International Speaker Coming to Lucille Tack Center Oct. 9
Spencer, WI (OnFocus) The Spencer School District is aiming to instill a culture of kindness in its students with some special activities this week.
The activities are part of the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) initiative introduced by the state that makes positive relationships, managing emotions, and responsibility deliberate teaching practices. This can not only improve academic scores, but a student’s future job prospects as well.
Coming off of September’s “optimism,” October’s SEL word of the month is “integrity,” about respecting others and doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
“We’re using these to teach kids valuable life lessons so they gain the skills to become happy, healthy, and great functioning adults,” said Katrina Rotar, middle and high school counselor.
Students will be spray painting the word on sidewalks and bus stops on Monday after school. Tuesday morning, elementary students will use chalk to write out kind messages on the sidewalk. The entire district will wear blue for Kindness Day.
“It’s a spinoff of bullying, because the term bullying is so overused,” said Rotar. “We want to focus on people being kind.”
Community leaders have rallied around the SEL initiative as well, eager to encourage soft skills, which are developed through interactions with others, in what could be their future employees. This year, all sixth grade students are being directly taught soft skills in the Study Skills 6 class.
On Wednesday, Oct. 9, the school district is inviting the entire community to a talk by international speaker Joe Beckman about the power of reclaiming human connection. While students are more lonely than ever before, Beckmam will share that the solution to solving this unprecedented shift is to separate from screens and take time to listen to each other’s stories.
Beckmam will speak with middle school students at 9 a.m. and to high school students at 10:30 a.m. at Lucille Tack Center for the Arts.
Author: News Desk
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