1. Create a positive classroom and school climate.

2. Explicitly teach SEL skills and competencies and incorporate/infuse SEL into everyday instruction

3. Develop family/school partnerships.

4. Pay attention to and develop your own social and emotional competence and well-being.

The 4 Essential Ingredients for SEL

What are you doing in your classrooms/schools right now to promote students SEL?

Discussion Stop

POSITIVE CLASSROOM CLIMATE

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1. Student centered and developmentally appropriate classroom environment.

2. Positive teacher-student and student-student relationships.

3. Resiliency/strengths-based focus. 4. Positive approaches to discipline.5. Student perspectives are obtained and valued.

© CASEL 2008 46

WHAT DOES SCHOOLWIDE SEL LOOK LIKE?

SEL School

Classrooms

Lunchroom

Hallways

Teacher’s Lounge

Afterschool/Extra-curriculars

PlaygroundFront Office

Bus

Bathrooms

Sporting Events

Parent/teacher conferences

Classroom Climate Scale(1 = “not at all” to 5 = “very much”

1. Children and teachers enjoy being together.2. Teachers and children are equally in charge.3. Classroom climate is such that “clarification

of tasks is clarified.”4. Children are able to express feelings and

thoughts.5. Children and teachers work well together.

“Every child requires someone in his or her life who is absolutely crazy about them.”

• Urie Bronfenbrenner

School-Wide Steps to Supporting Positive Teacher-Student Relationships

1. Increase the amount of time that teachers and students spend together.

2. Expand the network of adults who are available to students.

3. Model caring relationships from the top down.

4. Development disciplinary policies that carry high expectations for students fostering caring relationships.

Creating an SEL Classroom: Strategies

• What to look for in a classroom (Alfie Kohn)?– Furniture (chairs in groups, open space for

learning, multiple activity centers)– On the walls (student work displayed, evidence of

student collaboration, information about and personal mementos of the people who spend time together in the classroom)

– Signs, exhibits, list created by students

Classroom Example