Social-emotional learning

Our PRO-D at Surrey Centre Elementary was on social-emotional learning, presented by Sheldon Franken, a school counselor in Delta and director of Inquiry Adventures. 

According to CASEL, these are the five interrelated core competencies:
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• Self-awareness: know yourself well (emotions, strengths, weaknesses)
• Self-management: control your emotions, thoughts, behaviors; deal with stress, control impulses, and reach goals
• Social awareness: understand different perspectives and empathize with others; know your supports
• Relationship skills: get along with others and communicate well, 
• Responsible decision making: make wise decisions and choices 

The workshop had a nice blend of theory and hands-on activities. We started with the Spot It! cards and ULead Cards, which allowed us to quickly find partners and then share based on a picture, question and quote. There were further uses with the cards, but even those three tasks were a great ice-breaker. Another really fun activity was forming a ring with mountain climbing rope/strap and then leaning backwards. That was probably the most interesting as you had to really trust others and work together to achieve a common goal. The Chaos game was also a little frustrating and fun as we had to pick two people and then stand equal distance between them. The juggling game was also interesting, especially when the rubber chicken was tossed into the mix. It shows that more focus is necessary when there are variables are in play. Finally, we also tossed around a variety of thumballs, which gives students both a physical and thinking task to do. Each ball has a variety of questions and topics to engage students to share with others. 

I can see with students where these tools would assist and enhance their social and emotional capacities. Sometimes have something shared in their hands is less intimidating than simply staring at each other, face to face, to discuss a topic or question. 

​​Another important aspect of these activities is the debriefing afterwards, to make sure students have an idea of what the purpose/function of the task was. The 3 important questions are the following: 1) What? 2) So what? 3) Now what? Our ultimate goal, of course, is transfer to real life, not simply being stuck in the classroom.