A recent trend in education has been a focus on the Social-Emotional (SEL) development of students. I am all for this, and I know how important it is for our students’ growth. The school I am at is small and does not have a large staff to help meet the Social-Emotional needs of our students, so this often falls directly on the teachers. While I have always seen the importance of SEL in the classroom, this was the first year I have seen the benefits of it. One of my favorite classes this past year was a high-energy class. The class was big and barely fit in my classroom, but they were always engaged. This was a very high-achieving class who often masked their problems with their work ethic. There was a day we were supposed to be working on a project, but the class needed a break. It had been a long day, so I took my class period to just make them stop. I made them take the first half of class to just be still and breathe. I challenged them to not talk for 20 minutes. This was so hard for some of them who never go 30 seconds without talking. I did not let them work on homework or do anything academic for that time. After the first 20 minutes, I broke out games (Uno, Set, 24, etc.) and we just played games the remainder of the class. This was such a powerful class period. Despite no math being done, it was one of the most beneficial and learning-filled days. Many of these students had never thought to just stop and relax. They had always been encouraged to work hard, to keep working, and to pursue excellence at all cost, none of which is bad until it drives them into the ground and they neglect themselves. Taking a day to just rest was so powerful.
This is hard and challenging. It is scary as a teacher to fall “behind” the schedule I built. I was afraid that “losing” this day would set us too far behind. I was so wrong. The day of rest was so needed.
I will warn you, though: this took a lot of time to develop. It took months of building relationships with the students, building trust, and listening to them to know this was needed. They had to feel safe and cared for in my classroom for one period of rest to be effective. If a student came to class tense, then they would stay tense the whole period. I spent a lot of groundwork at the start of the year building a classroom environment that made this possible. As mentioned in a previous post (Takeaway #2), listening to students is key. Knowing when students are beyond stressed or need a break is key. If a teacher does not have a relationship with their class, they will never be able to know what the needs of the class are.
SEL is crucial for educators. COVID-19 has taken a toll on educators, but it has also taken a toll on our students, especially middle and high school students. They are aware of what is going on in the world. They have the pressure of social media, university and so much more. If we do not meet the social and emotional needs of our students, how can we expect them to learn any content in the classroom?
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