dog barks to alert the rest of the brain to fight, flight, or freeze, and getting children to recognize the presence of the dog is a necessary prerequisite for getting them back to a place where they can learn. In her class today, Yelton's students use hand signals to demonstrate that a dog is in the house, periodically gesturing to indicate that they are starting to get anxious.

Before the training, if a child became upset, Yelton might ask "What's wrong?" and press the student to articulate the reason for their discontent. "Often I would say, when kids were really flipping their lids, 'Give me your words. Use your words and tell me,' not really thinking that they can't do that at this point," she says.

The training sparked a paradigm shift in Yelton's interactions with her students. Instead of trying to fix the problem, she approaches triggered students with a new sense of patience and understanding. She realized that "when they get that out of control, they're not in a zone where they know what's happening. They are so amped up or so shut down... and they can't hear you. They can't listen."

Yelton related to the grief of her young student who lost his mother in a different way than she would have before the training, acknowledging his anger without trying to distract or control him. "He was angry, and he had every single right to be angry. I never tried to change that," she said. "You have a right to be angry. I get it. I understand where you're coming from. I would be upset too."

Over time, the student's crying became less frequent and he began to self-regulate, taking time-outs when he felt himself getting triggered. The young boy moved at the end of the year, but Yelton feels she sent him off with a toolbox of tactics he could use to deal with some of the effects of the trauma he had experienced.

Changing School Community

The shift in Yelton's classroom is just one of many in the Kannapolis City School system, a small district in the central part of the state that began training school personnel in the resilience practices in 2016.

Teachers and staff appreciate the simplicity of the practices and their easy implementation in the classroom. "I remember walking out and thinking I can use this tomorrow. I don't have to wait," says elementary school psychologist Amy Roberts. "I don't have to prepare anything. I don't have to make anything. I can just do it."

The practices have created a positive shift in the overall school culture at Forest Park. "Teachers would come to my office and say, 'I did this and this worked for these kids. I haven't seen anything work like this before,'" says counselor Puckett.

The shared practices have created a common language in the school community. Fourth grade teacher Kelcie Lewis says her students know the strategies and respond when they observe her using them. "If I am getting frustrated waiting for them to pay attention or if they're not getting a skill, I might just go over and lean against the wall and they're like, 'Uh oh, guys, Mrs. Lewis is about to blow her lid,'" she says.

Bringing themselves back to a calm state is critical for teachers to avoid exacerbating triggers students may be experiencing. "Through the training, I learned that even the way that you approach the room can make such a difference," says Martha Motley, principal of Forest Park Elementary. "If you get called if there's a fight, a disturbance, or a student being disrespectful, and you show up... escalated, even from the quick walk there, then kids are going to respond differently."
Kelcie Lewis
When school takes place in-person, Forest Park teachers create physical space for students who need to take a break and reset. Lewis set up a corner of her classroom for her students to try the strategies with a wall adorned with posters of typical emotions along with more specific synonyms. If a child says, "I'm mad," she asks for a more nuanced understanding of their feelings-are they betrayed, frustrated, or annoyed? For kids who can't yet read, Yelton uses a board with emotion words, coupled with pictures depicting a range of emotional states.

"The student knows that they can go to the calm down corner and do those strategies without the teacher, or they can let the teacher know that they need help," says teacher Lindsay Stowe.

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With Stress in Schools Increasing, Simple Strategies to Stay Calm

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In North Carolina, a program offers 'rapid resets' to help teachers and students calm their minds and bodies and get back to learning.