Hey DC Elementary Families! Today is Social Emotional Learning Day! What is Social Emotional Learning? Social Emotional Learning is a set of mindsets, skills, and feelings that help students succeed in school, career and throughout their life. Through Social Skills your students are taught skills that encompass the 5 competences of Social Emotional Learning: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making.
Some of the things your students are learning in Social Skills are:
1. Skills for Learning - Following directions and using Self-Talk to help themselves stay on task. This looks like repeating directions in their head to remember what they are supposed to be doing.
2. Empathy - Being able to put yourself in other's shoes and understand how others feel. This is practiced by looking at pictures and situations others are in and seeing if you can recognize how they feel.
3. Emotion Management - Being able to recognize when your body is uncomfortable and when you are experiencing a strong feeling, and using different techniques to help you calm down those strong feelings.
4. Problem Solving - Learning different steps to solve problems with classmates and others without getting into a fight or argument.
These different skills and competencies will help set your children up for adulthood. You can help encourage these skills at home through modeling and teaching them too!
Here is a video with more information on what SEL is and why it is so important:
https://cfccdn.blob.core.windows.net/static/pdf/alignment-charts/second-step-k5-casel-alignment.pdf