Social-Emotional Focus Continues In Person

Schools have increasingly incorporated social-emotional learning into instruction time because of the mental health toll that the pandemic has had on students, teachers, and staff. In New Haven, where the concept was pioneered a half-century ago, that has meant going bigger on a concept that was already rooted in the district.

As was evident when morning meeting got underway in Cepea ​“CJ” Burton’s third-grade classroom.

Or the question might read: Do you know right away when your parent is unhappy with you?

The students process the question and engage in an open-ended conversation about the emotions the questions elicit.

​“Some of them get really, really into it,” Burton said. ​“And, you know, it kind of speaks a lot to, even though they’re young, they can definitely grasp all of this social-emotional stuff.”

The activity, which is called ​“SEL prompts,” is one example of the social-emotional learning (SEL) work that Burton and her colleagues at Edgewood Creative Thinking Through STEAM Magnet School implement during their daily morning meetings.

SEL refers to developing and maintaining skills for mutually supportive relationships and the ability to make equitable decisions. There are five key social-emotional learning competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Across New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) and nationally, school communities have increasingly incorporated social-emotional learning into instruction time because of the mental health toll that the pandemic has had on students, teachers, and school staff.

In New Haven, where the concept was pioneered a half-century ago, that has meant going bigger on a concept that was already rooted in the district.

“If you don’t take care of our mental wellbeing, then learning doesn’t take place,” Typhanie Jackson, NHPS director of student services, said about the importance of SEL activities. ​“People would want to make sure that we’re removing some of the static that interferes with learning by doing some of these things.”

Enter ​“Miss Kendra”

Every student in grades 2 – 6 at Edgewood knows about ​“The Legend of Miss Kendra,” including Vanessa Rosa’s third-grade class.

“They were like, ​‘Oh my gosh, she lost her child. That is so sad.’ And then that made them want to share their struggles, which I thought was really cool,” Rosa said about her student’s reaction to learning about the fictional character, whose story is used as a prompt for SEL discussions with students.

Rosa’s students know about how Miss Kendra worked at an elementary school where she became infamous for her caring personality. They also know about the list of children’s rights that Miss Kendra wrote, thanks to Nicole Ventura, a trauma-centered drama therapist who visits the classroom on Thursdays.

During a recent visit, Ventura brought in special papers that said ​“Dear Miss Kendra” at the top. Rosa’s students eagerly wrote about their worries and struggles to their favorite fictional character. They all deposited their letters into a special yellow ​“Miss Kendra” box in the classroom.

The students later received encouraging handwritten responses from ​“Miss Kendra.”

Rosa said that the activity was designed to give students who are uncomfortable sharing their emotions in class the ability to still do so.

The activity is part of Miss Kendra Connecticut, a trauma-informed social-emotional learning program that is being fully implemented at Edgewood for the first time this school year. Edgewood Principal Nicholas Perrone said he plans to expand the program into kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms soon. The program is financed by a United Way grant and part of the school’s allocation of $300,000 over three years in American Rescue Plan funds, federal COVID-19 relief money. 

Multiple other New Haven schools, including Bishop Woods, Metropolitan Business Academy, High School in the Community, Wilbur Cross, and Sound School, also implement the Miss Kendra program.

Perrone noted that the Miss Kendra program is a portion of the Edgewood’s SEL work.

Due to the pandemic, Edgewood has allowed students to use their cellphones during lunch and recess. But there’s a catch — no photos and no videos. If a student abuses the rules, the privilege gets taken away. The policy, Perrone said, gives students the opportunity to be responsible, one of the five key social-emotional learning competencies.[RC1] [RC2]

Perrone sees the value of spending school time and dollars on social-emotional learning.

He said that some of his students excelled during the remote learning period, while others lived in ​“absolute terror, misery” because of pandemic uncertainties.

“And I have a situation now where both of those kids in those examples are now sitting in the same classroom, having to do the same work,” Perrone said. ​“The truth is that it’s a very challenging reality.”

