SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING NEWS

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love."- Lao Tzu

Fall is a season of transformation. The day becomes shorter, the temperatures become cooler, and the night becomes longer. During this fall we will experience social transformations as well. So, this month's newsletter will continue with our department's theme of highlighting community, connection, and care. The resources and celebrations emphasized in this month's newsletter focuses on how kindness is instrumental in building healthy and authentic relationships. Kindness sustains community, connection, and care during transformation. It provides support, empathy, and acknowledgment of our humanity. During the month of October, we acknowledge two important events that build upon kindness, relationships, community, connection, and care. October is National Hispanic Heritage Month and National Bullying Prevention Month. October's newsletter has many opportunities and resources for you to engage with that highlights the importance of social and emotional learning in establishing safe and encouraging school culture and climate.

Our SEL focus of the month is Self-Awareness. Self awareness is the ability to recognize one’s own emotions, thoughts, behaviors and values and how they influence behavior. Self-awareness is also the demonstration of being able to accurately assess one’s own strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a "growth mindset". When we are able to demonstrate self-awareness we are able to establish and maintain rewarding relationships with others. We are also able to recognize where we need support so that we can do more than just survive but we can thrive. Check out the examples below from www.mylearningtools.com as ways to intentionally practice self-awareness in and out of the classroom.

In the classroom

1. Teaching students about the science of Metacognition and how their brains are wired for growth.
2. Coaching students to practice recognizing what they don’t understand.
3. Teaching students the art of reflection/self-reflection by integrating opportunities to practice it into coursework.
4. Having students write frequently in “learning journals.”
5. Implementing a “wrapper” activity (an activity that concludes a lesson by having students write down three key ideas they took away from the lesson and comparing their ideas to the teacher’s). This develops active-listening and monitoring skills.
6. Facilitating reflexive thinking (“the metacognitive process of being aware of our biases”).

Outside of the classroom

1. Looking at oneself objectively.
2. Keeping a journal.
3. Writing down one’s goals, plans and priorities.
4. Performing daily self-reflection.
5. Engaging in meditation and other mindfulness habits (Developgoodhabits.com has 71of them!).
6. Taking personality and psychometric tests (Myer-Briggs, Predictive Index).
7. Asking trusted friends to describe you.
8. Asking for feedback at work from students and staff.

Foster Relationships and Build Community to Minimize Bullying. Building social and emotional competence supports positive relationships and community. When we work to learn more about each other and to appreciate differences, we become more accepting of others and thus develop positive climate for all members of our community. Those skills help to break down barriers and decrease incidents of bullying.

1. Get to know each other - Engage in activities that allow students to get to know each other. The more they learn about commonalities and differences, the more they can learn to appreciate each other. Circle conversations and affinity games are great ways to learn about each other.
2. Create a sense of belonging - To create a sense of belonging, get to know each child as an individual. Make sure you know their names and can pronounce them correctly. Encourage student voice by creating a variety of ways for students to engage in academic and social activities.
3. Treat differences as assets - We often teach students to look for things they have in common as a way to build connections. This is a good strategy. But, it is also a good strategy to highlight differences. Differences give us varied experiences and viewpoints. That variety makes our communities richer. So, celebrate differences just as much as we celebrate commonalities.

Research confirms that our feelings have a huge influence on our decision making, and yet often in the moment, we aren’t aware of how we’re feeling or how those feelings are influencing our behaviors.

The Mood Meter (Marc Brackett) is designed to help us learn to recognize emotions, in ourselves and others, with increasing subtlety and to develop strategies for regulating (or managing) those emotions. It provides us with a “language” to talk about our feelings.

The Mood Meter is a tool that is heavily supported by the SEL Department because of its direct alignment with the 5 core SEL competencies. This tool provides a mindful moment for both adults and students and can be used for an opener or optimistic closure for various settings

How it works:

The Mood Meter is a square divided into four quadrants — red, blue, green, and yellow — each representing a different set of feelings. Different feelings are grouped together on the Mood Meter based on their pleasantness and energy level. (You can download an interactive MoodMeter app here for 99 cents, or print an old-fashioned PDF here.)

▪ RED feelings: high in energy and low in pleasantness (e.g., angry, scared, and anxious);
▪ BLUE feelings: low in energy and low in pleasantness (e.g., sad, disappointed, and lonely);
▪ GREEN feelings: low in energy and high in pleasantness (e.g., calm, tranquil, and relaxed);
▪ YELLOW feelings: high in energy and high in pleasantness (e.g., happy, excited, and curious).

Read more here.

Recently, some adaptations of the mood meter have surfaced across many platforms that put a fun-spin on meetings and learning spaces during remote working and learning. You may recognize a few of these icons whom we all love. These adaptations are sure to bring you some humor and excitement as you prepare to check-in with each other’s moods. Here are a few that we love in our department.

Have you seen any other iconic faces or characters checking your mood? Have you created your rendition of a mood meter using icons or characters? We would love for you to share those out and tell when/where you used them Tweet them out to us at @GCS_SEL_Office.

Winner of National Parenting Publications Award and Mom's Choice Award!

Everybody knows how it feels to be ostracized, isolated, or taunted, but most of us are at a loss when it comes to knowing how to make it better. In Carrie Goldman's groundbreaking book, Bullied, she offers concrete solutions for parents, teachers, and kids on how to effectively respond to painful situations—whether it is a normal social conflict or more serious bullying.

