1) The document discusses creating emotionally safe classrooms to improve academic achievement in middle school. It recommends establishing a brain-compatible learning environment that eliminates threats, respects student uniqueness, engages emotions, and provides feedback. 2) Stories provide examples of social-emotional learning (SEL) programs helping students develop empathy, problem-solving skills, and emotional regulation. One student defuses a bullying situation through assertive communication. 3) Educators note benefits of SEL, like improved behavior and staff morale. Students say SEL helps them make good choices and understand different perspectives.

1. Toward an Emotionally Safe
Classroom
Improving Academic Achievement
in Middle School

2. Charles Schulz
• It’s not an easy life to
be a child, especially
when you’re out there
on your own,
unprotected by
supervising adults.

3. Transition
Charles Schulz

4. High School Friends

5. Adolescence

6. Educational Implications from Brain
Research
• Create a brain-compatible learning atmosphere:
– Eliminate sense of threat
– Respect the uniqueness of each learner
– Engage learner’s emotions
– Facilitate real-life/authentic learning
– Provide specific, immediate feedback
– Utilize patterns during instruction
– Understand the limits of the brain’s attention
– Promote active, relevant, choice-driven learning

8. Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
• There’s been a real loss of community
between family and schools. Our culture
is at war with families. There’s a distrust
in all institutions; many of us don’t make a
distinction between benevolent and less
benevolent authority.
» The Shelter of Each Other, p.9

9. Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
• If kids don’t have a modicum of manners,
an understanding of how to deal with
conflict, communication skills, and ability
to process their experiences and deal with
stress, they can’t learn to do anything…
how do you sit in class and learn when
you’re worried about getting beaten up
after school?
» The Shelter of Each Other, p. 31

10. New Haven Schools
Dee Speese-Linehan, Director of
Social Development
• Classes were in session and the halls
almost empty. Dee first noticed the little
boy, small but chunky, maybe a second
grader, then two other boys, a bit older,
walking near him. One of the two called
out, “Hey Fatty! You stink up the soccer
field! You suck at soccer!”

11. • The object of the taunt took a deep breath
and squared his shoulders, then turned to
face his attackers.
• “You’re right,” he said. “I’m not good at
soccer. And you are really good- one of
the best in the school. But you know
what? I am really good at art. I can draw
almost anything.”

12. • The air seemed to go out of the boy who had
hurled the insult, and he said, “You’re not so
bad. Want me to show you some moves after
school?” Then the pair walked off in another
direction, the little guy still in front of Dee.
“Gimmee five!” she said to him, acknowledging
he’d handled the situation well. Dee also found
the second grader’s teacher, to let her know
what a good job he (and she!) had done!

13. Mark Greenberg, PATHS
• Daniel, a first grader, no longer bothers other
kids when he gets angry. Instead, he folds his
arms and goes into his imaginary turtle shell to
calm down. His teacher, seeing his signal,
praises him. Daniel takes out his feeling cards
and shows his teacher how he feels. They
dialogue about Daniel’s problem and together
devise an acceptable way to handle it.

14. Roy Araujo, Principal
Hill Central (K-8) New Haven
• In the summer of 2004, Roy took over as
principle. The school had been
experiencing serious problems. Student
discipline and staff morale were at all-time
lows. Roy had worked for five years as a
trainer in the school district’s Social
Development Department.

15. • Under his leadership, Hill Central’s climate
changed dramatically soon after his first
year as principal began. The school
became a welcoming, friendly place, and
referrals to the principal’s office dropped
from hundreds during a typical school year
to hardly any at all.

16. • “I use the social problem-solving method from
the sixth-grade curriculum a lot,” says Aruajo,
referring to a problem-solving process
developed for New Haven’s SEL curriculum.
“When children come to my office, I go through
the steps. I explain that it’s not about
punishment; it’s about correcting misbehavior
and taking responsibility. I emphasize that we
are a family at this school, just as children have
a family at home. I tell the students they have
the power to make it a good day or bad day.
They have choices.”

17. Empathy
• “Look at both sides of the issue.”
• “Don’t jump to conclusions.”
• “Make sure you understand the other
person’s perspective.”
• “Develop a relationship/Create a bond.”
• “Use active listening skills to diffuse anger
or resolve tension.”
– Teachers in Collaboration and Consultation

18. (2003-2006) Dr. Larry Leverett,
Superintendent, Greenwich, CT
• Each day our students arrive at the doors
of classrooms across America with
challenges that serve as barriers to their
success as learners….Regardless of who
they are, where they come from, or the
extent of their poverty or wealth, the reality
is that many lack the personal, social and
emotional competencies to receive the
maximum benefit of a rigorous standards-
based instructional program.

19. Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
• Everything terrible is really something
helpless that needs help from us.
Unacknowledged emotions do NOT
disappear; they fester. Ignoring dark
emotions leads to addiction and violence.
In fact, most of the truly rotten behavior in
the world comes from running away from
feelings.
» Writing to Change the World, p. 100

20. How has learning about EI helped
you?
• “I’ve learned to do things by myself, more than I
did before.”
• “I like to interact with other people, to find out
about them.”
• “It’s not only about yourself, but looking at other
people and seeing how they are reacting.”
• “We have to make a lot of choices in life and EI
teaches us how to make good choices.”
• “Learning about different strengths lets you
choose the stuff you are good at and work on
the stuff you’re not so good at.”

21. EI teaches students how the brain
works. Is this helpful?
• “EI helps kids know about how your mind
controls your body in what you do.”
• “EI conversations make me use my brain.”
• “Learning about the brain makes EI real.”
• “The brain connects emotions and
thinking.”

22. Empathy
• “Sometimes what you think you see is not
what is really happening.”
• “You need to talk to the person and find
out what they are talking about…so you
don’t make a wrong judgment.”
• “You shouldn’t make assumptions before
you check out what is happening.”
• “You need to think about how you are to
other people.”

23. Value of EI Curriculum
• “We learn how emotions work and then they
help you with situations in real life.”
• “EI helps you relax and deal with things better.”
• “I learned what to do with emotions and how to
handle them, like what to do with anger.”
• “I learned how to work better with people.”
• “I have learned that I am not the only one having
problems!”

24. Final Student Comments
• “When I was in third grade, it would have
been really nice to have this EI class
because I didn’t know how to solve
dilemmas in 3rd grade, and it would have
been nice to know how to solve dilemmas
in 3rd grade.”
• “We’ve learned that it takes a lot of work
and support, but you can do anything!”