Ep 86 // Making Social Emotional Learning MORE Than a Buzzword (Applications for the Classroom)
Inside This Week’s Episode: Social Emotional Learning, or SEL, has been around for a while, but it has become even more apparent that we need it in the months following the pandemic. But, too often SEL becomes just something “trendy” to talk about or slap on our school blueprints. It’s time to make it more than just a educational buzzword.
Social Emotional Learning.
It’s such a buzzword lately, especially as teachers try to navigate the aftermath of the pandemic.
Now more than ever our students are struggling socially and emotionally.
Months of learning at home, isolated from teachers and friends has brought a series of issues that teachers are now learning to work through.
Social emotional learning, or SEL for short, is not new, but has certainly created a new buzzword.
The thing is, the social and emotional well-being of our students isn’t just the responsibility of school social workers and counselors - it’s all of our jobs.
Students can not effectively access learning until their social and emotional needs are met. These needs sit at the foundation from which all learning grows from.
That’s why I’ve invited Victoria from The Mindful Apple to come back on the podcast to help us set the stage for the new school year with one big priority: social emotional learning.
She’ll give us the essentials and beyond to empower all educators with the tools to support our students beyond the academics.
Start Building your SEL knowledge today!
Here’s a Snapshot:
Social emotional learning has a pivotal role in students' access to academics. Students cannot learn when they are not regulated; therefore, you need to uncover how you can empower students to achieve emotional regulation to pave the way for successful learning.
We don’t just want SEL to be a buzz word and some lip service. It’s everywhere because it’s for everyone. But it’s more than just a school district “yearly goal” - this is the access road for students. Victoria will walk us through how to build a mindset around how social emotional learning fits into our everyday teaching.
Implementing SEL into our classroom instruction doesn’t have to be hard, or time-consuming. Victoria shares one simple strategy that will help you take a pulse on each individual student in your classroom, EACH day. Learn what it is and how you can start doing it with your students right away!
Social emotional awareness must me explicitly taught, modeled, practiced, and reinforced. We get there one day at a time, building up relationships, checking in with students, TEACHING them coping skills and strategies and helping them assemble a tool kit that empowers them to face whatever lies ahead.
Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode
EPISODE 60: Easy Calming Strategies for Elementary Students
Connect with Victoria at The Mindful Apple:
Check out her Teacher and Student Resources
Take a peek at her Website
Follow her on Instagram
FREE Check In Sheet for Checking Students Social Emotional Needs
Check out Victoria’s growing social emotional learning curriculum
Victoria’s Poem on Social Emotional Learning:
Once there was a kiddo named Lily
when it came to school work - she always got silly:
avoidance, behaviors, and straight up refusing
had the teachers frustrated on the attempts they were using.
"Lily, calm down, be quiet, sit down"
but these statements did not turn the behaviors around.
"We will change the demands, we will alter the load."
But still there were not successes to be told.
Then, one fateful, rainy day
there was a break through - a new way!
To reach
To teach
To understand
A new path to Lily - now this was grand!
The time was taken to learn the girl.
Insight gleaned into her world...
A saddened heart that needed some space
to share her feelings and be given the space:
To process
Explore
To grieve
To heal
Lily, was heard and allowed to feel.
Slowly but surely, academics came in time.
As you can see in this story of rhyme,
before they can learn, students need to be heard
listen to what is said, at times, without a word.
Behaviors are often the communication we get,
when students are angry, sad or upset.
Plant seeds of calm and teach coping skills -
empower students to succeed through valleys and hills!
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