SEL Leadership in a Virtual World
The AASA Leadership Network invites you to share your
ideas about how you and your district are addressing the needs of students,
families, and staff during this challenging time in our country and our world.
This is the first in a series of AASA BLOG entries from outstanding educational
leaders engaged in implementing social and emotional learning (SEL) in their
districts and schools to support their students, staff, and families during
this period of national transition.
We are very pleased that this first entry
is from Dr. Sheldon Berman, currently Superintendent of Andover Public Schools
(Massachusetts) and a national leader in the field of social and emotional
learning.
Section One: The SEL
Challenges Confronting Educational Leaders Leading in a Virtual World
This
is an unprecedented time in our history as a country and as a profession. Our
response to the Covid-19 crisis powerfully reinforces the necessity of
education to bring consistency and support to the lives of our students. As
educational leaders, we must make certain that both our students and our staff
members regain some semblance of normalcy in order to maintain engagement and
connection—and to sustain meaningful education during this time of upheaval.
At
the heart of social and emotional learning (SEL) is the goal of reinforcing
positive relationships and connections among members of a learning community.
These goals are especially important for helping learners to feel safe and
engaged in this new virtual world. As we
search for ways to use distance learning as an educational delivery system, we
must continue to acknowledge the importance of students’ relationships with
their peers and their teachers. What is perhaps most important in leading
virtual learning is the need to help our students and staff overcome isolation.
In
spite of the distance we must maintain and the disruption to all our normal
patterns of interaction, we still can sustain relationships with our students,
bring smiles to their faces, and reinforce the connections that may seem broken
in the face of isolation. What makes
this even more critical, is that in the midst of this national crisis, people
around our students are getting ill and experiencing unprecedented economic and
personal challenges. Connections with teachers and peers can be a welcome
relief and healing force in students’ lives.
As
educators, we can continue to provide support, stability, and normalcy to our
students—in spite of working at home and disruptions from economic upheaval. We
have to focus our leadership on our SEL work and let our children know that we
miss them—and that we are there to support them. Before I give some practical
suggestions about the importance of SEL in effective distance learning, I’d
like to share a quote from Mother Theresa that seems particularly relevant now:“None of us, including me, ever do great things.
But we can all do small things, with great love, and together, we can do
something wonderful…”
Section Two: Promoting Connectivity and Engagement in a
Virtual Learning Environment
So what can educational leaders do to promote
connectivity and engagement during this time of isolation and transition? There
are a number of strategies for reaching out to our students to make personal
contact with students and staff on a consistent basis and ensure that distance
learning is as engaging, interactive, and experiential as possible. Here are
few of the strategies —and we invite you to share your own success stories with
us about education in this new virtual world:
- The Equity Priority: The first step towards equity in communication
is providing, as best we can, the technology and connectivity to our
students and families through distributions of Chromebooks and hotspots to
those who need it with simple directions and access to technology
workshops for students and parents. Once we achieve some level of equity,
we can ensure that every student has a support network and personal
contact with teachers—regardless of their access to technology. For
example, we make weekly or more frequent contact with every learner via
phone contacts, emails, letters, and either individual, small group or
even whole-class video conferencing meetings.
- Setting Reasonable Expectations: Given the disruption in
students’ and staff members’ lives, the expectations for learning and
connection have to be reasonable. We can’t expect teachers to replicate
the classroom or expect students to complete all the work that would have
been accomplished if they were in school. Remote teaching, particularly
online learning, takes much more time for teachers to prepare for and
facilitate than teaching in the regular classroom. It is vitally important
that educators understand the limits of what students might be able to
accomplish in a more limited amount of time and set reasonable learning
targets to reduce student anxiety and apprehension. Giving students time
and support in this new environment is essential for them to function in a
meaningful and productive way so that they can be proud of what they are
able to do.
- Reinforcing Connectivity and Support: It is essential that
students experience a sense of routine aligned with their in-school
experiences. Providing a schedule for when teachers will be available or
when online learning will occur brings a sense of order to a student’s and
their family’s day. For example, elementary teachers whose students have
access to technology and connectivity can host daily virtual morning
meetings for students. At the secondary level, teachers can use technology
to host virtual advisories for middle and high school students either in
small groups or in their regular advisory groups. Teachers can also be
available online for office hours to provide parents and students an
opportunity for individual support.
- Engagement and Interactivity as a Key Focus Area: We can ensure that
students’ social interaction and emotional engagement are priorities
during distance learning activities by enhancing remote learning
activities that are project based or require students to work together
remotely. Providing video lessons that students can access and assignments
or work sheets isn’t sufficient. Lessons have to include discussion and
sharing of ideas or experiences in order to personalize and engage student
learning. Video conferencing 1-3 times a week can also be highly
effective, moving from whole-group meetings to conferences involving
smaller groups.
- Varied Pedagogy: The virtual world requires sensitivity to students’
varying attention spans and the inevitable distractions of their home
environment. Teachers must strive to make distance learning as interactive
as possible with less focus on didactic presentation and much more focus
on discussion, feedback, coaching, and counseling, as needed.
- Encouraging Student-to-Student Interaction: Students’ relationships
with peers are essential in a virtual world. We can strive to integrate a
range of strategies to enhance this interaction, including a major focus
on small group project-based learning. For example, a project team can
interact (via collaborative research, discussion, presentation, etc.)
using such platforms as Zoom and Google Classroom.
- Building a Sense of Community in Spite of the Distance: Key to successful SEL
implementation is building a sense of community in the classroom and the
school so that students know they are included, valued and known. Remote
learning can still accomplish that. Teachers and administrators in a
school can create individual and collective messages in which each teacher
expresses caring and support for students and lets them know they are
missed. The faculty can create fun videos such as a dance video with each
teacher participating for a couple of seconds each to brighten students’
day. The school can also host virtual talent shows with submissions of
videos from students edited together and shared online or via cable TV.
All of these strategies help to sustain students’ sense of connection to
the school community.
- Meaningful Progress Monitoring: We can allow for a great deal of
flexibility in this area, but we need to ensure that students and parents
are receiving ongoing feedback on learner progress. Our teachers must make
certain that students are clear about learning targets for a lesson or
unit. They must also provide regular individual feedback on student work
to support learners in achieving identified lesson and unit outcomes.
- SEL Support Services and Programs: Our commitment to
sustaining meaningful and productive relationships and connectivity
extends to the work of counselors, psychologists, and social service
workers. Each of them can reach out to students and families through
phone, email and video conferencing. They can continue providing
individual and small group therapy using teletherapy tools. And they can
reach out to teachers so that students who are not participating are
identified and contacted. In this way they can stay connected with
students and their families, ensuring that they receive the services and
resources they need.
I wish each of you the very best during this
challenging and unprecedented time. We invite you to consider submitting your
own reflections via this AASA Leadership Network SEL Blog platform. This is a
wonderful place to share ideas that can enhance our efforts to promote health,
safe, and engaging learning environments.
For more information about Social Emotional Learning (SEL) initiative
visit https://aasa.org/czi.aspx.