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Background: Inspiration for Teaching the Whole Child

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Social emotional learning is a tool that every great teacher uses. The impact of this support helps build awareness, self-esteem, and helathy realtionsihp skills. The teachers who guide their students through SEL, and academic growth, serve the whole child, resulting in whole adults.

My inspiration for this project comes from my work in the nonprofit sector; for 7 years I designed, piloted, trained others, and managed trauma-informed programming in detention centers, psychiatric hospitals, schools, and clinics. This work was transformative, through collaborations with Sutter, Kaiser, UC Davis and others, I was able to glean a huge took kit of trauma-informed practice. It became impossible to leave a prison, embodying these practices and not continue to interact with others in the same way. It became clear that there is a best way to interact, discuss, and act around others that promotes growth. In completing this M.Ed. program I sought tools to bring trauma-informed practices to students, to promote growth within SEL. I've found that the combination of my nonprofit work and education experience provided a toolkit that I hope to pass on to other educators. In the Learn More section you will find the SEL123 survey tool to assess and refine your own SEL toolkit.

Navigating Inspiration..

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Discover the Research that supports SEL integrated instruction! In this mixed methods study, adults taking a trauma-informed training, were given the flipped lesson to access the content before the training. All those in the intervention group verbalized huge benefits from their involvement.
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How did this prototype evolve? Check out the Design Process page for prototype plans and more!
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What are the implications from this project? Who helped along the way? And what are the next steps for research and discovery around SEL. Check out Next Steps, for details.

What is SEL Again?

Social Emotional Learning is the newest tag phrase in education. To sum it up, it is teaching students about our responsibility as a member of society; including our own interactions with self, others, and life affirming practices. Sound to woo-woo for you? Well think again SEL has been found to support students in all aspects of their lives. CASEL, an org on the front lines of this movement shares some successes in a Chicago school below.
Video: Inside Chicago Public Schools: SEL at Marcus Garvey Elementary, Source: CASEL


​Addressing Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)

A study conducted by Kaiser and the CDC found that adverse experiences in childhood had huge correlations to poor emotional and physical health in adulthood. Based on a 10 questions survey that assess the amount of trauma experienced in childhood, the ACE study has been used for decades to monitor the effects of trauma on our society. The good news is that correlation does not equal causation, and even those exposed to trauma can recover and live happy and successful lives. This is my hope for our students, especially those facing issues around equity and poverty.
Video: Dr. Jeffrey Brenner "I believe ACE scores should become a vital sign, source: ​Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers


​Restorative Practices: Nonviolent Interactions

Ask a dozen teachers how they would resolve a conflict in class, and you might find a dozen answers. Is there a best practice that works in most instances? Actually yes, gleaning from mediation techniques, nonviolent communication, and an in depth look into the shame response during communication, Restorative Practices emerged. This format for discussion and conflict resolution is a best practice that works in classrooms, prisons, offices, practically anywhere people want to question what is possible to resolve or explore a topic/issue. IIRP is one org that is making headway with restorative practices in education, another local group is RJOY, based in Oakland. The video below depicts one restorative practices session in an elementary school classroom. The classroom culture witnessed would support any student.
Restorative Justice in Oakland Schools: Tier One. Community Building Circle, source: RJOY

Synthesis of SITE Model

The element of the SITE model that is most relevant to my research question is around the Sociocultural sub-content. The motives and values of students directly relates to the affect domain, elaborated by Baggio as the primary domain of the trilogy of the mind; that must be supported to facilitate learning. Since affect is such a huge factor in learning, the source and roots of that affect is important. The SITE model provides insight into what is included in the affect domain through the sociocultural sub-content. 

To learn more about integration of education ideas, check out my blog!