ABSTRACT
The Mindful Practices approach moves beyond a program that teachers merely implement, into a method of crafting instruction that meets the competing needs of the whole child. When providing PD training to schools across the country, many school stakeholders express concern that the SEL competencies are often too vague for their students. The Mindful Practices SEL competencies must be scaffolded and tracked, the same way we would scaffold and track traditional academic content. The balance between Self-Efficacy and Social Harmony is achieved when teachers and students build competency by working through the stages of Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, and Social Awareness. Measuring competency of teachers in SEL begins with construction of an emotionally, physically, and mentally safe classroom climate and culture. As educators, it is important that we do everything we can to model healthy practices throughout the school day, especially for students who are making very adult decisions when dealing with life outside the classroom.
