Social Emotional Learning (SEL)is a big deal, and will continue to be an issue for teachers and schools in the future.
If your district is anything like mine, you’ve been fielding a lot more crisis in school. That means dealing with a big increase in behaviors. This is impacting classroom learning…whether you are in person or virtual teaching. Students are struggling with all of the uncertainty that the world threw at us in 2020. Teachers are having to find new and innovative way to deal with their emotional struggles.
Students with special needs struggle alongside their typically developing peers. For many general education teachers, this is the first time they have encountered some of the extreme behaviors students exhibit when they are unable to regulate themselves. Many special education teachers are familiar with these behaviors, but are overwhelmed with the volume of students struggling now.
Is Incorporating SEL in classrooms important?
SEL is a process that everyone goes through during which we learn to identify and manage our emotions, learn to make and keep healthy relationships, learn to make and keep goals for ourselves, and develop an understanding for who we are and how that impacts how we behave. But what does that really mean?
When I think of Social Emotional Learning, I think about all of my students along a continuum of emotional and social skills. Those students who need the most support in this area usually start with just identifying and slowly learning to regulate their emotions. As these skills grow, the students learn how to relate to their peers, as well as adults in their lives, and learn to create healthy relationships with others. Part of this is learning how to communicate effectively, and learning about themselves and how they fit into the world.
How much more important a lesson could we teach students than how to form healthy relationships and figure out where they fit in the world?
I can hear teachers now saying things like “How do I have time to teach THAT in my already packed day?” or “Ok, yeah it’s important. But that is definitely something that we didn’t teach in schools years ago. Isn’t that something the parents should be teaching?”
And in answer to those teachers…. You are completely right! There is not a true focus to teach these skills in school…. You aren’t going to find these skills delineated in any state standards…and no, this wasn’t explicitly taught years ago..
But, we teach a lot of things now that weren’t taught previously…like the history of racism. Just because it wasn’t taught in the past, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taught now.
Years ago, when students came to school who didn’t fit the behavior mold, who acted out, who didn’t know how to fit into the culture or communicate were either kicked out of school or ostracized.
The fact is, we have to teach these skills if we are going to help all of our students become successful in school and out. SEL in classrooms is essential, no matter the age or subject/ I’m not saying that it is easy, or that teachers have an abundant amount of time to work on SEL skills, but the alternative isn’t acceptable anymore.
I know how frustrating it is to have a student rip apart my classroom; destroy things that I bought with my own money for my students to get to use; hit, kick, and punch me. I know what it is like to go to my car, drive home in silence, and sit in my driveway and ugly cry.
There is too much trauma in students lives. There are too many messed up things that these students have seen or been exposed to. They bring all that to school with them and take it out on us….because we are their safe place. We are where they go and act out….usually as a cry for help. Whether it is because of trauma they have experienced, or anxiety they feel about life in general, when they act out, it affects us. It affects our classrooms. The students around them are affected.
The solution to all of this isn’t suspension or expulsion…. It isn’t ostracizing these kids…. The only solution that works is teaching them the skills that they need (and currently lack) to deal with the situations they are faced with. SEL in classrooms is the way to solve this problem for so many students. We can’t erase the trauma. We can’t change anything at home in reality…all we as educators can do is create a safe place for these students where they can learn the social and emotional skills they need to be able to face their demons.
SEL is teaching our students how to face their demons and win.
It is giving our students the skills they need to be successful, functional adults when they leave the school setting. SEL in classrooms may be optional according to school boards and standards. It isn’t optional if we truly want our students to be successful.
I encourage you to talk to your school counselor or school mental health person about what resources are available in your school for SEL
Click the picture to check out how I have incorporated SEL into my classroom for years.
I’ve been using my Feelings Journal for many years as a tool to help students practice pieces of SEL. I’ve also taught many lessons over the years about many different emotional or social skills. The lessons vary just as much as the needs our students exhibit. One thing is true across grade and skill levels…. Explicitly teaching a skill has a much greater impact than hinting at the skill. Expecting students to pick up appropriate behaviors by observation just doesn’t work for many students. Our most needy students have way too many things they are trying to figure out and keep under control to be effective observers. So, if you want students to exhibit a behavior, explicitly teach it, practice it, and reinforce it. That is the basis for all teaching…whether it is academics or SEL.