Throughout this week, the GWUOHS community is celebrating social emotional learning with assemblies, contests and challenges in honor of #SELday, which falls on March 8. Some faculty members are going above and beyond by bringing SEL into their live classes.
For instance, math teacher Jill Rodman incorporated an interactive icebreaker into each of her lessons to facilitate community building between students. She instructed students to choose their preference from several pairs of similar options such as between cats and dogs.
The activity did not end there, though. After selecting, students were told to explain their reasoning behind their preferences. Rodman’s purpose was to encourage her students to understand their peers’ perspectives despite not necessarily agreeing with them.
“Students could see who agreed with their choices and who disagreed and then could see reasons for why people [made] the choices that they do. This is an important part of learning to be empathetic,” she said.
During her mid-class “brain break,” French teacher Chelsea Brueder had students send a note of gratitude to a teacher, family member or friend to actively practice relationship skills.
Junior Ajit G., one of Brueder’s students, found that this task facilitated the building of relationships between his classmates.
“This activity helped me form connections with my classmates because it gave me a reason to connect with them,” he noted.
#SELday celebrations at GWUOHS are to conclude with an all-school scavenger hunt on Friday at 11 a.m. EST.
