Humanizing the Classroom

There is a growing trend in education for educators to support students in the development of social and emotional skills. SEL mandates are now part of many state assessments and national initiatives, and there are countless curriculum from which principals and teachers may choose. However, many of these curricular materials fail to address the question of pedagogy, or what is the best method for teaching social and emotional skills? Humanizing the Classroom: Using Role Plays to Teach Social and Emotional Skills in Middle and High School answers this question by presenting the pedagogical basis for using role plays to teach social and emotional skills, creating a clear link between SEL and the need for culturally relevant teaching, and providing over 45 model lessons that can be delivered in middle and high school classrooms. A rich resource for principals seeking advisory curriculum materials, classroom teachers interested in integrating SEL into their classroom practice, and educational theater and drama teachers, Humanizing the Classroom addresses the how, why and what of teaching social and emotional skills in our diverse society.
About the Author: Kristin Stuart Valdes is an artist and educator who began her work in the New York City public schools as a teaching artist, in the disciplines of theater and creative writing, working with Henry Street Settlement and Teachers and Writers Collaborative. She began her work in the field of social emotional learning while working with students who had witnessed 9/11 from their school building and who ended up calling one another "terrorists" in its aftermath. She has a deep interest in the roles that cultural practice, language, ethnicity, and class all play in the way we interact with one another, and in the way creativity contributes to our ability to resolve social and emotional problems effectively. She was the Senior Program Manager of the 4Rs+MTP research study, funded by the US Department of Education, which delivered a social emotional learning program and 1:1 coaching to teachers who delivered it, in over 60 public schools in the Bronx. She has worked with Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility and the National School Climate Center as a senior staff developer and contributing writer. With Teachstone she has served as a mentor coach on a wide range of projects including working with Native American teachers on Native American land. Also an award winning screenwriter and music-theater maker her work had been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and presented at venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She is a certified CLASS Observer and Trainer, a Part 137 Mediator for the NYC courts, and holds a BFA and MFA NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.