The 2021 eLumaNation Summit is happening September 30 – October 1, and we want you to join us! We have an impressive lineup of guest speakers who will be presenting on some of the most important topics facing special educators, administrators, and students in K-12 schools.
This week, one of our highlighted speakers is Dr. Sheldon Berman, AASA Lead Superintendent for Social-Emotional Learning.
“I am passionate about the impact that SEL can have on student learning. The need for it has never been greater. I look forward to the opportunity at this year’s eLumaNation to help other educators develop effective strategies for successful SEL implementation.”
Dr. Sheldon Berman, AASA Lead Superintendent for. Social-Emotional Learning
Dr. Berman’s presentation at eLumaNation will help participants create a roadmap to implementation knowing where the obstacles, ruts, and roadblocks may lie so that strategies can be put in place to effectively avoid or work through them. Here are a few key takeaways you can expect:
- There is no one best path to SEL implementation, nor one best program; rather, for those who would make progress, there is a layering of program development and a gradual deepening of fidelity to a vision.
- As school and district leaders open the door to understanding what promotes social-emotional learning and the building of caring classroom and school communities, they begin to see the larger implications for the necessary alignment with instruction, discipline, professional development, cultural responsiveness, and community engagement.
- Ensuring instructional and disciplinary practices reflect and embody the core principles of SEL, providing depth in professional development that addresses adult as well as student skill development, bridging the work in SEL with culturally responsive practice so that all students feel known and included, and extending student skill development by means of realistic and experiential practice through service learning are particularly important aspects of systemic and effective implementation that often don’t receive the attention they require.
- The best answer to overcoming the obstacles to consistent and deep SEL implementation is to collaboratively develop a roadmap with a clear and honest understanding of context—the ruts, the roadblocks, and the dead ends, as well as the strengths and opportunities.
About Dr. Sheldon Berman
Dr. Sheldon Berman was appointed AASA’s Lead Superintendent for Social-Emotional Learning after serving 28 years as a superintendent in four districts—Hudson, MA; Jefferson County (Louisville), KY; Eugene, OR; and Andover, MA. In each of the district in which he served as superintendent, he implemented systemic SEL programs. Dr. Berman has also provided national leadership in multiple organizations that champion SEL and has authored numerous articles and books on SEL topics. He was a member of the Council of Distinguished Educators of the National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development and served as the primary author of the Commission’s report on social, emotional and academic development practice. Dr. Berman served as the President of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and has been a policy leader in three states in the areas of education reform policy, social-emotional learning, civic education, special education, universal design for learning, and education funding. He received the 2003 Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year Award, the 2011 Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education, recognition in 2011 by the American Association of School Administrators as one of ten courageous superintendents for providing leadership for school desegregation, and the Mary Utne O’Brien Award for Excellence in Expanding the Evidence-Based Practice of Social Emotional Learning from the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) for lifetime achievement in implementing social-emotional learning in 2020.
