The Puzzle of Instruction

By Kasia Gutierrez and Christa Pruss

The Puzzle of Instruction

Social Emotional Learning Integration in All Content Areas

How many hats do you wear in a day as an educator? We are teachers, counselors, coaches, mental health coordinators, de facto parents while dabbling in behavior specialist work. We already have full

• Language: English
• Publisher: Confidence Coaches 4 Kids LLC
• Release date: Mar 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781734637496

Kasia Gutierrez

Kasia Gutierrez has worked in the Education field for 17 years. She has held roles as a Classroom Teacher in grades 2-6th, Instructional coach, and Elementary Principal. Before teaching, Kasia worked in Human Resource Management, but it was during her time helping in a 3rd grade Sunday school class, she realized her passion to work with kids. When not working, she is an avid reader of kids literature, personal development, and resources connecting social-emotional learning to equitable outcomes for all kids. Kasia and her husband Jay have two boys, Jackson and Carter. She has the privilege to work as a principal in their school and to live in her school community.

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The Puzzle of Instruction

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING INTEGRATION IN ALL CONTENT AREAS

Kasia Gutierrez & Christa Pruss

Principal Principles Publications

United States of America

Copyright © 2023 by Gutierrez & Pruss.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Gutierrez & Pruss

www.confidencecoaches4kids.org.

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Book Title/ Author Name. —1st ed.

ISBN 978-1-7346374-8-9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE

GETTING ORGANIZED: PLANNING AND

PREPARATION

BUILDING THE PUZZLE

PLACING THE LAST PIECE

SELF-AWARENESS

GETTING ORGANIZED

QUESTIONING PROMPTS TO GET STARTED WITH SELF-AWARENESS INTEGRATION

BUILDING THE PUZZLE

COACHING PROMPTS FOR SELF-AWARENESS

REFLECTION AND SHARING

SAMPLE SEL PLANNER FOR SELF-AWARENESS

PLACING THE LAST PIECE

EDUCATOR SELF-AWARENESS JOURNAL

REFLECTIONS

SELF-MANAGEMENT

GETTING ORGANIZED

BUILDING THE PUZZLE

ORGANIZATIONAL TIPS AND TRICKS

SAMPLE SEL PLANNER FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT

PLACING THE LAST PIECE

EDUCATOR SELF-MANAGEMENT

JOURNAL REFLECTIONS

SOCIAL-AWARENESS

GETTING ORGANIZED

BUILDING THE PUZZLE

SAMPLE SEL PLANNER FOR SOCIAL AWARENESS

PLACING THE LAST PIECE

EDUCATOR SOCIAL AWARENESS JOURNAL REFLECTIONS

RELATIONSHIP SKILLS

GETTING ORGANIZED

BUILDING THE PUZZLE

SAMPLE SEL PLANNER FOR RELATIONSHIP SKILLS

PLACING THE LAST PIECE

EDUCATOR RELATIONSHIP SKILLS

JOURNAL REFLECTIONS

DECISION-MAKING SKILLS

GETTING ORGANIZED

BUILDING THE PUZZLE

SAMPLE SEL PLANNER FOR

RESPONSIBLE DECISION-MAKING

PLACING THE LAST PIECE

EDUCATOR RESPONSIBLE DECISION-MAKING

JOURNAL REFLECTIONS:

CONCLUSION

ADMIRING THE FINISHED PUZZLE

DEDICATION

We dedicate this book to the many exhausted educators out there, still showing up each day, teaching from their hearts:

To the educator that takes the time to know their students, to make them feel seen, heard, and valued.

To the educator that takes time to reflect, grow, and

continue to learn.

To the educator that takes time to recharge.

To the educator that spends time communicating with families.

To the educator that builds relationships, which in turn

impacts the overall success of students’ learning

and growth.

To the educator that weaves in social emotional learning because it's who they are; not something they have to do.

To the educator that builds emotional safety and supports perseverance for risks and challenges.

In addition, we thank our families for their love and support of our work and dreams. Jay, Nate, Isabelle, Jackson, Katelyn, Carter, and Jeffrey, we couldn’t do any of this without you all. To our parents, for always celebrating with us when we FaceTime early in the morning with

positive news.

INTRODUCTION

A

cademic standards and content—that’s our responsibility as teachers, right?! If you've been in education for any length of time, you understand this is just one aspect of our role. We’ve always known there’s much more to our job than instruction. If you spend a day in a classroom, you’ll likely see teachers supporting kids as a counselor, behavior specialist, and sometimes as a backup parent. We understood this before 2020, but it took navigating the Covid-19 pandemic to clearly see the depth of student needs. As experienced educators, we are struggling more than ever, and we know we are not alone. We’ve been challenged and pushed to our limits, as we stand in the gap for our students, attempting to teach to the whole child. Now, it feels that the gap is as large as the Grand Canyon. During the good moments, we know we are growing as educators, yet we remain feeling defeated and overwhelmed. We are experiencing what Marc Bracket, the author of Permission to Feel calls emotional labor. Our roles and responsibilities within our classrooms and schools have constrained our ability to express the emotions we are feeling. This has led to burnout, dissatisfaction, and a state of high cortisol levels throughout our days. It's no wonder we are hanging in our staff rooms, eating every sugary or salty snack in sight. We are seeking some relief! Then you layer these uncomfortable emotions with our students' experiences navigating a pandemic. They have lagging skills around emotional regulation, self-management, and stamina for learning. Educators are struggling like never before.

We hear the buzz around the importance of self-care for ourselves and social-emotional learning for our students, but what does that mean exactly? It would be lovely to intentionally practice mindfulness during the day or remember to take a walk during lunch. The reality is, we hit the ground running from the time our alarms go off until we fall into bed, exhausted each night. In addition, how do we teach social-emotional learning