Welcome SECD On Demand!

The SECD Lab is moving forward this summer with our podcast which can be found on Spotify. Currently, the podcast consists of one episode interviewing Dr. Maurice Elias, the SECD Lab director. The future episodes will include various guests from different backgrounds and careers who will be interviewed on numerous topics related to social-emotional learning. SECD On Demand will not only share some of the research done within the lab but serves to inform the audience on mental health, anti-racism, lesson planning strategies for students, and more. 

SECD On Demand hopes to highlight each of our guest speakers on every episode. The second guest speaker who will be featured on the next episode is Scott Edgar, an associate professor of music at Lake Forest College and author of Music Education and Social Emotional Learning: The Heart of Teaching Music. In the upcoming episode, we will discuss the contents of this book and the importance of including music education in schools to improve students’ social and emotional learning.

SECD On Demand will continue releasing new episodes with featured guests in the SEL and SECD community. The podcast will explore topics around social-emotional learning in depth and share the work and opinions of our guests. Find us and listen on Spotify! 

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Morning Classroom Conversations

As schools quickly transition back from the pandemic to back-to-school, how students adjust to the classroom environment has become more important than ever. The beginning of the school day is an important time for students to reinforce social and communication skills. It is an essential time to prepare them to not only learn academically, but learn more about themselves as well as their peers. Holding morning classroom conversations not only gives students a sense of community but also empowers students with a sense of agency as they grow and develop their social and emotional skills.

Coming out in September, Morning Classroom Conversations by By Maurice Elias, Nina Murphy, and Kellie McClain was written to help build students’ social-emotional, communication, and character skills in their transition back to school. The authors encourage teachers and educators to intwine daily conversations with students in order to create a safe space and to make time for practicing social-emotional skills. Some of these skills include practicing critical and creative thinking, building active listening skills, learning to respectfully disagree with others, and strengthening relationships among students. All of these skills are not only essential in becoming a well-rounded and developed person, but are also necessary to improve the overall classroom environment and to foster better relationships between peers. 

Morning Classroom Conversations includes hundreds of prompts and themes, sample scripts for teachers to follow, and an overview of the structure and end goals of these conversations. These discussions are essential to strengthen the learning environment and to allow students to feel not only heard but understood by both teachers and peers. 

Morning messages and meetings are already a big part of many teacher’s routines in the classroom.

These conversations before starting the school day encourages dynamic discussions and the development of students’ social, emotional, and character development. Morning meetings improve communication skills and grow opportunities for children to evolve into mature and well-rounded adults.

SECD Lab on Anti-Racism

The SECD Lab is committed to combating racism, especially in these recent times. With the current events we have been experiencing as a society, as well as the many new anti-racism movements, members and collaborators of the SECD Lab are determined to take action within our community. Past webinars in the SECD lab have encouraged conversations about how to deal with racism and brought awareness to different resources and platforms. One recent webinar emphasized how SEL skills can be used to start educating others on these important issues, and to help better understand victims of racism.

Linked below is a list of resources from the webinar : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GgsvqperF9frTdn3kpKEhpedCpquyJ_K5-RMJN52cIo/edit

SEL and Racism

The SECD Lab members will hold our own book club discussing The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together written by Heather McGhee. All members of the Lab are invited to join discussions that will take place on June 23, July 22, and August 18 over Zoom. 

On June 23, SECD Lab members held the first book club meeting over Zoom!

Social-emotional learning comes hand-in-hand with conversations about racism. The content of this discussion lies around the idea that racist systems are detrimental to the social and emotional well-being of students. Schools must acknowledge this, using SEL as a way to combat racism and teach students proper social and emotional skills. Social-emotional learning in schools will teach children and young people to have increased self-awareness, relationship-building skills, and feel empathy for others- all skills which are necessary to combat racism.

The SECD Lab Leadership Team is leading an antiracism book club this Summer 2021. All members of the Lab, collaborators, and alumni are encouraged to read at least one book related to this topic of racism or social justice, and are invited to share individual thoughts and opinions through providing reflections or “Revelations, Emotional Reactions, and Questions” (REQs). This book club welcomes discussions of different viewpoints and invites everyone to share their personal experiences with one another. Through this experience, the SECD Lab hopes to open up more discussions on anti-racism in our community and work towards recognizing our privileges. We honor the different experiences of all people and continue to expand our anti-racism work within our lab and community.