Resources and Downloads for SEL Classroom Management

If you'd like to deepen your understanding of SEL and how to apply it as an educator or parent, here are resources to get you started. The following are the combined recommendations of Mount Desert Elementary and the Chicago-based nonprofit Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).

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Resources from Mount Desert Elementary School

Rebecca Heniser, a third-grade teacher at Mount Desert Elementary School, shared some resources that can help you get started.

• Rebecca Heniser's Class Schedule - See how Mount Desert teachers make time for SEL programs, such as morning meetings.

• Collaborative Teaching Form - See how counselor Pam Parvin and teacher Rebecca Heniser work together to teach social and emotional well-being to the third grade. This particular document focuses on how to structure class -- and the topics to discuss -- to improve student self-confidence.

• Responsive Classroom Themes - Get a list of the topics teachers focus on when incorporating the Responsive Classroom approach.

• Ideas for Transitions - See a list of student-created transitions used in Heniser's class throughout the day. These transitions keep the kids engaged and focused as they move between classes, and while walking to lunch and recess.

• Cleanup Transitions - More activities that Heniser's students created to help keep the classroom focused.

• Ms. Heniser also recommends these books:

  * The Morning Meeting Book, by Roxann Kriete
  * Doing Math in Morning Meeting: 150 Quick Activities That Connect to Your Curriculum, by Andy Dousis and Margaret Berry Wilson
  * Rules in School: Teaching Discipline in the Responsive Classroom, by Kathryn Brady, Mary Beth Forton, and Deborah Porter

Learn More About Mount Desert Elementary

• Mount Desert Elementary School - Homepage for Mount Desert Elementary School

• Mount Desert Island School District - Homepage for Mount Desert Island School District

• Mount Desert Island Standards - Curriculum standards for Mount Desert Island School District

Social and Emotional Learning Websites for Classroom Management

• Responsive Classroom - An approach for elementary classroom management that focuses on increasing academic achievement, decreasing problem behaviors, improving social skills, and developing higher-quality instruction.

• The Lineage Project - A program using awareness-based practices such as yoga and meditation to teach mindfulness to at-risk and incarcerated teenagers.

• Mindful Life - A program using mindfulness to teach kids how to manage emotion, handle stress, and resolve conflict.

• A Year at Mission Hill - A ten-part series documenting how a public school is trying to make a connection between social and emotional well-being and intellectual growth.

Reading List: Introduction to SEL

General Introductions to SEL

• Emotional Intelligence (10th Anniversary Edition), by Daniel Goleman

• Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14, by Chip Wood

• Bright Futures: What to Expect and When to Seek Help: Developmental Tools for Families and Providers, from Georgetown University
  Tools (English and Spanish versions) designed to help families and service providers support the healthy social and emotional development of children and adolescents. Four stages of childhood are described in these downloadable developmental tools: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

• Ideas and Tools for Working with Parents and Families, from CASEL
  This packet includes background information on the role of families in teaching SEL and how families and teachers can work together to promote SEL, as well as parent handouts and interviews with parents.

Books for Educators

• Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators, by Maurice J. Elias and others

• The Caring Teacher's Guide for Discipline: Helping Students Learn Self-Control, Responsibility, and Respect, by Marilyn Gootman

• The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language That Helps Children Learn, by Paula Denton

• The Classroom of Choice: Giving Students What They Need and Getting What You Want, by Jonathan C. Erwin

• Recognition Without Rewards, by Caren Cameron, Betty Tate, Daphne MacNaughton, and Colleen Politano

Books for Parents

• Thinking Parent, Thinking Child, by Myrna B. Shure
  Thinking Parent, Thinking Child shows how to apply "I Can Problem Solve" techniques to the top concerns of parents and children from preschoolers through those in their preteen years. Not only will children learn to think about their own and others' feelings, they'll also learn to appreciate that you have feelings, too.

• Emotionally Intelligent Parenting: How to Raise a Self-Disciplined, Responsible, Socially Skilled Child, by Maurice J. Elias and others
  The authors provide emotionally intelligent parenting strategies for addressing everyday issues with children. The book includes exercises for raising the family "humor quotient," becoming aware of feelings, praising and prioritizing, and coaching your child in responsible action.

• Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children, by Linda Lantieri and Daniel Goleman

Practical Tools for the Classroom

• Morning Meeting Messages: 180 Sample Charts from Three Classrooms, by Rosalea Fisher, Eric Henry, Deborah Porter

• 99 Activities and Greetings, by Melissa Correa-Connolly

• Energizers! 88 Quick Movement Activities That Refresh and Refocus, by Susan Lattanzi Roser

• The Advisory Book, by Linda Crawford

More Edutopia Resources on Social and Emotional Learning:

Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs recognize that there's more to a child's personal, academic, and adult-life success than pure academics. Self-awareness, self-respect, self-control, and interpersonal skills can go a long way to helping a child become a happy, effective student and citizen (watch the Edutopia introductory video on SEL).

• Blog Series: Activities to Build Social and Emotional Skills in Elementary School by Randy Taran
• Schools That Work: Tackling Student Stress with a Quiet Time Program
• Video and Blog: A Year at Mission Hill: An Exciting New Film Series

For more, check out our social and emotional learning strategy page.

(For more innovative ideas for teaching classroom management, check out our social and emotional learning blog series.)

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