Buzzwords #3 - Social Emotional Learning

Welcome to this episode of Your Morning Boost, brought to you by AWB Education. AWB Education is your partner in school leadership and is here to help you with your educational programming needs. You can find more episodes like this one, along with our offerings of support and consultation at AWB education dot org. Here is your host, Adam Bush. Hello and welcome back. If you're joining us again, and if you're a first time listener, thank you for spending some time with me today. This week we are focusing on some of the buzzwords and education, and today's topic is social emotional learning. Now, depending on which state you work in, there may be a different codeword on the education acronym BINGO card that represents this topic. And in my state we refer to this as SEBMH or social emotional behavioral mental health. And also depending on the state you live in, this may or may not be a popular focus in your political climate. Regardless of the end result, the concept of help people, yes people, not just students, develop skills for healthy relationships and development seems to be a reasonable approach to help develop a strong foundation for successful achievement. I cannot count to the number of times where I have been in a problem solving meeting about a student where the discussion of getting the behavior under control before we can start focusing on learning has happened. Although I sometimes cringe at this statement because we need to teach behavior too at every level, I don't argue with the fact that it is nearly impossible for learners to access high levels of rigor or even grade level standards if they are not able to regulate their emotional state. Much like the real estate mantra of location, location, location, in education, it's safe to say that the three most important words may very well be relationships, relationships, relationships. If people do not have trust in their leaders, and let's be honest, that's what teachers are, their leaders of the learning. But if people do not have that trust, they are not going to successfully learn, grow, and develop. This includes behavioral learning, and it also includes safely developing one's psychological, emotional, and social emotional wellbeing, which is also known as mental health. A former supervisoral colleague of mine always said that when you go to the bank, you have to make deposits before they will ever let you take a withdrawal, and that same applies to students Honestly, the same applies to all people. We have to build strong relationships with our students, with our teaching staff, our associates, cafeteria staff, office staff, custodial staff, coaches, everyone that impacts our work. If we are ever going to succeed in this adventure we call education through the ebbs and flows of the school year. Everyone in the building will have different needs for social, emotional learning and support, and without taking the time to build those relationships, to make those deposits, there just won't be anything left in the account to withdraw from. I know that's scary. That is why the relationships matter so much. Just remind you staff, Remind all your staff. They all matter, every one of them. They join your team because they are the right people to lead this work and we are so lucky they chose to do so. Same for you. Thanks for moving to the front of this expedition and thanks for joining me today. This has been your morning Boost, brought to you by AWB Education. Find us at Awbducation dot org to find out how we can help you with your educational programming needs. If you enjoy this episode, please take a quick minute to leave a rating and review to help us reach even more people otherwise, enjoy the workday. Lead with your heart and we will see you next time.