News and Events
Drs. Jessica Hoffmann and Rachel Baumsteiger were recently published in Assessment in Education: Principals, Policy, & Practice. Their article, "Building useful, web-based educational assessment tools for students, with students: a demonstration with the school climate walkthrough" covers the development of the School Climate Walkthrough.
Read the article >>
It is possible to achieve greater balance when it comes to our emotions, even in turbulent times. Remember the phrase, “everything in moderation”? This applies to junk food and unpleasant emotions. There is no such thing as a bad emotion, but experiencing prolonged or acute periods of stress brought on by unpleasant emotions can wreak havoc on our minds and bodies. Healthy emotion strategies can help break the cycle.
Lately, it may feel difficult to escape situations or information that stresses us out. To cope, some might feel the need to “put on a happy face” and be less than honest with themselves about how they really feel. This is an example of emotional labor and can be harmful over time. RULERizing situations, by asking questions related to what’s happening, how it’s affecting everyone involved, and how we can best handle, is an effective strategy for both adults and students to approach challenging conversations about the impact of current events. Initiating these discussions creates pathways to a judgment-free environment where everyone is granted the permission to feel.
Additional Resources:
The Permission to Feel
Impact of Stress on the Brain and Body
How to Handle the Trauma of War from Afar
How to Talk to Children About War: An Age by Age Guide
Talking to Children about the War
How to Talk to Students about the Russian Ukraine War: 5 tips
When it comes to social and emotional learning (SEL), each school’s needs are different. Some schools that implement RULER are not entirely new to SEL – they are familiar with other programs and might even decide to keep those programs and layer on RULER. RULER is designed to integrate with other school-based initiatives and can serve as the backdrop for them. In February, several school team members from NYC’s District 10 started the RULER Institute Online – a six-week virtual training that is the first step to bringing RULER to their schools. These teams are no strangers to SEL and are a classic example of schools that bring RULER in to complement existing social, emotional, and character-building programs at their schools.
We reached out to the NYC District 10 school teams who are attending the training to get a sense of their goals for training and how they felt about their school’s existing climate. A commonality among each school team was that they were looking forward to learning more about RULER to enhance the work that has already been done to create a positive and healthy school climate. Each school expressed nuanced goals as well. These goals included to:
Sharing research is a key component in inspiring confidence and motivating school staff to adopt a new approach or program. P.S. 077 is looking forward to diving into the research that supports RULER to help garner buy-in from faculty and staff. “At BPES we use a variety of resources to support with SEL. We look forward to learning more about the research behind the practices so that we can more effectively meet the needs of members of our community.” Research conducted at YCEI and elsewhere that contributes to RULER is critical to understanding how the approach creates change. Read more about RULER-related research projects underway and past research that supports the approach.
Today’s students are living in a world rife with conflict and uncertainty. The role that adults play in creating environments where students can work on their emotion skills in the presence of genuine issues can be daunting. P.S. 291 is looking forward to RULER providing additional skills and strategies to enhance their school culture as they strive to enhance students' abilities to become better students and citizens. By fostering a community where all emotions matter and students feel safe and included, entire school communities can influence positive academic outcomes and relationship-building.
A District 10 student reflects on thought and action strategies that can be accessible to her when she needs to regulate her emotions and act as her best self.
P.S. 094’s hope as they work through RULER training is that RULER will support their community in addressing their social and emotional needs. RULER is implemented as a phased approach that starts with staff personal and professional development. Over the first phase of implementation, educators and staff will become more confident with RULER content, have experienced the benefits personally, and can be seasoned role models and knowledgeable implementers. When the adults in the school become more aware of their own social and emotional needs and how they are growing their skills, they can more readily identify and help students with their needs.
In the RULER Institute Online, participants will learn how to conduct Mood Meter check-ins with both adults and students. Pictured above is a student Mood Meter activity where students recognize, understand, and label their emotions.
Thanks to the Good Samaritan Foundation’s generous grant, District 10 was able to send 7 of their elementary school teams to the February 2022 RULER Institute Online as part of our priority districts initiative. Their goals align with the goals of so many other schools looking to use the power of emotions to create a more equitable, innovative, and compassionate world.
—> Join us in the coming months as we visit with District 10 educators, students, and their families to see what RULER in Action looks like and how it changes lives. We are thrilled to partner with this dynamic district to showcase how they leverage RULER to move forward as a community.
Are you interested in giving more districts the opportunity to implement RULER? Please visit our Donate page.
Learn more about District 10 and its commitment to creating more emotionally intelligent school communities in our previous article, Community School District 10: Leading with Emotional Intelligence and Hope.
Showing our kids how to embrace differences in others, while encouraging healthy inquiry, promotes inclusion. In this Washington Post oped, Dr. Chris Cipriano invites us to examine what we consider well-intentioned parenting.
Read the article or listen to Dr. Chris Cipriano’s recording >>
Miles Cipriano Curtis, center, with his parents, Stephen Curtis and the author Christina Cipriano, and siblings. (Christina Cipriano/Family photo)
In a recent blog post in Developmental Science, Dr. Diana Divecha discusses how hitting children is an ineffective form of discipline than can result in trauma. Learn how emotions play a role from the parent/caregiver and child perspective, and how we can nurture children through our own awareness, education, and self-regulation.
Read the post>>
How do we respond when we encounter situations or individuals who are unfamiliar or different from us? Do we immediately respond as emotion judges, based on conclusions and preconceived notions? Or, do we respond as emotion scientists who are curious to get to know individuals for who they are? Research shows that we all have biases, or certain attitudes or beliefs about certain groups, and at times, these biases consciously or unconsciously impact our behavior.
