Everyday SEL in High School

Integrating Social-Emotional Learning and Mindfulness Into Your Classroom

Carla Tantillo Philibert

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315460994
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

With this new book from educational consultant Carla Tantillo Philibert, you'll gain practical strategies for teaching Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), mindfulness, movement, and team-building to help your students grow into contributing and compassionate citizens of the world. You'll find out how to lead students through meditation activities, simple yoga poses, breathing techniques, and other practicalmethods to help you proactively manage your classroom by meeting your students' SEL needs. Topics include:

• Empowering your students to understand their emotions, improve their focus, manage stress, and regulate their behavior
• Introducing your students to the concept of mindfulness and how it fits within the SEL framework
• Crafting an emotionally, physically, and mentally safe classroom climate and culture
• Engaging your students in activities to strengthen peer-to-peer communication, community-building, and leadership skills
• Providing your students the safe space to test their SEL skills through experiential learning, team work, and class discussions
• Honing your own SEL competency through professional development so both you and your students can get the most out of your school's SEL experience

This book also offers a set of Professional Development Facilitator's Guides to help you and your colleagues master the core competencies of SEL and implement them effectively across your school or district. The appendix provides additional strategies for teaching personal space, Safe Touch, and making mindful accommodations for students who have experienced trauma.

1

Social-Emotional Learning: An Approach, Not a Program

When I taught high school there was a student of mine, Roger, who couldn’t concentrate on my oh-so-fabulous haiku poetry lesson because he was scared and hungry. I didn’t see that. I saw a student that was disrupting the lesson I worked all weekend creating. Each time he fidgeted or talked I thought, “Ugh, he SO doesn’t appreciate the hard work that went into this lesson. He is disrupting all the students next to him! I worked WAY too hard on this lesson for this little punk to ruin it. I should just photocopy the questions at the back of the chapter like the rest of the teachers in my department. These kids don’t get ALL the hard work that goes into teaching. I should have been an accountant, like my cousin Mikey.”

Finally, after trying to redirect Roger multiple times, I strongly disciplined him, as I did the next day and the day after that as his behavior continued. Venting to my colleagues later in the week about Roger (in a less-than-compassionate “I don’t know what is wrong with this kid” type way), I discovered that his younger sister, Brandy, had been caught sneaking food from the school cafeteria. Putting all the pieces together, we figured out that Roger was hungry. His younger siblings were hungry. His mom, who had a problem with heroin and had gone on “benders” before, had deserted them and Roger didn’t know where she was or where their next meal was coming from. Of course, my fabulous haiku poetry lesson didn’t matter to him! He was stuck in the panic of meeting his and his siblings’ basic needs with zero resources or support. This was coupled with concern for his mother’s well-being along with hiding the truth so that he and his siblings would not end up in foster care. Again. Examining the climate and culture of my classroom, I realized that there were no SEL or mindfulness tools to meet Roger’s physical, emotional, or mental needs. As an educator passionate about her craft, I naively thought that my dynamic lessons were enough to engage my students in learning, regardless of what was happening outside of the schoolhouse doors.

Witnessing Roger’s struggle first-hand as an educator, I came to terms with the ugly reality that I was failing him. It was my responsibility to teach the “whole child,” not just the part of him that I thought should want and to learn haiku poetry. Yes, the best SEL or mindfulness strategies could not have put food in Roger’s belly, but they could have mitigated the crippling anxiety of the unknown. Without teaching Roger the tools to be present and ready to learn amidst life’s chaos, his ability to excel in school would be negatively impacted. Thus, I fueled the cycle of dysfunction and poverty in which he and his siblings were enmeshed. If Roger did not walk out of my class at the end of the year with the SEL and mindfulness tools in place to succeed in life – and with the ability to write an amazing haiku poem – then I didn’t do my job. Especially at my high school which boasted “creating life-long learners” in our fancy mission statement.

For Roger to succeed in my classroom, I needed to create space in my instruction for students to develop an awareness of their physical, emotional, and mental needs, so that he and others would be empowered to move out of “survival mode” (fight, flight, or freeze) and be present and ready to learn. Given the politics and legal restrictions of schools, a situation like Roger’s is complex on many levels. But, at the end of the day, the lesson is a good one for all educators, regardless of the demographic they serve. If our students’ basic needs are not met, they cannot be present and ready to learn.

