Social Emotional Learning in Washington State Schools: Building Foundations and Strategies.

The intent of the module is to support teachers, administrators, and school staff in developing social emotional learning (SEL) understanding and awareness. In addition, the module explains how to implement and integrate SEL into their respective contexts in a culturally responsive way.  

There are seven (7) segments in the Social Emotional Learning Online Module.

Learning Segment 1: Introduction to SEL (SEL1)

Objectives: 

1. Identify the significance of SEL through learning the definition and brief history. 
2. Participants will recognize the six social emotional skills outlined by Washington SEL Standards, Benchmarks, and Indicators. 
3. Participants will build awareness of integrating SEL into schools and classroom environments.

Learning Segment 2: Embedding SEL Schoolwide (SEL2)

Objectives:

1. Leadership teams will learn how to take a systemic approach to implementing SEL by recognizing the stress of budgetary requirements and staffing turnover.
2. Participants will recognize the mind shift needed to understand SEL as a fabric of school climate.
3. Participants will identify explicit strategies to embed SEL within core instruction while applying a continuum of academic improvements.

Learning Segment 3: Creating a professional culture based on SEL (SEL3)

Objectives:

1.  Educators will identify the importance of adults' social emotional competencies by exploring ways to engage in self-care that reduces stress and overload for self and colleagues.
2. Participants will learn how to describe the role that cultural responsiveness and implicit bias play in daily interactions, and reflect on professional learning systems and supports to strengthen culturally responsive SEL practices in school.
3. Participants will create action steps to communicate with family and community members in a culturally responsive manner.

Learning Segment 4: Integrating SEL into culturally responsive classrooms (SEL4)

Objectives:

1. Participants will become familiar with classroom integration strategies that promote SEL through culturally responsive practices.
2. Leadership teams will explore teaching practices that promote holistic SEL and support SEL with academic curriculum and instruction.
3. Participants will become aware of and plan actions to overcome barriers toward SEL implementation by articulating cultural practices in the classroom.

Learning Segment 5: Trauma-informed Social Emotional Learning (SEL5)

Objectives:

1. Educators will explore trauma definitions, their characteristics, and their prevalence.
2. Participants will learn the long-term impacts trauma has on the physical and mental growth of the developing brain.
3. Participants will develop strategies to explore the link between SEL and trauma-informed systems by exploring educator compassion fatigue.

Learning Segment 6: Identifying and selecting evidence-based SEL programs (SEL6)

Objectives: 

1. Leadership teams will identify which evidence-based SEL programs best support the social emotional needs of their students.
2. Participants will learn the process to select effective SEL programs by incorporating principles of universal design for learning (UDL) when adopting SEL curricula to meet the needs of all learners.
3. Participants will build the capacity to seek SEL programs that emphasize equity in the selection, implementation, and monitoring of SEL curricula.

Learning Segment 7: SEL Considerations for the COVID-19 Context (SEL7)

Objectives:

1. Educators will gain familiarity with provisions of state and federal school based guidance that relate to development of social emotional skills through the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Participants will recognize the need of providing SEL for educators and caregivers, bolstering strategies that leadership teams can take to provide effective support for both teachers and students.
3. Participants will identify the importance of how to approach SEL in a culturally relevant scope by engaging in the context of disproportionate and inequitable effects of the pandemic.

Note: This is a work at your own pace series of modules. The start and end date are not reflective of when the course begins. You may start whenever you're ready.