Speaker 18 (00:04):
I know...
Speaker 12 (00:05):
Good morning, guys...
Speaker 13 (00:05):
Bye Mom...
Speaker 15 (00:07):
Good morning...
Morgan Radford (00:07):
We're at CICS, Chicago International Charter School, in the city's Bucktown neighborhood. It's the first week back in class and it feels like any other day...
Speaker 3 (00:23):
And they're off...
Morgan Radford (00:24):
... But this is September of 2021, things look very different than they did a few years ago. The students get temperature checks to start the day. They're also wearing masks. All part of a new normal in the thick of a pandemic that demanded a new standard for how students look and learn.
Ms. O'Connell (00:42):
Good morning, CICS Bucktown Eagles. This is Miss O'Connell, with your morning announcements. Happy day three of school. I want to go over our Bucktown equity statement and beliefs.
Morgan Radford (00:58):
Some educators here are implementing something called SEL, which stands for Social Emotional Learning. SEL aims to help children tackle some pretty big challenges. Things like managing their feelings, showing empathy for others and most importantly, advocates say it helps teachers build strong connections with their students.
Ms. O'Connell (01:18):
As a Bucktown community. Everyone is welcomed, the moment they walk through the door. Each community member belongs and is celebrated for the similarities, differences, and perspectives they bring to our Bucktown community. We will consistently educate ourselves to learn about different cultures and backgrounds to grow and learn as a community.
Morgan Radford (01:41):
But CICS Bucktown is far from alone. One analysis from Titan Partners found school spending on ESL grew by more than 45% in the year and a half leading up to April 2021, with more than 200 school districts across the country using some kind of SEL framework.
Ms. O'Connell (02:01):
As a Bucktown community, you all belong here. All right, Bucktown. We have few student birthdays in seventh grade, we have Miley Torres. Happy birthday Miley and we have Melody...
Morgan Radford (02:19):
Today, we'll learn more about social emotional learning. Whether it improves students' lives and whether it should be expanded. Maybe even across our entire educational system. I'm Morgan Radford. Welcome to building classroom connections from today, sponsored by the Chan Zuckerberg initiative.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
All right. You guys ready? [inaudible 00:02:40] Were we at a hundred percent? Let's do it one more time [inaudible 00:02:46].
Morgan Radford (02:46):
We're able to sit down with four young CICS students. Seventh graders: Antonio, Lauren, and Davian and Ovalies who's in the sixth grade. Antonio told me he initially had some doubts about social emotional learning.
Antonio (03:01):
When I first came to this school. I really thought it wasn't going to be no different. The last school used to let me do what I was used to do in third grade. But Mr. Wayne, Ms. O'Connell, all the other teachers helped me learn how to fix my mistakes and turn them around.
Morgan Radford (03:17):
What do you think Davian?
Davian (03:19):
I think the school is way better than my last one.
Morgan Radford (03:23):
Why?
Davian (03:23):
The kids are nice here, the teacher are better and then our parents actually get to know what we're doing.
Morgan Radford (03:29):
SEL aims to bridge the gap between parents, teachers, and students like Davian. Just months prior the pandemic forced students to learn from home, a change that separated them from being with their teachers and their fellow classmates. For students like sixth grader Ovalies, it was pretty difficult to cope.
Ovalies (03:49):
It was definitely a little hard and challenging because you couldn't... You didn't have a teacher in front of you, teaching. So, it was a little bit more difficult to do everything. And it was kind of sad to be honest because you can't see your friends every day for that many hours, like we were all used to because again e-learning was new to mostly everybody. So, I feel like it was just very difficult but again the teachers did help us, and they pushed through it with us, and they always gave us motivated talks and always made sure they're your number one that they had to worry about.
Morgan Radford (04:32):
I wanted to ask you Lauren, you nod your head and you said that you've changed a lot at this school. How do you feel like you've changed?
Lauren (04:38):
Because when I was at my old school, basically, what everybody was saying, it was really different from this school. But when I arrived in second grade, I was shy and then one time I still remember we had stations and this one girl came up to me and was like, " You don't have to be shy. I would walk you through all of this, and I'll be your friend." and then Miss O'Connell came in the classroom and was like, "We have a new student, Lauren." And then she just introduced me to everybody and then it just really made me conquer over my shyness and...
Morgan Radford (05:16):
This school?
Lauren (05:17):
Yes.
Morgan Radford (05:18):
One thing that's interesting about these students is that they don't necessarily know all of the terminology of SEL. All they do know is that it's working for them. They say they feel like someone is actually listening, but it's changed that took some time to get used to.
Lauren (05:34):
Yes.
Morgan Radford (05:35):
How was that when you first started talking about your feelings, did you think it was weird? Did you think it was cool?
Antonio (05:41):
I will say it started off weird.
