In February of 2018, Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s song “Meant to Be” jumped 26 spots on the country charts, and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” topped the Billboard 100. Eagles fans were still basking in the glow of their team’s Super Bowl victory over the Patriots, and a quick scan of nighttime TV found athletes of all sports cold and icy competing for gold in the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Closer to home, in the Office of Professional Growth and Innovation, a group of specialists, hopeful they could help disseminate strategies to inspire joy in life and the workplace, readied the first regularly published edition of the “What’s Joy Got to Do with It?” Newsletter. Who could have even imagined what the four years since that February would bring! That question, “What’s Joy Got to Do WIth It?”, likely elicits very different responses from many today than it would have in February of 2018.
Two years and one month after that first newsletter, the work of educators and students and parents and businesses (so basically, life) pivoted. And now four years later, February of 2022 finds us adept at pivoting. However, Ingrid Fetell Lee, the author of the book Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness reminds us that moments of joy are still accessible, even in these unrelenting times. She reminds readers to be encouraged by the fact that joy can be uncomplicated, and at times like these when we are operating in a complex world, joy can come from the simplest things: a spontaneous moment of silliness, the smell of homemade pulled pork tacos, or the warmth of snuggling with a pet.
So while this newsletter won’t deliver delicious pulled pork tacos or the amazing warmth that a puppy’s cold nose on your cheek can bring, it is still the hope of the Office of Professional Growth and Innovation four years later that this newsletter serves as a reminder that joy still has a lot to do with it. Using the VBCPS SEL Framework, our strategic framework, Compass to 2025, and the Graduate Profile as our guiding documents, we seek to provide strategies and tools to help you tap into that joy. Thank you for journeying with us over these eventful last four years and we look forward to many more. We may not be able to control what the next four years bring, but we can control what WE bring to the next four years.
In this issue:
Three Key Messages About SEL
Bayside Marlins Wade Challenging Waters
Megan Loftus, CT3 on Fostering Collective Teacher Efficacy
Lauren Porosoff’s Approach for “Building a Better Check-In” from Edutopia
Professional Learning Opportunities
Action for Happiness February Well-Being Calendar
Megan Loftus, CT3 on Fostering Collective Teacher Efficacy
The second key message in the VBCPS SEL Framework focuses on creating inclusive environments. One of the key SEL competencies present in an inclusive school environment is the ability to manage thoughts and behaviors to achieve short and long-term goals. Just as an inclusive learning environment is crucial for students, it is equally important for adults. It is clear a building environment is inclusive when there is Collective Teacher Efficacy, defined by John Hattie as “a staff’s shared belief that through their collective action, they can positively influence student outcomes.”
Megan Loftus (@MeaghanLoftus4), an associate with CT3 (@CT3Education), authored a blog post titled “Collective Teacher Efficacy is the #1 Influencer of Student Achievement — But How Do We Achieve It? Tips for School Leaders,” where she cites Jenni Donohoo’s (@Jenni_Donohoo) six “enabling conditions” for increasing Collective Teacher Efficacy in school buildings. Collective Efficacy increases when conditions allow for teachers to have significant influence and voice, there is goal consensus, teachers know and understand one another’s work, the staff is cohesive, leadership is responsive, and there are effective systems of intervention. Teacher influence and voice are critical components of inclusive school environments where teachers feel able to manage thoughts and behaviors in pursuit of short and long-term student achievement goals.
To support growing teacher influence and voice, try one of Loftus’ strategies below.
Lauren Porosoff’s Approach for “Building a Better Check-In” from Edutopia
The VBCPS Graduate Profile envisions that every graduate will be future-ready. One of the attributes of future-ready students is that they are balanced and able to identify their emotions to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. To guide the work of preparing future-ready, balanced learners, we can use the key messages and competencies found in the VBCPS SEL Framework. The third key message in the VBCPS SEL Framework focuses on the well-being of people and self-management of emotions. The ability to recognize and then manage one’s feelings and emotions is important for achieving overall well-being and maintaining a balanced lifestyle.
In Lauren Porosoff’s (@LaurenPorosoff) blog post “Building a Better Check-In,” she encourages educators to use meaningful SEL Check-Ins as an Inclusive Opener, a signature SEL strategy, to start class. Inclusive Openers are strategies that build community, create a climate of inclusion, and communicate belonging. Porosoff states that “carefully crafted check-ins can bring middle and high school classes closer together and improve student well-being.”
Porosoff shares the following strategies for improving Check-Ins:
Strategy 1: Ask for multiple emotions instead of just one.
Porosoff states that “asking students for just one emotion means they’ll disregard or silence everything else they might be feeling. Instead, we can ask questions that elicit multiple emotions.”
During your next Check-In, try honoring the “complexity of their emotional experiences” (Porosoff) by:
Displaying multiple emotions with descriptions on the board.
Asking students which three emotions tell the story of their day so far.
Asking students to reflect on the past week and identify when they felt each of the emotions displayed.
