SEL and Soft Skills - A Huge Part of Academic Achievement
Hello friends/readers!
I am getting down to the last week of summer posts. Some of you are calling it your “summer professional development” and it is for me as well. Soon, I’ll be starting up with classroom videos, lesson plans, how to use my materials, and so much more.
Throughout last year, many of you asked about behavior management, specifically how I “get students to sit still and listen so well” or “how I get students to stop talking during writing time and actually write”. These were valid questions, to be sure, because no matter how much we learn as teachers, how much time we put into our lesson plans, the activities we plan, and how we deliver instruction, we just aren’t going to make much progress in learning and achievement if our students are not engaged, paying attention, and working up to their potential.
These three things—engagement, having students attend, and getting students to work their hardest at all times—are some of my greatest strengths as a teacher. And I would have to say that there are two secrets to these three things:
have high expectations for all three to happen with every single student at all times (that means remaining steadfast and not letting things slide when you’re tired)
explicitly teach students how to make them happen.
I also explicitly incorporate social emotional learning (SEL) into my instruction and activities. And I explicitly teach the so-called “soft-skills”, such as persisting, self-monitoring, taking ownership for your learning, and so many more.
Evidence of my strengths in behavior management and tending to students’ social emotional learning will crop up often in my videos during the 2022-2023 school year.* Not only will you get to know my students and see how I get them to listen and participate and do their best work, but I will talk to you (the teacher), directly, at the same time that I am teaching and videoing. That means I will explain, as I’m going along with my instruction, what I am intentionally doing and why. It’s a type of professional development that you are not going to get from any other source (that I know of, anyway).
*I hope I’m not jinxing myself by saying that SEL and behavior management are my strengths. Every few years I do get a student (or two) that I don’t feel successful with, one that continues to struggle with behavior and/or social emotional issues throughout the entire school year. I currently have 27 on my list, 18 of whom are boys; we start on Friday the 12th and we’ll see how it goes!
This post is going to link you to two previous posts in which I discuss some of the social emotional learning that I do in my classroom. Please click on them if you feel like learning more and enhancing your teaching by better attending to your students’ social emotional development and learning of the crucial soft skills.
Classroom Vision and Slogan - being proactive with positive behavior expectations and ownership
Habits of Mind - building students’ thinking dispositions and resilience
Lots of good stuff here at Busy Bee Kindergarten and a whole lot more coming!