Social and Emotional Learning
A student’s social and emotional health is of critical importance to their well-being. Social and emotional learning enhances students’ capacity to integrate skills, attitudes and behaviors to deal effectively and ethically with daily tasks and challenges.
A dedicated social emotional coach at each of our schools provides leadership and coaching to grow teachers' capacity in social-emotional welfare and support our school families.We believe that through attending to the social-emotional health of all students, students will grow in all facets of their lives.
Social Emotional Learning is the process through which children and adults:
- Understand ourselves and manage emotions
- Connect with others
- Establish and maintain positive relationships
- Set and achieve positive goals
- Support communities
Social Emotional Coaches:
- Work directly with students, providing instruction and support to grow skills and competencies, and overcome barriers to learning.
- Provide provide consistent support for school leadership teams, analyze behavioral data, and work to build teacher capacity by providing professional development.
- Empower parents as the parent-school liaison, providing families with the skills and techniques to support the development of their child through workshops, coaching and resources.
Student Engagement
The MTSD contracts with School Perceptions LLC to facilitate an annual survey for all students in Grades 4-12 to assess school climate and student engagement. Students that are engaged and feel safe at school are more likely to achieve at school at a high level academically thereby increasing the likelihood of post-secondary success. Survey questions are asked across seven indicators including Connectedness, Drive, Citizenship/Leadership, Preparation, Social & Emotional Aptitude, Wellness, and Academics & Career Planning. The data from this survey is used to inform Milestone 7, which reflects the percentage of students who participated in the survey whose average level of engagement across all survey questions was greater than or equal to 3.0 on a 4.0 scale as measured on an annual student engagement survey. The goal has been to maintain a score of 3.0 or above, as it is unlikely or unrealistic that an individual would consistently rate at a 4.0. School Perceptions LLC does provide a comparison score based on similar districts who have students engaging with the same survey.
Student Social-Emotional Competencies
- Self-Awareness: Recognizing emotions, assessing ones’ strengths and challenges
- Self-Management: Controlling emotions and impulses, managing stress, self-motivation, setting and achieving goals
- Social Awareness: Identifying others’ emotions, showing empathy, understanding other perspectives
- Relationship Skills: Building healthy relationships, communication skills, conflict resolution, working, playing and learning with others
- Responsible Decision-making: Making wise choices, evaluating potential consequences
