Dr. Stacy Potter is the Advocacy & Policy Chair for PAEA. She works at Neshaminy School District in Bucks County, PA. Dr. Potter is the District Art Lead Teacher and has taught K-12 for 18 years. She now has a new role as the school district’s SEL Coach and Responsive Classroom Coordinator. She is always available for a chat if you would like to discuss further ways to advocate for your programs. advocacy@paea.org

SEL and the Arts

Once again, we are getting ready to charter new seas as we enter a post-pandemic school year. Post-pandemic has ominous tones to it and hopefully, this year will exceed far beyond this namesake. Now is the time to consider your own well-being as well as that of your students. We may have all experienced some type of trauma over the last year, whether this is the stress of unpredictability, the fear of the unknown, or more. Now, more than ever, we must take into account the whole self as educators and the whole child, as ESSA reiterates, making sure to nourish our students not only academically but socially and emotionally as well.

The arts have always been a staple within the realm of Social and Emotional Learning. One of the great benefits we have as educators in this field is this opportunity to reach our whole student, academically and emotionally. We are masters of creating community and building confidence individually and socially. Students more than ever will need to feel safe, comfortable, and connected to their curriculum. Coming off of the craziest year and a half of education, we have the ability to become change agents within our schools. It is such a privilege to be recognized as an authority on the well-being of our school communities. This includes students, staff, and the families of both. This blog post will provide you with key resources to approach school administrators and offer your support.

There are many resources available that connect the arts with social and emotional learning. Here are a few noteworthy ones. Click on the images to access each resource. The first is from the PA Arts Education Leadership Coalition and the PA Department of Education. Both organizations collaborated on this extensive SEL PowerPoint presentation that can be utilized in its entirety or broken into smaller chunks. The resource is full of links and suggestions for application. SEL in the Arts Classroom

This resource can be used

• As a resource bank: Select appropriate resources to supplement SEL programs currently being implemented in your school or district.
• As a framework for professional development: Create professional development for visual art teachers that informs SEL learning through art-specific, standards-based instruction.
• As a self-paced training: • Learn the language of SEL through the lens of art education.

The next resource was recently released by the Center for Arts Education and Social-Emotional Learning, ArtsEdSEL. This organization created a framework of SEL competencies with the National Core Arts Standards and identified intersections of the two using common sense language. The framework is very user-friendly. Here is their description:

“Arts Education & Social Emotional Learning Framework is designed to illuminate the intersection between arts education and social-emotional learning to allow for the intentional application of appropriate teaching and learning strategies, with the overarching goal of enhancing art education.” This is a very valuable resource and provides a structure to assist with other crosswalk applications. ArtsEdSEL

A final resource is from the PA Department of Education. This resource is not specifically targeted for Arts Education. However, the framework does advocate for our programs in the terms of providing a rich educational experience aimed at creating career readiness. The resource is the PA Career Readiness Skills Continuum.

This resource focuses on three benchmarks: Self-Awareness and Self-Management, Establishing and Maintaining Relationships, and Social Problem-Solving Skills. Each of these benchmarks can be woven into the Pa Arts and Humanities curriculum. We can identify these links while advocating for our programs.

When reviewing these resources, consider the following:

• What do I need to recognize about myself as an educator that might impact my instruction?
• What do I need to recognize about my classroom structure or environment that may impact my students’ performance?
• What are my students needing at this moment in time that could impact their learning? (This will change, so re-assessing is key.)

Answering these questions is a step towards meeting the social and emotional needs of your practice and that of your students. Identifying these needs will benefit your well-being and that of your students. I wish you all the best start to an incredible school year.

For more information regarding Advocacy, visit http://paeablog.org/advocacy/.