A Step in the Right Direction
The Trend
Social-emotional learning and cultural competence is extremely important to discuss especially in classrooms. Families all around the world have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Students had to learn from their homes where they lacked the opportunity to have social interactions with peers face to face. They were not able to sit at a desk, walk through halls, laugh in the cafeteria, hug their teacher, or play with their friends outside. They missed out on the memories that they would remember forever. In other words, they were robbed of their educational career and left with negative results such as anxiety and trauma. Once they returned to classrooms, they were expected to know how to interact with peers without having the actual experience. It is this domino effect that teachers have spent much class time trying to fill the gap. A program that has been able to show a step in the right direction is Second Step.
What Is Second Step?
Second Step is a social-emotional learning program that helps students master skills such as emotion recognition and management, empathy, problem solving, bullying prevention, and goal-setting. Children need social-emotional skills in order to be successful in and out of the classroom. Students learn techniques that allow them to gain confidence, set goals, make better decisions, collaborate with others in work and play, and navigate the world more effectively.
Second Step has made implementation extremely easy for teachers by providing lessons that are engaging. This program is offered as a digital program as well as a classroom kit. The digital program includes a warm up in the beginning of every lesson such as noticing patterns or grouping similar objects. It also has scenarios that focus on a certain skill where students are asked a variety of questions that requires students to collaborate. The lesson ends with an assessment that either focuses on the scenario or a self reflection in regards to the lesson's skill. The classroom kit comes with posters, music videos for each skill, videos of scenarios, and worksheets to assess the skill. However, with the classroom kit the teacher would have to create slides for each lesson since the digital program is already created. Second Step also provides a training for new teachers, webinars, assessments, alignment charts, and research based evidence to create new lessons. Second Step offers lessons for early learning, elementary, middle school, high school, out-of-school time, and adults. It also provides units on bullying prevention, anti-racism, anti-bias, and child protection. According to Committee for Children, it is estimated that in 2021 Second Step has reached more than 16.5 million children annually, and are used in 34% of United States elementary schools. With Second Steps' positive outcomes, many districts are continuing to increase these numbers.
Second Steps' Affordances Beat Constraints
The main positive about Second Step is that it teaches students a variety of skills that are beneficial to their age groups. The lessons are research-based and are relatable to the grade it is assigned for. For example, goal-setting might be too complicated for younger elementary, but feels just right for upper elementary. Students get to learn the importance of goal-setting, how to set a goal, what to do if you have roadblocks, and the impact of objectives of a goal. Another affordance would be that it is simple to use since each lesson comes with a lesson plan. Lessons are even available in Spanish for bilingual classrooms. The program is broken down by units where lessons build upon each other. This allows students to make connections between lessons as well as within different subjects. Another positive would be that the classroom kit comes with an online resource code that could be used more than once. Lessons are easy to understand, applicable, and keeps students interested with any lesson. The main constraint would be that it is not a free program, and it certainly isn't cheap. Another negative would be that if a teacher were to teach a lesson a day it will not last until the end of the school year. This means that you'll need to find other resources to teach social-emotional learning each day. However, Second Step is a great investment with all of its positive outcomes.
Ms. Fejzic's Opinion on Second Step
I love using Second Step! Students use what they learn in their everyday interactions whether it is with myself, peers, adults, or their families. The lesson that I find most beneficial to students is how to calm down. Each person handles difficulties differently whether it is good or bad. Second Step teaches students different strategies to calm down. The program breaks it down into simple steps. Each lesson focuses on each step which allows students to fully understand the process. It also allows them opportunities to think of their own lives, and how to improve their ways of calming down. Another fantastic lesson is problem solving steps. Students are able to view other students and how they work through problems. This is a beneficial lesson since they can use these steps for any problem. It certainly helps me as an educator that way I'm not included in every problem. It is great to see students using what they have learned through Second Step in their own lives inside and outside of my classroom.
Not Convinced?
If what I have told you hasn't already convinced you to use Second Step, then here are five other resources that you could use to teach social-emotional learning.
1. Brighten Learning - Focuses on the best solutions for social skills and life readiness. Brighten Learning uses immersive interactive programs to teach students how to achieve success throughout their lives whether that is in or out of the classroom. This program focuses on innovative teaching tools like high quality animation, interactivity, and relatable characters. Their goal is to create new and exciting products that assist social and life skills to every step of a child's life.
2. Harmony - An SEL program that empowers social and emotional learning for all students. Harmony provides innovative tools that allows students to thrive. It is guided by latest research in social and emotional development. It focuses on building relationships, diversity and inclusion, community building, and culturally responsive teaching. It is aligned to the CASEL core competencies which include being their best self, valuing each other, learning from one another, communicating with one another, and supporting their community.
3. Smiling Mind - An educational program to enhance the mental health and resilience. It was developed by a team of psychologists who stress the importance of mindfulness to boost calmness, contentment, and clarity. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to help manage stress, resilience, anxiety, depression, and improve general wellbeing which all could benefit students in your classroom.
4. Headspace - Science-backed meditation and mindfulness tools that help create life-changing habits in order to support your mental health and find a happier self. This program focuses on mindfulness, being present, self-care suggestions, how to relieve stress, and methods for sleeping.
5. Calm Classroom - A program that focuses on mindfulness techniques that both students and teachers could use. Teachers are taught how to introduce and implement all parts of the Calm Classroom program. Mindfulness is for everyone which is why it is important that every individual that is apart of a classroom should practice different techniques to calming their body. All exercises allows students to breathe, stretch, focus, and relax.
Comments
Post a Comment