SEL in Action Newsletter

This newsletter is written for educators, by educators to share real world stories, questions, ideas and opinions about how to address the social and emotional needs of students and the adults who teach them.

This month, the newsletter features voices of grantees on a broad range of SEL topics, including an overview of an SEL data system and a photo of SEL in Action.

Share your story here! Complete this brief survey if you would like to be featured in a future newsletter. All publications are awarded a $50 gift card.

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The SEL in Action community has been collaborating to compile this ever-evolving list of resources. It includes hand-curated resources from former SEL in Action grantees, videos from prior SEL in Action supports and convenings and an archive of the SEL in Action Newsletters. Check it out!

The 2022 SEL in Action Awards application window is open! Education First, in partnership with the NoVo Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, seeks applications for educator-led and district-level initiatives that foster culturally-affirming social, emotional and academic learning in students in grades PK-12. We will award up to $8,000 grants to educators for work in classrooms or schools and up to $30,000 for district-level grants to implement an SEL-focused initiative in the 2022–23 school year.

We are holding an informational webinar this Thursday, March 3 at 3p PT/6p ET.

The RFP, FAQs, application link and registration for the webinar can be found HERE. You can also watch the recording of the February informational webinar below:

https://youtu.be/9FxmNb_8ILw

The deadline for applications is Monday, March 14 at 11:59pm PT.

SEL Moment by Allie Sommers

A student at DREAM's newest school, DREAM Charter School Mott Haven, engages in an interactive SEL lesson online as part of her remote learning.

Allie Somers was born and raised in New York City. She is a graduate of Princeton University and serves as the Grants Manager at DREAM.

Sown to Grow by Monico Candelaria

Sown To Grow in an online reflection and feedback platform that places students in the driver's seats of their emotional and academic wellbeing. This video is intended to give a preview of the interface and functions from a teacher perspective.

Sown To Grow has been a valuable tool for us in two critical ways. It allows our advisors to proactively check-in with all of our students on a weekly basis. This clues our advisors in on what is going on in the lives of our students and what challenges they are facing. The platform also provides us with aggregated data that informs programming we can implement in the future. We can see trends in how students are feeling over several weeks, which allows us to map out more intentional SEL programming. For instance, our data suggested students were facing more challenges in December, so our team planned two separate outdoor SEL grade-level retreats for January where students were able to engage in community building activities.

In addition Monico Candelaria's my primary duties as a school social worker, he is a co-coordinator of SEL programming at Amy Biehl High School in Albuquerque, NM. When he is not social working, he is enjoying time with his family, walking his dog, or skateboarding.

Thanks for reading! Please share this newsletter with your colleagues, tell us what you think by emailing us at selinaction@education-first.com.

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