I had an amazing call with a Principal who firmly believes
in using Social Emotional Learning at her school. She is so committed that she is inspiring her
teachers to form a “Social Emotional Learning Team” to not only implement
programs but to make them sustainable. Why is this important? Because teachers are so unmotivated by having
to implement another initiative! How
many new initiatives can we add to a teacher’s day? Yet, it’s so important to add an SEL program
in schools and it's critical for student’s
ability to learn. A daily mindfulness practice is foundational to social
emotional learning and academic learning.
It promotes using higher order cognitive resources (the prefrontal
cortex) over lower order functions (fight, flight, or freeze) which allows
students to be ready to learn.
Mindfulness is not a new age thing or related to a
particular religion, it’s training our brains to have the ability to pay attention
at the present moment non-judgmentally. When
it comes to education, the aspect of paying attention alone could be the game
changer for many students. Try it out,
bring mindfulness into your classroom and see what a difference it can make for
you, your students, your classroom and ultimately for your community. You can try the daily practice at
InnerExplorer.org to get started. I’m
in love with the idea of having a Social Emotional Team and I hope that it’s a concept that all
schools will try to incorporate.
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