Crystal Harden

“An crucial aspect of student SEL is ensuring that teachers have the emotional skills and support they need in order to engage in restorative ways with their students. Our project provides teachers with knowledge and support to navigate the emotional aspects of their professional work, and improve their interactions with students. Because emotions influence decision making, particularly during conflict, teachers' subjective interpretations of their experiences inform how they implement policies. Students' behavior can trigger a wide range of emotions; these emotions can both contribute to teachers' wellbeing as well as to their burnout and inform teachers' responses to students. In addition, teachers' beliefs regarding how much students can control their behavior influence their emotional responses to the behavior. However, teachers typically have little training on their own psychology or social-emotional learning and are often expected to engage in emotional reappraisal and regulation with little training. In this project, we will engage teachers in a series of research-based trainings and social support groups. These activities will help teachers understand how their own emotions influence their work with students, and particularly how their emotions influence their reactions to students who demonstrate the most challenging behaviors. We will also invite teachers to practice applying their skills through targeted relationship-building with specific students in each of their classes.”