California Educator

August/September 2021

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" W E ' R E R E A L L Y hitting anxiety hard. Building those skills so they can cope w ith it," say s scho ol c ounselor Mar ti Velasco. "If we don't address the men- tal health piece, learning is not going to take place." At Sylvan Middle School in San Juan Unified School D i strict, Velasco i s par t of a school inter vention team comprising educa- tors and student support staff focused on ensuring students get the support they need, whether it's aca- demic or otherwise. " We tr y to look at the w h o l e chi l d . May b e th e student is going through some hard times and we connect them with a social worker. Sometimes it's food or clothes. It's whatever that child or fam- ily needs right then to be successful in class," says Velasco, a member of San Juan Teachers Association. "Our main goal at all times is to support that student and [have them] stay in the classroom, so they are able to learn." T h e k e e n e y e o n stu - d ent s' s o ci al- em otion al n e e d s a n d t r a u m a - i n - f o r m e d a p p r o a c h i s standard practice at Syl- van and other schools in San Juan Unified, but has i n t e n si f i e d a s stu d e n t s return to campuses after the challenges of the past year and a half. Velasco started planning for this school year last year, with o u t re a c h t o f e e d e r e l e - mentar y schools to identify students w ho mi g ht n e ed ad ditional supp or t, connecting them with caring adults and implementing a peer support system "We're doing SEL lessons on friendships, community, self- management and coping skills. It's like SEL on steroids." —MARTI VELASCO, San Juan Teachers Association Teaming up to support students, prepare for SEL needs By Julian Peeples Deposit Photos SEL Tools California Department of Educa- tion recently released a suite of tools on Transformative Social Emotional Learning (T-SEL) to help educators support the whole child. Materials include Kindergarten to Adult T-SEL Competencies; T-SEL Conditions for Thriving; and resources to support implementation. These tools, developed by the 2020 CDE Social and Emotional Learning State Team, aim to build on and respond to the call from stake- holders to embed equity-focused T-SEL in every teaching and learning context across the public education system. Download T-SEL resources at cde.ca.gov/ci/se/tsel.asp. where eighth graders trained in support techniques are teamed with sixth graders. "e transition year from elementary to middle school is hard. We're doing a lot of our social-emotional lessons on friendships, community, self-man- agement and coping skills," says Conditions to Thrive 33 A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 21 Marti Velasco

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