What Does Social Emotional Learning Mean for Your Class Now?

Top of the morning to you! ☘️I have just come back from a walk, and if anyone were to ask me “what does social emotional learning mean’ my answer would include “walks”. As I look back through my life, I can see that even when I didn’t consciously know why I love walking, I was driven to walk daily if I could.

I was awake early this morning (don’t ask 🥴), and I was quickly inundated with what I had managed to ignore all weekend. As I plowed through it my brain became awash with ideas, and I was overwhelmed.

Getting up from the computer was difficult, but I did it because experience has told me that I must.

Since my walk, I can tell you, my whole system has calmed down, and I am excited, focused, and a bit more organized mentally now.

This was something that took me decades to learn, and I am very grateful that I was able to learn more about SEL as I journeyed through life.

But I also think about how my life would have been different if I had been intentionally taught some of the self-regulation skills that are a part of social-emotional instruction.

Today’s blog post is an exploration of what does social-emotional learning mean.

What Does Social-Emotional Learning Mean in Life?

Successful social-emotional learning, means that each individual understands what works for them to maintain their equilibrium both in a preventative fashion, and for maintenance.

Social-emotional learning (SEL), is an educational framework for growing the emotional intelligence and essential life skills in students.

SEL instruction is the process of teaching students the knowledge and providing opportunities to apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to:

understand and manage emotions
set and achieve positive goals
show empathy for others
establish and maintain positive relationships
make responsible decisions

In short, students are given tools for a more resilient and successful life. The intention of social-emotional learning programs is to equip students with the tools they need to excel academically and also to thrive socially and emotionally.

Both of these are crucial for success in life.

So, what does social-emotional learning mean in life? Simply put:

close meaningful relationships
better able to handle daily stress
greater social competence
improved overall wellbeing
Optimal psychological functioning

alt=”sage green background, inner rectangle of cream with a medium brown border, text overlay that reads, unlock the power of Social and emotional learning for a thriving classroom,below that is the CTA Read more or save for later with the www.engagingcuriosity.ca web address.” — Social emotional instructions provides the tools students need to thrive.

What is Social Emotional Learning in Schools?

SEL is what I call 60 year learning. Raising butterflies in the classroom is motivating, engaging, and cultivates a desire for lifelong learning.

But the specifics of the parts of the animal or the habitat (i.e. accumulated academic knowledge) is often temporary.

However, teaching students the needs of the butterfly, creating compassion for the challenges they face through habitat destruction, and helping the students to understand they have an ethical responsibility to care for the environment, while enabling them to provide that care in some large or small way are lessons that they will carry with them for 60 years or more.

In this case, “what does social-emotional learning mean” includes developing empathetic, inquiring, more responsible individuals, rather than children with head knowledge.

alt=”steel blue background, strip of ripped cream paper with text overlay asking what is social emotional learning in schools, the bottom third has a picture of 3 happy children and their teacher reading a book together, and below that is the CTA Read more or save for later with the www.engagingcuriosity.ca web address.” — Social emotional learning can occur throughout the classroom day. Integrating instruction with consistent opportunities to practice what they learn provides children with tools for a lifetime.

What is the Social-Emotional Learning Controversy?

While the benefits of social-emotional learning competencies are well-documented, like any educational concept, SEL instruction does face some controversy.

Critics argue that social-emotional learning skills could be too intrusive or ideological.

There are a variety of arguments against SEL:

it is “liberal indoctrination”
the programs focus too much on children’s identities
it teaches children to focus on themselves rather than being community minded
it is not fully understood
sometimes it creates a fear of the unknown
feelings of being lost, afraid, confused or threatened when children start to discuss feelings
a fear of people who are comfortable setting personal boundaries which is also a threat to some.

These people deserve our respect, understanding and compassion, but it is important to remember the purpose of teaching SEL.

