How SEL Slapped Me In the Face
In this podcast, SEL Educator Brad Davis, shares how social and emotional learning (SEL) impacted him and the way he interacts with students.
Brad’s SEL Story
[0:55] Even though Brad Davis has a Master’s in SEL now, he did not get very much SEL training when he was first pursuing his career as an educator. In fact, there wasn’t much training on how to connect with kids at all. Brad’s first SEL “lesson” came inside the classroom his first month of teaching.
One day a student was playing with his headphones at his desk and not doing his work. When Brad had to ask the student to put the headphones away three times, he sent the student out of the classroom to stand by the door.
Brad followed the student out of the classroom and was getting ready to be really firm with him, when the student just fell into his arms, crying. For several minutes this student cried on Brad’s shirt. Brad knew that this student’s behavior in class was about more than mere defiance.
What seemed really important in the classroom (doing classwork), suddenly was not as important any more. Brad realized that his students needed more than an academic education, they needed to be seen and treated as individuals who need emotional support as well.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
[6:00] Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a framework of an individual’s needs outlined on a pyramid. The base sections of the pyramid, the largest sections, are physiological and safety needs. These are any human’s most basic needs in order to survive. Anything like air, food, relationships, and other resources fall into this part of the pyramid.
The idea of Maslow’s pyramid is that if a person’s most basic needs are not being met, they can’t or have a very hard time succeeding and becoming the person they want to become. Schools and educators can help meet some of the basic needs that students have. Providing food and creating a safe environment at school, can get students on the path of being successful academically and emotionally.
Building Relationships
[9:00] Educators can’t know the needs of their students without building relationships with them. When Brad realized that his crying student had a really tough home life, it gave him a new perspective. All of his students were individuals. Understanding where they were coming from helped him know how best to handle situations that came up.
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey has a quote that really speeks to understanding each student, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” When educators seek first to understand their students and where they are coming from, it greatly benefits their students and the whole classroom dynamic.
Brad is now a SEL coach, training educators to connect with students and build relationships with them. The training isn’t about turning educators into counselors. It’s about training educators to connect with their students beyond the academics. It’s about training educators on how to let their students know they have value, they can contribute in meaningful ways, and they are in a safe place.
The Secret Lives of Students
[11:40] Building relationships with students won’t always be easy. Educators are going to learn really tough things about their students like Brad did about his student. Educators may have to help students find professional help or public resources through the school. Expectations for some students may have to be adjusted.
More and more, educators will need to address the social and emotional needs of their students and this can be as simple as showing students they are cared about. Brad found that showing his student that he cared helped the student have the motivation to be more successful with his school work.
Diving Into SEL
[15:45] After Brad’s experience with his student, he dove into learning all he could about social and emotional learning and he eventually received his Master’s degree in SEL. Brad learned that SEL is about accessing the whole child. It’s about teaching students academically, but it’s also about teaching them how to interact with their world and the people in their world.
Education starts with helping students with their social and emotional needs. SEL is about caring more about students as people than about what they do academically. Better connections with students will set them up to perform better academically.
Brad went from being an educator who focuses on academics, to being an educator who focuses on connecting with students. Brad’s perspective changed to being people oriented rather than results oriented.
Not Another Thing On the Plate
[21:35] Connecting with students and caring about their social and emotional well-being is not a new concept. SEL may be a newer term, but the idea of connecting with students along with teaching them has been around a long time. For some educators, SEL can seem like another thing to add onto the already full plate of things for them to do.
“SEL is not another thing on the plate, it is the whole plate on which we should deliver instruction.” -Mike Freeman
Educator, Mike Freeman, explains SEL this way, “SEL is not another thing on the plate, it is the whole plate on which we should deliver instruction.” Brad has found this to be true. He has data from his research on SEL that academic and Kelvin (a SEL assessment tool) scores in his classroom are better after implementing SEL concepts.
SEL is a foundational tool for educating students. Building relationships and showing students they are more than their grades gives them a reason to perform better academically. SEL helps us educators remember that kids are people too and they thrive when they are seen and valued.
