SEL

Social-emotional learning and health are crucial elements of a child’s education at all times and, especially as the pandemic continues to upend traditional learning, it’s become even more of a focus within more and more school districts. The importance of SEL is highly touted and many educational leaders have created positions within their schools or districts to ensure that all students are appropriately managing and processing their emotions – something that can have an effect on their academic performance and overall mental health. So, for this week’s Rising Resources post, we decided to take a look at an online social-emotional learning resource known as StrongMinded. With StrongMinded, educators can provide students with the tools, resources, and attitudes they need to thrive socially and emotionally. Keep reading to learn more!

Many educators and administrators are starting to realize the importance of focusing on social-emotional learning as students return to the classroom. But, what about those students who will still be doing remote learning at the start of the school year? They’ll have social-emotional needs, too. Establishing connections between these students and their new teachers is going to be important for ensuring success throughout the school year, but it’s probably going to be tougher as well. Teachers will be unable to physically connect with their students, which is such a huge part of relationship building and, especially since learning in most of the country’s largest school districts is fully remote, students are going to soon be approaching seven or eight months without being in a classroom. So, how can SEL be incorporated in remote teaching and learning? 

Typically, we gravitate more towards EdTech tools that allow for more STEM-related student experiences, but, this week, we’re going a bit off of our normal course. In this Rising Resources post, we’re taking a look at Edublogs, an online platform students can use to practice some key real-world skills in writing, blogging, and written communication. Often thought of as more of a soft skill, communication is nonetheless extremely important in the workforce of both today and tomorrow. With services and systems designed for use in education, keep reading to see what makes Edublogs a valuable teaching and learning tool! 

District leaders, principals, and classroom teachers right now are trying to figure out how to best do the seemingly impossible. With every day that passes, the start of the 2020-21 school year is drawing closer and not everybody knows what that will look like. Some schools will not be opening on the first day of classes and, in other districts, it’s yet to be decided what the approach will be. Throw in some political pressure and we’ve got a pretty volatile, potentially dangerous, and likely fluid situation for the rest of the summer and the first few weeks of the year. Then, there’s the question of trauma. Students aren’t going to be returning to the same places and seeing the same faces that they know, making SEL something that school leaders will have to factor in as well. 

State officials and education leaders are starting to announce their plans for reopening schools in the fall. While we know that students and teachers returning to the physical classroom together is the ideal option, there are plenty of opponents to this course of action who still think it will be too unsafe. There are so many things for school leaders to consider, including whether students will be required to wear masks, how a teacher can develop connections with students while wearing a mask, where students will eat lunch, how class sizes will be affected, and how to space them out far enough on school busses. With all the uncertainty surrounding if, when, and how the doors of schools will open up, it’s become pretty clear that teachers, parents, and students are not sure about what to expect come fall. 

Many students learn in many different ways, including now doing so remotely. Some students are independent learners while others need regular guidance and monitoring. One of the instructional approaches that educators have found to be effective is a multi-tiered system of support (or MTSS). A multi-tiered system of support is an instructional framework with three different tiers. Students receive instruction and support on a more general scale in the first tier and then it increases in personalization as needed. Educators make use of data and assessment to make informed decisions about what each student needs at each phase -- phases that include research-based instruction, targeted intervention, and intensive intervention.