Teaching for success in school, work, life
District expands social and emotional learning programs
In an effort to embrace the challenges of virtual learning head-on, Taos Municipal Schools is doing its part to infuse the classroom and community with social and emotional programs.
Although not a new concept to the area’s educators, social-emotional learning is coming to Taos in a big way.
Social and emotional learning builds the skills, knowledge and attitudes that students and adults need to be successful in school, work and in life. According to the district’s mission statement and vision, programs will foster a community where all people are nurtured and equipped with social emotional skills that lead to enriched, fulfilled and productive lives.
Social and emotional learning, or SEL, includes knowing and regulating emotions, understanding and collaborating with others while showing respect for the diverse community of all Taoseños, and those from multiethnic and multi-traditional backgrounds.
Taos Municipal Schools Superintendent Lillian Torrez and two Taos High School teachers are taking the lead with bringing social emotional learning, along with all of its benefits, to Taos schools. Mark Richert, English teacher, and Ned Dougherty, history teacher, are acting as coordinators to bring the collaboration to life.
“Every teacher has the ideals of social emotional learning embedded into why they got into the practice of education,” Dougherty said. “That’s why most of us refer to it as a calling because we believe in educating the whole child, or we believe in being creative and imaginative about solving problems.”
Dougherty said students who feel heard and feel capable and supported are confident. He continued to say this work is already being done, and transcends the current struggles many students are facing in the pandemic.
“This is a different approach to the district as a whole,” he said, adding how the SEL integration will inform hiring practices, discipline policies, curricular shifts and actual systemic changes that, “go beyond the challenges of this moment.”
In the new era of virtual learning, Dougherty said he’s had to reinvent his online history classes to give his students opportunities to manage themselves and become self-aware. He’s done this by setting clear expectations and setting the bar for his students.
“My professional responsibility right now is to go slow enough that I can keep up with how my students are feeling,” he said. And when many of his students started using the internet to plagiarize simple assignments, instead of punishing them, he was forced to reflect on the unique challenges virtual learning poses to teachers.
“I had to recalibrate what my weekly expectations were from the beginning of the semester,” Dougherty said.
SEL isn’t all “Kumbaya” and sharing circles; it can be formal panel discussions on hot-button issues that students care about, or inviting a speaker to share their story. SEL can be as simple as challenging traditional curriculum to allow for students to be more expressive. This can mean carving out time during class to empower students to participate in events and activities that impact them and the community.
“We’ve got to look at the way we set up systems in schools so we can make sure kids feel all right, and supported and confident. All of this stuff needs to change radically,” Dougherty said. “We can’t go through more decades of being 48th in the country in education and being at the bottom of the list.”
Aside from helping students feel more connected during the pandemic, the benefits of SEL extend well beyond high school years. The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning has conducted decades of research on SEL. Its findings conclude improvements of academic performance and a decline in students’ anxiety, substance use and behavior problems.
Richert and Dougherty, along with a committee of about 40 individuals, are working to find the balance of raising test scores, and incorporating SEL into every classroom. This has manifested into an elective advisory class that Dougherty laughingly referred to as, “homeroom on steroids.”
“Students can sign up and get credit for learning about this. Ned is teaching that and I think last year was the first year and it’s continuing this year,” Richert said. He added one goal for the students involved in the advisory class is for them to reach out to all the middle school students to get them prepped, primed and prepared for high school.
“The big part of social emotional learning is empowerment,” Richert continued. “And it’s empowerment at all levels, not just kids.”
The district is currently meeting and working on a 2030 plan that will involve community members as well as students. The new Taos Municipal Schools website will have a page dedicated to SEL in the near future. Those interested in getting involved can contact Torrez or Richert via email at lillian. torrez@taosschools.org or mark. richert@taosschools.org, respectively.