Webinar Recap: Integrating SEL into your school schedule
On Thursday, January 28, The Social Institute hosted a 30-minute SEL professional development webinar on integrating SEL into your school schedule. TSI Founder and CEO Laura Tierney welcomed Dr. Jessica Anderson from Episcopal Academy to discuss:
- Effective techniques to embed SEL and social media education into your school schedule
- 7 timely, tech-related skills to teach your students throughout the school year
- Strategies to help teachers facilitate SEL discussions and scale SEL across your school
Dr. Jessica Anderson
Dr. Anderson shared that with screen time and social media use rising during the pandemic, and social distancing changing the way students are socializing, social-emotional skills and decision-making have become more important than ever for schools and families across the nation.
Here are 2 key takeaways from Dr. Anderson:
#1) Social-emotional learning can happen throughout the school day
“In middle school especially, the lessons correlate greatly with the subject matter. There are some really relevant and easy to run LIVE lessons that we have incorporated.”
“Our schedules are so jammed packed and trying to see how students and faculty can fit this into their schedule is a team effort. We can’t do this alone so integrating a preplanned lesson into the subject matter is a great way to make time for it,” shared Dr. Anderson.
#2) Faculty fatigue is real, which means that SEL solutions for faculty need to be turnkey.
We need to make faculty lives easier. Educators are expected to relay more and more information to students, “We expect teachers to have expertise in everything they teach but most of them are not trained in SEL and are trying to figure it out as they teach it.” As educators, we want programs to have a solid approach, hands-on features, and the ability to be integrated into classrooms easily. When Dr. Anderson first brought #WinAtSocial to her educators she “asked them to trust me about how easy it is, and still to this day they can’t believe it.”
Integrating social-emotional learning and positive social media education into the fabric of their school schedule has been a collaborative effort between Dr. Anderson, her team, and all of the educators at Episcopal Academy. Watch the full recap of this webinar to learn more!
About The Social Institute
The Social Institute partners with schools nationwide to empower students, families, and educators to positively navigate social-emotional health, social media, and technology. Schools access our student-respected, turnkey curriculum through WinAtSocial.com, an interactive, gamified learning platform. With solutions for students, parents, and educators, we offer a systemic and comprehensive SEL program through a unique and positive approach. We are proud to serve public and independent partners such as Ravenscroft School, Woodward Academy, Oldfields School, All Saints Episcopal School, Lake Forest School District, Boston Public Schools, and more. For more information on how to empower your students to make high-character decisions online and off, please contact us.