Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Metacognitive Strategies for Improving Students' Mental Health

Metacognitive Strategies for Improving Students’ Mental Health

Presenter linkDeanne Kildare OpatoskyPresenter linkEdward P. DarrahPresenter linkJames SavagePresenter linkRichard K. CohenPresenter linkSusan Olsen Stevens
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Categories: 21st Century Skills, Instruction, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Now more than ever, students need skills, strategies, and mental processes to more effectively cope with the many challenges that COVID-19, racial inequities, and distance learning pose.

Although many educators teach a wide range of critical-thinking skills, problem-solving processes, and coping strategies, students often lack the ability to independently identify and apply the appropriate critical-thinking skill, problem-solving process, or coping strategy to help them stay calm, think clearly, and resolve conflicts. Read more

Addressing the Whole Child with a Team Approach

Addressing the Whole Child with a Team Approach

Presenter linkBradley BalchPresenter linkTonya Balch
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Categories: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Based on Building Great Mental Health Professional–Teacher Teams

Education is clearly in an era of rapid change, with many pressures bearing down on the teaching and learning environment—from student and family challenges to the need for continuous improvement while addressing the whole child. 

This can be daunting, if not exhausting, for educators. In fact, many educators did not receive the pre-service training to address these complex and often competing pressures. Other educators may have access to quality professional development related to whole-child issues but have not been able to successfully translate these new learnings into new classroom skills or dispositions.  Read more

Five Keys to Personalizing Deeper Learning

Five Keys to Personalizing Deeper Learning

Presenter linkJames A. Bellanca
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Categories: 21st Century Skills, Instruction, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Student Engagement, Technology

Based on Personalized Deeper Learning

Here’s a scenario to get us started: A colleague, Tom, is shoulder-deep advocating for technology as the best way to personalize learning for every kid. To start, he favors that every student be on a computer. For him, tech makes life easier for teachers.

I feel compelled to challenge Tom’s belief that every kid must have a digital program for every subject, all day, every day, if his teachers are going to personalize learning. (For starters, his declaration eliminates personalized learning for students who have neither a computer nor the internet, and most of those whose classrooms may have limited devices.) Read more

Want to know how students are faring in 2020? Ask them!

Want to Know How Students Are Faring in 2020? Ask Them!

Presenter linkLeigh ColburnPresenter linkLinda Beggs
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Categories: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Technology

Based on The Wraparound Guide

Like virtually everyone, students are facing unprecedented changes and challenges in 2020: distance learning, canceled or altered social interactions, closed schools, altered athletics schedules, disruption of extracurricular activities, changed family dynamics, and perhaps sick—or even lost—loved ones. 

Schools also face rocky terrain as they attempt to resume this fall—whether in person, online, or through a combination of both media. Typical school policies and school improvement plans simply won’t provide the guidance educators need to weather this storm, especially when they also are personally impacted by current events. Read more

How We Know What We Know

How We Know What We Know

Presenter linkBrian M. PetePresenter linkRobin J. Fogarty
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Categories: Instruction, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Thinking about Thinking in IB Schools: How We Know What We Know (Fogarty, Pete, 2020) examines teaching techniques in International Baccalaureate schools, focusing on a curricular framework that is used on the international instructional scene.

For students influenced by the high expectations of this “IB kind of study,” their performances show evidence of thought and a rare mindfulness for young learners. That said, this is a practical guide framed by the fine curricular beliefs crafted by the founders of the IB schools (2018) and the Theory of Knowledge (2014). Read more