Educators Are Using Edtech to Facilitate SEL. Here’s How They Gauge Student Success.
Summary: This article addresses how tech tools can be used to promote SEL and how to determine which goals those tech tools can address. The article shares results of a teacher poll and also provides some examples where teachers from around the country share best practices.
Source: Rachel Burstein, EdSurge, October 22, 2020
How to Create Community in a Virtual Classroom
Summary: This article provides some suggestions as to how to build community while learning remotely. Some of the same activities that would be used in face-to-face learning can also be adapted to online learning. Some examples include using cyber icebreakers, creating classroom rules and procedures, creating class traditions, doing collaborative projects, and maintaining individual relationships.
Source: Susan Yergler, Edutopia, August 17, 2020
New Jersey First in Nation to Provide Educators with Social and Emotional Framework tied to Arts Education
Summary: This article reports on the newly adopted Framework for SEL and the Arts. While core competencies for SEL had been adopted by New Jersey in 2017, the SEL and Arts Education Taskforce convened by SEL4NJ and Arts Ed NJ, dedicated 18 months to create a framework designed to illuminate the intersection between arts education and social-emotional learning.
Source: New Jersey Stage, June 16, 2020
Letting Students Write on Subjects They Love Fuels Learning
Summary: This article supports the idea that when students are interested and invested in a subject that they are writing about they are more likely to develop their writing skills. The author also believes that students then take these writing skills and successfully apply them to other writing tasks.
Source: Lauren Barack, Education DIVE, January 22, 2020
Student-led Initiatives Tie Civic Action, Advocacy to Social Studies Lessons
Summary: Pathways2Power, a student-led advocacy initiative, which now includes students from around D.C., is designed to be a platform for students’ voices and a way to effect change for problems affecting youth, such as gun violence, housing insecurity and mental health.
Source: Shawna De La Rosa, Education DIVE, December 18, 2019
Students Think Lectures Are Best, But Research Suggests They’re Wrong
Summary: This article reports on a study which looked at students’ reactions to lecture vs. active learning. Students generally reported a preference for lecture-based, low-engagement learning, but the study showed that active, participatory learning yielded better results.
Source: Youki Terada, Edutopia, October 16, 2019
5 Communities Receive $30K in Grants Supporting SEL
Summary: This article shares the results of the America’s Promise “How Learning Happens” Program. The grant awards are meant to support SEL efforts both within and outside of schools by bringing a community focus to the work done in SEL.
Source: Shawna De La Rosa Education DIVE, September 20, 2019
Helping Students Develop Self-Regulation
Summary: This article talks about the importance of self-regulation and how students can practice self-regulation skills through goal-setting. Work in this area can result in student growth and continuous improvement – and it works for adults too!
Source: Maurice Elias, Edutopia, August 2, 2019
Cultivating Self-Awareness to Move Learning Forward
Summary: This article suggests seven ways to cultivate self-awareness and executive function skills in students. Cultivation of these skills can help students become more aware of their strengths and challenges as well as the those faced by others. These skills help students become strategic thinkers and better learners in the process.
Source: Sucheta Kamath, Education DIVE, October 22, 2019
Problem-Solving in Elementary School
Summary: This article reports on a problem-solving process that works even for our youngest students. At Moss School in Metuchen, NJ, kindergarten students are learning how to approach problem-solving and self-questioning. Even the adults in the school are using this method.
Source: Dr. Maurice Elias, Edutopia, January 21, 2019
