Caring Communities: The Power of Giving Back

May is Mental Health Awareness Month which includes a focus on our well-being. This highlights the importance of recognizing our internal and external stressors and to use tools to manage those stressors. For teachers and students, one of those stressors is often testing! At Harmony Academy, we provide resources to equip students to recognize their emotions, decelerate their levels of stress, and accelerate their confidence to perform the best they can. Here are some quick and easy tips and techniques from the Harmony Curriculum that students (and those who support them) can infuse into the classroom:

RELAXATION STATIONS 

Our Relaxation Stations offers quick breathing activities you can do with your students. Example activities include: 

• Butterfly Breath 

• Focus Match 

MINDFUL MINUTE 

Our Mindful Minute provides quick activities to center ourselves and regulate our emotions when our emotions may be big or small. Helpful Mindful Minute activities include: 

• Breathe in and then blow your breath out slowly, imagining the shape of an ice sculpture that your breath is creating in the air. 

• Look around the room carefully. Notice something you normally wouldn’t pay attention to, like the edge of a shelf or a single crayon. Look at it carefully. Think about what you notice. Now pick something else. Repeat two more times. 

• Think of your “happy place.” Imagine that you have suddenly been transported there. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you feel? What do you taste? 

QUICK CONNECTION CARDS 

Having the opportunity to connect with our buddies can help us destress and ready ourselves for the next activities. Quick conversations and collaborations might include: 

• Conversations— “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst”-William Penn. What is a strategy that can help you use your time wisely? 

• Collaborations— Put a puzzle together with your buddy. 

UNITS, LESSONS, AND ACTIVITIES 

Remind students of the emotion regulation lessons that help them cool off and direct their emotions when they experience big emotions. Helpful lessons might include: 

• It’s Time to Cool Off (U1 L 4)—students apply some cooling off strategies to different situations. 

• Having a Growth Mindset (U1 L5)—students explore the difference between having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. 
 

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Recognizing the need to ensure the impact of the Harmony program is sustained, amplified, and reaches millions more students, Harmony refreshed its program with expanded content and improvements to the user experience—Harmony Third Edition. The Third Edition provides educators (teachers, counselors, and out-of-school instructors) a set of refreshed, familiar resources (Everyday Practices and Units, Lessons, and Activities) to ensure students have an integrated, relevant, and comprehensive social and emotional learning (SEL) experience. With a range of refinements and updates that reflect the latest research on SEL practices along with suggestions from users, the program refresh includes SEL concepts and instructional models designed to improve the effectiveness and enhance the relevance of Harmony for all students (Yoder, 2022).

As part of the Harmony Third Edition development process, Harmony partnered with four districts—two midsize districts in the Midwest, one midsize district in the South, and one midsize district in the Southwest—to receive early access to the refreshed Everyday Practices (Meet Up and Buddy Up) and to Units 3 and 4 of the Units, Lessons, & Activities and Storybooks. Educators received two district-specific trainings—January 2022 focused on the refreshed Everyday Practices, and February/March 2022 focused on the Lessons & Activities. Educators had opportunities across five months (January through May 2022) to pilot Harmony Third Edition.

Most participating educators across the four districts offered feedback on their experience with Third Edition through surveys (n=61) and focus groups (n=51) in April and June 2022; and 34 educators participated in classroom observations (in-person or video) in April and May 2022 to help Harmony understand how educators implemented Harmony Third Edition—providing Harmony a robust set of data to create the Case Study Report.

The case study includes:

• Executive Summary
• Chapter 1: Getting Started with Harmony
• Chapter 2: Student Outcomes
• Chapter 3: Everyday Practices—Meet Up and Buddy Up
• Chapter 4: Units, Lessons, & Activities
• Chapter 5: Storybooks
• Appendix: Methodology.

Recommendations:

Through the surveys, focus groups, and observations, the Harmony team were able to revise the program in real time. Further, the team were also able to determine key recommendations for educators and administrators on how to use the program materials.

1. Prioritize students’ social and emotional development and well-being. Educators and students need time to be able to build relationships, get to know one another, and apply their social and emotional competencies (SECs). Students benefit when they get opportunities to connect and have Harmony be a part of their routine. A third-grade teacher explained that prior to using Harmony Third Edition, her students “. . . really struggled with group work, talking to others, communicating, and controlling their own feelings.”

2. Become familiar with the program. As educators engage more deeply with Harmony and the overarching goals and principles, they are more likely to understand the active ingredients, understand the knowledge and skills that students learn during the program, help students participate in a more well-rounded Harmony experience, and improve student outcomes.

3. Find time to embed Harmony principles with academics. Students benefit when they can use Harmony materials or concepts within academic instruction; for example, using Storybooks and Z for vocabulary instruction, using Buddy Up partners during instructional tasks, and using Harmony Lessons prior to academic tasks (e.g., problem solving).