Morgan Radford (05:44):
Felt weird at first?
Antonio (05:45):
Yeah.
Morgan Radford (05:45):
You all started nodding.
Antonio (05:47):
Yeah.
Morgan Radford (05:48):
Why was it weird?
Antonio (05:51):
Cause we was new to the school and don't trust people, but the teachers can really be trustful because they're your teachers. And after a couple of months you get to really...
Morgan Radford (06:07):
Kind of got the hang of it after a while.
Antonio (06:08):
Yes.
Morgan Radford (06:09):
And then now, how does it feel to talk about your feelings?
Antonio (06:11):
It feels like they're always on your side.
Morgan Radford (06:15):
But what happens when students have to cope with traumatic events that happened outside of their school or even their homes. Coming up, we'll hear more from CICS students on how they use SEL tools to cope with racial reckonings that happened during the pandemic. Stay with us.
Morgan Radford (06:38):
Students today know more than just what's taught inside the classroom. Thanks to social media. Young people are constantly aware of what's happening in the real world.
Morgan Radford (06:49):
Did you guys know about George Floyd and the protests that happened?
Ovalies (06:53):
Yeah. We learned a little bit about it in here.
Morgan Radford (06:56):
You learned, talked about in school.
Ovalies (06:58):
Yeah, a little bit.
Morgan Radford (07:00):
In the early months of summer in 2020 protests broke out across the country in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, hundreds of miles away from Chicago. Floyd, a black man was killed by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin. The racial reckoning that followed became part of conversation for all of us and at CICS Bucktown, it also became part of the curriculum.
Morgan Radford (07:26):
When you said you talked about George Floyd here in school?
Ovalies (07:29):
Yeah. A little bit.
Morgan Radford (07:31):
How did you guys talk about that?
Ovalies (07:33):
Well, it was last year and my teacher Ms. Miller. She just broke it down to us. She was like, "We might not be into in school for this. You guys probably heard about it." She wasn't going too hard. She wasn't going all about the details. She was like, "I think we just all need to be a little bit more safe."
Morgan Radford (07:56):
Antonio, Lauren, did you guys talk about those things in school and if so, how did it make you feel when you talked about those things?
Antonio (08:04):
While through, when they was talking about it made me feel more comfortable with the school and with the teachers because they went out their way to teach about the George Floyd problem and the pandemic. We had a paper for... We did a scratch paper and wrote about how we feel.
Morgan Radford (08:27):
These methods help students process difficult experiences with their peers. This way students can reflect on their own feelings and feel safe and then they can share those feelings with others.
Morgan Radford (08:39):
When you guys talk about these things with your teachers and your friends, how do you feel after talking about them?
Lauren (08:47):
I feel fine because I know I could trust them to tell them how I'm feeling. So, I feel very comfortable, and I know they're going to support whatever I feel or whatever I have to say about this situation.
Morgan Radford (09:01):
We're going to take another break. Coming up, we'll sit down with a group of teachers to explore just how this model works in practice and is it really something that can be expanded to other schools. More just after the break.
Morgan Radford (09:23):
Classes here at CICS look like a lot of typical schools, but if you stick around long enough, you'll start to hear some unique terms.
Tracy McCullough (09:32):
We're doing in the beginning of the year. What is called empathy interviews, but what we are calling them listening conferences. So, each teacher in middle school is assigned a mentee and then you are a mentor. So, there's a one-to-one check in that you have with that student. It could be...
Morgan Radford (09:48):
I had a chance to sit down with some of the school's educators.
Morgan Radford (09:52):
What do you do in empathy walks or empathy interviews with the students?
Savannah Stanezek (09:57):
Yeah. So, during empathy interviews with the students, I make sure to always touch upon what are some goals you have for yourself right now and halfway through the year, by the end of the year? What do you want to be when you grow up?
Morgan Radford (10:08):
Savannah Stanezek teaches second grade here at CICS Bucktown.
Savannah Stanezek (10:12):
What's something you look forward to? What's something you dislike about school? It's having that open conversation where they feel comfortable being like, "I actually want to be able to solve this math problem in about six months." So, checking back in and rehang an empathy interview with having the first one written down. So, you can check back in, be like, "Did you reach that goal?"
Morgan Radford (10:35):
Tracy McCullough has been a teacher for nearly 11 years, even before the school used SEL tools. So, if you want to know the impact of this model in practice, she's a really good person to ask.
Tracy McCullough (10:47):
So, then you may have conversations with them and talk to them about their lights, which is, I think we can agree basically was the first couple of weeks of classes is where we do team building or different things or even for middle school in terms of the mentoring portion of it, to where you get to know the kids one on one. I teach history, so a lot of times when kids in years past, they may not have been excited about it. But then when I get to know them and understand that I can make that connection to real life.
