A recent survey cited "the pandemic and a greater focus on racial injustice as driving the rise in interest in social and emotional learning in their schools."
Social Emotional learning is not new. At the heart of SEL, is an understanding that a stressed brain is not learning. If our students are coming into the classroom in a state of anxiety or fear or hunger or if they feel the classroom isn't an emotionally safe space for them, they will not learn. Their amygdala is hyper focused on keeping them safe. Learning about the distributive property or the Mexican-American war, or whatever your class is focused on, is not a top priority for that student.
Your teacher training toolbox has to include a few tools to take the emotional temperature of the your students and find ways to get it to a place where learning can take place. Understanding the basics of how the brain processes emotions can help to move your students out of the stressed stage and into the learning stage.
Here's a 5 minute strategy to get your students into the learning stage:
1. High five each other for showing up.
2. Slow deep breathing to calm your nervous system
3. Find something you're grateful for today
4. Share something you're excited about
5. Remind students that most emotions last 90 seconds; it's the rumination that keeps us stuck in the feeling.
Watch Grey Matters on Vimeo today: www.vimeo.com/ondemand/Greymattersdocumentary
Social Emotional learning is not new. At the heart of SEL, is an understanding that a stressed brain is not learning. If our students are coming into the classroom in a state of anxiety or fear or hunger or if they feel the classroom isn't an emotionally safe space for them, they will not learn. Their amygdala is hyper focused on keeping them safe. Learning about the distributive property or the Mexican-American war, or whatever your class is focused on, is not a top priority for that student.
Your teacher training toolbox has to include a few tools to take the emotional temperature of the your students and find ways to get it to a place where learning can take place. Understanding the basics of how the brain processes emotions can help to move your students out of the stressed stage and into the learning stage.
Here's a 5 minute strategy to get your students into the learning stage:
1. High five each other for showing up.
2. Slow deep breathing to calm your nervous system
3. Find something you're grateful for today
4. Share something you're excited about
5. Remind students that most emotions last 90 seconds; it's the rumination that keeps us stuck in the feeling.
Watch Grey Matters on Vimeo today: www.vimeo.com/ondemand/Greymattersdocumentary
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