How could SEL make School a happier place? Erasmus Project

Project Title

How could SEL make School a happier place?

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

First, we would like to point out that the choice of topic is not trivial, it is part of the educational project of each of the participating schools. Everyone in his own school has made similar findings: A growing lack of interest in school for some students; A motivation for the decreasing school; Early school leaving.
The four partner schools were obviously not content to make a statement, but obviously began to try to find solutions. It is worthwhile working at a European level: sharing our personal experiences and finding common solutions. We really believe that coming from different horizons will allow us to be more effective in achieving our goals.

We decided in common that each school should prepare an activity related to our theme and present it to others during the mobility in his country. It seems to us that the various activities proposed in the file are coherent and will allow us to approach our problematic from different angles but always having our objectives:
C1: The primary activity is to get to know each other better, and then link upstream work with SEL techniques. This will allow us to make an initial assessment to better prepare the future;
C2: The second activity will allow us to immerse ourselves in different artistic techniques with the aim of better understanding students and introducing topics such as empathy, self-knowledge, etc.
C3: The third activity will focus on workshops that will allow students to really work together in English. The CLIL method seems adapted to us since it ensures that students work in a foreign language without judgment from their peers or their teachers. This will allow, we think it to strengthen their confidence in themselves.
C4: The fourth and final activity will focus on relationships as students will participate in workshops on theater, dance and yoga.
Concretely, each country will be responsible for the preparation of its own activity, and since a mobility is planned in each country, the whole seems to us fair and just.

Teachers’ SEL competencies influence students in at least three ways:
– First, SEL influences the quality of teacher-student relationships. Teachers who are good at regulating their emotions are more likely to display positive affect and higher job satisfaction. Teachers who are calm, positive, and content are likely to be better equipped to treat students warmly and sensitively, even when students behave in challenging ways.When students have high-quality relationships with teachers, they have better social adjustment and higher academic competence
Conversely, when teachers and students have negative or conflict-filled relationships, students are less likely to be engaged in school and more likely to have low academic achievement.
– Second, teachers model SEL skills for students — intentionally or not. Teachers navigate stressful situations nearly every day, and students are watching. Students learn from the way teachers manage frustration, maintain control of themselves and the classroom, stay focused in the face of distractions, and shift tactics when needed. They also learn from the way teachers handle students who need better SEL skills, such as when students act cruelly toward one another or use inappropriate language, such as “that’s so gay.” That is why teachers need to possess certain “habits of mind” or dispositions, such as awareness, attention, flexibility, and intentionality. It is also why one intervention program begins with activities to build school leaders’ and teachers’ SEL skills as a precursor to student programming
– Third, teachers’ SEL abilities likely influence their classroom organization and management. As every teacher knows, maintaining
a calm, organized, and well-regulated environment is essential. Such environments include effective behavior management approaches as well as practices that encourage creativity, student choice and autonomy, and student reflection.

Our project wants to create a culture of continuous improvement and learning for teachers and students:
– Appropriately gathers information and formulates written assessments about individuals, families, groups or community situations.
– Able to make assessment of situation and prioritize interventions at the appropriate level and target group.
– Conceptualizes and articulates the rationale and theoretical framework behind: assessment, choice of intervention strategies, techniques, and case plan implementation.
– Opportunity to formulate plans and goals with groups that include cultural and/or ideological perspectives and to work with groups based on mutually.
We believe that the benefits gained during this project will continue over time. We have the real desire to continue using the different techniques and methods learned later. It is not a question of simply working on SEL over time, because we are certain that our shared experiences will have a real positive impact on our different students.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 76188 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut Saint Joseph Libramont/Ecole technique Bertrix & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Sant Vicenç de Paül
• Agrupamento de Escolas do Barreiro
• Zakladni skola Pacov