My end-of-year “Best” list posts continue…

I’m adding this post to ALL END-OF-YEAR “BEST” LISTS FOR 2020 IN ONE PLACE!

I publish a regular series called SEL Weekly Update, and I thought it would useful to readers and to me to review them and highlight the ones I think are the best of the year.

You might also be interested in “Best” Lists Of The Week: Social Emotional Learning Resources. All my “Best” lists related to SEL, including previous editions of this Best list, can be found there.

Here are my choices from the past six months:

THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF RESILIENCE

NY Times columnist David Brooks can often be almost unintelligible when he writes about education issues but, sometimes, he writes eloquently about other topics. His column, Nine Nonobvious Ways to Have Deeper Conversations, offers a lot of helpful advice. Not only can teachers find it useful when talking with students, but I think it lends itself to bite-size classroom lessons, too. I’m adding it to The Best Ideas To Help Students Become Better Listeners — Contribute More.

How Can Teachers Nurture Meaningful Student Agency? is from MindShift. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Student Agency & How To Encourage It.

I’m adding this new video to The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset”:

 

3 Steps to Developing an Asset-Based Approach to Teaching is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Posts On Looking At Our Students Through The Lens Of Assets & Not Deficits.

Using Wise Interventions to Motivate Deliberate Practice is a research paper by Angela Duckworth and several other researchers. It’s a few years old, but it’s new to me. The paper (which is not behind a paywall) is interesting, but what is far more interesting and useful are the lesson materials they actually used in the classroom. In order to access them, you have to go to the end, prior to the footnotes, under “Supplemental Materials.” If you click on that link, you’ll gain access to a large file in Word that has more specific outlines of the lessons they did. I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Learning About The 10,000 Hour Rule & Deliberate Practice.

 

This next video is a “must-addition” to any lesson on The Marshmallow Test – a perfect way to end it!  I’m adding it to Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control:

The ‘serendipity mindset’: how to make your own luck is from The Guardian. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES ON LEARNING HOW TO IMPROVE OUR “LUCK”

The Trouble With Empathy appeared in The NY Times. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Helping To Build Empathy In The Classroom – Help Me Find More.

Willpower Is Not Going to Be Enough is from The Atlantic. I’m adding it to Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Motivate Your High Performers to Share Their Knowledge is from the Harvard Business Review. It’s a really interesting article about a cool goal-setting strategy that’s very adaptable to schools. You can find the form they used as an appendix at the end of this paper. I will definitely be using this with my students, though I may wait until we get back into the physical classroom. I’m adding it to Best Posts On Students Setting Goals,

Calls for racial justice gained steam with empathy is from The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Helping To Build Empathy In The Classroom – Help Me Find More.

I’m adding this tweet to Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control:

I’m adding this post to The Best Resources On The Value Of Positive “Self-Talk” and to Best Posts On Helping Students “Visualize Success”:

Social, Emotional, and Academic Development Through an Equity Lens is from The Educational Trust. I’m adding it toThe Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources.

Belonging Now: What It Takes to Create the Conditions for Belonging is from The Mindset Scholars Mindset. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING HOW TO PROMOTE A SENSE OF “BELONGING” AT SCHOOL.

Nike’s new video honoring Kobe Bryant would be a great one to show to show to students and then ask them what things do they want to get “better” at and what their plans are to make that happen.

I’m adding this post to:

Best Posts On Students Setting Goals

The Best Video Clips On Goal-Setting — Help Me Find More

You might also be interested in R.I.P. Kobe Bryant.

 

Five Simple Ways to Create an LGBTQ+ Inclusive Classroom is from The Teaching Channel. I’m adding it to THE BEST WAYS TO SUPPORT LGBTQ STUDENTS.

A strategic mindset: An orientation toward strategic behavior during goal pursuit is a new paper co-authored by Carol Dweck. I’m adding it to Best Posts On Students Setting Goals.

 

 

Some talk about Social Emotional Learning as an effective strategy to combat many of the challenges facing our students because they don’t want to attack root causes of those problems, including poverty and inequality (see The Manipulation of Emotional Learning and The Best Resources Showing Social Emotional Learning Isn’t Enough).

A new study points yet another hole in that perspective by finding that poverty is a major cause of mental ill health, particularly anxiety and depression – both of which have major impacts on cognitive functions.

That doesn’t mean that schools and teachers can’t do anything to mitigate some of these effects on our students (see “How Income Affects The Brain” & What We Can Do About It),  but we should be able to distinguish what actions are more “band-aids” and which ones will have a more systemic impact – and act accordingly.

Let’s shy away from thinking there are “magical” solutions…