Skip To Main Content

Logo Image

Rockwood School District

Logo Title

Social and Emotional Learning

Rockwood Student Services focuses on the whole child, including social and emotional development. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

Socially and emotionally competent children and youth are skilled in five core areas:

  • They are self-aware.
    They are able to recognize their emotions, describe their interests and values, and accurately assess their strengths. They have a well-grounded sense of self-confidence and hope for the future.
  • They are able to regulate their emotions.
    They are able to manage stress, control impulses, and persevere in overcoming obstacles. They can set and monitor progress toward the achievement of personal and academic goals and express their emotions appropriately in a wide range of situations.
  • They are socially aware.
    They are able to take the perspective of and empathize with others and recognize and appreciate individual and group similarities and differences. They are able to seek out and appropriately use family, school, and community resources.
  • They have good relationship skills.
    They can establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships based on cooperation. They resist inappropriate social pressure; constructively prevent, manage, and resolve interpersonal conflict; and seek and provide help when needed.
  • They demonstrate responsible decision-making at school, at home, and in the community.
    In making decisions, they consider ethical standards, safety concerns, appropriate social norms, respect for others, and the likely consequences of various courses of action. They apply these decision-making skills in academic and social situations and are motivated to contribute to the well-being of their schools and communities.

SEL is essential to the school and life success of all children and youth. Our emotions and relationships affect how and what we learn and how we use what we learn in work, family, and community contexts. On the one hand, emotions can enable us to generate an active interest in learning and sustain our engagement in it. On the other hand, unmanaged stress and poor regulation of impulses interfere with attention and memory and contribute to behaviors disruptive to learning.

Moreover, learning is an intrinsically social and interactive process. It takes place in collaboration with one's teachers, in the company of one's peers, and with the support of one's family. Relationships are the engine of learning.

Social and emotional learning starts at home. Parents and families are critical partners in helping their children develop social and emotional know-how. They can model the kinds of skills, attitudes, and behaviors we want all students to master. And they can be important advocates for SEL at school.

The relationship between teachers and students is at the heart of learning. Research has shown that students who have a caring relationship with a teacher are more motivated to learn, and, hence, they enjoy school more and demonstrate greater academic success.

Learn more about social and emotional learning via the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).