SEL4Mass.org

New!! SAVE-THE-DATE for all SAM members: Monday, June 4, 2012 from 4 -7 PM at the Wellesley College Club at Wellesley College, (727 Washington Street (Rte. 16) Wellesley), SAM will be having a Meeting to Establish Working Groups and Share Ideas around SEL and the role that SAM can play .  Get to know other SEL people from across the state.  Come in and help change the world.  Some refreshments will be served.  Further information to follow.  An Evite was sent to all members to this meeting.  Please respond as soon as possible for planning purposes.

New!! There are five Committees working on behalf of SEL in Massachusetts (scroll down).   If you think of a Working Group that you’d like to form (RN’s, Social Workers perhaps), please reach out to others, take the initiative to work together to make change.  If we are all working on new ideas to make improvement, to have SEL in all schools, we will make a difference.

1. The Steering Commitee, chaired by Steven Brion-Meisels, held its fifth meeting on May 17, 2012 to put the final touches on the exciting June 4th agenda.  The workshop will be highlighted by a Conversation Cafe and Working Group meetings where members can share and listen to points of view about the issues that confront us. Fifty-three (53) people are attending to-date. Over 33 of you have filled out a brief survey about topics of interest to you.  Thank you all and looking forward to setting our agenda.

The next Steering Committee Meeting is going to be at Thursday May 17, 3:00 – 5:00 at the Solarium adjacent to Open Circle’s offices at the Stone Center at Wellesley College. Please download directions from:

If you have any difficulty finding this location, please call Barkley Shafer at 781-283-2982 or call Nova Biro at 781-223-1079.

2. The SEL Educators Group, headed up by John D’Auria of Teachers21, met on May 15, at MSPP to plan for a conference for student services personnel adminsitrators on June 8th to discuss the evaluation rubrics to support understanding of where we are in MA and how we can contribute to the discussions.  The next planning meeting will take place on May 16, 2012 from 9:30 – 11:00 AM in Room 300 D at 1208 VFW Parkway in West Roxbury (which is different than the main building on Rivermoor Street.  Once you enter the driveway at 1208 VFW go to the very back of parking lot and the building is there).

3. SAM’s SEL Speakers’ Bureau, chaired by Nova Biro and Gayle Vonasek,  is organizing to better inform the general public about the importance of SEL in their lives and schools.  If you would like to participate or know of groups that would be interested in being addressed by a SEL professional , please contact Nova Biro of Open Circle at nbiro@wellesley.edu 

 4. The SEL Teacher Preparation Working Group, chaired by Deborah Donahue-Keegan, ED.D. and businessman David Zussman, is advocating for more substantive integration of SEL research/practice into teacher preparation programs.  They have planned an event for June 12, 8 – 11 AM at Wheelock College featuring open remarks from Secretary of Education, Paul Reville and Nancy Markowitz, Director, The Center for Reaching and Teaching the Whole Child & Founder, Teacher Education Collaborative Internship Program, San Jose State University  If you’d like to know more, please contact Deborah Donahue-Keegan at deborah.donahue_keegan@tufts.edu

5.  The Website Design Group, chaired by Mitch Lyons, is involved in improving the website to make it more user friendly and dynamic.  Any ideas as to content or presentation, please send your comments to Mitch Lyons at mitchly@comcast.net.  All comments are welcomed, a point that cannot be emphasized enough.