What's JOY Got to Do With It?

Happy Fall, Ya’ll.

It’s November! Here’s to the days where the air feels crisp in the a.m. and it gets just chilly enough in the evening for sweaters and scarfs. Unless it's one of those VB days where Mother Nature forgets it’s November and you find yourself digging out short-sleeve shirts and flip-flops. No matter the temperature, the first Sunday of November is that special, special occasion when one of our most precious resources, time, gets gifted to us in excess. We get to set our clocks back one hour! Despite almost always devoting that gifted extra hour to sleep rather than using it to shorten a lengthy to-do list, the days leading up to that one hour are so stinking exciting that it’s a pretty sure bet that overall well-being is positively impacted! In addition to this gift of an extra hour, November also gifts us a few extra days off to relax and enjoy fellowship with family and friends. Hopefully this provides you each with a chance to think a little less about how full your metaphorical plates are, while also providing you with a few opportunities to fill your literal plates up with some extra yumminess!

In the November issue of What’s Joy Got to Do with It? we will explore the SEL Core Competency of self-awareness and take a deeper dive into the skills that help foster a strong sense of self-awareness.

A strong sense of self-awareness is the gateway to empowering self-management and responsible decision-making, and essential to establishing and maintaining connection with and understanding of others. Self-awareness helps us identify our areas of strengths and areas of personal growth so that we can set stretch-goals, tap into a growth mindset and take action to achieve goals. Jamie Meade, VP and Chief of Staff for Battelle for Kids and our recent National Speaker Series guest who spoke on Building Hope for the Future writes, “I can think of no greater lifelong impact than helping students realize their personal power. When students realize their personal power, we’re tapping our most valuable educational resource: the students, themselves!” (Tapping Our Most Valuable Resource, 2016). Self-awareness is a key step in students’ ability to tap into their personal power; embedding practices that support students in the development of self-awareness is a way educators can begin to build hope for students. (Battelle for Kids’ 15 Hope Building Strategies, Strategy 2)

Self-awareness is one’s ability to identify and understand their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. These three big categories, feelings, thoughts, and emotions, impact every aspect of life from decision-making to our relationship with self and others, as well as how we process and learn. The World Health Organization recognizes self-awareness as one of ten life skills that promote well-being across all cultures. Hope Rising: Social Emotional Learning states this ability to “think about thinking is a critical aspect of student competency in the classroom” (2021). Even though self-awareness does not happen in a one-time learning experience but instead grows and evolves over a lifetime, it is extremely important to embed self-awareness opportunities in the learning environment. Edutopia notes research that found that frequently practicing self-awareness actually changes the structure of the brain, making it more flexible and open to even greater learning (Price-Mitchell, Metacognition: Nurturing Self-Awareness in the Classroom, 2016).

Positive Action: Teaching Self-Awareness to Students shares a few general strategies to develop self-awareness in students.

1. Raise Positive Awareness. Have students write a list of the things they like about themselves. If they need a nudge, suggest something like “I am cheerful,” or “I am creative.” Encourage older students to dig a little deeper.

2. Keep an Emotion Journal. As students learn to identify and label their feelings, ask them to keep an emotion journal. For younger students, this may mean pasting emoji faces, while for older students, it might be a digital journal. Make the time daily “emotional assessment” checks.

3. Establish and Work Toward Goals. Meeting self-awareness goals and objectives gives students successes to celebrate, fortifying their belief in themselves.

4. Explore the Cycle of Thoughts, Actions, and Feelings. It is common to have thoughts that make us feel upset from time to time. However, these thoughts sometimes lead to an emotional reaction that might result in poor decision making. It can be helpful to notice and identify these thoughts and feelings as they happen in order to respond in a more balanced, appropriate way.

One specific way to explore the cycle of thoughts, actions and feelings is by using the Catch it, Check it, Change it strategy detailed in the graphic below, modified from Catch, Check and Change Your Thoughts by NAP (National Academies Press).

In a June 2022 article entitled “Why Self-Awareness Is a Crucial Management Skill — and How to Get It,” author Dawn Kawamoto’s shares that developing self-awareness takes work, but that it is essential for both leader’s personal growth and for the impact it has on those we lead. Rich Hua, global head of EPIC Leadership for Amazon Web Services, agrees. He states that as a new leader, he based his actions on the misconception that as a leader he was supposed to be the smartest person in the room and have all the answers. “This actually demotivated people from sharing their ideas because they thought they would be critiqued or have their ideas disregarded,” Hua recalled. He eventually became aware of the impact his actions were having on this team and sought to fix it. His solution? Self-awareness — a key component of emotional intelligence.

As educators, our own self-awareness can have an impact on those we teach and lead. Adapted from Mindful leadership: the importance of self-awareness (2022), these simple yet powerful self-awareness check-in strategies can help you become more aware of your strengths and areas of growth, explore your own personal values and develop a growth mindset.

Action for Happiness “New Ways November” calendar shares 30 ideas to encourage you to try something new, or take a look at something in a new way. Taking on a few of these “new ways” is also a great way to practice a growth mindset and self-efficacy, developing greater self-awareness. We’d love to hear what you learn about yourself and how you’re building confidence as you try new things! Share on Twitter #PGIVBCPS #VBHasJoy

If you would like ideas and videos on supporting SEL in the classroom, please visit the SEL in Action page in the VBCPS SEL Stockpile.

For more information, contact the Office of Professional Growth and Innovation of Virginia Beach City Public Schools at pgi@vbschools.com or 757.263.6972.