School Communities

Coming Soon!
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‍Building a Foundation for Social-Emotional Learning and Behavioral Health in Schools

This video series is designed for school communities everywhere who are seeking to strengthen knowledge and resources to begin the process of building supports for social-emotional learning and behavioral health in their schools.

These short videos provide research-based foundational information, practical experience, and engaging materials. They are intended for individuals wanting to learn more about best practices or for teams or groups that are looking to start a conversation about how these topics can be addressed in their school communities.

Additional resources are provided for each video to extend the learning and to guide schools in exploring how they can build sustainable systems of support for social-emotional learning and behavioral health with students, families, and school staff.

Core Concepts

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is the ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and the influence of these on behavior. It includes reflecting on one’s strengths and limitations. We embed activities to increase self-awareness as we believe when we are better able to recognize our internal cues, we can gain greater insight into our blind spots and the lens through which we interpret the world.

Adult Learning Principles

Adult learners want to be actively engaged in learning, solving problems, and meeting real world challenges. We incorporate these concepts to  maximize learning and meet the needs of participants who have diverse knowledge, experiences, interests, and backgrounds. 

Person in the Environment

Brofenbrenner’s ecological systems theory  examines child development within the context of various systems and their relationship to one another. This model examines how a child’s environment and social relationships impact their development and behavior and focuses on the  intersection of factors and systems. When we talk about students and families, we encourage participants to think about how all the environments and systems impact their development. 

Partnering with Families

Caregivers and families are essential to a student’s growth and development as well as to their school experience. Our work with students can be impacted by the relationships that we develop with their caregivers and families. When discussing programming and strategies in our training, we highlight how schools can include caregiver and family voice and partner with families to support students’ needs. 

Culturally Responsive Lens

It is important that school professionals strive to be culturally aware and understand the dynamics of cultural interactions. All of our best practices need to be looked at through this lens so that they are adapted as one size does not fit all. A key component within our trainings includes discussing the role of culture and diverse perspectives and experiences of students, families, and staff and how this shapes our work in school communities.

Anti-Racist Practices

Literature tells us that anti-racist practices include thinking, acting, and advocating for equality and actively working to change policies and systems. We will invite you to reflect on your role and school community and consider how anti-racist practices have been incorporated or could be further implemented. 

Research-Based Practices

The research fields of education, social emotional learning, and behavioral health are continually evolving. We conduct an extensive review of literature in order to include information in our webinars that is driven by current research. We strive to present strategies and practices identified in the literature that are relevant and applicable to a school setting.