Social Emotional Learning

[nellgirl]

What is being done at your schools to address the social emotional needs of kids, particularly at the late elementary/early middle school (grades 4-7) levels, but also k-3?
Are strategies being applied school-wide or for vulnerable students?
What programs are being used, and who administers/oversees their implementation?

[flamingeaux]

Sept 21, 2017 0:11:14 GMT -5 nellgirl said:

What is being done at your schools to address the social emotional needs of kids, particularly at the late elementary/early middle school (grades 4-7) levels, but also k-3?
Are strategies being applied school-wide or for vulnerable students?
What programs are being used, and who administers/oversees their implementation?

We Are a 7-12 school, and have a school based health center with a social worker and a psychologist. We have mandatory depression screenings for 7th graders.

[spedrunner]

Great question and something that has just come up at our district. I teach middle grades and we just had a meeting that an influx of 6th grade girls are experiencing separation anxiety from their mothers. Something apparently that is becoming more common Our new principal is looking into some options for training

We also do a wellness day for students and staff. It's a really awesome day. Full of presenters. Workshops. For mental emotional. Physical health. From yoga to meditation to coping strategies. Back health and backpack safety etc.

[nellgirl]

Thanks for answering, folks!
The reason I ask is that one of my school's goals is self-regulation, but we've had kind of a piecemeal approach. I work in a fairly small (250 students) k-7 school in a hcol area of a big city. Our kids have a lot of anxiety, and we have a lot of kids who likely have other needs, but the parents in the community are often reticent to get kids tested, so we have lots of kids with significant social issues, but no IEP or designations.
In my class, I've used Maria Garcia Winner's social thinking, MindUp, and the zones of regulation. One of our support workers who I'm friends with began a whole class social thinking program, and I've slowly taken it over as I've learned more. It takes time, but when it's being done consistently, it's making a big difference.
The issue that we're having is that some staff aren't on board, and we're trying to implement it school-wide.

[katfco]

Our school uses the 7 Habits of Healthy Kids through the whole school

[njw]

Our school uses Zones for students who are identified or considered at risk.

They are pushing growth mindset, which works well for academics, but I don't see much change in social/emotional progress.

I wish we had more formal programs. We do have a social worker and a psychologist for k-6 but only have guidance for 6th grade.

[nellgirl]

Sept 22, 2017 20:31:00 GMT -5 njw said:

Our school uses Zones for students who are identified or considered at risk.

They are pushing growth mindset, which works well for academics, but I don't see much change in social/emotional progress.

I wish we had more formal programs. We do have a social worker and a psychologist for k-6 but only have guidance for 6th grade.

It's great that you have those specialists!

We have a counsellor that we share with other schools. She is at ours 1.5 days/week. Our school psychologist only tests kids who need psych-ed testing, but doesn't deal with kids in any other capacity. We don't have social workers or nurses or anything else.

[sarahswim]

We use MindUp, but it isn't school-wide. I teach 6th, so our students are on that cusp of middle school where things are going haywire. I wish we had a more school-wide program, because 99.9% of our students would benefit from it, but it's not a focus right now.