Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) has been a huge focus for our site over the last couple of years – especially during the last year during the pandemic and distance 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.” (CASEL) If you are unfamiliar with SEL, I highly encourage you to check out CASEL’s website as a good diving point, then conduct your own research to learn more about how it can support your students!
One way that we are promoting SEL this year is on our “SEL Wednesdays” which has been our asynchronous days at our school site. Teachers have been encouraged to assign a short assignment that promotes SEL for their students to complete. Recently, I found several great activities on Scholastic and converted one into an editable Google Slide Deck for students!
In this activity, students are challenged to complete an “Optimist or Pessimist” survey and score their responses to determine which quality they have. After this, students are challenged to analyze their score and talk about next steps to either maintain or change their outlook. Below, you will find a quick look at the activity, as well as the full view and copy version:
Do you have any SEL activities you are willing to share? Drop them in the comments below!
