“It Starts with ME!”: Creating a Culture of Emotional Intelligence

Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Clayton County Public Schools

Second Presenter's Institution

Clayton County Public Schools

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Session 1 (Percival)

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Strand #2

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

This presentation relates to both the “head” and the “heart” strands. Incorporating social and emotional learning into everyday instruction has been proven to increase student achievement and reduce disciplinary incidences. One’s emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) can always be increased. Realizing this and the fact that school climate and culture has a trickle-down effect on those we serve, we must first ensure that we, as school leaders, are operating with a high level of EQ.

Brief Program Description

This interactive session, designed for everyone and presented by a husband and wife team of educators, focuses on domains of emotional intelligence, along with research-based strategies for increasing personal EQ and using one’s scope of influence to inspire increased EQ in our colleagues and students. The link between positivity and productivity/learning will be explored along with proven methods for increasing personal levels of positivity.

Summary

Research has shown that organizations which operate on a high level of emotional intelligence will realize greater trust, sustained motivation, adaptability to change, and improved teamwork. Furthermore, when social and emotional learning is incorporated into the daily curriculum, student achievement is increased in all areas. This is particularly critical in those who serve students considered at-risk. In order to create a culture of emotional intelligence in any organization, we must start with the head of the team. As educators, we are all leaders with a large scope of influence. This presentation will provide all participants with proven strategies to increase personal emotional intelligence and, when redelivered and modeled, will inspire the same in others.

This session will begin by exploring the widely-recognized domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. We will also discuss a fifth domain, responsible decision-making, which is included in the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) model. Many school districts, including Clayton County Public Schools, utilize this model as a framework for Social-Emotional Learning. Strategies, including mindfulness activities, cognitive reappraisal, journaling, self-care, identifying emotional triggers, conflict resolution, and more, for improving levels of EQ in all domains will be provided.

Research has shown the brain to be 31% more productive when operating in a state of positivity versus a state of negativity or neutrality. This link between positivity and learning/productivity will be explored, and several approaches and activities for training the brain to think more positively will be offered.

The value of identifying and exercising one’s character strengths in order to increase levels of positivity will be explored. Resources will be provided for participants to determine their personal character strengths along with ways to exercise these strengths routinely, thus promoting higher levels of personal satisfaction.

In each of the aforementioned areas, strategies for routine and easy implementation in the classroom will also be provided.

Evidence

  • When social and emotional learning is offered in schools, a 2011 meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs (K-12) found that SEL participants demonstrated improved academic performance in an 11-percentile-point gain.
  • Several individual studies found a variety of other important benefits favoring program participants over controls. For example, SEL participants later demonstrated a 6% increase in high school graduation rates, and an 11% increase in college graduation rates. In other cases, SEL participants were less likely to have a clinical mental health disorder, ever be arrested or become involved with the juvenile justice system, and had lower rates of sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancies.

- Published in Child Development, Volume 88, Issue 4, July/August 2017, Pages 1156–1171 Rebecca D. Taylor (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning), Eva Oberle (University of British Columbia), Joseph A. Durlak (Loyola University), Roger Weissberg (CASEL, University of Illinois at Chicago).

  • “Priscilla Vail, an expert on learning, has described emotion as the "on-off switch to learning". According to Mrs. Vail, when the switch is off, the system is dormant and only the potential for learning is available. When the switch is on, the pathway to learning is open. When the limbic system interprets sensory information and dispatches it to the cortex for processing, it sets the emotional tone of the information before it reaches the cortex. If the limbic system interprets the information as positive, it dispatches a message of purpose and excitement and directs our behavior toward a goal. When this happens, we become motivated to act; thinking and learning are enhanced. When the interpretation is negative, the switch is turned off and thinking and learning are stifled.”

- Candy Lawson, Ph.D., from the Center for Development and Learning.

  • The brain is 31% more productive in a state of positivity as opposed to a state of negativity or neutrality.

- Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage and former Harvard professor on positive psychology

Biographical Sketch

Ed Blackwood has over 12 years of administrative experience in Title I schools. He served as the principal of West Clayton Elementary School in Clayton County, which has the highest mobility rate in the District. Under Mr. Blackwood’s leadership, a formerly divisive staff became unified and accomplished a common goal of raising the level of student achievement. Parental involvement dramatically increased, as well. In Mr. Blackwood’s last year as principal at West Clayton, the CCRPI score increased by 39%. Mr. Blackwood attributes this significant academic progress with his high level of emotional intelligence and his innovative practices which included an integrated curriculum approach, staff attrition, effective management of Title I resources, and diligent hiring.

Kim Blackwood has served as a Training Specialist for Clayton County Public Schools for the past 5 years. In this role, she develops and delivers professional learning to all school employees, both certified and classified. Because of her firm belief that increased emotional intelligence of all employees will enhance the entire climate of the District and positively impact student achievement, she developed a course on the subject which has been presented to over 1800 employees to date. Mrs. Blackwood’s class has become one of the bedrock modules of Clayton County’s newly-introduced Social Emotional Learning Initiative, and plans are in place to eventually deliver this training to every employee in the District.

Keyword Descriptors

emotional intelligence, leadership, Title I, increasing student achievement, social emotional learning

Presentation Year

March 2019

Start Date

3-4-2019 10:30 AM

End Date

3-4-2019 11:45 AM

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Mar 4th, 10:30 AM Mar 4th, 11:45 AM

“It Starts with ME!”: Creating a Culture of Emotional Intelligence

Session 1 (Percival)

This interactive session, designed for everyone and presented by a husband and wife team of educators, focuses on domains of emotional intelligence, along with research-based strategies for increasing personal EQ and using one’s scope of influence to inspire increased EQ in our colleagues and students. The link between positivity and productivity/learning will be explored along with proven methods for increasing personal levels of positivity.