Why Champion Social and Emotional Learning?: Because It Helps Students Build Character

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"Research shows that promoting social and emotional skills leads to reduced violence and aggression among children, higher academic achievement, and an improved ability to function in schools and in the workplace" (Edutopia, 2008).

Having an emotionally impaired student in my classroom has opened my eyes to the importance of social and emotional learning. As the above quote suggests, it is critical that students have a toolbox of strategies to go to in order to manage their emotions.

My EI student, P.M., has the tools in place to be successful in my classroom despite his somewhat aggressive emotional outbursts. In fact, since last year, P.M. has grown not only emotionally, but socially and academically too. The article suggests that respect and trust are two fundamental principles of a socially and emotionally sound classroom. I believe that P.M. has developed in my classroom because of the respect he receives and the amount of trust students have with one another. P.M. started the year off believing he had no friends, was stupid, and spent a year basically being babysat. This year, however, P.M. has been taught the emotional skills he needs to get through the day. A behavior plan was put into place to "acknowledge and reward" his positive choices, however it is no longer needed! Because of his growth emotionally, P.M. is no longer seen as "scary" by the other students and has many friends in multiple classes. Additionally, he has flourish academically and soared over two years growth in reading.

The article explains that social and emotional skills lay the foundation for academic growth. As seen with my EI student, I totally agree with this article. Students come to school with so many issues and feelings that are hard to control. If we as educators want them to be successful academically, we first must teach students how to appropriately handle their emotions so that true learning can happen.