June 15, 2021, Oak Park, IL, Riverside-Brookfield Landmark: Brook Park School to add social-emotional learning teacher https://www.rblandmark.com/2021/06/15/brook-park-school-to-add-social-emotional-learning-teacher/
Next year, all students at Brook Park School in LaGrange Park, except for second-graders, will receive regular weekly instruction in what educators call social-emotional learning, or SEL.
The Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 Board of Education voted 6-0 on June 10 to establish a full-time teaching position solely dedicated to social-emotional learning….
Many school districts have beefed up their social-emotional learning instruction in recent years and are doing more next year with the expectation that some students will struggle in their return to school after having been away for regular school for more than a year. …
“SEL is not a reaction to the pandemic,” Kuzniewski said. “This is just one more piece to give support to students.”
All Brook Park students, except second-graders, will get 30 minutes of SEL instruction twice a week during the school year. Second-graders were excluded because of scheduling issues.
The goals of the SEL curriculum include helping students develop more resiliency, to build self-regulation and mindfulness skills, and to help develop collaboration and problem-solving skills.
SEL will be just one of the so called “special” classes which also include art, music, STEAM and physical education….
The new SEL teaching position is likely to be a long-term change, not just a reaction to the pandemic school year.
“This will be more than just one year,” Sorensen said.
