New MCPS Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

[Anonymous]

Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

At the school I work at, we had a staff meeting to talk about this "great new opportunity" and to get a sense of staff interest. Staff was unanimous: we are not interested. It was a great surprise to find out we were doing this and all had mandatory training over the summer in the last days of the school year.

Good SEL can do wonders, and there are so many kids in need of emotional support after the last year. But this program does not feel promising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

At the school I work at, we had a staff meeting to talk about this "great new opportunity" and to get a sense of staff interest. Staff was unanimous: we are not interested. It was a great surprise to find out we were doing this and all had mandatory training over the summer in the last days of the school year.

Good SEL can do wonders, and there are so many kids in need of emotional support after the last year. But this program does not feel promising.

It must be so frustrating to endure these types of misguided initiatives year after year. I would lose my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

Employers routinely get to decide how employees spend their paid time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

Employers routinely get to decide how employees spend their paid time.

These are not contract hours, genius. Yes, we get paid (much less than we are during the year) but this is off contract. No other contracted employee I know has mandatory training when they are not contracted. I get it, you all think teachers love to complain, but all my other contract employees who don’t have their heads up their arse, think it’s asinine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

At the school I work at, we had a staff meeting to talk about this "great new opportunity" and to get a sense of staff interest. Staff was unanimous: we are not interested. It was a great surprise to find out we were doing this and all had mandatory training over the summer in the last days of the school year.

Good SEL can do wonders, and there are so many kids in need of emotional support after the last year. But this program does not feel promising.

It must be so frustrating to endure these types of misguided initiatives year after year. I would lose my mind.

This! I am sure it is infuriating for the staff. Terrible for staff morale, I am sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have to do this SEL training, but oh boy I just did the Restorative Justice one. Some gems here. We should not impose “dominant white culture” concepts such as a rigid time schedule, hard work, competition, delayed gratification, and the scientific method. We should please reflect and enter into this form all the times we have harmed students in the manner of the “first harm,” when Europeans colonized America. We should be sure to tell students that the tests we are giving them don’t really measure what they know because their race has different ways of knowing.

I used to be a liberal. I just don’t know anymore.

I don’t even know where to start with this. But I believe it.

I had to take a class for my DC license for LGBQT awareness. No joke, one of the slides was how lesbians might not care as much about their clothes and appearance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have to do this SEL training, but oh boy I just did the Restorative Justice one. Some gems here. We should not impose “dominant white culture” concepts such as a rigid time schedule, hard work, competition, delayed gratification, and the scientific method. We should please reflect and enter into this form all the times we have harmed students in the manner of the “first harm,” when Europeans colonized America. We should be sure to tell students that the tests we are giving them don’t really measure what they know because their race has different ways of knowing.

I used to be a liberal. I just don’t know anymore.

I really need to know more about this. What about the Asian culture being all about competition and hard work? (As a proud Tiger Mom, I don’t think of the White culture as being as intense about academic competition.)

Do teachers of all races have to take this training? Or are AA teachers and Latinx teachers exempt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have to do this SEL training, but oh boy I just did the Restorative Justice one. Some gems here. We should not impose “dominant white culture” concepts such as a rigid time schedule, hard work, competition, delayed gratification, and the scientific method. We should please reflect and enter into this form all the times we have harmed students in the manner of the “first harm,” when Europeans colonized America. We should be sure to tell students that the tests we are giving them don’t really measure what they know because their race has different ways of knowing.

I used to be a liberal. I just don’t know anymore.

I really need to know more about this. What about the Asian culture being all about competition and hard work? (As a proud Tiger Mom, I don’t think of the White culture as being as intense about academic competition.)

Do teachers of all races have to take this training? Or are AA teachers and Latinx teachers exempt?

All MCPS teachers are required to take this asynchronous six hour training. I’m part way through and am enjoying reading and learning about things though a different lens. Unfortunately some of my peers on this thread apparently don’t see the value in this based on their comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have to do this SEL training, but oh boy I just did the Restorative Justice one. Some gems here. We should not impose “dominant white culture” concepts such as a rigid time schedule, hard work, competition, delayed gratification, and the scientific method. We should please reflect and enter into this form all the times we have harmed students in the manner of the “first harm,” when Europeans colonized America. We should be sure to tell students that the tests we are giving them don’t really measure what they know because their race has different ways of knowing.

I used to be a liberal. I just don’t know anymore.

I really need to know more about this. What about the Asian culture being all about competition and hard work? (As a proud Tiger Mom, I don’t think of the White culture as being as intense about academic competition.)

Do teachers of all races have to take this training? Or are AA teachers and Latinx teachers exempt?

All MCPS teachers are required to take this asynchronous six hour training. I’m part way through and am enjoying reading and learning about things though a different lens. Unfortunately some of my peers on this thread apparently don’t see the value in this based on their comments.

