ON SEL STORIES: To paraphrase Carla Tantillo Philibert, SEL isn’t about purchasing another program or adding an extra block to the day. It’s not just for for students in counseling groups or only part of special education programming. Instead, SEL should be spread throughout the day. It should be part of our everyday language & must permeate everything we do as we work with students. This is the only way that we can ensure that ALL students are developing an understanding of self & social awareness. Therefore, we must look at SEL through the lens of tiered supports…and it all starts with our schoolwide routines!
The SEL Story is the center-piece for each Monday’s Social-Emotional Learning lesson and is the backbone to ensuring purposeful talk about social/self awareness! In order to help facilitate this, I have written all our Stories for us and will include them during AM Announcements every Monday (along with some Bulldog Buddy Breathing). You will also receive our Stories each week with the Buzz. This way you can display them via your ELMO during class dialog and print them to include in your writing centers as a prompt!
ON BULLOCK’S UNIVERSAL/TIER 1 SEL ACTIVITIES: Here’s our #EverydaySEL starting point for the fall! Can you add to this based on your class’s needs/interests? ABSOLUTELY! However, we want to start here as a schoolwide initiative to that EVERY staff member that assists our students will have strategies to practice!
Don’t forget that every classroom should also be integrating a
Chill Zone & POP Chart.
For some inspiration & to see some examples of this in practice, click here!
ON SEL TERMS, STORIES & PURPOSEFUL TALK: Each Monday we will be focusing on a different schoolwide SEL Story! Please designate a time do debrief with your students during the day. This can be right after announcements (ideally) or during a transition time that works with your schedule!
The centerpiece of the weekly SEL dialog will be our #EverydaySEL words (see pics below) and we should take the time to define what each term “looks like” for the kiddos as we engage them in purposeful talk. Some ways to get the ball rolling are outlined below, but I’m sure you can think of many more…and if you do, please share!
- Post an SEL Word Wall – Ask students to pick a term that applies to the story and share why in pairs and then as a class (the class portion would allow you to steer the kiddos towards specific terms, for example).
- Place the SEL terms on Popsicle sticks – have a pair pick a stick and talk about it…then pick the best for your class dialog!
- Post the terms in your Chill Zone: Hang or place our terms on a key ring and students can keep them in mind as they Pause, Own-it & Practice!
The Principal's Point of View 