Systems to Support Meaningful TSEAL Integration

Drew Schutz • Cahn Fellow 2022

Supporting students with their social-emotional development is more important than ever.  Not only must we equip students to operate in an increasingly complex world, but we must recognize and address the fact that a lack of social-emotional skills can serve as a significant impediment to students in their attempts to fully access the academic content.  While this is not a new concept to educators, we currently find ourselves in a place in which we must improve on our efforts to support students with their social-emotional needs.   Our traditional approach of teaching SEL during a compartmentalized time has proven to be inadequate for many students, and we must support teachers in looking for ways to integrate these teachings into all content areas.

Our school’s efforts to do this are in their infancy, but we are excited to see what the possibilities are.  Our project has led us to a place where we have an increasingly strong understanding of how to support teachers in incorporating opportunities for students to both learn and apply social-emotional skills in math, literacy, science and social studies.  We feel that this effort will not only support our students in acquiring the aforementioned skills, but also enrich their overall academic experience and increase their ability to go deeper into the content.