Self-management and control skills: How #WinAtSocial empowers students with learning differences at Shelton School
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Fueling student success isn’t just about helping students achieve strong test scores and straight-As on report cards. With technology’s impact on how students learn and live, fueling their success is now about equipping them with life skills to navigate their social worlds, well-being, and academics in high-character ways.
From empowering students to strike a balance with their time online to supporting their learning & academic goals, there is a lot that goes into supporting the whole student.
How can educators equip students with life skills, like self-management and time management, that will support student success, without adding to their already full plates and taking time away from the existing curriculum?
Shelton School, the largest independent school for students with learning differences, knew they wanted a program to support students’ well-being without any heavy lifting for educators and counselors. To help students be future-ready, the school has partnered with The Social Institute since 2022. The Social Institute talked with Andrea Baker, Middle School Counselor at Shelton School, to hear how #WinAtSocial fuels their students’ success.
Strengthening students’ self-management & control skills with tech
At Shelton School in Dallas, TX, their mission is to make a difference by serving and empowering the lives of students who learn differently. What stands out to Baker about Shelton’s approach is their focus on supporting “the whole student, rather than just academics, and building up that self-advocacy and self-awareness piece.”
A big part of student learning now involves technology, especially at Shelton, where students have access to 1:1 devices. While these devices have guardrails in place to help prevent digital distractions, educators saw students struggle with balancing technology while doing homework outside of school. As a counselor, Baker even saw challenges arising regarding in-person interactions because of technology.
“We know that if kids aren’t mentally and emotionally well, then they’re not going to learn effectively,” Baker highlighted.
“One of the number one things I see in my office is kids struggling with peer interactions online and face-to-face. Anything we can do to help kids navigate those situations and equip them with tools to positively approach peer interactions and social challenges they face is really helpful for us.”
As a result, Shelton’s leadership team knew there must be a way to empower their students to use technology responsibly and strengthen their relationship & communication skills.
The school was teaching lessons on healthy use of technology and digital citizenship before #WinAtSocial, but wanted something convenient and turnkey for educators and students. When they learned about The Social Institute’s comprehensive program, they saw it as the perfect fit:
“Our Director of Technology had gone to a conference where [The Social Institute] was presenting and came back and just said, we need this program.”
All #WinAtSocial Lessons are created with students so they’re engaged with every lesson. With student voice integrated across #WinAtSocial, lessons resonate with students and effectively teach them essential life skills, like self-management & control with technology. When student navigate these digital distractions responsibly, they learn more effectively and advance their academic goals.
Life skills lessons that fit teachers’ schedules and students’ learning styles
Shelton’s leadership, tech team, and counseling department were happy to implement a program with turnkey lessons that address digital distractions, relationship building, responsible A.I. use, and more. The last step they needed to effectively integrate #WinAtSocial into their school was student and teacher buy-in.
“Right from the start, I was excited to have a program that teachers could use easily because it’s all laid out for them so well already. Of course, ideally, they look at it ahead of time, but our teachers, like all teachers, are very busy and any lesson planning we can take away from them is great.”
With no lesson planning required, and Huddles that educators can run in 10-15 minute increments, teachers at Shelton easily fit #WinAtSocial into their schedule. At their school, lesson facilitators follow the #WinAtSocial Recommended Calendar and run lessons once a month. This approach allows teachers to run lessons that work best with their agenda, and match the pace of each student.
When running lessons, Shelton teachers see positive feedback and engagement from their students. Recently, Baker received a glowing review of #WinAtSocial from a 7th-grade teacher who ran the lesson, Learning and growing from the mistakes we all make:
“At the end of the lesson, the students did the activity where they write encouraging notes to each other. The teacher put them up on the wall outside of her classroom and she heard kids in the passing period reading the notes out loud to themselves. She was enthusiastic and excited that one of her students was truly interested in the activity, and that it was reaching a broader audience as well.”
Baker notices that both students and educators enjoy running #WinAtSocial, and the lessons serve as a great reference for counselors when challenges related to social media and tech arise. As a result, Shelton School lays the groundwork for strengthening students’ communication, relationship-building, and decision-making skills.
Involving families in social media & tech education
To expand #WinAtSocial across their school community and empower students to live in high-character ways at home, Shelton equipped families with The Social Institute’s Social Toolkit.
The Social Toolkit, provided with every #WinAtSocial partnership, is a valuable resource that helps families navigate the digital world. It includes discussion topics for families, expert advice on popular apps, devices, and A.I. impacting students, and insights into everyday social challenges kids face. At Shelton, educators share these resources with families to support ongoing conversations at home that build on what students learn in class.
“I was really excited about the family component because it’s another challenge we had. At first we asked, how much do we engage the families? What do we share with them? I love that each lesson has a Family Huddle that we can share with families about what we’re doing, but also show them, hey, here are some things that you can talk about at home as well… it’s been a really great resource.”
By utilizing the Social Toolkit, Shelton School engages families in what students are learning about in school and encourages them to huddle on topics that empower their students to make high-character decisions at home. Repetition is the mother of learning, so by huddling regularly with families and educators, students at Shelton build the mental muscle to apply the social standards they’re taught through #WinAtSocial to their own lives.
For this essential education to be successful, the lessons need to grow with students and meet their learning needs in each grade level. That’s why #WinAtSocial equips schools like Shelton with developmentally appropriate lessons that cover similar themes year after year.
“It’s different per grade level. They’re talking about similar themes each year, but it’s not the same lesson over and over, so they’re getting different material and new information each year.”
At #WinAtSocial, there are lessons to fuel the success of every student, no matter their learning style. From empowering middle school students to navigate digital distractions to supporting 12th-grade students as they prepare for life after graduation, #WinAtSocial is a one-stop partner that is comprehensive and sustainable for schools.
Interested in learning more about #WinAtSocial Lessons that you can try out in your school? Contact us today, or preview some of our most popular lessons:
- Preview the Trending Lesson for grades 3-4: Dealing with drama from messages and group chats
- Preview the Trending Lesson for grades 9-12: The Anxious Generation: Debating tech and social media’s role in managing anxiety
The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in empowering students by understanding students. Through #WinAtSocial, our gamified, peer-to-peer learning platform, we equip students, educators, and families to navigate their social world – in the classroom and beyond, online and offline – in healthy, high-character ways. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips, rather than scares and restricts. We incorporate timely topics about social media, tech use, and current events that are impacting student well-being and learning. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach life skills for the modern day, capture student voice, and provide school leaders with actionable insights. Through these insights, students play an essential role in school efforts to support their own health, happiness, and future success as we enable high-impact teaching, meaningful family conversations, and a healthy school culture.