Social+Emotional+Wellness+and+Empathy

“Educating the heart is as important as educating the mind.” ~ Linda Lantieri, Edutopia []
 * Social Emotional Learning and Empathy **

What is Social Emotional Learning? Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a process for helping children develop the fundamental skills for life effectiveness. It teaches the skills we all need to handle ourselves, our relationships, and our work, effectively and ethically. These skills include recognizing and handling our emotions, developing caring and concern for others, establishing positive relationships, making responsible decisions, and handling challenging situations constructively. These are the skills that allow children to calm themselves when angry, make friends, resolve conflicts respectfully, and make ethical and safe choices.

What is Empathy? Empathy is a crucial skill foundational to the social, teamwork, and leadership skills required to contribute successfully to society. Empathy is cultural sensitivity and conflict resolution. It is the ability to communicate effectively and understand the motivations of others. 1. The school curriculum will systematically addresses social emotional learning needs that help prepare students for lifelong success in the workplace, in the community, and in personal relationships. Students will be expected to meet certain benchmarks at each grade level, and will receive instruction in areas such as social problem solving, building empathy, life skills, social-emotional development, interpersonal communication, self-regulation and violence prevention.
 * Our Proposal **

2. Creation of a social emotional learning curriculum coordinator to look at each subject’s curriculum and integrate social emotional learning when appropriate. Examples of this include in science lab, beginning with a discussion about what makes a good partnership and ending with a reflection on how students met their social goals. In language arts, moving beyond basic comprehension questions about a story, but asking students to accept that different characters might view the same incident differently.

3. All students will be expected to participate in a service project of their choosing. Students may work on this individually or collaborate in groups. Our school will identify ways in which community service providers, state and local agencies, and other community resources (e.g. faith community, recreation programs, colleges and universities, business partners etc.) can help support our student’s service projects. Our school will facilitate access to such services and supports by establishing ongoing relationships with them. Students will also use appropriate technology and social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Wikis, blogs, and podcasts etc. to connect globally in regards to their chosen service project.

4. Student/Teacher mentoring periods with seminar teachers will be built into the school cycle to monitor and assess students' progress towards social emotional goals. Each student led service project will have a teacher coordinator to support students in this process. Substantial professional development time will be provided to train all school employees to deal with social/emotional issues. In addition, we will hire six school psychologists - two per each grade, to ensure that each student will have a multiple positive adult role models they feel comfortable going to when they are facing an issue.

5. The school will be re-designed to provide Parker students with safe, quiet, comfortable areas in each classroom, grade, and wing for students to relax and communicate with each other. Examples of this include a student lounge for each grade and learning nooks in each classroom which can accommodate small groups to work quietly together, an independent reading area, or an area for students to de-stress throughout the day.

6. Creation of a Social Emotional Wellness program for employees. This will include meditation, yoga, and Pilate’s classes before and after school, counselors available to all school employees, as well as professional development to train employees on how to support students with social/emotional issues.


 * 21st Century Skills **
 * 1) Life & Career Skills
 * 2) ** Flexibility & Adaptability (77) **
 * 3) Initiative & Self-Directive (79)
 * 4) ** Social & Cross-Cultural Skills (81) **
 * 5) Productivity & Accountability Skills (83)
 * 6) ** Leadership & Responsibility (84) **
 * 7) Learning & Innovation Skills
 * 8) ** Critical Thinking & Problem Solving (52) **
 * 9) ** Communication & Collaboration Skills (55 **)
 * 10) Creativity & Innovation Skills (59)
 * 11) Information, Technology, and Media Skills
 * 12) ** Digital Literacy Skills (67) **
 * 13) Media Literacy (69)
 * 14) ICT Literacy (71)

A [|2004 analysis by Zins, Weissberg, Wang, and Walberg] demonstrates three positive academic outcomes associated with Social Emotional Learning:
 * What Others Are Saying **
 * 1) Student attitude towards learning improved. There was increased motivation and commitment.
 * 2) There were behavioral changes in participation and study habits.
 * 3) Social Emotional Learning led to improved grades as well as greater mastery of material.

“Another great way to sharpen your empathic powers is to volunteer somewhere in your community that serves people whose experiences are far different from your own.” ~ Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind

"We can't afford not to teach empathy and its companion behaviors. I define empathy as a way of thinking and being that is intentionally caring and compassionate. In practice, empathy is a combination of social skills that include high-levels of listening, perspective-taking, decision-making, and helping others. Each of these skills can be taught through teacher modeling, the articulation of clear and concise classroom expectations, relevant social skills-learning sessions, and the recognition that empathy is a critical component of a classroom culture that is caring and emotionally safe.” ~ David Levine, Education World []

“One of the things I am happy about when I see young people learning these (emotional intelligence) skills as a normal, regular part of their curriculum is that I know we're equipping them to deal with all of what they're going to have to deal with in the twenty-first century. We know enough from the research and from what employees tell us that we need the people skills, team-building skills, communication skills, and the managing emotions skills as much as we need all of those other, more intellectual capacities. ~ Linda Lantieri, Edutopia []

media type="youtube" key="Rx15lL5sNsE" height="315" width="420"


 * How Does This Connect With Outside Of The Community? **

Social emotional learning and empathy is only possible when people have the opportunity to connect and develop meaningful relationships, both inside and outside of school. Through our school’s emphasis on collaboration and service, students will build relationship with others both inside and outside of Reading which will allow students to connect with people whose experiences, values, and point of views are far different from their own. These expereinces are invaluable in students social emotional education.