Social Emotional Learning at hill

Our SEL Journey

Advisory

Designing Our Advisory Program

Positive Impact on Students

Explicit SEL Instruction

Community Matters Advisory Curriculum

Fall SEL Survey Results

Restorative Practices

Restorative Practices Trainings

Our SEL Journey

In the spring of 2020, our innovation team faced the enormous challenge of planning for a new school year in the context of a global pandemic.

We grappled with many questions:

How can we meet the needs of students experiencing a range of obstacles due to Covid-19? How could we authentically engage students learning from home? How can we make sure students feel safe and cared for without being together in the classroom?

In addition to the existing struggles middle schoolers encounter, our students would be dealing with concerns about ill family members and the difficulties of distance learning. It quickly became evident that our focus on social-emotional learning (SEL) and relationships would be more crucial than ever before.

Relationships and meaningful connection became even more prominent in our vision for the 2020-21 school year. To meet the social and emotional needs of our students, we created a plan that would prioritize explicit SEL instruction and a restorative practices framework. Our advisory program was the primary vehicle through which these practices would be implemented. As of January, 2021, our efforts to keep relationships at the heart of all the work we do on campus have been hugely successful.

Advisory

Designing Our Advisory Program

Over the summer of 2020, a group of teachers and administrators formed an advisory committee to design and implement the upcoming advisory program. We set out to create user-friendly lessons that teachers could use to build meaningful relationships with students. We understood that starting a new school year amidst a pandemic would be just as trying for teachers as it would be for students. Therefore, one of our biggest priorities with advisory was the ease of use for advisors. Our team collaborated to create weekly lesson slides for nearly the entire year. We devised a simple and consistent weekly schedule:

Positive Impact on Students

Through our daily advisory, students have the opportunity to be a part of an intimate community. Each morning, advisors meet with a small group of 16 students--some virtually and others in person. Each lesson contains multiple opportunities for students to connect with each other and their advisor. The lessons also include daily moments of self-reflection (mindfulness, mood meters, and stress checks) which allow students to practice self-awareness and check in with their own emotions. We also leverage advisory time on Tuesdays and Thursdays to conference with students and provide them with academic and SEL support. A survey of the student body in early October revealed Advisory was helping us meet the needs of our students.

87% of our students indicated they felt their advisor cared about them.

Additionally, 72% responded that they found the Advisory lessons interesting and engaging.

These positive data so early in the year were a strong indication that our efforts to build meaningful relationships with students were effective.

Explicit SEL Instruction

Community Matters Advisory Curriculum

Community Matters is a curriculum that creates “student-centered spaces, facilitated by a trusted adult, where honest questioning, discussion, and social and academic growth can occur; where students build understanding and empathy, break down stereotypes, and find and build their voices; and where they develop the skills necessary for academic and community success.”

One of the most important reasons we chose this curriculum is the heavy emphasis on community. We knew that creating a genuine sense of community for our students would be crucial given the isolation many were experiencing during the pandemic. The advisory committee worked throughout the summer to modify the curriculum to accommodate the virtual learning environment.

Each Wednesday morning, advisors facilitate an explicit SEL lesson with their students. In our original proposal, the innovation team had recommended the use of the Positive Action curriculum provided by the district. However, in the spring of 2020, the SEL committee conducted a careful review of both the student and teacher experiences using the curriculum. We concluded that, although Positive Action had some benefits, we would need a more culturally relevant and equity-focused curriculum to have a meaningful impact on students. As the chair of the SEL committee, Ms. Stroud collaborated with our district SEL coordinator to explore various curriculum options. We met with SEL leaders from within our district and Austin ISD, and eventually discovered Community Matters from Facing History & Ourselves.

Based on the Fall 2020 SEL and Well-Being survey from Dallas ISD, we believe our curriculum is helping students feel connected and develop social and emotional skills.

Fall SEL Survey Results

Our teachers have also had a positive experience with the Community Matters curriculum. When surveyed in December 2020, 73% of teachers indicated they believed the SEL lessons were relevant and meaningful to students. For comparison, only 47% of teachers responded favorably to this question regarding Positive Action curriculum in the spring. The SEL committee consistently utilizes teacher and student feedback to make adjustments to advisory and other SEL initiatives on campus. We feel confident that these numbers will only continue to increase over the next several months.

Restorative Practices

As we entered the school year, our team knew Restorative Practices would allow us to build a culture of community, trust, and empathy. First, we needed to make sure teachers were given the necessary tools to build relationships with students and manage conflict in the classroom. Teachers and support staff have been trained in multiple areas of Restorative Practices throughout the fall semester.

Restorative Practices Trainings

SEL Newsletters

The SEL committee supplemented these training sessions with Restorative Practices resources provided in the bi-monthly SEL newsletter. Published in October 2020 and January 2021, these newsletters reached the entire school staff. Click the links above to read each newsletter!

House System

Click here for helpful resources

“My daughter loves her Altruismo group and is really excited about attending the House meetings. She is currently learning remotely and the House system has afforded her yet another way to connect with the school, grow her relationships, and feel like a part of the RTH community - which has all been great for her overall attitude and learning experience.”

RTH Parent

January 2021 Survey

As we prepared to implement the House System, we took on the challenge of creating a sense of excitement and camaraderie despite the large number of students learning virtually. We collaborated as a team over the summer to adapt our plans so that the house system would benefit all students. First, we created a system to assign Houses to students virtually. In order to build excitement we utilized social media and introduced the houses during our advisory lessons to make it an event where all students would feel engaged in person or at home. Our dedicated teachers took on the task to distribute house shirts to all students (both in-person and distance learners) to make sure they can represent their house spirit with pride.

Once the houses were assigned, we started working with the point system, utilizing the Ron Clark Academy platform to award points to individual students and entire Houses after winning challenges.

We have had many town hall meetings, where students meet with their house leads via Zoom and have the opportunity to build relationships with their house peers. Keeping in mind our core competencies, we host house challenges by collecting items to support organizations in our community such as CC Young Senior Living , Feed Lake Highlands and White Rock Center of Hope. Our students have had the opportunity to build empathy, relate and take action to support each other and the members of our community--all the while earning points for their house.

Just recently we surveyed our parents to evaluate our House System implementation as we prepare to revamp our system for the second semester. 90.2% of parents have heard about the house system from their highlander or via social media. 70.1% of parents believe that the house system has probably impacted their child in a positive way. This data gives the advisory committee the fuel to continue striving to make the house system a driving force at our school. We will continue to look for feedback to improve and perfect our system.

A house system is a way to make a large school feel smaller. The RTH House System will allow for more personal connections between students of all grade levels and their teachers. With this alternative alignment for student engagement, there will be increased peer-to-peer mentoring and leadership development opportunities.