Tips for New Teachers: Building Social Emotional Learning Skills with Rebecca

If you are a new teacher, this episode is a must listen. We hear all the time about how important social emotional learning skills are for our students, but I would be willing to bet that you did not have a course in school that taught you how to focus on these skills…In this episode I chat with Rebecca from @missreadysetteach about her tips for new teachers as it relates to building social emotional learning skills. She focuses on her top 3 tips which will be hugely beneficial to you as a new teacher. 

 We talk about emotional intelligence, teaching collaboration, and working check ins into your routine. The best part….she is a high school teacher! That is right! Middle and high school teachers often feel left out of the social emotional learning conversation under the incorrect assumption that our students already have these skills. Well in this episode we chat all about these skills across different grade levels! 

 In terms of emotional intelligence, we chat about how when students are elevated in anyway they probably will not be able to process your lesson. Makes sense right, when we are upset it is really hard for us to process information, problem solve, make decision etc. It is the same thing for our students. It can be really challenging for them to process information or engage in tasks when they are upset or feeling various emotions. But, often times we feel like we have to hit all our teaching targets and we have to have all our students on task and engaged. However, we give you strategies for handling these situations in your classroom that allow the student to build strong skills around emotional intelligence. The life skills the students will learn from being able to tell you that they are upset of having a bad day and processing that emotion will serve them well into adult life. 

 In terms of teaching collaboration amongst our students Rebecca gives great guidance on directly teaching this skill. Kids love working in groups and collaborating usually, but at times they might be lagging some skills that makes this an effective process. You will take away some great strategies like teaching students what it means to contribute to the group and providing roles within a group to encourage collaboration. 

 Lastly, we talk about check ins. This can be such a great way to build relationships with your students. In elementary classrooms we can do check ins during morning meeting and make sure we follow up with students throughout the day. Rebecca talks about how she works check ins into her assessments so she can follow up with students when they are feeling great and when the need extra support. Believe me when I say this, this will be a game changer when it comes to relationships. Relationships with our students are built over time, check ins are a great way to build these relationships. 

 When it comes to being a new teacher, teaching social emotional learning skills can be daunting. If you take these strategies, you will have a great starting point to focus on in your classroom. Gone are the days of feeling so overwhelmed with behaviors and social emotional learning skill as a new teacher. If you are looking for more strategies to put in place as a new teacher, definitely subscribe to Rebecca’s podcast Ready Set Teach for tips one all things related to being a new teacher! Also, make sure you check out the free guide I have for teacher related to behavioral interventions. I give you 20 pages worth of behavioral interventions with descriptions and examples across the grade levels.
Resources Discussed in this Episode
Free Behavior Intervention Guide
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