In this episode, Sara speaks with Dr. Maurice Elias, the Director of the Social-Emotional & Character Development Lab at Rutgers University and the “Godfather of SEL,” about the importance of sustainability when it comes to social emotional learning.
About Dr. Maurice Elias
Maurice J. Elias is a professor in the Psychology Department at Rutgers University, director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab, and co-director of the Academy for Social-Emotional Learning in Schools, which offers certificate programs in direct instruction and school leadership relating to SEL and character development for educators and student support professionals in school and out-of-school settings. He has received the Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education and the Joseph E. Zins Memorial Senior Scholar Award for Social-Emotional Learning from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Prof. Elias is on the leadership teams of SEL4US and SEL4NJ.
Prof. Elias lectures nationally and internationally to educators and parents about students’ emotional intelligence, school success, social-emotional and character development, and youth purpose. Among Prof. Elias’s numerous books are The Joys & Oys of Parenting, Nurturing Students’ Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social-Emotional Learning, Boost Emotional Intelligence in Students: 30 Flexible Research-Based Lessons to Build EQ Skills, ASCD’s Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators, the Social Decision Making/Social Problem Solving curricula for grades K–8, the new e-book Emotionally Intelligent Parenting, and a book for young children called Talking Treasure: Stories to Help Build Emotional Intelligence and Resilience in Young Children.
Creative Exercise: Embodied Emotions
In this episode, Sara leads us through an exercise to practice embodying our emotions. Take one deep breath. Identify one feeling word that describes how you feel in this moment. Identify a movement or a gesture that describes that feeling.
“It is often easy to start something and difficult to maintain it.” Click to Tweet this Highlight.
Additional Resources
- Rutgers Social, Emotional and Character Development Lab
- SEL4US.org
- SELinSchools.org
- Character.org
- SELarts.org
- ArtsEdNJ.org
- What a call to service could look like during a pandemic by John M. Bridgeland and Timothy P. Shriver
- Howard Gardner
- The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions
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