This book fuses the practices of SEL, mindfulness, yoga, and connecting with others through team-building activities into one comprehensive approach we call Mindful Practices (see Figure 1.1). Mindful Practices are those practices that help cultivate awareness of body and mind so that one can operate with compassion for self and others. While SEL or mindfulness on their own do not traditionally include yoga, movement, or student wellness, Mindful Practices looks at the needs of the whole child: physical, emotional, and mental, as when these three are in balance, a student is able to achieve.

Mindfulness is an important part of these practices as its inclusion into the classroom setting creates “present learners,” or students and teachers who are empowered to move through activation so they are able to focus on the task at hand. Mindfulness empowers practitioners to be conscious and aware amidst emotional, physical, or mental disturbances and distractions.

Figure 1.1 SEL, mindfulness, and movement in the classroom: Mindful Practices’ two-part transformative process

The Mindful Practices approach moves beyond a program that teachers merely implement, into a method of crafting instruction that meets the competing needs of the whole child. Looking at everything from a student’s overall wellness (Is lack of sleep keeping a student from being present? Is a student’s physical need to move his body keeping him from being able to focus?) to what drives student interactions (Is there a conflict with a peer that keeps a student’s mind focused on “survival” instead of being present in the classroom?), teachers are given the diagnostic tools to look beyond content delivery. When we frame the implementation of SEL and mindfulness in our classrooms around creating a community of learners that is empowered to be present, we are able to overcome the negative narrative (test scores, “problem students,” etc.) that is often preventing educators from teaching to their full potential.

This book provides the tools needed for the implementation of an SEL and mindfulness approach that brings practitioner and student into a compassionate and safe connection. We’ll explore the belief that the goal of SEL and mindfulness – the ability to be present and aware “in the moment” to practice Self-Efficacy and contribute to Social Harmony – is a commonality shared across class, gender, and culture for both educator and student. For teachers to be effective, students must feel comfortable stepping through vulnerability into learning, creativity, and problem-solving. The Mindful Practices model outlined in this book challenges school stakeholders to stop viewing SEL and mindfulness practices as something that “underperforming children” need as a “special treatment” and to understand this as a collective learning process needed by all, because everyone regularly experiences stress, anxiety, and negativity. By shifting the emphasis from a handful of “problem children” receiving the services to SEL being a “Tier 1” intervention for the entire class, the Mindful Practices model outlined in this book will empower teachers and students to cultivate Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, and Social Awareness through intentional practice in a safe and structured classroom environment so that the balance can be found between Self-Efficacy and Social Harmony (Figure 1.2).

These practices provide teachers and students with the tools to understand their connection to the world, how to positively express themselves within it, and how they can balance their own needs alongside the needs of the collective. When the school experience is reframed from the adult and child being in opposition to the collective working toward a common, interpersonal goal not only are life-long skills developed, but also the school climate and culture becomes physically, emotionally, and mentally safe for all.

The Mindful Practices approach utilizes SEL, mindfulness, yoga, and connection to teach the following four competencies:

1.Self-Awareness: self-esteem, body awareness, personal responsibility, emotional awareness, and understanding choice. Practicing these activities cultivates an awareness of SELF and shifts the learner from powerlessness to empowered.

2.Self-Regulation: adaptability, expressing emotions, managing stress, anger and anxiety, problem-solving, self-inquiry, and decision-making skills.
Practicing these activities creates the bridge from awareness to regulation and shifts the learner from impulsivity to intentional navigation of behavioral choices.

3.Social Awareness: active listening, empathy, service orientation, and community-building.
Practicing these skills cultivates an awareness of the SOCIAL construct and shifts the learner from a reactive, victimized mindset to a more proactive, communal view of their role in the world around them.

4.Self-Efficacy and Social Harmony: leadership, managing vulnerability, collaboration, teamwork, influence of SELF and others, understanding relationships with SELF and others, operating with compassion toward SELF and others, and effective peer-to-peer communication.
When practiced and in balance, the learner feels centered, present, and like a valued and contributing member of the world around them. This competency also reflects the learner’s ability to find her voice and balance the needs of the SELF with the needs of the SOCIAL, without projection, assumption, or excessive self-sacrifice.

Figure 1.2 The Mindful Practices model

When providing PD training to schools across the country, many school stakeholders express concern that the SEL competencies are often too vague for their students. By creating a chart of observable behaviors, educators can make SEL more ex...