This month in SEL: the global social-emotional learning community comes together to celebrate the first annual International SEL Day, various organizations step-up to provide support for parents and educators during school closures, CharacterStrong announces an April virtual summit on the whole child… and more!
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The Global Education Community Celebrates International SEL Day
Back in January, The Urban Assembly and SEL4US invited communities across the world to celebrate the importance of social emotional learning (SEL) on the first annual International SEL Day this past Friday, March 27.
This momentous day saw social media posts reach nearly 2 million individuals, including support from actor Bryan Cranston and participation from 15 countries — from the United States to Kuwait to Guatemala to Brazil. It was amazing to see so many people, schools, organizations and influencers come together to raise awareness for the impact and influence of social-emotional learning, and we look forward to supporting the second annual event next March!
Organizations Step-Up to Support Parents & Educators During School Closures
As the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to spread, schools around the world are rapidly pivoting to support children’s health and well-being. As districts shift to online learning, parents, educators and school leaders are searching for ways to continue prioritizing children’s social and emotional development at home.
The month of March saw numerous organizations within the field of social-emotional learning rise to the occasion and provide free resources, professional development, and guidance to parents, educators, and children in need. A few highlights include:
- A new webinar series from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence on ways of maintaining emotional health, regulating emotions & developing resilience.
- A set of practical tools to keep a focus on relationships, connection and character from CharacterStrong.
- Free daily virtual learning workshops for educators, parents and students from Panorama Education.
- Mindfulness classes for children from Mindful Schools, live online every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT.
- Resources for home-use from Move This World, including free access to a set of SEL videos and breathing exercises for families.
- New toolkits and resources for coping with COVID-19 from CommonSense Media.
- Suggestions for addressing social and emotional needs as part of a district response plan from CASEL.
In these times of fear and uncertainty, it is energizing and inspiring to see the education community come together to find ways to support our students.
CharacterStrong To Host Virtual Whole Child Summit in April
From April 13 to 24, CharacterStrong will be hosting an online conference focused on social-emotional learning: The Whole Child Virtual Summit. The event will include 10 total days of free video content, with keynote sessions from experts such as Angela Duckworth, Akil Ross, Amy Fast, and Clayton Cook.
STUDY: Boosting Soft Skills Is Better Than Raising Test Scores
In a large study of more than 150,000 students in all 133 of Chicago’s public high schools, a team of education researchers calculated that schools that build social-emotional qualities such as the ability to resolve conflicts and the motivation to work hard are getting even better short-term and long-term results for students than schools that only boost test scores. The schools that develop soft skills produced students with higher grades, fewer absences and fewer disciplinary problems and arrests in high school. Later, the students who attended these high schools graduated and went to college in higher rates.
“What we’re showing is that schools that actually cause kids to become more gritty, those kids tend to be likely to persist more in college.”
— Kirabo Jackson, Economist at Northwestern University
Other Headlines:
- Educators Continue to Support SEL During Coronavirus Closures (via Education Dive)
- How to Propel Social-Emotional Learning in Online Education (via District Administration)
- Panorama CEO on Measuring College, Career, and Life Readiness (via Education Week)
- Flipping the Script on Social Emotional Learning in Afterschool Spaces (via Mesauring SEL/CASEL)
- Portrait of a Graduate (via Panorama Education)
- How to Lead Adult SEL in School Districts: 4 Experts Share Best Practices and Tips (via Panorama Education)
- Students Learn How to Teach Meditation to Their Peers (via Chalkbeat)
- What Does Inclusive Teaching Look Like? (via EdSurge)
- DC Area School Districts Revamp Policies to Address Bias, Hatred (via Education Dive)
- The Future of SEL Assessment — 5 Essential Directions (via Measuring SEL/CASEL)
- Why the preteen years are a critical period for brain development (via The Hechinger Report)
- An Educator’s Guide to Zoom (via Panorama Education)
This Month in SEL | March, 2020
Social emotional learning - Inside SEL 