Social Emotional Learning 5 Competences - Provided by The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) Organization. The site also includes links to partner districts inside the CASEL network.

Source: CASEL

5 Ways to Incorporate SEL in Middle School

Social and emotional learning is more than a side curriculum—it should be woven into everyday activities throughout the school day.

Source: Edutopia

How a P.E. Department Designed a Compassion-Based Curriculum

Five years ago, the physical education department in Wellsville Secondary School, in Wellsville, New York, confronted a problem that plagues many middle and high school PE departments: Their students were showing up unprepared to participate in class, and they knew that if this problem went unchecked, it could prevent many kids from earning a diploma. Worse, many students would leave high school having missed out on the opportunity to learn important things about caring for their health.

Source: Cult of Pedagogy

20 Tips to Help De-escalate Interactions With Anxious or Defiant Students

Source: KQED Mindshift

Learning Mindfulness Centered on Kindness to Oneself and Others

Crowded classrooms, hectic teaching schedules and rowdy students have teachers across the country looking for ways to keep their classrooms calm. That may be one reason mindfulness programs have become so popular. Mindfulness can be practiced in many ways, but at its core mindfulness is self-awareness, a way for students to ground themselves in the moment, creating space to better understand and manage their feelings.

Source: KQED Mindshift

The Social, Emotional, Character Development (SECD) standards were adopted in April of 2012 and revised in July of 2018 by the Kansas State Board of Education. They are designed to help keep children safe and successful while developing their academic, social-emotional and post-secondary skills. Kansas was the first state to adopted social-emotional character development standards.

Source: KSDE

Creating a Culture of Trust and Safety in Every Class

Visit a school that uses morning meetings to develop kids’ social and emotional skills to prep them for learning.

Morning meetings at Symonds Elementary are a school-wide practice that originated from the Responsive Classroom model, which is based on the idea that students' social-emotional growth is just as important as their academic growth. Symonds teachers adapt the Responsive Classroom model of a morning meeting to fit their classroom needs, using it to create a classroom culture where students feel safe, supported, and ready to learn.

Source: Edutopia

How Being Part of a 'House' Within a School Helps Students Gain A Sense of Belonging

Some larger schools are creating smaller "houses" across grade levels and classes to help kids feel a greater sense of belonging and school engagement.

Source: KQED Mindshift

The Sorting: A Six-House System Unites Mill Creek Elementary’s Expanding Community

Once our House System was created by the faculty team, administration met with our student leaders from our Character Council. Students added components that they wished to see. (Several contributing sixth graders commented that they were sad to be moving to middle school next year and would not be able to be a part of this.) Once all input was consolidated, our House System was presented to the entire faculty. Teachers left for the summer already excited about beginning the 2016-2017 school year. We attribute a lot of our subsequent success to faculty, staff, and student ownership because we made this new way of doing school together.

Source: Alabama's Best Practices

Setting School Culture With Social And Emotional Learning Routines

Building students' social and emotional skills with daily routines or regular classes is an important part of setting school culture.

Source: KQED

Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning: Research and Practice

by Joseph A. Durlak (Editor) et all

The prominent editors and contributors describe state-of-the-art intervention and prevention programs designed to build students' skills for managing emotions, showing concern for others, making responsible decisions, and forming positive relationships. Conceptual and scientific underpinnings of SEL are explored and its relationship to children's and adolescents' academic success and mental health examined. Issues in implementing and assessing SEL programs in diverse educational settings are analyzed in depth, including the roles of school- and district-level leadership, teacher training, and school-family partnerships.

The Power of Guidance: Teaching Social-Emotional Skills in Early Childhood Classrooms

by Dan Gartrell (Author)

This resource teaches strategies for developing an encouraging classroom and for working with children, particularly boys, who have moderate and serious conflicts. It also presents non-punitive approaches to classroom management. Those who will find the most value in this compilation of material on guidance are practitioners in the field, including Head Start teachers, childcare teachers and preschool and primary grade teachers and assistants.

Social and Emotional Learning in Action: Experiential Activities to Positively Impact School Climate

by Tara Flippo (Author)

This is an easy to use sourcebook facilitated by teaching and/or counseling practitioners primarily in school settings. The pedagogical basis for these lessons are shaped around the research findings of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), indicating that the inclusion of social and emotional development programs positively affect academic achievement. SELA will provide a developmentally sequenced year-long/ modular flow or stand-alone lessons that integrate the benefits of experiential and social emotional learning (SEL) into the classroom. Each lesson (36 total) will offer step-by-step instructions along with a materials list.

Teaching Social Skills Through Sketch Comedy and Improv Games: A Social Theatre™ Approach for Kids and Teens including those with ASD, ADHD, and Anxiety

by Shawn Amador (Author)

Drawing on ideas from Social Thinking®, CBT, mindfulness and assertiveness training this book develops games, skits and short plays which can be adapted to suit children and teenagers including those who are gifted, typical, and those with mild to moderate cognitive abilities. These activities will help participants become more assertive and flexible as well as improving confidence, focus and self-esteem.

Social Theatre™ can be used in small groups, in class or throughout the school, as well as in group therapy sessions. It provides a new and inclusive way to teach social skills and collaborative learning and is especially useful for those with anxiety, ADHD and ASD.