4. Make certain to implement the core pieces of Meet Up. Meet Up includes a specific process to ensure all students are seen and heard, solve problems in classrooms, and get ready to participate in the next activity. To get through each piece, it is important to ensure each student’s name is said during the greeting, and that a small number of students share per day so other students can respond and ask questions regarding their share. Doing so will provide opportunities for students to solve problems or talk about achievements related to Harmony Goals. For example, a pre-kindergarten teacher relied on Meet Up to model interpersonal communication skills with her students. She explained, “They love sharing with everyone and they like to talk about themselves. So, we’re trying to get them to ask questions about what they’re [all] sharing about.”

5. Let students know the importance of Buddy Up. As educators engage in the Buddy Up process, they need to help students process why they engage in these conversations and activities, including reinforcing SECs they use throughout the process. A third-grade teacher shared, “[Buddy Up] builds your classroom community and just helps other kids be more social and kind of get out of their own little box.”

6. Make sure to use the Facilitate the Activity section of Lessons and Activities. The Facilitate the Activity section was written in a way that educators and students would not have to engage in the other two pieces if they do not have the time to do the full Lesson. The Set the Stage section is intended to build and connect to student background knowledge, and the Review and Reflect section is to help students transfer the SECs to other aspects of their lives. Thus, they are important pieces to engage in with students, but these portions are adaptable.

For these recommendations and more, please refer to our multi-chapter case study linked earlier in this blog.

We live in an information age where new knowledge and technologies are emerging rapidly and creating jobs of the future that we do not even know exist yet, and the ability to adapt, learn, and grow is more important than ever. To thrive in such an environment, cultivating a growth mindset is essential. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is pivotal in fostering this mindset. Harmony Academy, backed by National University’s Whole Human Education, proudly offers a holistic approach to help individuals embark on lifelong learning.

What does a growth mindset entail?

A growth mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence, such as social and emotional intelligence, can be developed through learning opportunities. Embracing a growth mindset encourages resilience, a love for learning, and a willingness to embrace challenges and failures as opportunities for growth.

How does having a growth mindset and social and emotional learning connect to the Whole You?

As a leader in social and emotional learning, National University offers resources and programs to enhance student learning outcomes and increase educator impact in the classroom and beyond.

Focusing on the Whole Human, National University takes a holistic approach to student well-being through a supportive ecosystem that measures financial, social, and emotional success as well as through family, community, and career.

National University’s College of Education has developed an interactive, engaging, and innovative professional development website that houses digital playbooks and other resources focusing on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for teachers. Each playbook features in-action scenarios, steps for classroom implementation of SEL, guided reflections, and a place to share ideas and best practices.

Mastering new knowledge and skills takes time and is part of the learning journey. It is important to keep a growth mindset while learning how to integrate core social and emotional competencies in all that you do. It is worth the investment as it ultimately supports the Whole You!

Social and emotional learning is an educational framework that develops self-awareness and interpersonal skills. Through this process, SEL can provide individuals with opportunities to build resilience and the emotional regulation skills to bounce back and persevere. A growth mindset acknowledges that mistakes and failure are essential parts of learning, and SEL provides the emotional tools and relationship-building strategies to navigate these setbacks constructively.

Harmony’s Every Practices, such as Buddy Up and Quick Connection Cards, and their units specifically curated for grades Pre-K – 6th including Being My Best Self and Communicating with Each Other encourage collaboration, teamwork, and empathy. These interpersonal skills are essential for embracing a growth mindset, as learning involves seeking help from others, sharing knowledge, and understanding different perspectives.

How does Harmony offer a comprehensive approach to cultivating a growth mindset through SEL?

Harmony approaches this mission through:

1. Curriculum Integration: Harmony integrates social and emotional curriculum principles into daily classroom teachings, ensuring that social and emotional learning is intertwined with academic learning. This approach helps students see the connection between life skills and academic and personal growth.
2. Teacher Training: Harmony provides professional development and training for educators to implement SEL practices in the classroom effectively. Teachers play a pivotal role in modeling and fostering a growth mindset in their students.
3. Real-World Application: SEL is not limited to the classroom. Harmony Curriculum encourages students to apply their social and emotional skills in real-world scenarios, essential for developing a growth mindset in practical situations.

How and where can I get started?

1. Explore Harmony Professional Learning: (previously Inspire Leading in Learning) our 88 on-demand learning modules are dedicated to fostering community, belonging, and supporting the Whole Educator™. These modules can also provide up to 9 free graduate credits for the National University’s Master of Arts in Education with a SEL emphasis. Explore this more here!
2. Register for An Upcoming Live Webinar: Our monthly hour-long webinars with thought leaders and Harmony partners help inform educators about social and emotional learning and provide practical strategies that can be used in schools and organizations worldwide.
3. Explore our YouTube Channel: Explore past webinars, summits, and Harmony How-Tos on our YouTube channel.
4. Book a Demo: Bring Harmony into your school with a demo with one of our professional learning specialists! Learn how to add it to your daily teaching or out-of-school time programs.
   

Are you looking for more information on this topic? Reach out to harmony@nu.edu, and we are ready to support your no-cost journey to social and emotional learning!