Format

Workshop

First Presenter's Institution

The Bethlehem Center

Second Presenter's Institution

The Bethlehem Center

Third Presenter's Institution

The Bethlehem Center

Fourth Presenter's Institution

The Bethlehem Center

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Session 4 Breakouts

Strand #1

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Relevance

Utilizing Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum in after-school programming has proven to be beneficial in terms of individual student success as well as overall programming growth. In having the tools and strategies to help students regulate, we have been able to see growth in additional aspects of programming such as community connections, family engagement, and student academic success.

Brief Program Description

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) has in recent years become widely recognized among schools, after-school programs, and other care facilities as an important aspect of programming. However, do we as educators know how to practically implement SEL and other interpersonal education into curriculums in a way that makes sense for our resources and populations? In this presentation, we will discuss how we implemented SEL skills and practices into our afterschool program with respect to our students who come from hard places.

Summary

Since the early years of the Bethlehem Center, our agency has had a reputation for serving its communities’ youth in an after-school program. Historically, students were to acclimate to the structure of the program or face discipline. Like many schools and after-school programs, in recent years the Bethlehem Center has found that this method of punishment when students fail to uphold the structure is outdated. In our presentation, we will present methods, theories, and practices we used to take us from structure and discipline to structured flexibility.

A large reason our agency saw room for growth was because we continually had students who consistently struggled to show positive behaviors in the classroom or continually had difficulty adhering to the structure of the program. We saw that as an agency, we were helping students academically, physically, and spiritually, but were not addressing the social and emotional needs present in a population of largely minority low-income students. With the installment of a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) coordinator came our need to better educate ourselves on ACEs, trauma-informed care, and Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI).

After learning this material, we saw that not only could we implement an SEL coordinator, but also a trauma-informed SEL room to hold individual student check-ins and small psychoeducational groups. Understanding how to better serve our kids, we incorporated chill spaces into every classroom, laid sensory paths in the hallways, obtained regulation tools, and flexible seating. We knew that facing the social and emotional development issues in our students was the key to giving them the best possible chance of healing their brains due to trauma in their lives.

Implementing SEL and more trauma-informed care has brought many additional benefits to our students and program. First, we saw that as our relationships grew with the students, family engagement increased. Second, we saw a decrease in poor classroom behavior due to having appropriate resources and staff to help kids regulate and problem-solve. Third, we now are a data-driven program that aims to see real progress in our students to ensure growth is occurring. And finally, we now have the tools and knowledge to better assess the needs of our students and their families.

There were a lot of challenges from shifting our focus from a more structured and disciplined approach to a structured flexible approach. However, the end result is teaching children how to be more socially and emotionally intelligent individuals. If at the end of the day, they can leave our program being able to express and manage their emotions, master social understanding, and create and fulfill goals for themselves, we are confident to say we have done our jobs.

Evidence

Majorly, we know that SEL implementation into programming works because of the following statistics:

  • SEL leads to better academic outcomes and improved behaviors (Durlak et.al, 2011)
  • SEL's impact is long-term and global (Taylor et.al, 2017)
  • SEL has an 11:1 ratio on the return on investment (Belfield et. al, 2015)
  • SEL can help reduce poverty and improve economic mobiility (Aber et.al, 2015)
  • SEL improves lifetime outcomes (Jones, Greenberg, and Crowley, 2015)

*All statistics listed and additional research can be found on the CASEL website under the Research tab.

Learning Objectives

Participants will learn why SEL is an essential aspect of engaging after-school programs.

Participants will learn how to apply information gained concerning SEL into their own programming in a pragmatic manner.

Participants will be able to conceptualize how to transform their own school-based programs into trauma-informed and SEL rich environments.

Biographical Sketch

Grace Miller has served as the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Coordinator at the Bethlehem Center for the past year and a half. She graduated with her Bachelor's degree in Social Work from UT Chattanooga in May 2019 and with her Master's degree in Social Work from UT Knoxville in May 2020. Previous to her experience at the Bethlehem Center, Grace had experience working in an extended-school program from 2017-2018. Grace loves to learn about new and innovative ways she can serve the kids she works with so that they have the tools to create brighter futures!

Rachel DeVore has served as the Director of Education at the Bethlehem Center since 2016, after leaving the public school system as a classroom teacher. She has her Bachelor's degree in Education from UT Chattanooga and has many years of experience with non-profits, as well as data collection and analysis. She is passionate about students and providing them with a truly engaging and caring out of school time experience. She is proud of the program at the Bethlehem Center, but she is most proud of her two amazing children, as well as her incredibly supportive husband.

Evan Roan has been at the Bethlehem Center for 2 years after graduating from UT Chattanooga. He is very passionate about advocating for impoverished communities and wishes to use his strengths in program management to educate the people who suffer in poverty and help them understand and learn how to advocate for themself. He is very passionate about education and ensuring that all children have the same chance to succeed, even when the odds are stacked against them. He dives into every project he is involved with to make sure that it will be executed to the best of its ability.

Morgan Reeves has served as the Education and Volunteer Coordinator for the Bethlehem Center since 2018. She received for Bachelor's degree in Social Work from UT Chattanooga in May 2018. Morgan has several years of experience working with inner city youth in her hometown of Jackson, TN. She is passionate about making sure the kids she serves have the resources they need to thrive. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her corgi, Clyde.

Keyword Descriptors

SEL, after-school, emotional regulation, communication, SEL skills, child development, trauma-informed, trauma-responsive, adaptive programming, student growth

Presentation Year

2021

Start Date

3-9-2021 10:05 AM

End Date

3-9-2021 11:05 AM

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Mar 9th, 10:05 AM Mar 9th, 11:05 AM

Structured Flexibility

Session 4 Breakouts

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) has in recent years become widely recognized among schools, after-school programs, and other care facilities as an important aspect of programming. However, do we as educators know how to practically implement SEL and other interpersonal education into curriculums in a way that makes sense for our resources and populations? In this presentation, we will discuss how we implemented SEL skills and practices into our afterschool program with respect to our students who come from hard places.