My summer internship at Siemens taught me the importance of communication and social emotional skills in the workplace. I heard this time and time again from other Kenan Fellows as well. In fact, most of our 2018-2019 Kenan Fellow products involve students speaking and listening to one another while participating in collaborative activities. <\/p>\n
Students do not come equipped with these essential, 21st century skills; these must be explicitly taught in the classroom. In order to do this work, I have implemented a new tool in my classroom called Second Step. Each week I teach a 30 minutes lesson which fosters empathy, respect, leadership, cross cultural competence, and much more. Students learn to develop positive relationships through managing and expressing emotions. Also, they learn the skills\/techniques to achieve positive goals, collaborate effectively with others, and make responsible decisions. This program is not a miracle pill, meaning it won’t change them overnight, however it has the power to develop students’ emotional intelligence. Second Step’s goals align with my goals for students: to live happy lives through healthy relationships and successful careers. What more could I want for my students?<\/p>\n
It has only been two weeks since I have started using it and I have seen minor changes. So far, students learned the skills for learning: eyes are watching, ears are listening, voice is quiet, body is still. After two lessons, my kindergartners are modeling these skills as I say them out loud. With 40 lessons in the program, I feel confident that students will develop the skill set necessary to be successful throughout their academic career and beyond. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My summer internship at Siemens taught me the importance of communication and social emotional skills in the workplace. I heard this time and time again from other Kenan Fellows as well. In fact, most of our 2018-2019 Kenan Fellow products …<\/p>\n