Update from the Gerber team

[Renee Thornhill]

What we want from the day: Continued support in working with new staff, tips or tricks on implementing character strong curriculum to get the most bang for our buck and ideas for training support staff that will not be using the curriculum with a class of students but do interact with students on a daily basis in small groups, one on one or recess duty. 

Success: We are getting more training for our tk-5 staff on our SEL curriculum. 

Challenges: 

Thomas Higgins: My biggest challenge is prioritizing and finding time for explicitly teaching SEL.... I have many students with many different needs. How do I balance time for a whole class SEL lesson when my whole class doesn't necessarily need explicit instruction in SEL? Something has to be cut and how do I choose what to prioritize? Over 50% of my class is below benchmark in reading and math. Do I cut targeted instruction in math and ELA for everyone so I can make time to teach SEL to the whole class, so the students who need it get the instruction? My schedule leaves me about 4 hours a week to teach SEL, History, Art, Science and anything that is not MATH or ELA. I sometimes feel like I am letting down some of my students who are well regulated and have great coping skills but have to go through a SEL lesson that is not really applicable to them at the expense of not getting the grade level or targeted instruction they need and deserve. I try my best to embed SEL best practices in my daily teaching but I know that is not enough for all students. So basically, I feel like a failure when I do teach SEL and I feel like a failure when I don't teach SEL. 

 

Michelle Carlson:

 1. I'm not sure... I think my perspective lends itself to something about how to work through tier 1 implementation challenges

2. Context is important: I only see kids once per week for a short time in my classroom. I've enjoyed intentionally greeting them outside on the ramp first to proactively re-teach expectations (they forget a lot since they are here so infrequently) and my challenge would be that the behavior issues are so intense and represent - in many cases - the majority of the class. I'm constantly looking for strategies that will work in my situation to better support learning but I am coming up short most of the time. 

Melanie Nolan: Recognizing the difference between using evidence based strategies as a teacher and teaching an SEL lesson to students has been a struggle at our site. Some of our staff is still just beginning to see that adult behavior drives/changes student behavior. 

[Courtney Smith]

My biggest challenge is finding an uninterrupted black of time during my day when I have my whole class.  I spend the  majority of my day on reading and math instruction and the periods when I could have time, and I have a variety of students pulled during this time.

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Thank you,

Courtney Smith

Second Grade Teacher

Gerber Elementary School

(530) 385-1041

[Christina Monterrubio]

https://sites.google.com/characterstrong.com/tehamacadre/home

Kindest regards, 

Ms. Christina Monterrubio

6th Grade/Middle School Science Teacher

Athletic Director 

Reeds Creek Elementary