This week we visited WE.org. WE is a movement that gives young people and teachers a platform and tools that help to make a difference in their communities and communities around the world.

During this week’s lesson, we explored the site and reflected on something that we might find helpful in our future classrooms. This week’s assignment caught my attention; this week’s assignment was the section on understanding and implementing social and emotional learning in the classroom. Social-emotional learning is critical to a student’s overall mental health and well-being.

In the learning module on the website, they break SEL’s down into four subsections:

Section 1: Introduction to SEL
Section 2: Self-Care and Understanding Emotions
Section 3: Be Kind to Yourself
Section 4: Building Healthy Relationships and Communication

The first section introduces the learners to social-emotional learning and why it is crucial for student development. As defined by Casel, “social=emotional learning is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal
and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”

Section two of the module discusses self-care and various approaches to help students understand their emotions. Once students can observe their feelings without judgment, they become more aware of the senses and express what they may be experiencing.

Section three of the module discusses the importance of self-love and finding ways to be kind to yourself. The module offers many activities which show different ways to promote self-love. According to the module, “Self-compassion is a source of inner strength that is linked to well-being, resilience, and productivity.” Once, someone told me that I must first learn to love myself for me to love others. I never really understood it until I got older, and it finally made sense.

Our final section discusses building healthy relationships and healthy communication. Communication is key to any healthy relationship. Also, necessary is the give and take. Both parties need to invest equally, or the relationship will falter.

Teaching students about SEL’s and implementing them into my classroom will help facilitate a safer learning environment. Students will better understand their feelings, making it easier to share and positively communicate those feelings. Students will be able to engage and communicate more effectively in the classroom, which will help students become better learners.

Thanks for checking out my blog this week!

Bayta O.