Goldman's warm, engaging style combines the real-life stories of bullies, victims, bystanders, and their parents with the most cutting edge scientific research to provide a thorough analysis of cruelty in our culture. She explores how the pop culture permeates homes and schools, often impacting the way kids view those who are different from the accepted norm.

Bullied comprehensively addresses issues such as:

• The media's influence on aggression and bullying
• How to prevent cyberbullying, or how to manage cyberbullying once it has begun
• How to safely shift from being a bystander into a witness or an ally
• Effects of bullying on the brain, both for bullies and for victims
• Steps to take with the school if you are being bullied or sexually harassed
• A comprehensive look at restorative justice as a non-punitive response to bullying
• Techniques to help you deal with verbal taunting in the moment it is happening
• Identifying the difference between normal social drama and bullying
• Knowing when to ask for help and how to access effective help

The mother of a bullied first grader, Goldman's inspiring true story triggered an outpouring of support from online communities around the world. Bullied is a research-based book born from Goldman's blog post about the ridicule her daughter suffered for bringing a Star Wars thermos to school—a story that went viral on Facebook and Twitter before exploding everywhere, from CNN.com and Yahoo.com to sites all around the world. More than 200 people were interviewed for the book, including parents, teachers, kids, social workers, authors, celebrities, researchers, psychologists, actors, actresses, and school administrators. It is a wealth of knowledge packaged in a fascinating read.

Join us and participate with Unity Day on Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Wear and share orange to show that we are together against bullying, and united for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion. We will all come together in one giant ORANGE message of hope and support and demonstrate that our society believes that no child should ever experience bullying.

https://www.pacer.org/bullying/nbpm/

Connections Corner is a new feature of our SEL Newsletter. In this space, we will make connections between Social Emotional Learning and other educational initiatives and practices.

This month we are focusing on hearing students’ voices. Elevating students’ voices is a key practice when using SEL as a lever for equity, building authentic relationships, and developing a learning culture and climate where every student feels included and connected. What are some ways that teachers can work to make sure students' voices are heard?

(Resource: Hacking School Discipline: 9 Ways to Create a Culture of Empathy and Responsibility Using Restorative Justice by Nathan Maynard and Brad Weinstein)

Of course, having the time to allow for student input is a typical concern of many teachers who do want to make it a practice to hear from students. One way to get a quick win in hearing from students is to allow some time to develop overall expectations for the classroom by asking students to consider “What is the ideal classroom environment?” and “How do we make sure we have that environment?” Consider the following process or something similar in which to engage your students as they return to in-person learning:

1. Have students get in a circle. Designate a scribe.

2. Have students turn to a neighbor and discuss their favorite class or teacher from any grade level. Have them focus on what was it about that class that made them feel safe and respected and the class conducive to learning?

3. Discuss as a group what were the characteristics that were named. Make sure that the students describe the teacher’s interactions with students and students’ interactions with each other.

4. Have the scribe record the characteristics and behaviors named that made this an ideal setting and add other characteristics as they are brought up.

5. Next have the group describe the opposite sort of class/environment

6. Have the scribe record the answers.

7. Have the students look at the list. What are the most important features? What is a broad expectation (Be respectful) and what is a rule (Stay within your “bubble” – space)?

8. Develop some overall expectations from the list and/or point out which areas fit under the school’s school-wide expectations that are already developed.

9. Organize the list and hang in the classroom as the agreement that you all have reached that ensures a safe, respectful, and inclusive classroom environment.

Another practice that allows you to hear from students is to make circles the norm as a way to check in with students and to discuss classroom issues and resolve conflicts. When using circles in this way, you will find that one a process is set, that circle time can be short, from 2 to 10 minutes. Here are some things to consider when using circles:

1. Use a signal to let students know it is time to have a circle. A signal such as “circle up” will work.

2. Make sure that you have thought through and taught a procedure for “circle up.”

3. When students are in the circle set the following expectations:

a. You may speak when you have the “talking piece”

b. When we are resolving conflicts, state facts only

c. Use “I statements” and other sentence stems in the discussions such as “I agree with ___ because… I disagree with ___ because…. You will need to teach your students what these are and how to use them.

4. Set a time limit (2 – 10 minutes).

5. Talk through using the “talking piece.”

6. Ask for ideas on how to resolve the issues and develop any action items that are needed to move forward.

7. Summarize and thank the students for participating.

We are always here to serve you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of our team if we can provide any support. To find out which SEL Specialist is assigned to your school, click here. http://bit.ly/SELSP

LaTrayl Adams, MS
Social Emotional Learning Specialist
adamsl2@gcsnc.com

Lisa Brenner, MSW
Director of Social Emotional Learning
brennel@gcsnc.com

Cynthia Brown, M.Ed
Social Emotional Learning Specialist
brownc2@gcsnc.com

Tawanda Carpenter, MS
Positive Supports and Bullying Prevention Coordinator
carpent@gcsnc.com

Shan J. Carter, MPA
Social Emotional Learning Specialist
carters6@gcsnc.com

Jacob Hicks, MS
Service Learning and Character Education Coach
hicksj@gcsnc.com

Sherry Rogowski, Ed.S.
Positive Culture and Climate Coordinator
rogowss@gcsnc.com

Tinisha Shaw, MS
Social Emotional Learning Specialist

shawt2@gcsnc.com

Social Emotional Learning & Character Education

@GCS_SEL_OFFICE