Nearly two years ago, the three county school districts and the Montgomery County Youth Service Bureau entered into a partnership to provide Social and Emotional Learning to youth.
Thanks to a grant and technical assistance provided by North Central Health Services, all county students pre-K through eighth grade are receiving lessons to aid their social and emotional learning.
In the United States 16.5 million students are receiving the benefits of an SEL curriculum through a program called Second Step.
Second Step is based on five competencies found on the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning website. These competencies are: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, relationship skills and social awareness.
“While we all realize how important these ideas are, it is the intentional use of strategies taught in each area that will be the tools our students take into adulthood,” said Pat Moser, SEL coordinator. “The idea is to help our students be resilient, manage their emotions in healthy ways and become confident in making their way through tough situations.”
Self-awareness is defined as the ability to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. Students are now taught from preschool to identify their emotions, to demonstrate honesty and integrity, to recognize their own strengths, self-confidence and to have an accurate self-perception.
“As adults we may think these skills are pretty much a given when growing up, but when dealing with students, not everyone has the benefit of the same kind of learning, support and guidance,” Moser said. “We have recognized how much more productive interactions can be when the student is aware of what they are thinking and feeling and understand it may differ from the person with whom they are communicating.”
This recognition has led to the implementation of the Second Step curriculum to support all students.
“As adults we know that we all have biases and values that impact the way we communicate with those around us and we want to make sure we prepare our students to be self-aware and utilize that skill to have healthy communication with everyone,” Moser added.
Self-management is defined as the ability to successfully regulate one’s own emotions, thoughts and behaviors in different situations. Second Step gives students the tools necessary for self-control, stress management, self-discipline, self-motivation and organizational skills. These are tools that again, students will take with them into adulthood. Educators not only teach them these skills, but help them learn to use them when faced with situations that call for them. The earlier these concepts are introduced, and repeated, the more students will benefit.
Because most people are more and more reliant on electronic means to communicate it makes the intentional social emotional education of our students all the more essential.
“I feel like the Second Step program is helping us to intentionally teach social and emotional skills to all kids,” said Mallory Tucker, school counselor at Hose Elementary. “This program is creating positive language we can use building-wide, whether a child is in a specials class like music or art, on the playground, or eating their lunch. Second Step is a wonderful new component of the journey we were already on to build kind, successful students.”
Teachers and other staff who are implementing the curriculum are seeing positive changes in how students are managing emotions, being resilient and showing they are gaining skills from the lessons.
To learn more about SEL and the Second Step curriculum or to have a presentation for your group or organization, contact SEL coordinator Moser at the Youth Service Bureau, 765-362-0694, ext. 115 or by email at pat@mcysb.org.