He said that acknowledging these different experiences through social-emotional learning activities is the best way for Edgewood to ​“move forward in a positive, productive, and healthy way.”

RULER Boom

In schools across New Haven, teachers have put posters of a colorful graph called the mood meter in their classrooms. Students carry the grid around in lanyards or small wallet-sized cards.

Students and teachers alike self-plot their levels of ​“pleasantness” on its x‑axis and ​“energy” on its y‑axis. They fall into one of four quadrants, which each represents a different set of emotions. For example, placement on the yellow top-right quadrant could indicate that a student is feeling excited, happy, or joyful.

But that’s not the important part. Next, a student asks themselves difficult questions such as ​“Why do I feel this way?” and ​“Do I want to feel this way?” based on their graph placement.

These questions are intended to yield solutions such as going on a walk, distancing from someone, or writing thoughts down in a journal.

The mood meter is just one social-emotional learning technique that the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence’s RULER program teaches a team of school officials over a six-week-long virtual training course.

RULER is an acronym for the five skills of emotional intelligence, which refers to the ability for people to perceive and manage emotions. Those core skills are recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions.

Since 2013, seven NHPS schools have been trained in RULER pedagogy, according to data provided by Nicole Elbertson, the center’s Director of Content and Communications. The most recent school to receive training was Brennan Rogers School Of Communication And Media this past February.

Medria Blue, Engineering And Science University Magnet School’s principal, has announced that she will use part of the school’s $100,000 per year in American Rescue Plan funds to continue implementing RULER.

Nationally, RULER has seen ​“the highest demand ever” because of the pandemic and influx of federal dollars to schools, Elbertson said.

Christina Cipriano, the director of research at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, agreed that social-emotional learning has grown into a larger priority for school districts nationwide. About 70 percent of states have announced plans to use federal pandemic relief dollars on mental health training, resources, and professional development for school staff, Cipriano said. 

NHPS Takes Action

On Feb. 24, hundreds of students, parents, teachers, and other community members gathered into a district-sponsored Zoom meeting for a ​“Day of Hope and Healing.” They participated in student panels, singalongs, dance parties, cooking demonstrations, and mediations.

The event was part of the district’s #NHPSWeConnect campaign, an initiative to support the mental health and well-being of the district community. The campaign also created a ​“connection video,” designed new school murals, and started implementing wellness activities for school administrators.

This school year, district officials have continued to build off this prior work.

Typhanie Jackson said that at the height of the pandemic, district schools implemented ​“Wellness Wednesdays,” time where students and teachers engaged in wellness activities such as meditation. This school year, those school activities often occur throughout the week. The district sends out SEL resources, including teacher self-care documents, each week to facilitate the programming, she added.

NHPS has also expanded its SEL ambassador program, school officials who oversee programming at individual schools, from a subset of schools to every district school.

This year, ambassadors are working on new mechanisms to solicit parent and student feedback on the impact of school social-emotional learning initiatives, Jackson said.

Last week, NHPS published the results of its 2020 – 2021 School Climate and Wellbeing Survey, an annual survey that was administered to all educators, families, and students last Spring. The survey garnered over 7,000 responses, a figure that includes 4325 students.

The survey found that during the 30 days prior to being surveyed, 76 percent of students reported that they listened quite or extremely carefully to others’ points of view. However, just 37 percent of students said that they had favorable perceptions of their ability to describe their feelings during the same time period. 

In addition to innovating socio-emotional learning initiatives, NHPS is investing approximately $4.3 million of its nearly $80 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars toward new programming.

Jackson said that these funds have been used to hire three counselors, three social workers, and three psychologists. The district has also purchased SEL materials including cooldown kits and ​“sensory materials” such as weighted blankets, which can promote relaxation.

CJ Burton said that in an ideal world, parents would be the ones spending time on social-emotional learning, not her classroom or the district. But she acknowledged that reality is different.

“There has to be a collaboration, a partnership between parents, the school and the community, everybody has to want the same thing,” Burton said. ​“And if we’re all on the same page, like it lessens the burden for everybody, they say it takes a village, and it truly does take a village.