“People don’t leave companies- They leave bad bosses”- D. Goleman

My ah ha moment during our staff meeting today when we were discussing the pros and cons of promoting Google hangouts was: “If I force a child to come to me they will never come, if I flex and meet them where they are at they can be drawn”. – Erin Luong
Teachers need to listen, students are telling us they want to engage with technology and we need to allow this. However we need to use technology to enhance core ideas rather than replace them. Google hangouts are one method for teaching students communication skills.

If we don’t connect with our kids we turn them off and fail to teach.

New society and work environments create the need for Social and Emotional Competencies- (probably why it needs to be more emphasized in schools today)

A current school issue- only focusing on academics not teaching coping skills, self awareness, managing emotions, problem solving

During our online lecture this week Dr. Boyatzis comment on a longitudinal study that he had completed with a group of colleague around changes in the educational system of American from the 60’s until now. One of the trends his team had observed was that our school systems began placing less of an emphasis on Social and Emotional skills in schools, and more of an emphasis on facts and assessment. They hypothesized that— A decrease in Social and Emotional skills being explicitly taught to students has been correlated with a lack of impulse control and an increase in negative societal consequences such as : violence, teen pregnancy, defiance, drug use, suicide, eating disorders, depression.

All of the results prove to me that the importance of Social and Emotional Learning needs to increase
*** Schools need to support SEL philosophy

By helping our students learn to manage their emotions and the emotions of others they could quiet the emotional voices in their heads and hold onto more information.

CASEL was founded in 1994 by Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, educator/philanthropist Eileen Rockefeller Growald, Timothy Shriver, Linda Lantieri, Mark Greenberg and David Sluyter. We are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that works to advance the science and evidence-based practice of social and emotional learning.
Benefits of Social Emotional Learning
(http://casel.org/why-it-matters/benefits-of-sel/)

Schools that help students and staff develop greater social and emotional competencies, in turn help ensure positive short- and long-term academic and personal outcomes for students.

SEL improves students’ positive behavior and reduces negative behavior.
It promotes young people’s academic success, health, and well-being at the same time that it prevents a variety of problems such as alcohol and drug use, violence, truancy, and bullying.
SEL is also associated with significant improvements in students’ academic performance and attitudes toward school.
A landmark review found that students who receive SEL instruction had more positive attitudes about school and improved an average of 11 percentile points on standardized achievement tests compared to students who did not receive such instruction.
SEL prepares young people for success in adulthood.
SEL helps students become good communicators, cooperative members of a team, effective leaders, and caring, concerned members of their communities. It teaches them how to set and achieve goals and how to persist in the face of challenges. These are precisely the skills that today’s employers consider important for the workforce of the future.

For further information on the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning- CASEL project as well as examples of how to address Emotional and Social Intelligence in schools I would recommend checking out the following website http://casel.org/

How Do We as Educators Promote SEL?
Emotions need repetition and practice

Through the careful incorporation of Positive Emotional Attractors (PEA) and Negative Emotional Attractors (NEA).

The PEA is:
a. Activating the parasympathetic nervous system to cause arousal; feeling positive and hopeful; thinking about the future, dreams, and possibilities;
b. Being optimistic, focusing on one’s strengths;
c. Excited about trying something new, experimenting; and
d. Being in resonant relationships.

3. The NEA is:
a. Activating our sympathetic nervous systems (Fight and Flight) ; feeling negative and fear; thinking about the past or present, expectations of others and problems;
b. Being pessimistic, focusing on one’s weaknesses;
c. Feeling obligated to things you “should” or are “expected by others” to do, like a performance improvement plan;
d. Being in dissonant relationships.

4. Sustained desired change tends to start in the PEA.

Teachers who are able to create PEA’s can be described as “ OPEN, WARM, OPEN TO BAD MOVES AND GOOD LISTENERS
Teachers who create NEA’s tend to be: Aloof, ridged, focused on minor details, remote, uncaring,
To sustain learning or change efforts, it is likely that you have to spend 3-6 times in the PEA as the time spent in the NEA. This is to compensate for the observation that negative emotions are stronger than positive.

My roles as an mom, counsellor, educator and mentor is to help the children around me develop a vision of their futures.

I hope to one day to be remembered as the person who inspired someone’s legacy list.