Social-Emotional Learning

Reboot for Schools is a mindfulness curriculum, providing daily 3-minute audio guided mindful moments that build on each other throughout the year.

Students learn breathing, empathy, self awareness, and self regulation while developing tools to help with focus, stress, and building positive school communities. Each mindful moment ends with a positive direction for the student to remember throughout the day which helps keep students mindful and builds school culture (e.g., sit with someone you don’t know at lunch or lend a helping hand to your teacher).

Access Reboot on Clever today! Mindfulness for students and staff!

I have had several buildings ask me about de-escalation techniques and connection skills for staff. It is all about regulation and co-regulation. The 3 R’s(regulate, relate and then reason).

Regulation is the process in which you are able “to put time and thought between an action.” ~Dr. Bruce Perry

"Co-Regulation is the presence and energy supporting another person in regulating their emotions." ~MegaMinds

Being present, parallel and patient allows them to connect with you to reach the cortex.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like more information on any Social Emotional Learning topic. brandypledgue@trotwood.k12.oh.us

The challenges today’s youth face are unprecedented and uniquely difficult to navigate for both students and school leaders. The impact these challenges have on students’ mental health are concerning, and if unaddressed, they can be devastating. While debates are taking place at the district level, it’s important to listen to students and what they are asking for to improve their social and emotional health.

A recent poll conducted by Navigate360 & John Zogby Strategies found that:

• 60% of surveyed teens are concerned about their emotional health
• 38.5% of teens do not feel their mental health needs are being met at school
• 57.3% of teens are interested in educational content or short courses to help manage stress & anxiety
• 55.1% of teens want part of their curriculum to be spent learning about & working on their social-emotional wellbeing

As we finish out the 4th quarter let us continue to reflect on our PBIS practices that we have put in place this school year. Let us reflect on the data we have reviewed and analyzed through the 5-step process. Let us look at the suspension and expulsion data and reflect on how our PBIS practices have affected the gains or losses. What about our SEL practices? Have we reviewed our survey data to see how each stakeholder feels about the culture and climate we have set in our buildings and throughout our district. All of these factors are important to the ultimate outcome of our district mission of 100% student success. This is why we must put in the work to understand our students' behaviors. This is part of the work of PBIS.

I went to 3 great workshops on Thursday, March 9th, all of which were relevant to the work we do. One workshop was on problem solving where I learned about a program we have at the high school as part of their credit recovery program where we can actually have our Tier 2 and Tier 3 students work on real projects and earn high school credentials for problem solving. I am looking forward to working with Mrs.Taylor-Head to help us integrate this program into our SAIG intervention groups. In the Panorama workshop we learned where we can document our interventions with fidelity. Panorama is also a one stop shop for student data. And the last workshop was with Dr. Cash on self regulation. He shared information on studies about the negative effect the pandemic has had on our students' maturation and ability to self regulate. He emphasized how we have to be even more intentional about co-regulating with our students. The teaching, reteaching, and the modeling of what regulation looks like has to be more and it must be explicit. Dr. Cash implied that we could easily spend at least one year on this strategy alone.

Co-regulatory and restorative practices empower both individuals and the school community to address root causes (rather than just the symptoms) of issues while building and maintaining trust and relationships. And remember PBIS is more than just rewards, it's an intervention system that we can have some autonomy with to create a positive inclusive productive safe school culture for our staff and students.

Here are some some self-reflection questions for you to consider as we finish out the year trying to model self regulation and and making some co-regulation moves in our building:

1. How do we react when students don’t follow directions?

2. What moves do we make when the class is noisy and unfocused?

3. What do we do when getting through a lesson feels impossible?

4. Do I have any biases that affect my ability to deliver my instruction effectively to all students or build relationships with particular students?

5. Do I recognize when I become "deregulated"?

6. How do I know I've built relationships with the students I serve?