Morgan Radford (11:17):
What do you say to skeptics who say, look, any public school teacher is trying to do these things is trying to understand their kid and take into account who they are and really accommodate them in their learning plan? What is different here? Is it the method? Is it just about resources? Because in some classrooms you have three teachers there to a student. How does that work?
Tracy McCullough (11:38):
I think personally speaking from me, in comparison to working to other schools, to here, the funding is intentionally put behind for the resources to be able to have there. I've never worked at a school with this much amount of resources to help support the kids in the way that they do. So, it's definitely a thumbs up for me because a lot of times the teachers are doing it, a lot of times that's why they're so burnt out because they don't have the fundamental support or resources that they need to be able to meet the kids where they need to be.
Morgan Radford (12:11):
One study of more than 200 programs using SEL found an increased student’s academic performance by 11% compared to those who did not use SEL.
Morgan Radford (12:22):
How can you tell it's working? Do you notice a difference in the students?
Tracy McCullough (12:26):
Yeah, I was going to say because also too, it helps intune our planning in terms of the lessons. Because as you know, if they're not engaged in what you're teaching, it makes it for a long day. So, when you have an idea of what makes them tick or what they're interested in. Also too, that connectability to their culture and who they are and their family. Then it kind of helps with the planning. So, then they're excited.
Jermaine Weems (12:52):
We have that environment. We have an environment where kids are excited to come here, and it was only through SEL because before SEL we didn't. We had mixed messages. It was always a divide where now I feel like we're a team, including the kids being part of that team with parents being a part of that team.
Morgan Radford (13:10):
Jermaine Weems is the Dean here at CICS and interestingly, he began his career in education as a security guard back in 1998. Doing things like managing the lunchroom, assisting with school traffic, and helping students navigate peer conflicts.
Jermaine Weems (13:27):
Me being in a dean role, I was also able to have a privilege of being a mentor to multiple kids and it allowed me to not only deal with their emotional side but see what they're doing academically, as well. So, when we have our conversations, it has a lot more meaning.
Morgan Radford (13:46):
Was there ever an aha moment where you said, "Wait a minute, this is working. This method is working."
Jermaine Weems (13:52):
When I approached a kid about an incident that happened, and it wasn't a game of cat and mouse.
Morgan Radford (14:01):
One study found that students have more positive attitudes about school and themselves. Another study even found that it reduced student aggression with half, as many students getting into fights compared to non SEL schools.
Morgan Radford (14:16):
What do you mean?
Jermaine Weems (14:17):
Wasn't me trying to figure out what was happening. It was a child telling me what was happening, because they want you to be able to problem solve with them through these conversations. You can only get to that point when you have that trust, and they believe that you're there to resolve a situation. That they're a lot more comfortable in the classrooms. They're a lot more comfortable talking to each other, just being their true, authentic selves. So, I've seen it before, and I've seen it afterwards. And I can honestly say that it does work.
Morgan Radford (14:51):
But not all parents agree. Some organizations say these conversations aren't safe or even necessary, claiming they're too personal. Other critics have accused school districts of using SEL to ask children invasive questions about their feelings, their sexuality and the way that race shapes their lives.
Morgan Radford (15:12):
Does it at all make you nervous when your kids have your phone number? Are you worried at all about the boundaries of knowing their entire person in ways that are perhaps less traditional?
Savannah Stanezek (15:23):
Yes. There are, definitely are boundaries, but I think that comes early on with knowing the parents and having that open communication with them where they know like, "Oh, that's their teacher, that's fine." But that's setting that boundary early on and setting that relationship with the parents or like, "Oh, they're just calling Ms. Stanezak. It's fine."
Phyllis Lockett (15:43):
We know and the science proves that building healthy and strong relationships in students is the predominant factor that drives students’ success and resilience.
Morgan Radford (15:53):
That's Phyllis Lockett, the CEO of Leap Innovations, which uses SEL as part of their learning framework. Leap is now being used in more than 400 schools across 23 states, including right here at CICS Bucktown.
Phyllis Lockett (16:08):
There's a lot of discussion in the education industry about serving the whole child, recognizing that we've got to do more than serve just the academic needs of every student, but we also have to serve their social and emotional needs. The first step for our teachers is understanding the students that they're serving. And so, them understanding that every student doesn't show up the same, every student has different needs, different interests, different strengths, different contexts. That this work is helping educators get more proximate to the students that they're serving. So, is it the teacher's responsibility or the counselor's responsibility or the parent's responsibility? It's the collective of caring adults around the whole child to ensure that all of our students can thrive.
Morgan Radford (17:06):
In the second episode of building classroom connections, we'll visit a social emotional learning school in Tennessee and have a sit down about the future of education with Priscilla Chan from our sponsor, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.






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