Confidence and trust is everything for children. Once they have it they can move mountains, plow through barriers and accomplish any goal. I am truly convinced that 95% of the time when I see a student struggle it’s because of the negative self-talk going on in their head, far more than their ability to achieve success. Building this confidence is why we need to focus on S.E.L.

So what is it and why is it important?

S.E.L. or Social Emotional Learning is the focus of growth mindset. Instead of saying the mountain is too high, you teach your student to start looking for the first platform. From there it’s how to accomplish their goals in consistent, manageable steps. This takes the fear out of their learning and allows the child to see success and then achieve it.

Self-talk and how it connects to Social Emotional Learning.

In my classroom we say daily affirmations. Snoop Dogg has created a children’s series and it is so much fun. Highly recommend. The main point is to start to shape self-talk from the negative to the positive. The more often we teach our students the value of speaking to themselves with love the more they start to believe it. They begin to take chances because mistakes become opportunities for learning and chances for growth, instead of fearful failures. If we want our students to know how to problem solve we need to create multiple opportunities for learning. We want to build on their critical thinking skills by offering organic opportunities for this to happen.

When and how to use Social Emotional Learning.

There’s no bad time to make a struggle into a teachable moment. If you are doing a lesson that you see a few of your students are really struggling with call the class together for a moment. Talk about what the students who are finding the lesson fun are doing. Let them coach and give positive reinforcement to their peers and then carry on. Ask your class if anyone would like to share something they are finding difficult and see if there are any suggestions to help them along the way. Never disregard the power of peer support.

Social Emotional Learning is key to long term success.

If you think back to your early schooling, and then high school and early adulthood up until this moment. Think how many times you did or didn’t do something based on fear of failure. Hopefully this is not too often but it is the recipe for regret and we all deserve better so make it a priority to build those confident learners, as they are destined to do great things, they just need a little help along the way.

With Love, C.

Image from Dreamtime.com free stock image thank you!