Mrs.Barbas

“At a time when the nation faces teacher shortages, safety concerns, and attendance crisis, these data suggest that the focus on #SEL is making an impact. Our data reinforces decades of evidence that show SEL can contribute to more positive school climates and increase student interest in learning, while supporting educators themselves.” - Dr. Alexandra Skoog-Hoffman, CASEL Senior Director of Research & Learning bit.ly/3Yu8aVS

If we want to restore civic culture and build a better future for a strong democracy, we must start by normalizing healthy habits of conversation as a core skill to implement in schools. And key to that is social and emotional learning (#SEL)! Check out some strategies from @SphereEdIn for guiding students toward civil discourse via the SEL competencies. bit.ly/3Nye8P5

The trouble with Restorative Practices in schools is that there is too much focus on using them to respond to incidents and not enough on building community to prevent incidents. You can't restore what you didn't build.

#WebinarWednesday What kind of support do adolescents need? Dr. Dan Siegel shares insights in the #CASELCARES webinar “Brainstorm: How We Can Best Support the Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain.” Watch the webinar: bit.ly/2U30n2n

Through an Intentional Close, the final moments of a learning session are a prime opportunity to refocus the learners on what they learned, why it matters, and where to go from here. 🌄 A “good ending” holds a lot of power! @caselorg

What is an “Inclusive Welcome” (SEL Opener)? It is not just an icebreaker or bell ringer— the difference is that a IW intentionally connects the learners to each other or the content/purpose all while fostering SEL/Durable skills.These are important for students and adults!💯

“The language we use to talk about our emotions changes our relationship to them.” - @SusanDavid_PhD

💫 Here's to reaching for the stars with your staff this year. 💫 (Photo by P @MLEPrincipal, board created by leader Shamonda Garner)

What can you achieve in 5 minutes with a teacher? Some meaningful trust-building, suggests @caselorg.

#TipTuesday: Adults have a key role in incorporating #SEL into the classroom beyond lessons about the competencies. Every adult can practice their own SEL competencies as a model to their students. More about modeling SEL: bit.ly/3b9GvQ7

One of the first things many young people learn at school is that learning means being still. At primary school it’s about sitting on your bottom and not fiddling with your pencil. Walking not running, and putting your hand up before you speak. Staying in your chair, even when you’re desperate to crawl under the table or lie on the floor. At secondary school it carries on. Some schools insist that young people track the teacher with their eyes, and won’t allow them to reach into their bag for a water bottle without asking. Every move is choreographed and on command. They say this maximises learning. We tell children that to learn they need to listen, and to listen they need to keep still. That’s particularly hard for children, and so a lot of their energy is spent trying to conform with that. For some, it’s much harder, and they get in trouble for bouncing and jumping. The movement bursts out of them, and then we tell them they can’t learn like that. It’s not true. If you watch children learning out of school, they move and twirl and jump. They lie on the floor whilst listening to stories and hang off the monkey bars whilst they think. They ask unexpected questions at inconvenient times. They make new connections whilst sitting on the toilet, bouncing on the trampoline or when watching TV. They run around and then come back to the story. They express their feelings through their body. Schools control children’s bodies to manage large numbers, but that doesn’t mean that stillness is the best way to learn. As adults, many of us must work hard to reconnect to our bodies. We’ve learnt to ignore our urge to move and we can’t understand why we feel so terrible after hours at a desk. The things we learn at school run deep. But learning is about connection, not disconnection, and we can’t leave our bodies out of that. Let’s reclaim our right to be active. Many of us need to move to learn, and that goes both for our children and ourselves

What do students need for math class? Pencils, calculators, and social and emotional learning! Dr. Kevin Dykema highlights how #SEL complements solid mathematics instruction, helping students develop critical thinking and analytical skills. This school year, let’s harness the power of SEL in every subject! #BacktoSchoolwithSEL

🧵 It’s time we talk about Doug Lemov’s "Teach Like A Champion" (TLAC) and its detrimental impact on education. This approach is emotionally manipulative, stifles creativity, and treats children like miniature professionals. Here’s why it’s not fit for purpose. #EdChat

You may have heard the term “Project 2025” floating around, and you may even have cracked open the 900+ page document yourself, only to see a lot of kind of bland, policy-wonk text. So let me crack through the policy-speak and tell you WTF is in this document.

#ResourceMonday: How are you implementing social and emotional learning (#SEL) in your classroom? Where is there room for growth? Find out with this tool for assessing SEL in the classroom: schoolguide.casel.org/resource/sel-i…

Social and Emotional Learning ≠ Therapy. Discover accurate, research-based information on #SEL at casel.org/fundamentals-o…

Amazing how homework defenders get away with saying “Maybe there's no achievement benefit, but HW teaches self-discipline, responsibility, time mgmt...” In 20 years I've been unable to find a single study that supports this folk wisdom about HW's supposed nonacademic advantages.

#TipTuesday: Practice your #SEL competencies of self-awareness and self-management when challenges arise.