February 25 Webinar: "Social and Emotional Learning: Making a Case in an NCLB World"

February 25, 2010, at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST:

Host: Grace Rubenstein, senior producer, Edutopia

Presenters: Tim Shriver, Chairman of the CASEL Board of Directors, Sheldon Berman, superintendent, Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Kentucky, and Kati Delahanty, English teacher, Charlestown High School, Boston

Target audience: Educators in the elementary and secondary grades interested in evidence for the value of social and emotional learning and practical ideas for implementing it

Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important -- there's no doubt of that. But it takes more than those basic academic skills for students to grow into happy, successful adults.

As educators know well, children also need to learn self-esteem, self-discipline, and strong communication skills in order to succeed in school and life. But it's easy for those essential lessons to get lost in the race to raise standardized test scores.

In this session, two pioneering educators and a national education leader explain why social and emotional skills deserve time and attention -- SEL has been shown to raise test scores -- and how they provide it effectively in their schools.

Webinar Resources

• View the archive: You can now view the complete archive of the webinar.
• Download the PowerPoint presentation: Print the webinar PowerPoint presentation out and takes notes during the webinar, or download it for reference after the event.
• Join the discussion: Ask a question you'd like us to address during the webinar, make a comment, or network with like-minded educators on this subject. Webinar host Grace Rubenstein and other Edutopia staff will check back often, too, so please continue the lively discussion at our new Social and Emotional Learning group.
• Watch a playlist on YouTube: We've handpicked the best videos we've produced on social and emotional learning for you to peruse.
• Find links to more information about the webinar topic below.

About the Host

Grace Rubenstein

Grace Rubenstein is a senior producer with Edutopia.org. Prior to joining The George Lucas Educational Foundation in 2005, she was an education reporter at the Lawrence, Massachusetts, Eagle-Tribune and a Boston Globe correspondent. She has won awards from the New England Press Association and the New England Associated Press News Executives Association.

About the Presenters

Timothy P. Shriver

Timothy P. Shriver is the Chairman of Special Olympics, Inc. In that capacity, he serves nearly 2 million Special Olympics athletes and their families in more than 160 countries. He has helped transform Special Olympics into a movement that focuses on acceptance, inclusion, and respect for individuals with intellectual disabilities in all corners of the globe. He has also worked with world leaders and dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Bertie Ahern, Rafiq Hariri, Thabo Mbeki, Julius Nyerere, Hosny Mubarak, Shimon Peres, Adrian Nastase, Adnan Terzi, and Alejandro Toledo to bring issues related to intellectual disabilities to the forefront.

Before joining Special Olympics, Shriver served in various roles including educator, counselor, author, and speaker in order to bring issues to the forefront such as substance abuse, violence, dropout rates and teen pregnancy. He worked with the New Haven Public Schools’ Social Development Project, now considered the leading school-based prevention effort in the U.S. He has also applied his educational interests to TV and film, co-producing DreamWorks Studios’ 1997 release, “Amistad,” and Disney Studios’ 2000 release, “The Loretta Claiborne Story.” He is Executive Producer of “The Ringer” a Farrely brothers’ film. Shriver also has produced or co-produced shows for ABC, TNT, and NBC networks. Tim is a founding member of CASEL.

Dr. Sheldon H. Berman

Dr. Sheldon Berman assumed the superintendency of the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 1, 2007. He had previously served as the superintendent of the Hudson (MA) Public Schools for 14 years. As superintendent in Hudson, he initiated innovations in civic education, social-emotional learning, service learning, mathematics and science reform, high school restructuring, teacher evaluation, and computer technology. During his tenure as superintendent, both he and the Hudson Public Schools were the recipients of numerous state and national awards.

Since being appointed to lead the Jefferson County Public Schools (a district of over 99,000 students), Dr. Berman has directed the creation of a new student assignment plan that meets the standards of the U.S. Supreme Court, while sustaining the community’s and the district’s strong commitment to both diversity and quality. He has also launched a districtwide program to build students’ social skills, a high school restructuring plan that includes initiating freshman academies, trimester scheduling and a school-to-career initiative focusing on career schools of study. Additionally, he has restructured district-level staff to drive curricular reform and promote innovation.

Dr. Berman received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a Master’s in Education in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Maine in Orono, and Master’s and Doctorate in Education from Harvard University.

Kati Delahanty

Kati Delahanty began her teaching career at Charlestown High School, in Charlestown, Massachusetts while participating in the Boston Teacher Residency program. Although she has completed the program, Ms. Delahanty has maintained a relationship with the Boston Teacher Residency and serves as a mentor teacher to others entering the field. She is also working with others at Charlestown to design a social-justice curriculum that will use project learning to effect change in the Boston Public Schools and in the students’ own neighborhoods. She is passionate about incorporating (SEL) Social Emotional Learning into her English curriculum.

Ms. Delahanty is a national advisory council member for Edutopia. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Diego and a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Kati Delahanty is a Cohort 3 graduate and current BTR mentor in ELA at Charlestown High School. She completed her residency at Charlestown five years ago and has remained there since, where she currently serves as a BTR mentor.

Kati’s undergraduate studies in English and her tutoring at the San Diego Juvenile Hall led her to explore urban education through BTR. She now co-mentors with graduate Adina Schecter, and they also are working together to implement an Alternative Education Student Learning Center at CHS. Kati has spoken on behalf of BTR at numerous educational events, and has also participated in forums on the use of data to inform teaching and learning in various cities.