Social Emotional Learning
Each week students participate in Social Emotional Learning lessons through their social studies classes. These lessons are meant to help students understand and deal with the emotions they experience during middle school.
This week's lesson
Two key components of social awareness are the ability to choose safe and ethical behavior and to notice and speak out against unsafe or unethical behavior towards oneself and others. To do this, students must first understand that rules and laws help to establish fair and just behavior for all. In these lessons, students learn about rules, norms, and laws for protecting themselves against potential dangers including bullying, harassment, and unsafe practices.
Values are a person's principles and standards of behavior. Simply put, values are what a person believes to be important. Our values shape our thoughts, behaviors, and decisions. Studies indicate that people are happier when they act according to their values. A person's values can be observed in how he or she spends his or her time, money, energy, or other resources. As children, people begin to form their values based on their family's values. As students become more independent, they begin to shape their values based on new information gathered from peers, the media, and their own experiences. Some family values remain, while new values may emerge.
Students have many different relationships including family members, friends, teammates, classmates, employers, and coworkers. In this lesson, students explore the social skills that are required to maintain and build relationships between different people in their lives. The ability to work well with others is an important life skill.
Previous Weeks--6th Grade
In order to effectively navigate the world, understand the range of human experiences, and relate with others, students must learn to empathize with others. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It is a core component of social awareness. Being empathetic promotes trust, which leads to positive relationships built on open and honest communication.
Developing positive friendships is an important social skill. Friendships are a basic human need that contribute to a student’s moral, mental, and social development. Through friendships students learn more about themselves, traits that are important for a good friend, and how friends enrich our lives. Students also learn that to have good friends, it is important to be a friend.
Respect involves inclusiveness and status. We all have a need to belong, and respect provides us with the sense of belonging. Respect is demonstrated through communication and behavior. We show and are shown respect through the way we talk and act toward others and how they talk and act toward us. We show respect differently depending on the person and his or her position. Effective social skills include an understanding of appropriate respect of the group dynamics – the roles each person has within the group.
Home Connection Newsletter--Fairness
Fairness is the starting place for all social skills. In fact, our society is founded on the idea that everyone has the right to fair and equal treatment regardless of their race, age, gender, abilities, or beliefs. For a society (or any subgroup of society) to prosper, there needs to be a sense of fairness among its members. Young students begin to understand fairness by learning to share and take turns. As students mature, they develop an understanding that equality is treating everyone the same; whereas fairness is providing everyone what he or she needs to succeed.
Fairness is the starting place for all social skills. In fact, our society is founded on the idea that everyone has the right to fair and equal treatment regardless of their race, age, gender, abilities, or beliefs. For a society (or any subgroup of society) to prosper, there needs to be a sense of fairness among its members. Young students begin to understand fairness by learning to share and take turns. As students mature, they develop an understanding that equality is treating everyone the same; whereas fairness is providing everyone what he or she needs to succeed.
Following a traumatic event, students need to feel connected to people who love and care for them. They need to feel a sense of belonging to a family, a school, a class, a community, or other supportive groups. In this lesson students learn to identify what they need, who can help them get their needs met, and how to ask for help. Students also learn the importance of supporting others with empathy and kindness.
Previous Weeks--7th Grade
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Likewise, teaching students how the brain learns helps them become lifelong learners. Research in the recent years has determined that the brain is much more flexible and capable of learning new things than once believed. Understanding how the brain processes information, helps students feel more in control of their ability to learn. Having strategies to use to take in and organize the information also helps students become better learners.
Emotions are a natural part of what makes us human. They have the power to enrich our lives and the power hinder our lives. As humans, we have the capacity to feel a myriad of emotions. They drive our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors and impact our self-esteem and social interactions. In the Awareness of Self and Others Series, students identify emotions and learn how emotions impact their behavior and affect their bodies and their relationships. Strategies for managing emotions are addressed in the Self-Management Series
Self-control is the ability to regulate one's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Studies show self-control is key to living a healthy, productive, and successful life. Students with greater self-control focus better and learn more.
