Have you been hearing about how powerful Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is in the classroom? Social and emotional learning is all about children (and adults) having the skills to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Having a SEL “toolbox” to reach for in order to teach critical social competencies is necessary for academic and life success such as: resiliency, self-management, and responsible decision-making skills. There are SO many ideas on the internet, but I'll share an easy "tool" that worked great for my in my classroom for building relationships/SEL. You'll also see a link in this post to some wonderful "SEL tools" that might work for you too! When I was teaching, I used to try to start each class period with my students standing in a circle around the room (If you can’t do each class period, or you want to start small, consider starting with a “Monday Meeting” or carve out some time to wrap up the week with a “Friday Send-Off”) We would use those few minutes at the beginning of class for “Wish-Wells and Celebrations”. Anyone that wanted to could share either of those things, or simply pass, and not say anything at all. For example, you might hear: “I want to wish my grandma well. She is still in the hospital.” Or “I want to wish my uncle well, he was deported last night. I am worried about his family. We are all scared.” or “I want to celebrate my cat’s birthday today! We’ve had her for five years now.” or “I want to celebrate that I just got back a Math test and I got my first 3 on it!” You can see these things that students share in the classroom circle may be anything from disheartening (the hospital and deportation) to silly ( the cat’s birthday) As long as you set up expectations for sharing and listening and create a safe space, including agreements like, “What’s said in here, stays in here," you will be well on your way, in just a few minutes time, for some outta sight Social and Emotional Learning = community building/trust/relationships! This is just one example of ways to begin including some SEL in your classes, but this post has THIRTEEN other good ideas: www.edutopia.org/article/13-powerful-sel-activities-emelina-minero Scroll through and which ones best suite you and your students. Since SEL can be such an important part of a child’s day, you can (and should) start them any time. It's not too late if you haven't built them into your class routine yet. If you've never done anything like this before and it feels uncomfortable- try them anyway; that's when we grow- in the discomfort. I bet you’ll be surprised with how much your students enjoy that time with you and each other. Get your kids connected socially and emotionally and watch them start to make gains academically. *And remember, SEL doesn't have to be just a specific, set-aside time of the class period (like my example from my classroom) it's ideal to have it embedded throughout your time with students. “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.” One of my favorites from the article is #13, the “Appreciation, Apology, and Aha” activity. Have you students get in a circle at the end of class to share an appreciation, an apology or a realization. The teacher in this article says, “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.’” He has his 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.” Students shake their hands when peers share things that are emotionally charged. The teacher can get this started by saying, “Let’s shake it up for that.” Take a look at this 60 second clip on using the "Appreciation, Apology, and Aha" activity:
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