High school counselors, psychologists, and other student support professionals (SSPs) have incredibly tough jobs and wear many hats. Promoting SEL is typically something that is last on their list due to time constraints. However, educators need support when it comes to implementing SEL in students, and SSPs have the unique ability to provide this assistance.
To gain deeper insights into how high school counselors can bolster SEL in students, this article highlights an interview with SEL Coordinator/LSSP Laura Richards. We reveal how Richards takes simple but actionable steps to promote SEL in students to help them reach their academic, social, emotional, and career potential.
Where There’s a Need, There’s a Way
Implementing SEL in high schools may seem challenging; however, SSPs have the unique ability to help carry out this process. An inciteful article from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), written by school counselor Kaitlin Levesque reveals, “A senior came into my office hysterical over a denial from an Ivy League college. She told me how every decision she made in high school was in preparation for an acceptance letter. Although I explained how competitive such schools are and congratulated her on many other accomplishments, the student’s devastation could have been lessened through a comprehensive social-emotional curriculum.” To combat this issue, Levesque discovered how she could use her skills to help educators incorporate SEL programs into their everyday curriculum.
She explains, “By collaborating with teachers, I develop and deliver developmental guidance lessons to better support students in class. For example, I can evaluate where a student is emotionally and developmentally using an informal needs assessment. I then create talking points and an appropriate mini-lesson based on what the student is struggling with.” Levesque adds that she has watched students build skills that can serve them well in the current school year and the future as they seek post-secondary options and careers.
Edutopia also lists suggestions for school counselors to use to help promote SEL at the high school level, such as:
- Taking SEL Leadership Roles – SSPs can take leadership roles on any SEL-related committees. These may include overseeing character building, overall school culture, or anti-bullying.
- Focusing on Empowering Students – Instead of a behavior management group for teens having difficulties, SSPs can facilitate a leadership preparation group to help and empower these students. Building the group as something that can make a positive contribution to the school will promote more cooperation and allow SSPs to acknowledge strengths and limitations. This action reframes skill-building away from remediation and deficit and towards a more positive purpose.
To better understand how to develop practices similar to Levesque and Edutopia, Endominance asked Laura Richards, SEL Coordinator/LSSP, for some practical steps SSPs can take to help put SEL back into their everyday tasks.
Actionable Steps to Help Put SEL First
As a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP) for 18 years, Laura Richard understands the depth and breadth of students’ emotional and social needs. Her experience also includes focusing on the science and the processes related to implementing SEL in schools. She was also a Consultant/Author at SELTrove and is certified to train in Restorative Discipline Practices. With this impressive background, Richard is now the SEL Coordinator and LSSP for the Beaumont Independent School District in Texas.
We recently spoke with Richard to ask what she feels are actionable but easy-to-use practices that student support professionals can adopt to help boost SEL in high school students. She wrote to Endominance, “Our district-level team collaborated to provide a curated curriculum of SEL lessons from the best offered in the realm of SEL, and created a pacing guide and curriculum resources aligned with state curriculum requirements for all grade levels. We took this further by providing a weekly overview for teachers with links to the curriculum lessons. In addition, we offered a ready-made presentation lesson with a Google form for student responses.” To support teachers, Richard also offered to model the lessons via Zoom as well as come to their classrooms to facilitate a lesson and show them the available resources.
The Restorative Practices Circle
Richard states, “One of the most powerful tools I have found to teach SEL competencies is through Restorative Practices. Some areas may refer to this as Restorative Justice or Restorative Discipline Practices. This practice is not SEL in the traditional sense but a means to bring students, educators, and families together in a structured setting. This method promotes being authentic by speaking from the heart, respecting the voices being heard, respecting time to allow all persons the opportunity to share, and providing a non-judgemental space to listen and learn from each other.”
This past school year, Richard worked with a team of teachers in disciplinary settings to provide SEL instruction through Restorative Discipline Practices Circle experiences. She reveals, “These students, who are often causing trouble at school, have learned self-awareness by learning and understanding values, and to recognize what values they need from other people. They have learned self-management by talking about applying values to their daily lives and listening intently to others. The students have utilized relationship-building skills and learned social awareness by growing in understanding of each other, finding commonality with others they don’t know and those with who they may have conflicts, and adults who may have assigned them the disciplinary consequence.”
Richard feels that students have grown in their ability to make responsible decisions through Restorative Practices. She reveals, “One student told their mother that they were going to be the child they knew the parent wanted them to be and make changes in their decisions, and as a result, their family was ‘going to be ok.’ Students who have not experienced the Restorative Practices Circle have told administrators how a student has changed, apologized, and resolved a conflict by going to the circles.” Richard feels that these practices are the most powerful and applicable way to reach students where they are, facilitate these skills in a meaningful way, and give them the respect and opportunity to have a voice.
When asking for advice as to the best ways high school counselors can begin working with teachers to help implement SEL in the classroom, Richard suggests, “Advocating for SEL is difficult alone. Finding a group of educators and administrators to provide research and information to give to the upper administration can help start the process. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) organization provides excellent resources to learn how to begin the process of advocacy to implementation and evaluation of SEL programming. Joining the SEL4US organization and finding the state association, such as SEL4TX, can also help learn how to approach stakeholders in your district.”
