A safe and supportive learning environment is essential to ensuring a student’s academic success. Behavioral health and emotional well-being can have a profound impact on a student’s motivation, engagement, and ability to learn in academic settings. Integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) into curriculum and instruction can help teachers learn how to foster caring, and participatory learning environments that will allow students to feel safe, supported, and motivated to learn. In addition, social and emotional competencies are protective factors against both interpersonal aggression and violence such as bullying and self-directed violence and suicidal behavior.

This course contains four sessions that address specific areas of social and emotional learning that all Massachusetts schools are required to address. The sessions are designed to help teachers support all students in the classroom. The four sessions are: Managing Stress and Anxiety; Preventing and Addressing Bullying In and Out of School; Supporting the Needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) Students; and Suicide Prevention and Postvention. These are complex and sensitive topics and each session can be a starting point for learning how to ensure that all students feel comfortable and supported in school so that they are able to reach their academic potential. Each session will provide participants with resources to help self-assess their understanding on the topics covered, resources to build their understanding, and activities that guide them to reflect on and apply what they learned in a variety of formats. There are additional resources in the “Extend” section of each session so that participants can continue learning.

NOTE: THIS COURSE IS COMPLETELY ONLINE, SELF-PACED, AND WILL PROVIDE A CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION WHEN YOU FINISH THE COURSE .

Goals and Objectives

During this self-paced course, participants will learn skills and strategies to:

• Help students to develop self-awareness and self-management skills to handle stress well in order to be successful in school and in life
• Understand effective bullying prevention strategies and school and district policies around bullying prevention to ensure that students and staff adhere to the policies
• Address instances of bullying or threatening behavior effectively to ensure all students feel safe in classroom and school environments
• Facilitate opportunities for students to express their questions, concerns or confusion in a supportive and non-judgmental learning environment
• Help students improve their self-awareness, self- management, social-awareness, relationship, and responsible decision- making skills
• Identify and respond effectively to students experiencing severe anxiety and help them learn how to manage their anxiety so they can regain focus and productivity in school
• Recognize at-risk behaviors for suicide and understand actions that can be taken as prevention or protection
• Develop and facilitate lessons and use teaching approaches that avoid bias and that include positive representations of LGBTQ people, history, and events

Audience

This course is intended for all Massachusetts educators. This course will address the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MA DESE) mandate that public school districts must provide staff members with professional development on the topics of bullying prevention and intervention, and suicide awareness and prevention to comply with legislation passed in 2010. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers and be proficient with email and web browsing.

Structure

This online, self-paced professional development course is divided into four sessions: an orientation and four content-based sessions. Each session includes readings, videos, and activities that ask participants to apply what they learn. The time for completing each content session is estimated to be between two and four hours and the total amount of time required for the entire course is estimated to be 15 hours. The four content-based sessions are:

1. Helping Students Manage Stress and Anxiety (4 Hours)
2. Preventing and Addressing Bullying In and Out of School (4 Hours)
3. Supporting the Needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) Students (4 Hours)
4. Suicide Prevention and Postvention (2 Hours)

Course Readings and Activities

Each session will provide participants with resources to help self-assess their understanding on the topics covered, resources to build their understanding, and activities that guide them to reflect on and apply what they learned in a variety of formats. There are additional optional resources in the “Extend” section of each session for  participants to continue learning.

Final Project

As a final product, participants will complete a Reflection and Implementation Guide using the template provided to explain how they will apply what they learned in the course to support the social and emotional learning needs of all of their students. The template is a Microsoft Word document and is also available in PDF format. Participants are welcome to adapt the template to meet the needs of their own students and teaching style. Participants should save this document and keep it on file as documentation of successful completion of the course for renewal of their professional Massachusetts teaching license.

Cost

$130 for course with PDPs; Additional $165 for credit option

Registration

Register online: https://moodle.tec-coop.org/login/signup.php?

For Grad Credit

Graduate credit is available for this course.

• Summary of Project/Product Requirements
• Rubric