Social Emotional Learning: Flexing your Brain and Body

 

By Guest Blogger, Deci Yahya, SBS Teacher at Bolton Elementary

When I started my first year teaching last year in the SBS classroom, I knew that I wanted to incorporate plenty of social emotional learning into my curriculum. I wanted my students to feel like our class was a safe space where we were a family. At the beginning of the year, we began using the Calm App in our classroom. It provided soft background music and a variety of calming backdrops for our board that we left on while we worked during the day. As I began exploring the app, I found that it had yoga instruction for specific age groups, including school aged children. Most of my students were not familiar with Yoga or Meditation and I wasn’t sure how they would respond.

We tried it out in our seats a couple of times and the students showed a lot of interest so I invested in some yoga mats for the class with some money that was donated to our school. Pretty soon the students were requesting Yoga and meditation as part of our SEL instruction in the morning. They could name the different poses, talk about meditation, and had their own personal favorite videos and activities. I found that this time in the morning where we all got to stretch our minds and bodies together not only helped with emotion regulation, but also helped us grow and bond as the classroom family I had wanted to be. We could celebrate together when someone did a stretch well, we could laugh together when someone got off balance or a pose had a funny name, and we could plan together for how we would tackle more difficult poses and activities.

As a first year teacher, this also provided me with a much needed time during the day to regulate myself. If we were having a particularly hard day, we would all stop and do a short 5 minute meditation together. While it was beneficial to the students, it was also especially helpful for me. I got 5 minutes to get myself together so that I could provide the support that they needed to help them regulate their emotions and complete their assignments. 

Recently teachers have heard a lot about building relationships and incorporating social emotional learning into the classroom. For some it may seem like another task added to the endless to do lists we have as teachers, but it is mutually beneficial for students and teachers to include this in planning and instruction. I notice a difference in my students and myself when we are able to do activities like yoga, zones check ins, and social emotional learning together in the morning. We are able to be honest with each other about where we are emotionally during the day, and the supports we need to help us have a good day. Just like I encourage my students to be open about the zone they are in to help them and I figure out what tools they may need to help them regulate and grow their brains that day, I am open with them about my zone for the day. If I am having a bad morning, I tell them that.

At first they were surprised, but now they chime in with suggestions of tools they like that I can use. We work as a family to understand that we are all humans that have good and bad days and we sometimes need help to help us be the best that we can be. Whether its yoga, having class outside, listening to books on social emotional learning, or just doing a short check in in the morning to assess the climate in the classroom that day, social emotional learning in the classroom has been incredibly helpful for me and my students as I have navigated being a 1st and 2nd year teacher and we have all navigated the pandemic together. I look forward to expanding the SEL activities we do in the classroom and helping myself and my students grow into the best people we can be.