Teachers at the heart of Social-Emotional Learning
“Students learn from people they love.”
This headline from a recent New York Times article captures both the importance of relationships in teaching and the importance of teachers in the work of social-emotional learning. The article discusses research highlighting strong connection between emotional parts of our brain and the parts of the brain that allow for learning.
Still, a more impactful reminder came earlier this week when I attended the funeral of a former student of mine. The pain and loss that I felt was not the sort that comes from a business type of relationship. Jackie wasn’t my client, she was my child. The relationship that provided the foundation for learning during her time in my class persisted long afterward. I also remember my student Miguel, a student who often resorted to solving problems with punches instead of words. Our work together on identifying emotions and communication helped him stay in my classroom instead of getting suspended, helped his fellow students stay safe, and allowed him to not only pass biology but graduate from high school.
During our time on the report card committee, we met with several stakeholders to learn more about what was needed to carry out the work of SEL. One of the most impactful sessions was our time with the MNPS teacher cabinet, where members asked for support in improving classroom culture. Currently, the MNPS SEL office conducts school-walkthroughs to assess SEL practices in a school. They use an observation rubric with 16 out of the 21 categories on the rubric that fall under ‘Classroom Instruction’.
However, there is no process for providing feedback from this rubric to teachers. If so much of the work of SEL happens in the classroom, how can we expect to move forward without direct partnership and support for those responsible for this instruction? The core competencies of SEL such as self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision-making, self-management, and relationship skills are the foundation for positive culture and need to be developed alongside instructional practice. Students need to learn and practice these skills from someone they trust in a safe environment and teachers are the most trusted adults in the buildings.
Similarly, teachers also need to practice these skills in a safe environment. Though teachers often get valuable feedback from school leaders and coaches on the technical aspects of their pedagogy, coaching on building relationships that lead to a healthy classroom culture can often be left out. The cabinet stressed that this feedback shouldn’t come from administrators, but from a trusted colleague that should be chosen by the teachers. Someone who knows the students, someone who is respected in the building, and someone who can be an effective model for teaching SEL skills in their own classroom. To allow for this to happen, these chosen teacher leaders need time. Time for observations, time for creating written feedback, time for conversations to debrief and game plan. An absolutely critical part of the recommendation was that selected teachers be given an extra planning period so they have this time.
The inclusion of this recommendation in the chamber’s report serves as a reminder that major initiatives in MNPS should recognize the role of teachers and prioritize supporting teachers in the implementation. We strongly believed that creating this support for teachers will accelerate and improve SEL practices in MNPS. Student achievement won’t improve without SEL, parents won’t feel that their child is safe in school without SEL and SEL will not happen without teachers.
Ryan Balch teaches in the education policy department at Vanderbilt University. He also supervises student teachers in science throughout MNPS and is the director of Vanderbilt’s Masters of Public Policy in Education program. Previously, he was the director of teacher, principal and school evaluation for Baltimore City Schools and taught biology and physics for six years in Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, GA. This was his first year serving on the education report card committee.