Social Emotional Learning

Social Emotional Learning Teaching Ideas and Activities

Many of us educators already know that we embed social emotional learning into the many things that we do on a daily basis. However, I'm going to share a few of some of those ideas here.

Initiative: To support initiative, a child must feel confidence and have a good sense of self-esteem. Therefore by boosting their confidence levels and enhancing self esteem, you'll be setting your students up to take initiative more often.

Collaboration and Cooperation:  These skills are important, especially in group work.  Do you provide opportunities to work together? Do you help your students develop a code of conduct for group work? Students need to have opportunities to respect the ideas and opinions of others even though they may not agree with them.  Ongoing opportunities for pairs, triads and small groups enhance collaboration and cooperation skills.

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Persistence or 'Stick With ITness':  Sometimes this is also referred to as 'grit'. For a student to develop persistence, they need to learn from mistakes and see success. They need to have opportunities to overcome distractions and move on despite obstacles. Help children see the learning in the errors. Celebrate the learning from mistakes, help them to see that sometimes, the most permanent learning stems from making errors. Soon your students will not fear failure and develop persistence.

Communication and Relationships: A language rich environment is usually evidenced in all good teacher's classrooms. Relationships are supported by providing opportunities for collaboration and cooperation. Social skill strategies also help with relationships.

Leadership: Children have to work within various group sizes to develop negotiating skills which leads to leadership. Leadership also happens when students are able to be empathetic regarding others. The willingness to make compromises is another avenue to help children develop leadership skills.

For a few worksheets on social emotional learning, view them here.