We must create stepping stones to cultivate trust through communication, connecting and building relationships that will create learning environments where all staff and students can thrive.

Understanding the needs of your staff, students, and families:

Addressing specific social emotional needs related to pandemic:

In order to build a learning environment that supports student SEL and well-being, schools are called on to foster a supportive staff environment that promotes adult SEL and well-being. Each member of the BPS staff community has experienced some level of trauma from the past few months, including a destabilizing of our work relationships and our professions. Adults need to have opportunities to reflect on their own social, emotional, and cultural competencies, practice self-care, and collaborate with colleagues in order to support our students and families in doing the same. This will impact personal and systemic shifts needed to elevate student identity, agency, and a sense of belonging. Schools can support this through:

• Learning: Provide professional learning opportunities for staff to reflect on their own social, emotional, and cultural competencies, practice self-care, and collaborate with colleagues

• Collaboration: Incorporate SEL into team meetings, create shared agreements, establish a system for adult check-in’s and leadership practices

• Modeling: Staff model SEL for students through collegial interactions and staff appreciations and implementing strategies for classroom relationship building and family community building

Resources:

Threading SEL across the learning day shifts our emphasis from SEL student curriculum to specific SEL practices that shape the learning environment where adults and students cultivate trust. All aspects of the day are inclusive of the BPS Transformative SEL Competencies.

Establish a safe, healthy, welcoming, joyful, anti-racist, and culturally & linguistically affirming school and classroom learning environment. As students return to school this fall, BPS educators will exemplify an asset-based mindset and focus on the rich cultural knowledge and individual skills each student brings to the classroom, whether in person or online. Across all grade levels, schools will implement structures that are intentionally focused on building trusting relationships between students and adults. These structures might include an advisory group with a low teacher-to-student ratio for regular check-ins, check-in/check-out procedures, and individual or group student success plans with specific strategies identified to increase learning and social-emotional wellness.

School leaders and educators will be intentional about building school culture and creating a sense of community despite the online or blended environment within which students are learning. Schools will institute a weekly or daily ritual for the whole school, grade levels, or classrooms in order to build teamwork and support. Principals and teachers are encouraged to implement support structures that vary based on grade level and may include things such as practicing classroom routines, collaborating on classroom values, setting up classroom norms for communication, building individual relationships, and activities specifically focused on social emotional learning. Physical Education, Health Education and Arts education can build the rituals, routines, relationships and SEL competencies across the school, bringing safe, healthy, welcoming joyful, anti-racist, and culturally & linguistically affirming approaches to learning. See below for strategies and resources.

Creating more time for reacclimating, relationship development, and community building.

Routines and rituals are critical to all learning environments and especially important during this uncertain and stressful time. They help to create a sense of normalcy for students and adults. Building positive and consistent routines and rituals are also a part of a SEL and trauma or healing informed practices. Consistent routines and rituals will also help students and teachers to interact safely during the pandemic. Schools and teachers should spend time preparing routines before the start of the school year and plan for the various models of learning (remote, hybrid, in-person). These routines should be practiced and consistently followed throughout the first 4-6 weeks of school. Below are considerations for routines for both in-person or remote learning.

• Student Healthy Routines: Educators provide students with examples of healthy routines that are anchored in social emotional and physical well-being (mind, heart and body). Students participate in learning activities fostering their SEL competencies and skills as they strengthen their awareness of their personal stories grounded in their identity and social emotional well-being.

• Set Up & Review Routines: Students are able to identify healthy choices to add to their routine: Tool for planning procedures for supportive classroom environments

Norms & Shared Agreements

• Identity Safe Classrooms

• Generating Classroom Shared Agreements with Students: Tool

• Creating Shared Classroom Goals

• Student Led Guidelines for Materials and Space

• Develop & Teach Organizational and Procedural Routines

Community Listening Circles / Round Tables:

• Host a listening tour for families and students to better understand ways to engage students in the environment and learning.

• Establish & Maintain a positive, joyful climate and culture

Lesson Plan Extensions

Educators create lesson plans that include lesson extension activities that may be completed individually or with families.

Student Data

Educators understand the needs of their students, are able to access data and support and meet with their school teams to determine which supports would support the learning and development of the student.

Connecting with Student Support Teams

Families and students have access to support from engagement specialists, counselors and/or mental health professionals.

Aligning SEL and academic content objectives into the curriculum in reading, writing, social studies, mathematics, health, the arts, and the other content areas builds and reinforces students' experience of key SEL skills such as empathy, conflict resolution, and appreciating diversity.

• Create and model a positive and joyful classroom culture with transparency, consistency and high expectations. Identify activities and strategies that center on building rapport with students. Engage in activities that create frequent opportunities to elevate student voice and discourse.

• Select activities that foster empathy and help practice listening and communication skills, provide cues and signals for asking questions and help equip individuals to increase and strengthen trust over time. Example: Restorative Practices

• Apply techniques such as asking open-ended questions and reflective statements in order to establish supportive relationships with students and to create a safe environment for discussion.

Aligning SEL and academic content objectives into the curriculum in reading, writing, social studies, mathematics, health, the arts, and the other content areas builds and reinforces students' experience of key SEL skills such as empathy, conflict resolution, and appreciating diversity.

• Create and model a positive and joyful classroom culture with transparency, consistency and high expectations. Identify activities and strategies that center on building rapport with students. Engage in activities that create frequent opportunities to elevate student voice and discourse.

• Select activities that foster empathy and help practice listening and communication skills, provide cues and signals for asking questions and help equip individuals to increase and strengthen trust over time. Example: Restorative Practices

• Apply techniques such as asking open-ended questions and reflective statements in order to establish supportive relationships with students and to create a safe environment for discussion.

Align SEL Practices

• Common SEL language is used both in and out-of-school with partner programs (e.g. shared sentence stems to support problem-solving skills; shared language for expressing feelings; shared definitions for “positive leader”)

• Teachers make connections to what is being implemented in OST programs.

• A SEL practice (e.g. calm breathing, mindfulness) is implemented in and out-of-school

• CASEL: COVID-19 document
• Learning Acceleration Guide: Planning for Acceleration in the 2020-2021 School Year by TNTP
• DESE Guidance on SEL Reopening | Creating Positive Learning Environments: Recommendations and Resources to Support the Social Emotional Well-being of Students, Staff, and Families