Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) for Everyone!

" One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous October: Cherokee Month of the Harvest Moon SEL:  #3 Self-Management SEL:   #4 Relationship Skills      Digital Learner:  #2 Creative Communicator                               #7 Innovative Designer To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.  – Seneca C. 4 B.C. – C. 65 B.C. I can go on the Internet and look at videos about how to fix my car. Unless I grab the right tool box (not the paint kit), choose the right device, apply it effectively, then add all of the necessary fluids and parts, my car won’t run. For me, emotional healing/recovery and being able to sustain it, requires the same select-the-right-tool-and-apply-it-correctly sequence. Relationship skills are hard-earned through a process of trial and error. Reading a page-a-day out of a ...

“One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous Cherokee Month of the Nut Moon SEL:  #5 Responsible Decision-Making       Digital Learner:  #6 Computational Thinker   When the stars threw down their spears,  And watered heaven with their tears.  –William Blake 1757-1827 Acceptance. After deep periods of grief and sorrow, my friend reminded me that grief has a mind of its own. Acceptance can calm the soul and produce mindfulness. As I embraced and engaged my Inner Child, I realized how perpetually sad she had become. Time to change through validating the fact that she had reason, back then, for wishing she had never been born. Children with ACES (adverse childhood experiences, Brown 2009) can struggle for decades emotionally, financially, physically, and mentally. Healing takes time with a variety of creative resources. Thank goodness we are far more aware in the 21 st century than we were in the 1950’s! Our schools and communities are now i...

“One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous Cherokee Month of the Nut Moon   SEL:   #1 Self-Awareness          #2 Social-Awareness Digital Learner:  #2 Global Collaborator Professor Rudine Sims Bishop (2017) suggested that effective children’s books reflect the child’s world and helps them to see into cultures or lives not their own. Mirrors and windows. This could be nature, science, another country or region, space, or simply another way of living. In Montana, we are a land of farms and ranches, sheep and cattle. Diverse indigenous peoples share their heritage with us. I did my student teaching at a school named Cayuse Prairie . Cayuse is the Salish word for horse. The land surrounding the school is where the Salish nation kept its horse herd. Being from Denver, this world was not mine. Yet, the concept of mirrors and windows was helpful to reflect self-awareness and gain social-awareness through the world around me. Pl...

" One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous Cherokee Month of the Green Corn Moon SEL:  #2 Social Awareness          #4 Relationship Skills        Digital Learner: #2 Global Collaborator       #3 Digital Citizen   My brother is involved with a group of tremendously creative people who figured out a way to celebrate holidays during Covid-19 restrictions. With permission, on a Sunday afternoon, in an empty parking lot, they parked their cars 12 feet apart, required masks, then opened their trunks, hatchbacks, and van doors. For Halloween, everything was sealed in plastic bags piled high on each side: Sweets or Sours. Children in wheelchairs, others with siblings and friends got to trick-or-trunk safely.   For Easter, many non-sugar treats and toys were again, present in the hatchbacks and side doors of vans. Those who wanted jelly beans and chocolate rabbits were not disappointe...

“One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous Cherokee Month of the End of Fruit Moon SEL:  #1 Self-Awareness          #3 Self-Management Digital Learner:  #3 Digital Citizen I was watching a medical series this summer and noticed pockets of tears and pain triggered by the emotions of the characters. I’d done my grief work after my husband died four years ago. My friend started a widow’s support group for me the year before his passing. We said goodbye 1,000 times in the years preceding his death. Nevertheless, other grief work was not done and it began to squirt out sideways. As I explored my triggers, I discovered I had not grieved my Auntie’s death (mother’s older sister) in February, at age 99, because my husband was on hospice and died the following July, of the same year. He passed on a Friday. On Monday, I made a routine transfer of the property title, in the event of my sudden death, for one acre of land on a river now wor...

 " One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous Cherokee Month of the Ripe Corn Moon   SEL:  #4 Relationship Skills Digital Learner:  #7 Innovative Designer The little children in my neighborhood are quite resourceful. The traditional lemonade has been replaced with a pomegranate spritzer, still just $1. We live below a state park, and small rocks wash down into our street. I have many painted-rock paperweights, which l purchased for $2. Some have creatures, rainbows, or paw prints. One day, the little girls ran up to me with great excitement, “Guess what? We have glow-in-the-dark rocks!” I bought two, and placed them in a very dark hallway where my home could glow-in-the-dark. Support begins with, “I like you and I am your friend.” They understand even though young children do not have the language skills to express all of their feelings. A nearby rural school called me to sub one day but I had already left for another school. The principal told my husband, “...