Correction, I posted the comment about this being required six hour asynchronous training for all teachers. I was referring to the Restorative Justice training. Sorry about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

According to the May 25th board doc linked earlier in this thread:

The associate superintendent of student and family support and engagement, Office of Teaching,
Learning, and Schools, convened a Social Emotional Learning Work Group. The first meeting
was held in December 2020. Work Group members developed a list of priorities when
recommending an SEL curriculum; that list included the following priorities.

• Have a comprehensive, independent external evaluation. MCPS strongly prefers evaluations
conducted by CASEL, an independent nonprofit designed to improve K–12 education that
offers reviews of pre-K–12 instructional materials that focus on social emotional learning.
• Include the five core competencies of SEL, as defined by CASEL: self-awareness,
self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness.
• Include evidenced-based and tiered interventions for all students, supplemental to the core
curricula.
• Include resources that support the teaching and learning of students needing enrichment
and acceleration.
• Integrate explicit instruction and resources to support the teaching and learning of English
Language Learners.
• Allow for flexibility in meeting the needs of a wide range of students and include
accommodations for special populations, including English Language Learners, students
with disabilities, and students identified as gifted and talented.
• Include culturally relevant materials and culturally responsive teaching and instructional
practices that are inclusive of a variety of cultures and ethnicities and are free from bias
in the portrayal of ethnic groups, gender, age, cultures, religion, and people with disabilities.
• Include tools, resources, and documents that provide parents/guardians and others with
necessary resources to provide transparency into the curriculum and to provide support
to social-emotional learning at home or outside the school setting.
• Provide digitally available student-facing, teacher-facing, and parent/guardian-facing
materials and resources.
• Include digital and/or hard-bound print formats.
• Contain embed principles of SEL and MCPS Be Well 365.
• Include materials to use during an extended school year of instruction or district summer
programs.

[Anonymous]

It's great that the county is now supporting those parents who have been clamoring for mental health support for their children over the past 1.5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have to do this SEL training, but oh boy I just did the Restorative Justice one. Some gems here. We should not impose “dominant white culture” concepts such as a rigid time schedule, hard work, competition, delayed gratification, and the scientific method. We should please reflect and enter into this form all the times we have harmed students in the manner of the “first harm,” when Europeans colonized America. We should be sure to tell students that the tests we are giving them don’t really measure what they know because their race has different ways of knowing.

I used to be a liberal. I just don’t know anymore.

I really need to know more about this. What about the Asian culture being all about competition and hard work? (As a proud Tiger Mom, I don’t think of the White culture as being as intense about academic competition.)

Do teachers of all races have to take this training? Or are AA teachers and Latinx teachers exempt?

All MCPS teachers are required to take this asynchronous six hour training. I’m part way through and am enjoying reading and learning about things though a different lens. Unfortunately some of my peers on this thread apparently don’t see the value in this based on their comments.

You are correct that I did not see the value of this training. It was a bad training, regardless of whether the teacher taking it enjoys learning about different perspectives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have to do this SEL training, but oh boy I just did the Restorative Justice one. Some gems here. We should not impose “dominant white culture” concepts such as a rigid time schedule, hard work, competition, delayed gratification, and the scientific method. We should please reflect and enter into this form all the times we have harmed students in the manner of the “first harm,” when Europeans colonized America. We should be sure to tell students that the tests we are giving them don’t really measure what they know because their race has different ways of knowing.

I used to be a liberal. I just don’t know anymore.

I really need to know more about this. What about the Asian culture being all about competition and hard work? (As a proud Tiger Mom, I don’t think of the White culture as being as intense about academic competition.)

Do teachers of all races have to take this training? Or are AA teachers and Latinx teachers exempt?

All MCPS teachers are required to take this asynchronous six hour training. I’m part way through and am enjoying reading and learning about things though a different lens. Unfortunately some of my peers on this thread apparently don’t see the value in this based on their comments.

You are correct that I did not see the value of this training. It was a bad training, regardless of whether the teacher taking it enjoys learning about different perspectives.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who implemented this? Seriously, who made this decision to pilot this? Also, were any of the school-based teachers or admin or counselors who are being forced to sit through 3 days of this training consulted? I'm a school counselor in another district and I'd be PISSED if this was how my employer wanted me to spend 3 full days of my time. It's not SEL and if the whole point is to make everyone a leader and give everyone a voice, how about asking the students and teachers and counselors what they think of this program. I'd be less cynical if they didn't call it a SEL curriculum, because that it is not.

I also want to know if this curriculum has shown proven results.

Has this curriculum been implemented in other school districts with excellent results? Or is MCPS just throwing money at something that will have little beneficial effect for its students?