Counseling
Social and Emotional Learning at Greenvale
What is SEL?
What is SEL?
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.
What are the SEL competencies?
Educators, families, students, community organizations, and researchers around the world use our wheel to better describe what SEL looks like in practice. The five broad, interrelated areas of competence are: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
Where can SEL be taught and practiced?
Our framework takes a systemic approach that emphasizes the importance of establishing equitable learning environments and coordinating practices across four key settings: classrooms, schools, homes, and communities.
The benefits of SEL are well-researched:
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SEL leads to improved academic outcomes and behaviors
- SEL benefits are long-term and global
- SEL is a wise financial investment
- Social and emotional skills help improve lifetime outcomes
SEL 101: What are the core competencies and key settings?
More information about the CASEL Framework
Second Step
Second Step
Second Step Curriculum
Second Step Curriculum
Second Step Elementary is a research-based social-emotional learning (SEL) program designed to improve students’ social-emotional skills including growth mindset, goal-setting, emotion management, kindness and empathy, and problem solving.
We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, children also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, manage strong emotions, and get along with others. This week, we’ll begin Second Step Elementary, a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children’s social-emotional skills.
Second Step Elementary is taught in all the classrooms, to all students, and helps students develop a common set of skills and strategies that can be practiced, used, and reinforced throughout the school community, including at home. Four units will cover the following:
Growth Mindset & Goal-Setting:
Children learn how to pay attention and manage distractions, develop a growth mindset, and apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives.
Emotion Management:
Children learn how to identify and label emotions and use emotional management strategies—including stress management for older students—to calm strong feelings.
Empathy & Kindness:
Children learn how to recognize kindness and act kindly, have empathy for others and take others’ perspectives, and recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements of building and maintaining relationships.
Problem-Solving:
Children learn how to identify and state a problem, recognize if a problem is an accident, and use the STEP problem-solving process:
S: Say the problem
T: Think of solutions
E: Explore the outcomes
P: Pick a solution
Studies show that these skills can support students’ school performance, increase positive social behaviors, and reduce conduct problems such as bullying. SEL programs can also create positive classroom and shcool climates.
You’ll receive monthly communications in the parent newsletter, Good Day Greenvale, to help you reinforce Second Step language, skills, and goals at home. If you have any questions about Second Step Elementary, please don’t hesitate to contact the School Counselor.
Thank you for your support as we work to build a safe and supportive school community.
Grade 2:
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Additional Second Step Resources:
2nd Grade Book Resources by Unit
3rd-5th Grade Book Resources by Unit
Second Step Alignment with the Casel Framework
ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors School Alignment
Second Step Programs and Student Support Frameworks (MTSS, RTI, PBIS)
Second Step Antibullying Curriculum
Second Step Bullying Prevention Curriculum
As you know, we are using the Second Step program in your child’s classroom. The Second Step program teaches children important skills for getting along with others and doing well in school. It also helps our school be a safe, respectful place where everyone can learn. To further help our school be a safe and respectful place, we are also going to use the Second Step Bullying Prevention Unit.
In the lessons, your child will learn specific skills to help stop bullying. Students will learn how to:
Get involved in making our school a safe and respectful place by letting us know if you hear about bullying at our school. Make sure your child knows to tell you or someone at school if he or she is being bullied. And give your child the clear message that it is never okay to bully others.
If you have any questions about the Bullying Prevention Unit or the Second Step program, please contact the School Counselor. For more information on our school’s anti-bullying policy and specific procedures, check our school website or contact the school office. Thank you for helping us make our school a safe, respectful place where everyone can learn.
- Recognize when bullying is happening
- Report bullying to a caring adult
- Refuse to let bullying happen to themselves or others
- Be an upstander who stands up and is part of the solution to bullying
Ruler
Ruler
RULER is an evidence-based approach for integrating social and emotional learning into schools, developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER teaches the skills of emotional intelligence — those associated with decades of research show that these skills are essential to effective teaching and learning, sound decision making, physical and mental health, and success in school and beyond. To read more about RULER, visit the website at https://www.rulerapproach.org/.
