| By: Kim Gulbrandson 8 Amazing SEL Resources and Happenings to Get Excited About! When I first started in education more than 20 years ago, the resources on social-emotional learning (SEL) were sparse. Over the past 10 years, research, knowledge, and resources on SEL have increased dramatically, much to our benefit. These are sRead More
| By: Matt Pearsall Meet the Makers of Our Middle School Program—Part 1 of 2 Part 1: Flexible Lessons An exciting part of the early design work we did on our Second Step Middle School Program was traveling around the country speaking to educators about what they needed from us. One thing we learned Read More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson Middle School Students and Teachers Reveal How the Second Step Middle School Program Fosters Academic Success “One day I got like a bad grade on one of my tests and in my notebook was my If–Then Plan and I saw it . . . and it was like if I get a bad grade on my test then I will talk to my teacher and figure out what to do about it. And so Read More
| By: Carol Wood Teacher Health and Wellness On June 14, 2017, Committee for Children and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) held a congressional briefing on “Teacher Health and Wellness: Fostering Student Achievement by Supporting Teachers’ Mental andRead More
| By: Tia Kim Meet the Makers of Our Middle School Program Committee for Children takes great pride in how we develop our Second Step program. We not only take the most current research in the field and translate it into lessons that use best practices in pedagogy, but we take pains in designing those lesRead More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson What SEL and Academics Look Like Together Social-emotional skills are essential for academic success. For example, there are many Read More
| By: Rachel Kamb Meet the Makers of Our Middle School Program Curious. Active. Egocentric. Argumentative. Inconsistent. Restless. Moody. Optimistic. Rebellious. Hopeful. Introspective. At-risk. Idealistic. Sound like someone you know? If you’ve ever been in a middle school classroom, or have spent aRead More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson 5 Reasons Why the Second Step Middle School Curriculum Is Magnificent I must admit that once Committee for Children made the announcement that they were revising their Second Step Middle School Program in 2017, I began to feel impatient. It was hard to wait. Knowing all the time and energy that went into the progrRead More
| By: Brian Smith Meet the Makers of Our Middle School Program Creating social-emotional learning (SEL) programs that deliver positive outcomes for large numbers of students requires (1) user-friendly lessons that teachers can easily fit intRead More
| By: Kim Gulbrandson 13 Reasons Why Teachers Are Appreciated May 9th is National Teacher Appreciation Day, a time to show our thanks to teachers for all they do. In honor of this day and of teachers in general, I asked others about why they value teachers. I interviewed children, parents and grandparents, including Joan Duffell, Executive Director of Committee for Children, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the safety and well-being of children through social-emotional learning and development. Of course, I added in my thoughts too. In total, 13 of us share why we appreciate teachers, and we mean every last word!Read More