SEL Micro Professional Development Session
SEL Micro PD Session with Non-Instructional Staff at Crosspointe Elementary
May 1, 2019
One goal of PSELI Palm Beach County is to ensure ALL adults working with children and youth embody and model social-emotional skills in their personal and professional lives. This is often referred to as “adult SEL skills or adult SEL practice,” which includes the ability to be self-aware, respond proactively to stress, take ownership and be accountable for decisions and actions, practice self-care, and relate with greater empathy and compassion to others.
Recently Prime Time Palm Beach County and the School District of Palm Beach County partnered to bring a professional development opportunity to cafeteria staff who requested support because they were having communication challenges on their team.
Over three one-hour experiential sessions attendees focused on building their “self-awareness muscle” and examining how reacting to stress affects their health and relationships, and then how they might proactively respond to situations and people they encounter with both self-compassion and empathy. By the third session, there was a shift in the way they perceived themselves and each other. And they walked away with a deeper understanding of how these fundamental social and emotional skills can help them in their personal lives and how to model social and emotional learning in their daily interactions with children … they also in this process found a way to work together with greater joy and harmony as a team.
