Adult SEL: Regular opportunities for staff to cultivate their own social, emotional, and cultural competence, collaborate with one another, build trusting relationships, and maintain a strong community. CASEL - Indicators of Schoolwide SEL
An important part of building staff skills around SEL is modeling by school leaders. These strategies can provide ideas for administrators and leadership teams to build relationships and show staff they are cared for and appreciated.
As the SEL team works to develop a schoolwide professional learning plan, staff can choose to take it one step further and develop their own personalized professional learning plan to support the school’s SEL goals.
Focus Area 2: Continuous Improvement Connections
A safe and supportive school climate is an important factor for improving academic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes for students (Thapa, 2013).
Establish a structured, ongoing process to collect, reflect on, and use implementation and outcome data to inform school-level decisions and drive improvements to SEL implementation.
Professional Learning Communities
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.
Carol Dweck is a psychologist who researches achievement and success. Her major finding is that those who have a “growth mindset”—those who believe that their abilities are developed through dedication and hard work, not innate talent—are more likely to be resilient when things get tough and persevere to achieve goals (Dweck, 2006).
Students have a unique perspective on how high-level decisions impact the day-to-day life of the school, and their voices are critical to quality schoolwide SEL implementation. By listening to students, schools can make informed decisions about the changes that will best support all learners.
Set goals and action steps to cultivate SEL for adults
Supporting adults to engage in their own social and emotional learning, collaborating on strategies to promote SEL, and modeling SEL throughout the school is an essential part of schoolwide SEL. More than just professional learning, the SEL team should also take steps to foster a supportive work environment where SEL is part of the way […]
Establish Discipline Policies that Promote SEL
When discipline policies and practices are supportive, developmentally-appropriate, and equitable, they reinforce SEL and support stronger relationships, student engagement, and equitable outcomes.