SEL is development of the whole person. Through this work, we teach students how to be successful learners, friends, and eventually employees. I teach high school students and sometimes struggle to fit in SEL in my classroom because we must move so quickly to ensure we learn everything on the Regents or AP exams that my students take.
However, I do a lot of group work and discussions in my class. I think I want to monitor my students better this year on how they communicate in these group and teach them how they can assign roles so everyone works together cooperatively and efficiently and how they can be problem solvers when they feel someone is doing less of the work than they should. I want to teach them language or phrases they could use to respectfully disagree with their peers.
I am thinking this year I want to do some sort of activity weekly or biweekly where all students get together and do a community circle maybe. I have done mindfulness walks where I would give the students a happy prompt to think about, or coloring days monthly with electives. I think this is something I can work into my more advanced classes. It really is just one day for them to relax and refocus their attention. My students always left feeling calm and happy, and I felt like we were all more connected to one another.
However, I do a lot of group work and discussions in my class. I think I want to monitor my students better this year on how they communicate in these group and teach them how they can assign roles so everyone works together cooperatively and efficiently and how they can be problem solvers when they feel someone is doing less of the work than they should. I want to teach them language or phrases they could use to respectfully disagree with their peers.
I am thinking this year I want to do some sort of activity weekly or biweekly where all students get together and do a community circle maybe. I have done mindfulness walks where I would give the students a happy prompt to think about, or coloring days monthly with electives. I think this is something I can work into my more advanced classes. It really is just one day for them to relax and refocus their attention. My students always left feeling calm and happy, and I felt like we were all more connected to one another.