By Sarah Meiselman

North Springs students and teachers alike are well aware of the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lessons displayed in homeroom/crew/SSS every week. What is not as well known, however, is how these lessons came to be, their purpose, what work behind the scenes allows for them to be shown to students, or how students rate the success of the lessons in their personal lives.

The idea for these lessons came about before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic dramatically heightened the need for schools to teach these types of skills. One of the many parts of life lost during that time is what Christine Pekatos, instructional coach at North Springs and one of the champions of the SEL lessons at North Springs, refers to as “soft skills.” These are not related to a specific class, like math or science, but are instead life-skills, such as being able to organize, self-advocate, figure out one’s support network, or calm oneself down when agitated. The goal of the SEL lessons is to teach those skills explicitly in the school setting, where most people used to learn them implicitly growing up, like by watching their parents manage life’s ups and downs or by asking them for advice.

A significant amount of work has gone into the planning and delivery of these lessons to students. Maia Smith, a social worker at North Springs, explained that all Fulton County schools have a champions to support the SEL work at each school. Mrs. Pekatos and Ms. Ferris, the curriculum lead of the World Language Department and head of the PBIS Positive Behavior Committee, are the SEL champions for North Springs. Smith also explained that each school zone also has a Social Emotion Support (SES) Social Worker. Ms. Arnett is North Springs’s SES contact and helps monitor its data.

Mrs. Pekatos explained that that every grade level, kindergarten through 12th, has an SEL lesson every week. “Rethink” is the name of the program that Fulton County uses to supply these lessons. While there are several different programs that focus on SEL skills in schools, Fulton County decided on Rethink for two reasons. First, it has research supporting its effectiveness and proving that students using it made progress. Second, it provides training for adults as well. For every topic that students have, such as self-advocacy, there is a lesson with language more in tune with teachers. These lessons include more research and psychology, which teachers can use to become better informed of the topics they are discussing with their students. The Fulton County district chooses what videos will be shown to students and teachers and the order, so North Springs is sent a schedule at the beginning of the school year that lays out the lesson plans week by week.

Schools collect data about what percentage of classrooms teach the whole lesson, so those that not only show students the video, but also do the practice and the dive deeper questions at the end. North Springs’s data reveals that compared to the overall district, many of its teachers are doing the whole lessons, and are thus theoretically having a larger and better effect on students. From her observations of homeroom lessons and data, Mrs. Pekatos said, “Our teachers have a lot more by-in. They are a lot more willing to go the extra mile with the lessons.”

A large part of this success is thanks to North Springs’s curriculum leads. Each department has one; they are teachers who lead their departments and are skilled at managing relationships with other teachers and being good colleagues. Mrs. Pekatos and Ms. Ferris push out the lessons to these teachers, and when teachers meet in grade level teams, the department head leads a discussion looking at the SEL lesson of the week. This prepares all the crew teachers to preview and share the SEL lessons with their students, and lead meaningful discussions.

Additionally, SEL provides an opportunity for students to connect with their crew teachers. Many students do not connect with their teachers throughout the day, so with the current twice a week homeroom model, connecting with a homeroom teacher who does not control their grades can give them an adult to support their challenges, successes, and mental health that they would not otherwise have.

However, SEL is not without its problems. Mrs. Pekatos said that like all the schools in the district, many students here feel like the lessons are a little too immature for their grade level, even with North Springs’ high level of participation and implementation of the program.

Ava Hillman, a junior at North Springs, had an idea for improving the content of the videos, saying, “They could make games out of it [SEL], instead of making it boring, like a lesson. It [crew] is free time for us, so make it [SEL] more interesting, but still educational.”

Crishunna Davis, a sophomore, expressed an additional concern, stating, “Some teachers care [about the SEL lessons], but some don’t, so some students get it [SEL] and some don’t. What if someone really needed it [SEL] but doesn’t get it because their teacher doesn’t care?”

Another issue about SEL is the time it takes up. Davis said, “I don’t think anyone really pays attention [in crew] unless we’re talking about course requests or stuff like that. We want crew time as a break from our classes, so no one is worried about what’s going on [in crew].”

Gustavo Jones, a sophomore, added, “No one pays attention to them, but at the same time, I feel like it’s really good information. The content is good, and so are the examples [in the videos].” It’s clear that students feel if the SEL lessons did not take up the one break students have during the school day, more students might benefit from it.

Sadie Hoff, a sophomore, agreed, saying, “I think they [SEL lessons] have the potential to help, but crew doesn’t engage the class enough. We [students] were told crew was going to be our time to study and have a break. Most students are either doing independent work or trying to take a break, so no one really pays attention, but I think they could benefit classes if they were in a schedule structured differently.”

Students who pay close attention to the lessons can benefit tremendously. Mrs. Pekatos said, “Those skills are going to become more important to you the older you get, but you might not realize you don’t have one of them until suddenly you’re in college and you really need them. A lot of times, we have parents, friends, or family who help us if we’re missing those skills, but then when you go to college or go into a career post high school and you suddenly need those skills again, you don’t have the backup that you’re used to having.”

The next time you are in homeroom and asked to view the SEL lesson, although it is challenging to find the energy to pay attention since it is during your only break, it is to your advantage to listen to the life lessons the program gives. You might end up needing them post high school, and there is no doubt that a lot of work was put into getting them to you.