SEL is the backbone of creating a collaborative, safe, and loving classroom. It is important to facilitate some conversations on getting to know each other between the students and us as the teachers. In order for students in our classroom to feel safe to collaborate, contribute, and to make mistakes, we must create a positive classroom culture where each student feels accepted and loved. In order for them to be able to work together efficiently, they must be able to communicate their learning styles, or any other important information their partners may need to know about them before the group work begins. I also love the idea of creating a class mission statement. It is easier to foster a community mindset when the students feel like they wrote the mission, and they have a say in the class rules, even if we as facilitators led them there. Another good way of fostering an SEL environment is to ask open ended questions. Asking open ended questions allows students to answer with their ideas without the fear of getting the answer wrong, as there is no right or wrong answer.
Another thing I love is something we learned in our elementary math class, instead of saying if we are right or wrong when we give an answer, our professor will have us discuss and see if we see where the other people got the answer they got, and if we agree. He lets us talk through our thoughts and figure it out together. This creates a great classroom culture where we rely on each other and are learning together. I think this is a wonderful strategy to implement in my future classroom to create a sense of community learning for my students. SEL is the future for sure and should be the standard. People cannot learn in an environment they are not comfortable in.
The SEL model really nails down everything I believe about how to teach. We need to involve the community and make sure our students' social/emotional needs are also being met. You brought up having the help create a mission statement and I keep forgetting that! Yet it is such a good idea. This way you get your kids to buy in and feel like they have a voice in their learning. I also want to change my verbiage from saying 'my classroom' to 'our classroom'. This way it also gives them a sense of ownership and conveys the message they are part of a team. Dave has also drastically influenced the way I think about math. Math was the one subject I was like, 'no, there has to be a right answer, you are wrong'. His class has changed my life, and I'm not being dramatic.
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