Build on Strengths and Experience
Schools, like the greater society, are becoming increasingly more diverse in culture, ethnicity, race, language, values, and beliefs. This diversity has countless positive benefits, but it can also present challenges.
Before launching an SEL action plan, it’s important to take stock of what is going on across your school and previous SEL-related efforts. Build on your strengths and learn from members of your school community who have seen many initiatives come and go by honoring and reflecting on the work that has come before.
The SEL team serves as a model for positive practices that promote healthy relationships among adults, students, and families. It’s highly beneficial to build a strong team dynamic and positive working relationship by developing group norms and team routines.
Review your current level of implementation, identify needs and resources, set goals, and develop concrete action steps for SEL implementation.
Connect and Collaborate With Students
Professional learning communities provide an important opportunity to integrate SEL into existing practices, work collaboratively on the goals of schoolwide SEL, and cultivate their own social and emotional competencies.
Connect and Collaborate With Families
Mentoring programs can help teachers improve their professional relationships while enhancing their SEL and instructional practice.
By making the time to build the relationships that allow learners to feel a sense of community- that they are “in this together”- teachers create a safer, more equitable environment where all students participate and achieve.
Create meaningful partnership opportunities and two-way communication that invites families to understand, experience, inform, and support the social and emotional development of their students.
Focus Area 1b: Continuous Improvement Connections
The core tool used in this guide is the Schoolwide SEL Implementation Rubric. The rubric provides an overview of a systemic approach to schoolwide SEL, and teams can review it to get a sense of what SEL looks like when it is coordinated across classrooms, the school, homes, and the community.
Professional Learning About SEL
As staff use shared agreements to guide their interactions, it’s essential that they also reflect on their own social and emotional growth.