I’ve noticed with the CASEL framework that responsible decision making tends to get treated like the competency you will circle back to eventually. Self-awareness and self-management usually get the front-of-the-line treatment because they show up...
Read MoreEvery August I hear the same worry from teachers. Want this to be their year of SEL. They want their kids to have the language for big feelings and the tools to manage them. But...
Read MoreWe 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 MoreWhen 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...
Read MoreHave 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...
Read MoreIf 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...
Read MoreWe 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...
Read MoreMost 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...
Read MoreThere’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...
Read MoreThere 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,...
Read More
