SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
The five main SEL competencies are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Check out this link from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) the to learn more!
SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.
Second Step® Elementary is a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children’s social-emotional skills. Second Step helps students develop a common set of skills and strategies that are designed to help children both in and out of school. WCPSS has purchased this curriculum for use in grades K-12. At HARES, Second Step lessons are taught by your child's classroom teacher, and are supported by counselors and specialists.
Unit 1: Growth Mindset & Goal-Setting
Children learn how to pay attention and manage distractions, develop a growth mindset, and apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives.
Unit 2: Emotion Management
Children learn how to identify and label emotions and use emotion management strategies—including stress management for older students—to calm strong feelings.
Unit 3: Empathy & Kindness
Children learn how to recognize kindness and act kindly, have empathy for others and take others’ perspectives, and recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements of building and maintaining relationships.
Unit 4: Problem-Solving
Children learn how to identify and state a problem, recognize if a problem is an accident, and use the STEP problem-solving process: S: Say the problem, T: Think of solutions, E: Explore the outcomes, and P: Pick a solution.