Social and emotional learning: Trish Shaffer at TEDxUniversityofNevada

good morning is this great I'm having so much fun already recently a good friend of mine told me about his 89 year old father's wish for his grandchildren my friend asked his dad what do you want for your grandkids you might think his response was good health a great education a successful career maybe even riches but no his response was I want them to be able to get back up when they fall able to get back up when they fall isn't that what we want for all our children the strength of character the skills for resilience a warm toughness sadly many of today's children lack fortitude some are so insecure they bully their peers and still many seem paralyzed by their fear and consequently stand by indifferent to wrongdoing why is that I have taught students and educators for over 14 years and in these classrooms children were provided with the usual academic nourishment reading writing and arithmetic but there was something missing students weren't taught the skills to be empathetic or caring they weren't taught to manage their emotions they don't possess the conscientiousness to connect with other people each time you turn on the TV or glanced at comments left on internet postings it is horrifically obvious that we have a generation of people feeling disconnected and angry some so disconnected and so angry they turn to violence violence against their community and often themselves 77% of our nation's young people in grades 6 through 10 reported experiencing verbal abuse from a peer last year alone 80 percent reported experiencing abuse through social media or other forms of technology such as emails or texting it's obvious we need to teach more than reading writing and arithmetic we need to reach the whole child we need to provide our children with social and emotional learning the skills for an effective life teach awareness of self and of others how to connect with other people to engage in meaningful conversation even with those that disagree with them to make responsible decisions and follow-through with those decisions in recent years psychologists and other mental health professionals have warned us that we are in danger of creating a nation of victims by imposing anti-bullying rules so what to prevent our students from saying hurtful things to one another instead children need to be taught social and emotional skills so that they have the strength and the know how to end the bullying cycle there is strength in caring social and emotional learning is a movement spreading across our nation in our elementary schools to our universities it's even found in our corporate world as a case in point in our school district my colleagues and I worked with Mrs Biggs a third grade teacher to implement social and emotional learning or SEL we began with a morning ritual in which we asked the children to sit in a circle to me they would talk about what they did last night what they look forward to academic accomplishments even thoughts weighing on their mind it was like gathering at the dinner table once the children practice and understood the purpose behind these meetings mrs. Biggs was able to use this structure when the children experienced academic stress or struggles with their peers as you can imagine this was an extremely powerful process eight and nine-year-olds learning and practicing how to work together to solve social problems or academic struggles learning and practicing to express empathy and respectfully disagree with one another you know I don't know about you but I think there are plenty of adults that need to learn how to do this too I want to tell you about one little boy in and mrs. Biggs's class Ian stood out and you might say for all the wrong reasons at first he refused to participate in our meetings and turned his back entirely but after a couple months he turned inward and faced his peers he still wouldn't speak though but over the course of the year he learned new skills and he translated these skills across campus he now had the ability to manage and identify the whirlwind of emotions that come with the pressures of performing academically and socially ian was at school more often his grades went up and he reported having more friends SEL works and not just for in for students all across the country studies have found that social and emotional learning improves mental health and behavior it boosts children's social competence and it creates more positive school climates all good things but the real surprise came when the researchers at Loyola University in Chicago did an analysis of 213 studies looking at SEL implementation they found that students who received direct sel instruction gained an average of 11% ow points on their standardized academic achievement test compared to peers who didn't take part let me repeat that students who received direct SCL instruction gained an average of 11% tala points on their standardized academic achievement tests this is huge before SEL we as educators were thrilled to see a four to six percent increase and what's more these schools reported reduced conduct issues and children with emotional distress their students were less likely to experience depression engage in drug use or even contemplate suicide one of the most important skills taught through social and emotional learning is the ability to connect with other people let's be honest you work harder for those to whom you feel connected you are more likely to show up to school or to work and do your best when you feel connected to the people who are there studies have found that school dropouts cite one of the major reasons they leave is they didn't feel they had a meaningful connection with anyone in their building we are losing up to 7,000 students a day and I don't know about you but when I think back on my schooling and my childhood my memories are not filled with visions of lessons on how to convert fractions to decimals they're tied to people to social connections like the time Tommy stuck a huge wad of gum in my hair and so sweetly but so unsuccessfully tried to help me get it out that is one haircut I will never forget I assure you but my point is I bet your memories of your schooling at any age are tied to social connections and they should be schools should be social places and learning should be a social process we need to provide our children with social nourishment not just academic nurturing and through SEL we are creating socially and emotionally stronger students who excel not just in academics but in communication perseverance grit empathy and caring I want to go back to the wonderful grandpa at the beginning his priority for his grandkids wasn't a great education or a successful career it wasn't even good health his wish for his grandkids is that they would have the strength to get back up each and every time they fall we now can give every child that ability social and emotional learning can provide every person with the skills to flourish and fulfill their life's potential please help me make our schools and our world better thank

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 125,848

Rating: 4.7536092 out of 5

Keywords: tedx talk, ted talks, tedx, ted, Reno, ted talk, Trish Shaffer, Learning, English, United States, TEDx, tedx talks, SEL, TEDxUniversityofNevada, Teaching, ted x, Nevada

Id: LbfpyJfI1ho

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2014