Reading Comprehension and SEL
We have all sat through a meeting where someone put up a pie chart of instructional minutes and then announced that the school was also adding an SEL block. We know well that specific feeling...
Read Moresocial emotional learning
Relationship Skills in the Classroom
When you search “social emotional learning“, you’re going to see the term “CASEL competencies” come up. There are five of them, and while all five matter, relationship skills might be the one that most directly...
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Proxemics, Culture, SEL, & the Classroom
Have you ever heard of proxemics? Wait, let me back up. Let’s talk about something that’s been happening in your classroom for years, possibly daily, and you’ve maybe even been been chalking it up to...
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Social Awareness in the Classroom
If you’re not a teacher, you would be baffled that teaching kids to read and do math is the easy part of teaching!! The harder work is helping them figure out how to actually be...
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SEL & Student Screen Time
We ALL see it: students struggling to stay with something for more than a few minutes. Less back-and-forth during group work. A kind of low-grade restlessness that wasn’t always there. You’re not imagining it!! We’re...
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20 Ways to Encourage SEL at Home
Most of what I write is for teachers, but if you’ve ever worked in a classroom, you already know this: what happens at home and what shows up at school are deeply connected. SEL at...
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Resetting Classroom Culture Mid-Year
There’s a point every school year when the wheels start to wobble a little. Routines get loose, patience runs thin, and the class inside jokes turn into class-wide distractions. You look around and think, “This…isn’t...
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Introducing a Communication Notebook
There are always going to be students who walk into our classrooms carrying more than a backpack. They’re carrying thoughts they don’t know how to say out loud, impulsive thoughts, worries from recess and home,...
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Using Monthly SEL Interactive Calendars
People tell me CONSTANTLY that they believe in SEL, just don’t have time for another program or curricular initiative. Most teachers aren’t skipping SEL because they don’t value it, but the day is already packed....
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What is Unconditional Attention?
There is a phrase I come back to often when teachers feel stuck with behavior that feels relentless, attention seeking, or exhausting to manage: unconditional attention. This idea is simple, but it is uncomfortable if...
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