Strategies To Help Our Students Thrive Series

First presented in the spring of 2021, Strategies to Help Our Students Thrive provided a six-part series focused on different aspects of Social Emotional Learning. 

The series included a live session and resources on Empathy, Self Awareness, self Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Positive Decision-Making. Each session and resources can be found in the navigation bar to the left and include both English and Spanish resources.
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Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Systemic SEL is promoted across multiple contexts every day. SEL is more than just a program or lesson. It is about how teaching and learning happens, as well as what you teach and where you learn.

What skills do socially and emotionally competent children and youth have?

CASEL’s widely used framework identifies five core competencies that when prioritized across settings – districts, schools, classrooms, families, and the wider community – can educate hearts, inspire minds, and help students navigate the world more effectively. 

Socially and emotionally competent children and youth are skilled in five core areas:

They are able to regulate their emotions.
They are able to manage stress, control impulses, and persevere in overcoming obstacles. They can set and monitor progress toward the achievement of personal and academic goals and express their emotions appropriately in a wide range of situations.

They are socially aware.
They are able to take the perspective of and empathize with others and recognize and appreciate individual and group similarities and differences. They are able to seek out and appropriately use family, school, and community resources.

They have good relationship skills.
They can establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships based on cooperation. They resist inappropriate social pressure; constructively prevent, manage, and resolve interpersonal conflict; and seek and provide help when needed.

They demonstrate responsible decision-making at school, at home, and in the community.
In making decisions, they consider ethical standards, safety concerns, appropriate social norms, respect for others, and the likely consequences of various courses of action. They apply these decision-making skills in academic and social situations and are motivated to contribute to the well-being of their schools and communities.