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108 Social and Emotional Learning and Trauma Session 3
In Session 3, we focused a lot on how social and emotional learning connects to student success and relationships. One statistic that stood out to me was that only about 25% of students use positive words to describe school. That really made me think about how many students may not feel engaged, supported, or comfortable in their learning environment. Another powerful statistic was that 9 out of 10 students who have academic success also have high emotional intelligence, which shows how important SEL skills are for learning.
We also learned about self-awareness and the three main patterns that influence it: thought patterns, emotional regulation, and behavior. I thought it was interesting how these areas are all connected and affect how students respond to situations. The self-awareness activities we discussed, like free response journaling, show and tell, and “would you rather” questions, seem like simple but effective ways to help students reflect and express themselves.
Another important topic was relationship management. These skills help build and maintain positive and healthy connections between people. We talked about strategies like talk, listen, show, navigate, and seek, which all contribute to better communication and stronger relationships. I also liked that we learned quick relationship-building activities that only take 5–10 minutes, since that makes them easier to consistently use in a classroom.
We also discussed social awareness and how these skills need to be continuously developed as students grow. This reminded me that SEL is not something students learn once, but something that needs ongoing support and practice.
Finally, we talked about responsible decision-making and how teachers make a huge number of cognitive decisions every day—even more than brain surgeons. That really highlighted how important it is for teachers to be intentional and thoughtful in their choices, especially when supporting students’ emotional and social development.
Overall, this session showed me how important SEL is in shaping not just academic success, but also relationships and decision-making skills.
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