Introduction and First Steps
For this project I’m choosing to take a deeper look into social emotional learning (SEL). This has always been an area of interest to me and I have had experience supporting and educating students/learners about social emotional learning within the school districts. This inquiry project for me is going to be two fold. I want to educate myself about SEL as an educator but I also want to focus on the area of emotional regulation for myself. I personally struggle with some overwhelming anxiety and I was to see what’s out there in hopes of learning how I can manage my symptoms. I’m excited for this learning journey and I know that this will make me a better educator and will give me the ability to make suggestion or even empathize with my future learners.
The first step is to look into what social emotional learning (SEL) is and how anxiety may fit into that puzzle.
Starting with online research, I came across CASEL. CASEL is a multidisciplinary network that includes researchers, educators, practitioners, and child advocates. They believe that through a commitment to SEL, learners and adults can achieve their goals and work towards a more inclusive environment. CASEL is does a great job at explaining the fundamentals of SEL.
What I enjoy most about this website, is it’s super user friendly, it targets all populations and it provides additional resources including professional resources, a blog, implementation strategies, webinars and more. Although it’s more targeted towards educators, with the vast majority of information on the site, it’s a great starting point for any individual looking to educate themselves about their own social/emotional learning.
What I like most about CASEL is the how they back up a lot of their website with research. I feel there are a lot of opinions out there in today’s world and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, confused and be misguided. As stated on CASEL’s website, SEL has a positive impact on a wide range of outcomes, including academic performance, healthy relationships, mental wellness, and more.
In collaboration and discussions with other educators, and within my community, CASEL has provided a great framework to get me started. What I love best about this framework is that I can also break it down and use it just for myself. Looking at the core competencies, I can begin to bring awareness and self management into my own SEL. This framework allows me to begin reflection how I can begin the process and gets me started on my journey of creating strategies and tools.
https://casel.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/CASEL-Wheel-SEL-Reflection.pdf
My goal for the next week it to continue to look into what the research is saying about SEL and to take a closer look into thoughts, behaviours and emotions. I’ve heard a lot around Cognitive Behavioural Theories (CBT) and I hope to bring the discussion around this area into my second post.
Photo by Олег Мороз on Unsplash