Morning Meetings for Special Education Classrooms

by Dr. Felicia Durden Ed.D. (Author)

Use a morning meeting to jump-start your students’ day! This simple but effective classroom technique has been proven to help students learn better, build friendships, improve behavior and gain confidence.

Offering fun games, great songs and other engaging activities, this book has 101 ready-to-use ideas.

The Morning Meeting Book

by Roxann Kriete (Author), Carol Davis (Author)

Promote a climate of trust, academic growth, and positive behavior by launching each school day with a whole class gathering. This comprehensive, user-friendly book shows you how to hold Responsive Classroom Morning Meetings, a powerful teaching tool used by hundreds of thousands of teachers in K-8 schools.

80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3-6

by Carol Davis (Author)

80 easy-to-do, classroom-tested ideas to help you plan engaging, purposeful Morning Meetings for third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students.

80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades K-2

by Susan Lattanzi Roser (Author)

80 easy-to-do, classroom-tested ideas to help you plan engaging, purposeful Morning Meetings for kindergarten, first, and second grade students.

The Brain Power Classroom: 10 Essentials for Focus, Mindfulness, and Emotional Wellness

by Dave Beal (Author)

Create a Focused, Positive, and Engaged Classroom! Part 1 provides scientific background, principles and insightful advice for creating an optimal classroom atmosphere. Part 2 features 30 classroom activities you can easily integrate into your current curriculum. They are divided into the “Brain Power 10 Essentials” and incorporate various modalities, such as movement, mindfulness, and focusing strategies to engage students’ multiple intelligences.

Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom

by Patricia A. Jennings (Author), Daniel J. Siegel M.D. (Foreword)

Mindfulness for Teachers is based upon the author's extensive experience as a mindfulness practitioner, teacher, teacher educator and scientist. Drawing upon basic and applied research in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and education, the book offers valuable information about how mindfulness can help teachers manage the stressful demands of the classroom, cultivate an exceptional learning environment, and revitalize teaching and learning.

Teach, Breathe, Learn: Mindfulness in and out of the Classroom

by Meena Srinivasan (Author)

Teach, Breathe, Learn is designed for educators at all levels, parents interested in sharing mindfulness with their children, and anyone curious about how to cultivate their own mindfulness practice and eventually teach mindfulness to others. Part 1 helps teachers develop compassion and shift from "reacting" to "responding" to demands. Part 2 offers techniques for cultivating loving-kindness, gratitude and seeing students, colleagues, and parents as oneself.The last section of the book introduces a curriculum teachers can use to incorporate mindfulness into their classroom, replete with lesson plans, handouts, and homework assignments.

Making Caring Common (MCC), a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, helps educators, parents, and communities raise children who are caring, responsible to their communities, and committed to justice.

Choose2Matter is a universal movement that challenges us to make “mattering” a way of life. When people accept they matter and know their actions count; learning, lives and worlds change. Are you in?

Mind UP - A Product of the Goldie Hawn Foundation

Every brain needs a break! MindUP™ was created with educators, for educators, to help them improve student engagement in learning, academics and focus, and to give them some tools and strategies to bring joy back into the classroom. Teachers need tools to help not only their students, but themselves, and MindUP™ gives them a break from the stresses of daily life, leaving more time for teaching and less time managing classroom behavior.

Lessons are free and designed for PreK-8th grade.

Inspired by the theme, “The Superhero is YOU,” from the transformative musical, “Chix 6,” the mission of the educational arts-based 501C3, the SuperYou FUNdation (with a capital “FUN”) is for youth to notice and celebrate the superhero qualities in themselves and others so that they feel inspired to positively impact their communities. Through writing, presenting, critical thinking, collaborating, music, performance, and art, students connect to their unique “superpowers.” Then, holding each other accountable as superheroes, and acting from the “do good” place of superhero empowerment, students collaborate on social good missions to help their communities.

Train Ugly is on a mission to challenge and question EVERYTHING that we think we know about sports, education, and development.

Through this journey they’ve worked with best-selling authors, olympic coaches, professional athletes, renowned professors, and thousands of coaches, teachers, students, and players from all over the world.

These experiences helped them to discover some incredibly important research in the fields of motor learning, performance science, and psychology that should have totally changed the way we train and develop students, athletes, and people in general – but they have not. It’s their mission to change that.

WonderGrove Learn is an online tool that teaches social-emotional learning and life skills using: Engaging animated characters, 100 short animations, and 2,000 extension lessons

All materials are designed for preschool, kindergarten, first and second grade. Lessons align with Common Core Standards.

Available in English, Spanish, Arabic, ASL, and Assistive Symbols for students with special needs

The Big Idea Experience is a fun and exciting character education program that helps elementary kids learn about making smart decisions by teaching a Big Idea, which is a value that is important for kids to know. Each month the focus is on a new Big Idea. The Big Idea Experience creates high-energy videos each month that help students understand the Big Idea and how they can put it into practice.

The Big Idea can be reinforced at the school through teacher resources, media resources, visual resources, daily announcements, and family resources. Each monthly Big Idea has a definition, animal, and color associated with it to make it more applicable and easier for kids to remember.

The Good Project promotes excellence, engagement, and ethics in education, preparing people to become good workers and good citizens who contribute to the overall well-being of society. Through our research-based concepts, frameworks, and resources, we seek to help students reflect upon the ethical dilemmas that arise in everyday life and give them the tools to make thoughtful decisions.