As I’m sure so many fellow teachers can relate–I am obsessed with self-development and personal growth. I know I need to start my day with journaling (and to avoid social media). I know less caffeine makes me function better and think more clearly (unfortunately). And I know that expressing myself in healthy ways is critical to finding balance in my daily life…(and students need this skill too).
Sarah Besand, a teacher and Possip Reporter, shares ways teachers can integrate SEL into their morning meetings.
With the steady rise of Social Emotional Learning (SEL), most teachers know the research behind it and can list many best practices as well. However, it can be challenging to fit this into the daily hustle and bustle of the school schedule.
As a current educator myself, I grapple with this. I can often feel I am still striving to build the classroom community I desire when I am trying to maximize my time with the resources I have. And sometimes as teachers we can feel overwhelmed–in a good way–with the multitude of fabulous resources we do have! But on the flip side, the abyss of planning without guidance can leave us in the dark too. I hear you.
It wasn’t until I was in the midst of my own self growth journey and reading Brene Brown’s latest book that I began to have a new perspective on teaching SEL. This book, Atlas of the Heart, focuses on helping readers understand the complex language of emotions. Her research shows that humans experience up to 87 different emotions and then unpacks the nuance in each of them. I learned about the slight differences between emotions like envy and jealousy, happiness and joyfulness, and shame and blame. I found myself communicating better with those around me while absorbing the book’s concepts.
That’s when the thought struck me–this knowledge could be life-changing for students. Here’s what I learned:
Environment matters.
As I began to imagine how I could combine what I was learning about the language of emotions into my SEL morning meeting time, I knew that the environment surrounding this instruction would be paramount. And this fact was proven over and over and over again.
For me, what works is continuously creating a calming morning space and routine. This includes whispering to my students or using a soft tone of voice when they walk through the door, trading out fluorescent lighting for lamps, and creating a daily morning meeting practice we could return to each day.
I teach the 87 emotions to students one day at a time, but this can be adapted according to your teaching style. This may mean explicitly teaching conflict resolution, self awareness, etc, but the most important part of this SEL practice is co-creating a calming space for students–with students.
What I have noticed as I set up this calming environment is that students began to gravitate toward it naturally. Students come ready to learn about another emotion, share about it, and receive empathy from other classmates. It is a beautiful interaction to witness.
Explicit instruction is essential.
As I taught my students a new emotion each day using Atlas of the Heart as a guide for the first time, I realized how powerful emotional vocabulary can be. My students started at the beginning of the year sharing thoughts like, “I feel happy today because I had a waffle,” to “I feel bittersweet because I’m excited for fourth grade, but I’m going to miss this classroom” by the end of the year. This showed how critical it is to be explicitly taught about the feelings that we experience.
As Brown shares, we so often only have access to “mad, sad, and happy,” and these few words generally won’t cover the vast emotional landscape that exists within. Brown’s book can serve as a pivotal guide for discussion each day, but a similar practice can be adapted regardless of curriculum. Try this conversation starter as a guide:
“The emotion we are learning about today is ______________. I’ve felt this before when _________. Have you ever felt something similar?”
Use emotional awareness to soar in other areas.
The most rewarding part about the explicit teaching of emotional awareness was it lended itself very well to learning other SEL skills. According to CASEL, a framework upon which SEL foundations are built, Self Awareness is one of the main tenants, but so are Self Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-making. As a teacher myself, I wanted to make sure that I covered all of these essential skills, and ensuring students had the prerequisite skill of the language of emotions was a critical step in this process.
Additionally, this was an amazing way to involve families in SEL learning. In my classroom, I sent home this resource as we learned an emotion a day at a time, and I got fantastic feedback from these families. I heard about students using their language to resolve conflicts with siblings, expressing more about their school day with families, and this chart helped expand emotional language used at home. I highly encourage you to review Possip’s Bridging the Empathy Gap in Children as you make your plan to engage families.
Synthesizing these skills at home and school has been so rewarding to watch, and I have been inspired and excited to see it translate into academic success as well. My students have begun to use statements like, “I think this character feels compassion because _______.” or “This character felt anguish when _______.” Getting this big picture success has made me truly realize the power of Social Emotional Learning.
Teachers, I hope this blog inspires you. So many of us are on our own emotional growth journey–consider using some of those tools with your students. I am very proud of designing a morning meeting structure in a way that speaks to me and my students. Watching my students find success with SEL skills paired with academics has made it even sweeter.
