Many school districts and teachers like you know that the social and emotional learning is going to be necessary this upcoming school year. I have heard from many of you saying that you want access to an entire curriculum of social emotional learning. Social and emotional learning is important every school year. This upcoming school year it’s going to be vital. Between COVID, current events, job loss, family financial problems, many of you have said that you want to have a daily curriculum to foster social emotional learning in your classroom.
Our students’ needs are going to look a bit different and it’s going to be so important that we are teaching self control, managing emotions, respect, compassion, empathy, responsibility, self regulation, conflict resolution, and so much more!
I have been teaching SEL in my first grade classroom for more than ten years now. I have taught it in person until March. Then, I really needed to change things up because of school closures. I blogged about SEL a few years ago and while what I wrote there stays true, I wanted to discuss the virtual piece today.
Since I teach first grade, I approach SEL differently than say a third or fifth grade teacher would. The work set, capacity and stamina of 5 and 6 year olds at the beginning of the school year is short. I really try to focus my teaching on one point the first half of the year. I use my SEL curriculum because the curriculum we are provided is very basic.
We begin the day in morning meeting, which is where we begin our SEL work. Morning meeting is something I will always make the time for. It not only sets the tone for the day but makes students feel connected. Morning meeting provides that safe space because over time students learn to associate that morning time together as a place to come together and share about different things and different feelings. They know that time happens every day. Consistency and structure provide safety for all students. I’m so lucky I work with administration that understands the importance of relationships and Maslow before Bloom. They expect every classroom to have SEL time every day.
Morning meeting is when I introduce what we will be learning about in SEL. Sometimes we will read a book, share about feelings, have a class meeting, watch a video, do a team builder, activity, or act out appropriate/inappropriate behaviors. There are so many options.
Throughout the day, I remind the class what we are working on. At read aloud time, we often read a book about the sel competency we are learning about. We end the day with more SEL so students can remember what they’ve learned as they leave school and enter their homes. I like to give students something to try or do at home to extend their learning.
At the beginning of the year we focus on the SEL competency self-awareness. I spend a lot of time on this competency! Not only is it the foundation for all SEL competencies, it focuses on knowing yourself, recognizing emotions, and a growth mindset. These are lifelong skills. Next, we spend many weeks on self management. Self-regulation is hard for many people so we need to be teaching students about it at a young age. Then, we spend the rest of the year with the final three social emotional competencies: social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. As the year progresses, students have more stamina and understand how morning meeting works so we can accomplish more during our morning and review throughout the day.
When we switched to online school in March, I realized I wanted to continue teaching SEL and it was even more important given school closures. That’s when I began to convert my SEL curriculum to digital. I assigned slides through Google Classroom so students could continue to learn and grow socially and emotionally. We discussed our lessons prior to the students jumping onto Google Classroom in the morning during our virtual meeting.
Parents were so thankful for students engaging in SEL at home. They reported it helped them during a stressful time. Often siblings would participate, too. Parents were able to use language and examples from the curriculum with students. What feedback could be better than this?
In addition to the curriculum, I had each student check in with me every morning. I wanted to know how each of my students were doing and how I could help them. I knew my students still needed to feel connected even though we were apart.
When I think about the possibility of beginning this upcoming school year online, I feel that SEL instruction is going to be vital. I am working as hard as I can to convert my files to digital. You can check the bundle out here. Just know the price will rise once all of the digital files are added.
Want to try my digital morning check – in for free? Click here.
Do you teach SEL? Let me know what you think the most important skills for first graders are in the comments below.
