Connecting CASEL Competencies

1. Self Awareness

1.1. Environment: Moving from teaching grade 1 for several years to Kindergarten

1.2. Emotions: A mixture of feeling excited and nervous about starting Kindergarten. This has been a goal of mine since I began teaching. The feeling of nervous comes from trying something new and not fully knowing what I would expect.

1.3. Other Humans: Since becoming a parernt, I really see how my emotional state can trigger my family's emotional state. Being aware of that more has helped me work on managing my "bigger" emotions that come out when I am feeling overwhlemed or tired so that I can be more present and support my kids.

2. Self Management

2.1. Environment: Using a planner, setting up my living space and school space so that I can be productive through out my day. I like to keep my classroom organized so that things do not get misplaced or forgotten about.

2.2. Emotions: I feel a lot calmer and less stimulated when my space does not have a lot of clutter and I have a plan to follow. I always allow myself some flexibility because thing always come up. But if I have a general idea of how my day will look, it definitely helps

2.3. Other Humans:I car-pool with one of my co-workers and I find that it has really help manage our time and leave at a reasonable hour. We communicate about what time we would like to leave for the day and we have been really good at sticking to that. Working together to help create a work-life balance has been really good.

3. Social Awareness

3.1. Environment: Creating a learning space that my students can see themselves in. Having books that they can identify themselves in, co-creating classroom visuals/posters, and displaying work that they are proud of are some of the ways I do this.

3.2. Emotions: It is really important to make sure my students' feelings and emotions are validated. I encourage my students to feel their feelings, and we work a lot on what strategies we can use to help get us through harder emotions. It is important for emotions to become normal, and not judge others when they feel certain things.

3.3. Other People: This time of the year can be challenging. With the change in weather, darker mornings, report cards, parent-teacher interivews, and so on, it is important to check in with each other. It is really easy to feel overwhelmed. It is important to connect with others to not only listen but also to share and connect.

4. Responsible Decision Making

4.1. Environment: This year I have created more flexible seating in my classroom. I have a floor table, cushions, regular sitting table, scoop seats and clip boards. I allow my students to choose where they would like to do their activities, and one thing that we do it spend time talking about choosing a successful spot for ourselves and for our classmates.

4.2. Emotions: Reminding myself to take some time to recharge and being okay with taking some time for myself has been really important during periods of the year that are more stressful.

4.3. Other humans: Keeping an open mind when working with a large number of other people. It is a good reminder to understand that we all think a different and prioritize things differently. Setting boundaries is also important to support relationships or as a result of changing relationships.

5. Relationship Skills

5.1. Environment: Making sure to take my lunch breaks in our staff room is an important way to continue to build relationships with my colleagues.

5.2. Other Humans: I really do not like conflict and due to social anxiety I did not like to "stir the pot", but I have been working hard on working constructively through conflicts in a way that relationships can continue to grow.

5.3. Emotions: Being open with how I feel with anyone was never easy for me, but I have learned to confide in those that I trust more and it has really helped build stronger relationships in my life.