Social and Emotional Learning

http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/social_emotional_learning_what_it_how_can_we_use_it_help_our_children

Remember back a few months ago when I wrote the post First Webinar and I did not know if empathy can be taught.  Well, it would appear that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) addresses this issue.  In this link, it says that Daniel Goleman wrote a book in 1995 and one of the five crucial emotional competencies regarding Emotional Intelligence is empathy.  So, at the present moment, my theory that SEL is basically what I have been posting about all semester only with a name seems to be correct.

When that woman in the alternative school came in and talked to us, she said that part of her job was to help the students manage their feelings.  Because for some of them, they had a gun to their head at 2:00am that morning, and how is a student supposed to learn knowing that they had a gun to their had last night?  Like this, Dr. Maurice Elias in the article talks about how "children in class who are beset by an array of confused and hurtful feelings cannot and will not learn effectively."  This coincides with what she talked about, with how we need to take care of the student's emotions and feelings before we can teach them.

In the beginning of this article, it talks about just teaching academics.  And, when I took the teaching philosophy quiz, I was almost completely on the side of student-oriented teaching.  I believe that this is why, because students with Emotional Behavioral Disorders desperately need to be taught SEL.  If SEL can help them control their emotions, then why would we not use SEL to teach them?  Now, I do believe that teaching academics is important as well, and as I have said before, I believe that SEL can be implemented into academics.  Therefore, it is both SEL and academics, it isn't an either or situation.

I find myself thinking about direct instruction vs. being a role model.  Because being a role model doesn't always mean that you are going to directly instruct a student.  The expansion of this thought, however, will have to wait for another time.