Building Blocks for Social-Emotional Learning: Creating Safe, Secure, and Successful Elementary Schools (Your Action Plan for Meaningful School Improvement)

Support the growth of your students with meaningful, effective social-emotional learning (SEL). Full of resources, tools, and planning templates, this comprehensive guide provides everything you need to embed SEL practices within your daily work. You'll engage in deep reflection and discover ways to refine instruction, lesson planning, and assessment; promote whole child development; and foster a productive learning environment for all.

• Gain a deeper understanding of students' neurological development.
• Learn the benefits of social-emotional learning.
• Create a culture of social-emotional learning across entire schools.
• Plan and teach for social-emotional learning.
• Assess students on their social-emotional progress in order to encourage continual growth.

Contents: Introduction: Why Teach Social-Emotional Learning to All? Chapter 1: What Is Social-Emotional Learning? Chapter 2: Establishing Culture, Climate, and the Learning Environment for SEL in Elementary Schools Chapter 3: Building a Schoolwide Foundation for SEL in Elementary School Chapter 4: Effective SEL Teaching Practices and Strategies in Elementary Schools Chapter 5: Effective SEL Lesson Planning Chapter 6: Monitoring Student Learning of SEL Appendix References and Resources Index

Tracey A. Hulen, an educational consultant and elementary and middle school mathematics specialist, has been part of the leadership team at two model professional learning communities (PLCs) in Fairfax County, Virginia. She specializes in mathematics and social-emotional learning and has a wide range of experience collaborating about data-driven instruction. She served as a mathematics specialist at Mason Crest Elementary School in Annandale, Virginia, the first Model PLC to receive Solution Tree's annual DuFour Award in 2016. While serving in this role, Tracey worked with preK-6 teams of teachers and was instrumental in helping build and support the school's innovative mathematics program. Under her leadership, Mason Crest consistently achieved outstanding results in mathematics on the Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools. Her work also included supporting early childhood teams with integrating social-emotional learning into academic learning.

In addition to her work at Mason Crest, Tracey worked with the mathematics team in the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Instructional Services Department for four years, which serves 140 elementary schools. During that time, she supported the development of FCPS's rigorous mathematics curriculum, assessments, and instructional programs. Tracey's work included creating and facilitating FCPS's mathematics professional development for administrators, instructional coaches, and elementary teachers. In addition, she provided more individualized support to schools in planning, creating assessments, discussing data, determining lesson study, differentiating instruction, and utilizing best practices in mathematics.

To learn more about Tracey's work, follow @traceyhulen on Twitter.

Ann-Bailey Lipsett is a special education consultant with eighteen years of experience working with children, families, and schools. She founded her educational consulting company, Lipsett Learning Connection, in 2016 to develop positive social-emotional learning experiences for all children, regardless of their abilities and backgrounds. She works with schools, foundations, and individual families in one-on-one, virtual, and group settings.

Many of Ann-Bailey's beliefs in education were formed during her six-year tenure at Mason Crest Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia--the first school to win the DuFour Award. It was here that she truly came to understand that all means all and how to set high expectations while providing students with the help they need through the power of a collaborative team.

To learn more about Ann-Bailey's work, visit her website at lipsettlearningconnection.com.