"A study from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence found that teachers who were mandated to teach SEL but did not cultivate their own practice worsened their students SEL skills and teachers who developed their own SEL skills not only improved their own well-being, but also improved the social, emotional and academic development of their students.
Adults who recognize, understand, label, and regulate their own emotions are less likely to report burnout, demonstrate higher levels of patience and empathy, encourage healthy communication, and create safe student learning environments."
-Byron M. McClure
Tip: Start tracking your emotions at least once a day.
Suggestions: At the beginning of your day, before or after a meeting, after work, at the end of the day.
Headspace is a great guide to mindfulness for everyday life. It includes guided meditations, concentration-boosting music, workouts, "SOS” sessions for moments of panic, anxiety, and stress, etc!
Action Item: Start a daily tangible gratitude practice!
Ex: Keep a gratitude journal, or at 1,2,3,4 or 12:34 every day then pause and say something out loud that you are grateful for in your life
• Say hello or good morning (greet colleagues informally)
• Practice mindfulness and gratitude
• Compliment each other when we see good work
• Be kind to yourself and celebrate small victories
• Start and end meetings on time
• Avoid sending and responding to work emails outside of school hours
• Honor coworkers time by asking first "is this a good time?”
• Leave sub plans to make others’ lives easier
• Talk to each other (about what we do, how we feel)
• Visit each others’ classrooms
• Create a school-wide Google Classroom where we add shoutouts, accomplishments, inspirational thoughts, humorous anecdotes, jokes, etc.
• Understand your limitations and set boundaries
• Know that there will be a lot of unknowns and errors at first. Try to be adaptable and flexible
• Reflect on what you’ve accomplished and give yourself (positive) honest feedback
• Help others with technology
• Remind yourself daily of purposefulness behind our work
• Have a manageable to do list
• Be organized: Take time to organize your Google Drive, keep a calendar and check it
• Stay current with grading (and be strategic about what we grade)
• Take advantage of PD opportunities and our online resources: Blended/Remote Learning Handbook and the Lab SEL guide
• Check in virtually:
More staff socials
Exchange numbers with staff
Send positive emails
Schedule zoom lunches
• Take a few minutes at the beginning of a meeting to check-in with each other before we get right to work
• Make an effort to engage socially and professionally with more people on staff , beyond your regular close network
• Use moments in your classroom to discuss topical issues with an anti-racist lens
• Share ideas with colleagues
• Strive for positive peer and student interactions
• Have coffee and snacks
• Exercise/move throughout the day
• Adhere to use of PPE properly
• Respect people's individual risk tolerance e.g. ask before eating indoors
• Identify one to two people that you can reach out to when feeling isolated
3 min watch
Jennifer Jamison reads excerpts from Dr. Brackett's book, Permission to Feel and explores the difference between and Emotional Scientist and an Emotional Judge,
Egg us on by showing curiosity
Examples: Go on, Say more about that
Urge clarification, explore the "why"
Example: Tell me why that is
Don't moralize and invite vulnerability
"Self-talk is basically your inner voice, the voice in your mind that says the things you don’t necessarily say out loud. We often don’t even realise that this running commentary is going on in the background, but our self-talk can have a big influence on how we feel about who we are.
Positive self-talk makes you feel good about yourself and the things that are going on in your life. It’s like having an optimistic voice in your head that always looks on the bright side.
Examples: ‘I am doing the best I can’, ‘I can totally make it through this exam’, ‘I don’t feel great right now, but things could be worse’
Negative self-talk makes you feel pretty crappy about yourself and the things that are going on. It can put a downer on anything, even something good.
Examples: ‘I should be doing better’, ‘Everyone thinks I’m an idiot’, ‘Everything’s crap’, ‘Nothing’s ever going to get better.’"
21 min. watch