SEL: Self Management and Supporting Learner Resilience

 Resilience can be defined as 

The process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands. 

(APA. https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience)

When we discuss learning and metacognition with students, it is important to remember and remind that resilience can be practiced (it is the real growth mindset). And our job as educators is to cultivate students' learning process so that it supports the increase of their resilience. And helps them to rebuild their confidence and learning skills. Because this is exactly what learner agency is: our capacity to make choices about ourselves and our learning. Resilience. Adjusting.

I imagine that this might sound like yet another demand for already busy teachers 

- but, please, hear me out: 

Teaching will not be successful unless we help students to be resilient, like the tree in the picture. It doesn't have much soil, and it has lost some of it's needles, too. But it bends with the winds and tolerates the salty seawater. And grows. Not as fast as the other trees growing more inland with better soil. It grows on its own pace - like we all do, actually. For growth cannot be hurried.

Teaching and learning are TWO different processes in the classroom. What is taught is not necessarily learned. And sometimes what is NOT taught, is learned. We have called this with very many different names during the formal education era - hidden curriculum, or just the unofficial and unwritten rules (values, perspectives, norms, and so on...) that students learn at school. Often unintentionally, just as a part of the  "school culture". 

The more we understand the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and use Trauma-Informed Practices, the better we can support our students' resilience. To me, that is an essential part of being an educator.

Social-Emotional Learning: Responsible Decision-Making

Learning is NOT easy. We all experience times and situations when learning gets hard. How can we help ourselves to overcome this problem? How can we nurture our own learning process? 

My first thought is that learning is ALWAYS at its best when we enjoy it! Some things are easier to learn than others, but for me the trick usually is to justify to myself WHY I want to learn it. (Please note: I didn't say why I NEED to learn it, but why I WANT to learn it!) Children are the best role models for wanting to learn anything and everything we encounter. :)

For most things I can find a reason for wanting to learn something - it might help me in the future path, or it is something I have been curious about. Compliance is a hard concept for learning enjoyment! Yet, sometimes we are able to lie to ourselves that what we need to learn is actually useful to us. 

Learning new things builds our confidence. And learning is SO much more than just memorizing a bunch or facts! It is about thinking about how they relate to what we already know, and how we can apply the new information. Deeper learning happens when we are able to apply what we are learned.

So, what are your solutions for nurturing your own learning? 

Social-Emotional Learning: Responsible Decision-Making

 

I talk with many, many teachers every week. From our discussions (and also from my own experience as an educator and a parent) I have learned that too often we cut time from a very important part of our personal lives: Self-care. Yet, our work is easier, and I also think we can do it better, if we take care of our own well-being. For me, this often means a walk in the nature. Just because it is so awesome! 

I know I am very privileged to live near the forests and mountains and streams! It is easy to get out and walk among the trees - those gentle giants. and I wish more people had the opportunity to do that. 

This is also the reason why I think the SEL competency for reflecting on our roles to promote well-being also extends to protecting the nature - so that also the future generations can walk in the forests and feel refreshed! 

Social-Emotional Learning: Self-Management

 Organizing and planning are important SEL skills. I remember a Finnish saying from my childhood:

Literal: Well planned is halfway done.

Usually translates as: Well begun is half done (wiki)

But sometimes I feel that there is, oh, so very, very much planning to do in my days or weeks. Fortunately I have realized that some mundane taks scattered throughout my days can give a much needed break from thinking too much.

NCS 2021

While sweeping the stairs or deck might not be my favorite thing to do, it allows a break in my routines for working on computer. Watching squirrels and birds while doing it is the pleasant add-on. :) 

Social-Emotional Learning: Self-Management

 Happy 2023!!

It is the time of the year when we are setting new goals. I try to remind myself how important well-being goals are for us. Experiencing the awe - something larger than ourselves - is one of my favorite things. It helps me to put things in perspective, which is a very important part of goal-setting.

Photo: ET 2023 Kalaloch, WA

Living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I am lucky to have many opportunities to immerse in the nature. However, we can learn to find the awe in mundane things by purposefully sensing them:

A - attention: to notice things you appreciate, value, or find amazing

W - wait: to stay focused on something, inhale to experience coherence

E - exhale: to relax and expand, because this amplifies the sensations

I have also noticed that I seem to do this automatically when I walk on the beach, or see the mountains, or a rainbow, or a pretty flower, or a spiderweb with  dew drops... and many of those moments are now these SEL images.

My goal for this year is to experience more awe.  Here is more information about how to find AWE anywhere 

I hope you have a great year ahead! 

:)

Nina

Social-Emotional Learning: Social Awareness

Understanding and expressing gratitude is an important part of or Social Awareness. Gratitude is really about connections and being ready to extend and return kindness. 

It is the skill of pausing to notice what we have.

Photo: ET 2021

I love trees - all kind of trees. The evergreens, like cedars and pines, but also deciduous trees who survive their winters by dropping their leaves. In this busy time of the year (only 6 days until Winter Solstice!) the barren trees remind me of their resilience and survival strategy: digging their roots deep into the ground.

Gratitude helps me to feel grounded. How about you?

Social-Emotional Learning: Self-Awareness

Recently I have been volunteering to support a resiliency training and realized that the biggest change, the most necessary one is about our own perception.

In the classroom, how do we perceive students? Are they acting out or manipulative and naughty? Or, are they just emotionally dysregulated and trying to get their needs met with  the only tools they have learned to use? 

How can we understand ourselves better, so that we can help our students?