Preparing students for high school — social-emotional learning update

Social-emotional learning occurs in a variety of contexts. Growing social-emotional skills in our students are essential to their school and life success. The Board of Education is committed to providing students with social-emotional learning that their abilities in school, careers, and life and has identified this topic as an area of focus this school year. A social-emotional learning feature that highlights a component in our SEL Framework will be reported at meetings.

Our high schools do an excellent job in purposefully connecting with their feeder middle schools. Recently, Hubble hosted an assembly for all 8th grade students that focused on responsible decision-making. At the start of this presentation first responders shared stories with students about the pitfalls of drug use, specifically opioids and heroin. These stories were followed by a moving presentation delivered by one of our staff members. In the presentation, students learned about how their choices now can lead to either positive or negative outcomes in the future. A specific focus of the presentation was on the devastating impact of heroin use.

The final portion of the assembly featured over twenty student leaders from Wheaton-Warrenville South sharing their wisdom and insights on how to be successful in high school. The students performed skits

while also discussing their top ten tips for successful high school experience. Each of the ten tips — have pride; get involved; be yourself; manage your time and be organized; use media to your benefit; attend Freshman Orientation; build relationships with teachers; make the right decision in tough situations; accept that people may change; and your GPA starts now; were accompanied by examples and deep discussion points.

Responsible decision-making serves as a core competency aligned with social-emotional learning standards. The ability to make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, and social norms are essential to school and life success. Furthermore, the realistic evaluation of the consequences of various actions, and a consideration of the well-being of oneself and others is essential to students’ future success.