As students, teachers, and families prepare for the 2020-21 school year, social-emotional learning will play an important role in helping them navigate the emotional and logistical challenges created by the events of the last few months. To support them, Aperture Education has created its free 2020 Back to School Guide packed with helpful information, lessons and activities to strengthen social-emotional skills for children and adults.
The 2020 Back to School Guide contains more than 40 pages of downloadable resources and articles created by experts and SEL professionals to support SEL in the classroom, in the home, and during distance learning. To download the 2020 Back to School Guide, visit: http://info.apertureed.com/2020-btsg.
“This school year, social-emotional learning will be more important than ever as students, teachers and families adjust to going back to school while the COVID-19 pandemic still has an impact,” said Jessica Adamson, CEO of Aperture Education. “Our Back to School Guide provides resources to help school administrators, educators, and families work together to ensure student success.”
This is Aperture Education’s fifth annual Back to School Guide. Past guides have been shared widely and downloaded thousands of times. Resources in the 2020 Back to School Guide are organized under three main descriptors: Strengthening Students’ Resilience; Supporting Schools, Educators and Staff; and Helping Families Build SEL at Home. Throughout the guide, icons related to an individual’s role (i.e. teacher, leader, or parent) help readers navigate to relevant lessons and activities.
The 2020 Back to School Guide includes resources on many topics, including:
Advice to help teachers manage their own stress, as well as that of their students
Articles about using SEL to support trauma-informed practice and to build inclusive environments
Examples of how to create stronger teacher-student relationships
Resources to promote equity through PBIS and SEL
Suggestions for finding funding to support SEL programs
Ideas to support SEL professional development
Tips to promote educator resilience
Resources to support SEL for students during distance learning
The Back to School Guide is an example of Aperture Education’s work to support educators, administrators, and parents in promoting social-emotional learning in classrooms and at home. Aperture Education also provides a comprehensive SEL assessment and intervention system for schools, resources to help teachers strengthen their own social-emotional skills, and parent-friendly guides to support SEL at home.
About Aperture Education
Aperture Education specializes in social and emotional learning (SEL) solutions. Our flagship product, the DESSA Comprehensive SEL System, allows educators to measure, strengthen, and support social-emotional competence in youth in grades K-12. The DESSA System includes a suite of strength-based assessments, a universal screener that can be administered in less than a minute, and growth strategies and foundational practices to strengthen social and emotional competence. The DESSA System is lauded by researchers because it meets high standards for reliability and validity and is appreciated by educators for its ability to easily and quickly identify each student’s personal SEL strengths and provide practical supports that result in improved student outcomes. Because strengthening social-emotional skills is as important for educators as it is for students, we also offer the Educator Social Emotional Reflection and Training (EdSERT) tool. EdSERT is a professional development program to support the social-emotional competency and well-being of educators. For more information, go to www.ApertureEd.com.
