How will embedding schoolwide SEL practices impact student learning? How can we promote community and collaboration to suit the needs of various learning contexts? How can we facilitate a sense of belonging, community and resiliency now that most of the pandemic restrictions are over and we can be back together?

We used the school anchor book "Circles Around Us" and designed a few lessons we could do as a school in the first weeks of the school year. Each colour represented a student from a particular grade. Students and staff added their own uniqueness and individuality to each circle and were posted on walls outside our gym. We wanted to create a common experience where we can see how individually we are are all unique while collectively we create a connected Cook CARES community. 

 

The Impact of Embedding SEL Practices on Student Learning

The Impact of Embedding SEL Practices on Student Learning

 

How can we design and facilitate schoolwide activities that are high buy in and low risk to staff and students? Our intention was to (re-)start schoolwide activities such as Mindful Mondays, Walking Wednesdays and Fun Fridays to again (re-) start doing things TOGETHER. We posted sample activities and photos of students taking part in these activities on the board and provided black outline masters and suggestions in the photocopy room as a way to facilitate and encourage schoolwide experiences to take place.​

How has your inquiry made a difference for students?​

 We've seen how small changes can have a subtle impact on students' overall sense of community and belonging in our school.  In our classrooms, we noticed:​

  • students connecting with Cook cares language in daily announcements​

  • students using Cook cares language when problem solving with each other​

  • students looking forward to participating in shared school-wide activities (i.e. Walking Wednesdays, Fun Fridays)

How can we nurture belonging in smaller "chunks, pods or cohorts" to make smaller learning communities within the school? ​

Can we use those learning groups to support the larger school learning community? ​

How can we use that foundation of connection to increase the feeling of belonging in a large school?​

  • Whole school activities with mixed aged groups (i.e. Family teams, half-school assemblies)​

  • Multi-age learning groups (i.e. Big/Little/Middle Buddies)​

  • Grade cohort learning communities (i.e. similar grade groupings)

The Impact of Embedding SEL Practices on Student Learning