Getting into a learning state of mind in 4-5

Assistant Head for Student Life Lydia Maier has been instructing 4-5 students in social-emotional learning for the past four years, checking in every two weeks with each of the program’s four home stations.

This year’s topics have included:

• What it means to make deposits and withdrawals in “friendship bank accounts.”
• Understanding comfort zones, learning zones, and worry zones. (One student shared recently that when she starts to worry about something, she pictures a temple. “When the worry walks in, I just tell it to go sit over there!”)
• How to support the brain’s ability to learn, and how to get into an optimal learning state. Each student shared one unique way that they take their brain from resting to learning state, using the stones pictured above to illustrate the steps in between. (Each stone was a “focus muscle.”)

Learn more:

The Impact of Social-Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Transforming Students’ Lives with Social and Emotional Learning (Marc A. Brackett and Susan E. Rivers; Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills that Promote Long-Term Learning (Carol S. Dweck, Gregory M. Walton, and Geoffrey L. Cohen; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)