Home Connection Newsletter--Problem Solving
Negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and embarrassment can signal a problem. Developing the skills to solve a problem empowers students to view problems as challenges to overcome. There are five basic steps to solving any problem. Students learn these steps using the acronym STEPS. 1) State the problem; 2) Think of solutions; 3) Evaluate the solutions; 4) Pick a solution; and 5) Step up! Try the solution and reevaluate as needed.
Negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and embarrassment can signal a problem. Developing the skills to solve a problem empowers students to view problems as challenges to overcome. There are five basic steps to solving any problem. Students learn these steps using the acronym STEPS. 1) State the problem; 2) Think of solutions; 3) Evaluate the solutions; 4) Pick a solution; and 5) Step up! Try the solution and reevaluate as needed.
Following a traumatic event, students need to feel connected to people who love and care for them. They need to feel a sense of belonging to a family, a school, a class, a community, or other supportive groups. In this lesson students learn to identify what they need, who can help them get their needs met, and how to ask for help. Students also learn the importance of supporting others with empathy and kindness.
Previous Weeks--8th Grade
When two or more people get together there is potential for conflict. Conflict is a problem between people. Conflicts can cause feelings of isolation, so it is important to teach students how to resolve conflicts in a way that reconnects them to others. Conflict resolution involves communication – owning one's perspective and listening to the perspective of others. Most conflicts can be resolved through positive communication. But sometimes, people just disagree. At these times, it is important to be able to negotiate a solution that allows everyone to feel good about the resolution.
Emotions are a natural part of what makes us human. They have the power to enrich our lives and the power hinders our lives. As humans, we have the capacity to feel a myriad of emotions. They drive our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors and impact our self-esteem and social interactions. In the Awareness of Self and Others Series, students identify emotions and learn how emotions impact their behavior and affect their bodies and their relationships. Strategies for managing emotions are addressed in the Self-Management Series.
Home Connection Newsletter--Goal Setting
Goal setting and problem solving. Negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and embarrassment can signal a problem. Developing the skills to solve a problem empowers students to view problems as challenges to overcome. There are five basic steps to solving any problem. Students learn these steps using the acronym STEPS. 1) State the problem; 2) Think of solutions; 3) Evaluate the solutions; 4) Pick a solution; and 5) Step up! Try the solution and reevaluate as needed.
Home Connection Newsletter--Problem Solving
Negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and embarrassment can signal a problem. Developing the skills to solve a problem empowers students to view problems as challenges to overcome. There are five basic steps to solving any problem. Students learn these steps using the acronym STEPS. 1) State the problem; 2) Think of solutions; 3) Evaluate the solutions; 4) Pick a solution; and 5) Step up! Try the solution and reevaluate as needed.
Goal setting and problem solving. Negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and embarrassment can signal a problem. Developing the skills to solve a problem empowers students to view problems as challenges to overcome. There are five basic steps to solving any problem. Students learn these steps using the acronym STEPS. 1) State the problem; 2) Think of solutions; 3) Evaluate the solutions; 4) Pick a solution; and 5) Step up! Try the solution and reevaluate as needed.
Home Connection Newsletter--Problem Solving
Negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and embarrassment can signal a problem. Developing the skills to solve a problem empowers students to view problems as challenges to overcome. There are five basic steps to solving any problem. Students learn these steps using the acronym STEPS. 1) State the problem; 2) Think of solutions; 3) Evaluate the solutions; 4) Pick a solution; and 5) Step up! Try the solution and reevaluate as needed.
Following a traumatic event, students need to feel connected to people who love and care for them. They need to feel a sense of belonging to a family, a school, a class, a community, or other supportive groups. In this lesson students learn to identify what they need, who can help them get their needs met, and how to ask for help. Students also learn the importance of supporting others with empathy and kindness.
