Social Emotional Library for Inspiring Young Scholars
Help me give my students literature that represents them, their lived experience, and promotes social emotional learning (empathy, self esteem, problem solving, growth mindset, coping skills etc.)
My students are resilient, loving, and curious learners in grades K - 5. We work together on building coping skills, personal responsibility, social skills, self esteem, self awareness, assertiveness, and problem solving skills. Many are refugees who have never had the opportunity to attend school before or have had many interruptions to their educational experiences. After fleeing unimaginable circumstances at such a young age, they place a very high value on their educations. They are loving, driven, and diverse.
Our student body represents more than 30 countries and speaks over 25 different languages.
The four most common languages are Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Nepali. Our school community thrives on this diversity as students simultaneously learn about American culture and the many cultures they all represent. We are a community dedicated to celebrating each other's differences in order to build more compassion and understanding in the lives of those around us.
Statistically, 85% of our population is considered high needs with 70% defined as economically disadvantaged.
My Project
I would like to supply both my students and teachers with a greater depth of social emotional children's literature that is both engaging and inspires growth in social-emotional skills such as growth mindset, empathy, resilience, problem solving, community building, conflict resolution, individuality, self-worth, and empowerment.
Studies show a strong social-emotional foundation is an essential component of academic achievement.
"In 2011, a meta-analysis published in the journal Child Development showed an 11 percentile gain in academic achievement for students who participated in a well-implemented SEL program versus students who didn’t." Increasing our social emotional library selection will allow me to support teachers and my own small group work with students.
My goal is to continue to create a library that consists of literature that represents our student population, supports social emotional learning, and engages students in an exciting way.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Connolly and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
