Everyone looks forward to the Holidays so why emphasise wellness in the run up to a much needed break? While we all look forward to the long deserved rest from routines, and classes and the day today school environment, which is pretty intense, we ( teachers, families, children, administrations) get caught up in another kind of daily challenge about holiday expectations… Acknowledging this our Holiday Wellness Webzine was born, with many embedded goodies, like downloadable guides and activities for classrooms to promote wellbeing, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Inclusivity (DEI), Culturally Responsive Teaching, and even Financial Literacy.
The holidays are a perfect opportunity to bring even more lessons in social and emotional learning, into your classroom. But in the busyness of the season SEL teachings can be easily forgotten.
Our SEL partners suggests that when schools create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students; school belonging, that sense of feeling good in one’s scholastic life and environment and thriving there, increases greatly.
Creating space for diverse holiday traditions, for example, is a move to acknowledge and welcome the variety of cultures represented within your school. Families can feel that they are truly a genuine part of the community at large when they feel seen.
Offering an inclusive environment where parents come into the classroom to share the cultural importance of a particular tradition, or food is bright spot for children who then feel seen. Moments like these can go a long way to counter feelings of isolation, invisibility and unimportance.
Take a moment to listen to our four part interview with Ashley Causey–Golden. For a further guide on the best ways to collaborate with families, and develop Culturally Responsive Teaching in your classrooms we offer a preview of a mini-module: “The Culture Tree: An introduction to Culturally Responsive Teaching” Both are a co-productions with THENCE Partner Ashley Causey-Golden, who is a school founder, and creator of the site Afrocentric Montessori.
THENCE offers micro lessons and mentor matching services that support professional development in many areas including SEL, DEI, Title IX , advanced literacy, and implementing differentiated learning pathways in one classroom.
Sample our in-video questions, We often pair interactive media with our 3 minute micro lessons, to scaffold new information, promote key term recall, and support educators as they incorporate new tools and guides into their classrooms.