Mood MeterThe Mood Meter is a tool that helps people of all ages build self and social awareness. It helps us understand how our emotions influence our thinking and behavior, and it empowers us to recognize and label our full range of emotions, and manage them more skillfully. These skills help us get along with others and |
The Mood Meter is made up of four different colored quadrants, each representing different types of Blue – lower energy, degree of unpleasantness, such as sad or lonely Red – higher energy, degree of unpleasantness, such as anger or fear Yellow – higher energy, degree of pleasantness, such as joy or excited Green – lower energy, degree of pleasantness, such as grateful or relaxed
Why it Matters: The Mood Meter shows that there is a space for all emotions – and that all emotions are okay. |
Monthly SEL Themes
Additional Family Resources
Tips for Managing Anxiety
Tips for Managing Anxiety
Just like adults, children feel worried and anxious at times. Children can feel anxious about different things at different ages. When young children feel anxious, they cannot always understand or express what they are feeling. Furthermore, many of these worries are a normal part of growing up. Anxiety is not all bad. It can motivate us or help us avoid danger. The problem is when anxiety gets out of hand and makes decisions for us that are no longer helpful.
When kids are anxious or worried, it’s natural to want to help them feel better. But, by trying to protect kids from the things that upset them, you can accidentally make anxiety worse. The best way to help kids overcome anxiety is to teach them to cope with anxiety as it comes up. With practice, they will be less anxious.
Here are some tips to help manage anxiety…
- Don't try to eliminate anxiety; do try to help a child manage it.
The best way to help kids overcome anxiety is to help them learn to tolerate it as well as they can. Over time the anxiety will diminish. Helping children avoid the things they are afraid of will make them feel better in the short term, but it reinforces the anxiety over the long run. - Don't ask leading questions.
Encourage your child to talk about her feelings, but try not to ask leading questions: "Are you anxious about the big test?” Instead, ask open-ended questions: "How are you feeling about the math test?" - Be validating and encouraging.
Let your child know that you appreciate how hard they are working, and remind them that the more they tolerate their anxiety, the more it will diminish. So if a child is terrified about going to the doctor, do listen and be empathetic, but encourage them to feel that they can face their fears. - Think things through with the child.
Sometimes it helps to talk through what would happen if a fear came true—how would they handle it? For some kids, having a plan can reduce the uncertainty in a healthy, effective way. - Try to model healthy ways of handling anxiety.
Don't pretend that you don't experience stress and anxiety, but do let kids hear or see you managing it calmly, tolerating it and feeling good about getting through it.
Slow Breathing
Slow Breathing
Slow breathing as an emotion-management strategy is done by inhaling slowly through the nose and exhaling slowly through pursed lips—as if blowing through a straw or blowing on hot soup to cool it down. Breathing out through pursed lips slows down the stream of air on the exhale.
Breathing slowly in this manner turns down the sympathetic nervous system (our “flight, fight, freeze” system) and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (our “rest and digest” system). When the parasympathetic nervous system is turned on, it slows our heart rate and pulse, which helps our body feel calmer, which in turn helps us manage our emotions. As students are able, they should try to make the exhale longer than the inhale, as this stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system even more.
- Have students breathe in slowly through their nose.
- Have students breathe out slowly through pursed lips as if blowing through a straw, or blowing on hot soup to cool it down.
- Have students, as they are able, make their out-breath longer than their in-breath.
- Model this process with students and have them practice with you. Using an imaginary bowl of hot soup helps students breathe out through pursed lips in the correct way.
Contact Information
Dr. Bello
Hi Greenvale! My name is Dr. Francesco Bello and I am the School Psychologist. My role is to support students academically, socially, and emotionally. All children can face problems from time to time related to learning; social relationships; making difficult decisions; or managing emotions. As the School Psychologist, I am able to help students, families, and educators understand and resolve both long-term and short-term issues that students may face. My goal is to partner with families, teachers, school administrators, and other professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school, and the community. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.
Mrs. Lepore
Hello! My name is Rachel Lepore and I am the School Counselor at Greenvale Elementary School. My role as a School Counselor is to educate students, staff, and families on the importance of social-emotional learning. I will be conducting classroom lessons based on the curriculum Second Step, as well as provide Individual and Small Group Counseling. I value a positive school culture of inclusion and respect. My goal for the school year is to be an integral part of your child’s learning by incorporating the skills and tools necessary for a student's success. I look forward to getting to know you and your child! Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.