Social-emotional learning programs aim to develop essential life skills that can help students throughout their lives.

alt=”light sage green background, with leaf motif in bottom left corner, with text overlay boosting success, what does social emotional learning mean for your class? and below that is the CTA Read more or save for later with the www.engagingcuriosity.ca web address.” — As identified above, providing SEL instruction and skills practise to your class will provide lifelong value to your students.

What Does Social-Emotional Learning Mean to Me?

**Caution** Possible trigger. Noone gets hurt in this story, but I will be discussing anger and frustration.

So, I am going to share a personal moment about one of those emotions we tend to be less comfortable with; anger. Nothing bad happened. Quite the opposite. But I want to recognize the different journeys people experience so I offered a trigger warning.

One day when my children were young. I was in the kitchen, and they were playing in another room.

I pulled a jar of pickled beets out of the fridge, and somehow I dropped them, shattering the jar.

Red beet juice everywhere! Including . . . all over my newly painted white floorboards. 😠

I was tired, stressed, and stretched.

I did not have the energy to deal with this.

However, despite my frustration and feelings of being overwhelmed I also realized that it was an accident, and I was the culprit. I got over it, and I cleaned it up.

Amazingly, I also learned the difference between anger and frustration. Initially I thought I felt anger. However, as soon as I looked around and realized that it was an accident, I learned the emotion I was feeling was frustration.

What’s the point?

I was about 34 years old when I learned that anger and frustration were two different feelings with two different purposes.

I have learned a lot about my emotions since that time, and I can’t tell you how much better my life has been because I did. I wish I had learned more about my feelings earlier, but SEL was not even considered in my childhood.

Social-emotional learning lesson plans and activities are not about indoctrination. They are about providing students with the tools to make informed decisions and develop into well-rounded people.

This can be done while recognizing the importance of striking a balance and ensuring that social emotional learning curriculum implementation respects cultural and individual differences.

Phew! 😅

What does social-emotional learning mean to me? Peace, self-care, deeper relationships, confidence, personal growth, facing my fears. And so much more.

What are Social-Emotional Learning Topics?

Social and emotional learning encompasses various topics that can be explored in the classroom, such as:

1. Emotions – Teaching students to identify emotions.

2. Self-Awareness – Teaching students that everyone has strengths and stretches, and that it is important to be able to identify and recognize their own.

3. Relationships – Defining together the attributes of healthy relationships.

4. Responsible Decision-Making – Identifying students what constitutes an informed choice.

5. Communication – Determining the essential communication skills such as active listening and conflict resolution.

Seeing Social Emotional Learning Skills in Action

Ultimately, SEL is about equipping students with crucial life skills.

As we teach children the skills, and provide them with supervised opportunities to practice the skills, they will start to develop:

Self-Awareness – Understanding their emotions and strengths.
Self-Management – Regulating emotions and setting goals.
Social Awareness – Empathy and understanding others’ perspectives.
Relationship Skills – Implementing the skills that are necessary for building and maintaining positive relationships.
Responsible Decision-Making – Making ethical and informed choices.

What Does Social-Emotional Learning Mean for Your Classroom?

As a teacher I consider social-emotional instruction a cornerstone of classroom management because SEL serves as a cornerstone for personal and academic development.

By integrating SEL into daily practices, whether through classroom activities or classroom routines like active breaks, we create resilient, empathetic individuals capable of maintaining meaningful relationships and balanced lives.

While the path to emotional understanding may present challenges, the reward of inner peace, self-awareness, and enriched connections with others makes SEL an invaluable part of education.

If you are in a district or school in which social-emotional instruction is not supported, or if you are just wondering how to integrating SEL activities throughout your day, check out my next blog post: Road to Success! How to include Social Emotional Learning Activities All Day Long

Even if teaching a social emotional learning curriculum is not an option for you in your school or district, this blog post will help you to incorporate SEL into your classroom.

As we continue to consider what does social-emotional learning mean for our students it is essential we explore and embrace SEL. Of course, it is also true that we must be respectful of diverse perspectives and cultural sensitivities, and nurture the understanding of what does social-emotional learning mean for those who are currently opposed to it.