3 Ways to Incorporate Social-Emotional Learning in your Classroom

Social-emotional learning (SEL) has been extremely important recently, especially after the trauma we all experienced through the pandemic. We are realizing now more than ever that living with perpetual anxiety, stress, and frustration is not a way to maintain a healthy lifestyle, nor is it helpful for our students. In much of my research, the foundation of social-emotional skills is really about self-awareness and self-regulation as it lays the groundwork for our growth and learning. Self-awareness helps us notice what’s happening within ourselves at any given moment, while self-regulation skills are the strategies in which we create calm and safety in our nervous system. Social-emotional learning is not a checklist, nor is it something that students will learn watching inspiring videos on youtube. The good news is the music classroom is the perfect place where SEL can be easily integrated in a way that also will serve you as their teacher. Here are strategies to implement this school year:

Body Awareness

Many of us go through life constantly in our heads, perhaps even forgetting we have a body (until it stops working properly!). Your body awareness is the gateway to how you are feeling because thoughts happen in your brain, while feelings happen in our body. For example, the chill we feel when we listen to a beautiful piece of music or the muscle tension we experience when we’re stressed. With that in mind, we can’t really do any social-emotional work without being aware of the body. Awareness is simply about noticing. You can even try it right now as you’re reading this! Do you feel any tension? Where? Stiffness? Where do you feel ease? Is your forehead scrunched? Are you smiling? No need to change or shift because whatever you are feeling right now is perfectly okay. What you are doing here is strengthening your notice muscle , because the truth is we can’t change what we don’t notice.

Music teachers have an interesting angle here since we teach our students to use their body to create sounds. As they play or sing, ask your students to notice how they are feeling and how they are physically experiencing emotions. For example:

“This song is sad. What does sadness feel like in your body? What does it feel like in your face? What if, just to try it, we played this song with a happier emotional intention?’

play/sing song with new emotion

“What changed? What does it feel like now?”

The more they can get in-tune with their body, the more easily they can connect technique with how they are feeling physically. And, added bonus, you get the chance to increase your body awareness as well.

Breathe on Purpose

Music teachers incorporate breathing into rehearsals all the time, and in addition to helping improve technical skills, it can serve as a tool for self-regulation. When you take the time to take slow, purposeful breaths, you stimulate your vagus nerve - the longest nerve in your body which also plays a role in nervous system regulation. When you notice a physical expression of an emotion (like a clenched jaw, furrowed brow, tightness in chest, etc.) you are actually recognizing that your nervous system is in a sympathetic (stress) state. Slow, deep breathing allows your nervous system to return to a parasympathetic (safety) state.

When your students have this simple tool they become empowered to both recognize their emotions (through their physical symptoms) and then regulate themselves through a strategy that they need to fine tune in a music rehearsal anyway! This is social-emotional learning in ACTION. And…bonus…deep breathing will help regulate your nervous system as well. So if (or when) you are feeling stressed, frustrated, or overwhelmed, take a few seconds to breathe so you can reset your nervous system and set yourself up for success for the rest of class.

Move it!

In order for the body to process emotions, we need to move. As I mentioned before, thoughts happen in the brain and feelings happen in the body, so we can’t think our way through them, we need to feel them. Emotions like stress, anxiety, and frustration need to be released physically, otherwise they stay and hang out in the body, despite our attempts to “push through” and “stay strong” (which isn’t really a thing). The more we try to push those emotions down, the louder they become and can manifest as back pain, illness, exhaustion, or chronic disease. However, if we move our body with the intention to release emotion, we become clear of emotional congestion, our nervous system is calm, and we can move on with our lives making new empowered choices towards feeling great! These movements can be as simple as walking, tapping, shaking, stretching, jogging in place, dancing, or jumping. These are easy, helpful tools that you can give your students to regulate themselves.

And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that making music is also inherently a self-regulation tool. Singing and producing sound not only stimulates the vagus nerve, but also regulates the nervous system in a way that syncs up with others who are sharing the musical experience; how cool is that?! The music room is fertile ground for organic social-emotional learning, and we as teachers can benefit from it right along with our students. As we share these experiences alongside our students, we also get the opportunity to model a healthy way for adults to manage emotions. Your kids are watching you, so embodying these SEL skills will provide an incredible example.