What Role does SEL have in Teaching and Learning?

                                                

     (my brother and I when I was in 8th grade. He was a big part of my support system when my mom was gone!) 

What Role Does SEL Have in Teaching and Learning? 

Research: 

    For the past 2 semesters, we have learned a lot of SEL. We had 6 different articles/videos/websites to read for this journal. 

    The first website we were assigned to read was the Ohio's K-12 Social and emotional learning standards. I did know that these were a thing because last semester, Courtney was our SEL group member during our lesson plan assignment. I remember us trying to connect her standards to ours so we could create a teaming lesson plan. In the standards, I tried to focus primarily on reading the 4-9 (I did read all) because that is my primary focus. The website shows a grid of different grade levels and different parts of the SEL (Self-awareness, Social-Awareness, self-management, Relationship skills, and decision making). The standards seemed to progress to where students could use those skills in the next year and advance off of them. It was interesting to see how these could be used in our own content areas! 

    The next website we were assigned to look at was the ODE student wellness kit. This website offered different resources for different school admit roles (teacher, administrators, students, and parents). In the teacher section, there is information on how we can create safe and supportive classrooms, how we can keep our students calm and focused, who we can continue to care for ourselves, classroom management, and even for mental health issues or when to refer for services! This resources are important for us teachers because when we run into a situation with any student, we can refer to these on what to do. But, we also need to make sure we're taking care of ourselves and providing our students with a safe learning space. A way we can do that is building relationships with our students. When we create a relationship with our classroom, we can ensure there is engagement in the classroom and the students feel that we are supporting them through the assignments and the school year. Something that I thought was amazing was the "Know when to refer for services" section. This is important to have so we can see when students are having a mental health crisis because this is such a changing time for middle schoolers. As we have learned before, students are changing so much and they're cognitively developing differently. We as teachers need to look for these signs so we can help them in the best and more efficient way possible. 

    The next article we were assigned to read was the Bond of Social and Emotional Learning. The biggest takeaway I had from this article was the relationships between students and teachers. This can have such an impact on student emotional health and wellness especially with their learning. We can convey to our students that being "smart" is something you can be. The steps to be successful in a "systemic instructional approach built on SEL" was interesting too. The two steps were 1. Creating a caring, responsive school climate that is important for both the students and adults. This is especially important because it can foster the emotional safety that reflects of students self image. We need to practice self-reflection so it turns into the students well-being. Meaning, that we need to ensure that students feel important and cared about so their emotional well-being is positively impacted. The 2nd step is "Children's emotions, behaviors, learning, and regulation are inextricable tied and cannot be considered separately". To increase learning, teachers and staff need to be able to be flexible, teaching about worth and ability, and notice the signs. Schools need to address the mental health concepts that can teach students that there is support from about admin at the school. Teaching these can also help students see the signs in other students. Relationships between teachers and student can also need to more motivation and performance in the classroom which can lead to more confidence for everyone involved. 

    The next article is "SEL research Summary". The research summary is about why we're focused on SEL in our classrooms. This includes defining self awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The research shows that it is highly effective and well designed when it is implemented correctly. It is propel that SEL in classrooms and the community reduced the drop out rate as well as truancy meaning that students are gaining a complete knowledge that they need. The student outcomes show that students who receive instruction on SEL have been reduced in conduct and decline problems. It also shows that it has reduced anxiety in students. It also has shown that there is improvement in academic grades and test scores overall. In educator outcomes, it has proven that teachers now have a better classroom management, effective instruction, and better teacher-student relationships. It also shows that teachers who use SEL in the classroom have a more effective way of engaging students in learning, managing, and conflicts. One thing that I think is really important to remember is SEL must be implement with culture and equity at the forefront. 

    The next article that we read was the 8 New Characteristics of Middle school. Those characteristics being: 1. Struggle with basic school 101 expectations, 2. apathy disengagement, and disconnection, 3. Increase absenteeism, 4. Dehumanization of authority figures and disrespect for property, 5. Inclination and ability to debate bad behavior, 6. Pack mentality, along with human threading, 7. Expanding voice and self advocacy, and 8. inability to handle mixed messages. With these 8 new characteristics we need to ensure that we can re-engage our students, have routines and produce positive behavior, empower students for their positive work, and boost students accountability for their schoolwork. These are important because we now see a different approach to have to "correct" some mistakes in our classroom as well as allowing students to have choice in what they do. 

    The last thing we had to do for this module was watch the "Emotional intelligence from a teenage perspective| Maximilian Park| TEDxYouth TED Talk. In this TED talk, it starts with Max talking about his experience of rejection. He tried to escape his pain but realized that it just kept coming back where his "body burned". He didn't go to school, struggled with school work, and struggled with anxiety during his "painful" time. He says that needed a "life raft" because he couldn't his emotions because he didn't "have a high emotional intelligence quotient". I liked his example of anxiety being "A snow ball rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger with each passing minute until it becomes unmanageable" because it shows how anxiety builds up so much before it takes over someones life. This TED talk touches base on everything we have learned about. The way he brings in the statistics proves that brining in SEL can reduce so many mental health issues and us teachers can help with them. He says that watching and learning SEL helped pull him out of anxiety and if we educated every student of SEL, we could help pull them back to their happy self instead of building up thick walls that decay their learning. 

Personal connection: 

    SEL was never apparent to me in school. I cant recall a single lesson a teacher taught us on SEL. As a middle schooler, I had clinical depression and anxiety. I feel that if I was taught these different things in SEL, I would have felt and done much better in school. As you know, I had it rough growing up without a visible mother figure. I wanted to have one so bad that I felt myself sinking into a dark hole that was hard to get out of. The only recommendation teachers and the school had for me was therapy. I seen a therapist in school that our district hired. It got to the point where my dad had to sign papers that allowed me to be an out of school patient with their company. This went on for years. The school never seemed to help with the anxiety or depression. The teachers just continued to hound me for not having things done on time or not doing as well. If they would have taught be the simple baseline of SEL, then I would have been better academically and emotionally. I don't blame the school for my issues, I don't blame them for anything. I just wish they did better at addressing students mental health issues so the students' could do better and feel better.

In Field: 

    Dominion does such a fantastic job address SEL. In my social studies classroom, they had a counselor from the SEL department come in and give a whole lesson on where to find them, what they do, what SEL is, and other things that were beneficial for the students. I have noticed that many of the students act differently with their assignments. Some don't do them, some turn them in late, and some get them done one time. My point is, these students could all be going through something that we just can't see. Understanding and watching for the sign can help my CT and I ensure the students are doing the best they can for their education and mental health. We had a student (who I won't name) that was clearly going through something. They had been transfer into the classroom due to issues in other. This student noticeably didn't want anything to do with the class or other students (at first). After this class period, my CT had reached out to all the counselors and requested someone pull them from a class to figure out what was going on and if we could fix the issue before it got any worse. Since then, this student seems to be doing so much better. They are working and talking with other classmates, and doing the in class work. 

Future Classroom: 

    In my future classroom, I plan to something similar to what my CT did. I want to bring in a counselor to speak on SEL. I think that having this yearly with each new class can help them see that there is people to talk to. Keeping them educated on SEL and implementing it into my classroom, can help me manage the behaviors, get students help if they need it, and ensure that I am providing the best support I can for everyone. I could also tie a lesson to SEL and have the students research different factors and product a project from it. This will help them learn each factor and have a deep understanding of it!