Opening our hearts and minds to learning more about the identities, cultures, experiences, and upbringing of those who are different from us allows the unfamiliar to become familiar while sparking curiosity instead of judgment based on stereotypes. Educating ourselves is one strategy that can be used to dismantle barriers that reinforce bias. RULER schools can visit the Recognizing Bias and Strategies for Shifting Mindsets resources on RULER Online to learn additional strategies that can help us work on overcoming our biases.
Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle recently published a paper entitled "How adolescents develop and implement their ideas? On self-regulation of creative action" in the Thinking Skills and Creativity journal.
Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle and Dr. Jessica Hoffmann published a new paper, in collaboration with the Botin Foundation, on developmental changes in creative thinking abilities entitled "Developmental trends in creative ability: A cross-sectional examination of figural and verbal domains across the school-age years." The paper addresses how creative thinking ability increases with age.
Dr. Irem Korucu, Dr. Craig Bailey, and former YCEI members, Dr. Shauna Tominey and Gina Schnur, had a manuscript accepted into Frontiers. The manuscript is titled, “Self-Regulation in Preschool: Examining Its Factor Structure and Associations With Pre-academic Skills and Social-Emotional Competence.”
Dr. Chris Cipriano recently worked with Reading Rockets, a national public media literacy initiative, to create a series of videos that feature topics such as why SEL is important for students, the difference between SEL and emotional intelligence, educating the whole child, the importance of family engagement, and more.
Emotions impact our ability to create and maintain healthy habits. Dr. Marc Brackett unpacks helpful emotion strategies that we can use to achieve greater well-being with Sheinelle Jones on Today All Day.
Words matter. Regardless of how many times we repeat, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” words still have the power to move us closer to achieving our goals or throwing in the towel. As educators, we find ourselves teaching our students the skills they need to help them reframe their thoughts. For example, if a student says “I will never be able to do that” we encourage them to think “I just need a little more time to learn.”
Why then can’t we, as educators, be equally mindful when it comes to what we say to ourselves? Practicing the evidence-based thought strategy, positive self-talk, can rewire our brains so we automatically think more optimistically when we need it most.
As we work toward accomplishing our 2022 goals, our inner voice can serve to motivate and inspire us to keep moving forward, even if confronted with unexpected setbacks. Instead of tuning into an inner voice that may discourage us when challenges arise, we can seek ways to encourage our continued efforts with positive self-talk. Research suggests that positive self-talk can help us to solve problems, think more creatively, and better cope with challenges, including reducing the harmful effects of stress and anxiety.
Marc Brackett, Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, recommends three strategies that can help us flip the switch on the unhelpful voice in our heads.
Talk to yourself using your name. “Marc, you got this.”
Think about what you would say to a friend or a student in a similar situation.
Remember that this is temporary.
Talking to ourselves and giving ourselves the advice that we would give a friend provides psychological distance allowing us to see the situation from a different perspective. Emotions are fleeting. They come and they go, providing us with valuable information along the way. Enacting our emotion skills helps us use this information to reach our goals.
Additional Positive Self-Talk Resources for Adults
Dive deeper into the three strategies above in this quick 3-minute interview with Dr. Marc Brackett.
Preview part of YCEI’s free course on Coursera by watching the “Positive Self-Talk” video. In this video, Dr. Marc Brackett explains positive self-talk and how you can work to improve it in your daily life.
Print positive quotes to serve as visual reminders to give ourselves the grace that we give so freely to others.
Check out Dr. Cipriano’s interview alongside community partners Trajectory of Hope and NCLD and learn how YCEI research contributed to building the "Our Unique Identities: Facilitation Guide and Posters" with the Educating All Learners Alliance.
Listen to the Podcast
Check Out the Resources
The 2021 Research Year in Review highlights the work completed by researchers at YCEI. From critical commitments to DEI and impressive scholarship, to a notable presence in the field, it is without a doubt that the YCEI research team is advancing emotion science. Learn more about our research team’s accomplishments in 2021 below.
The recent issue of the Association of Psychological Sciences Up-and-Coming Voices Section of the Observer Magazine features the work of researchers Morgan Mannweiler, Jenny Seibyl, Violet Tan, and Dr. Christina Cipriano: The Unintentional Dilution of Voices of Color in Traditional Qualitative Analyses. Learn more about their work and the work of other researchers featured in 15-minute flash talks as part of the 2021 APS Virtual Convention.
Leveraging emotion skills can help you and your loved ones have a great holiday. Drs. Robin Stern and Marc Brackett offer up 10 tips for taking care of yourself, others, and your community in this op-ed in The Hill.
A recent Good Housekeeping article titled, “When I Stopped Caring About My Kids' Grades, Everything Changed for the Better,” suggests that parents should also focus on their children’s other kinds of intelligence, such as emotional intelligence. As a way to develop their emotional intelligence, Dr. Brackett suggests helping our children name their emotions. One way he suggests to do this is by reading books with children and having them identify the characters’ feelings.
The energy at the 2020 National RULER Implementation Conference (prior to the pandemic shutdown) was electric, and it was still hard to miss the lively group of educators from NYC’s District 10 from the Bronx. This team had been implementing RULER in their district for three years and were attending the conference to grow their skills and deepen their commitment to SEL. District 10’s superintendent, Maribel Torres-Hulla, described how RULER has impacted her district: “District 10's experience with RULER has been life-changing. It has provided us with the tools necessary to understand that emotions matter and to understand ourselves and others in a very different and supportive way.” There, with over 500 other attendees sitting shoulder to shoulder in the ballroom of the Omni Hotel in New Haven, not a single person in the room could have imagined where we would be almost two years later.
District 10 educators with Dr. Marc Brackett at the 2020 RULER Implementation Conference in New Haven, CT
““District 10’s experience with RULER has been life-changing. It has provided us with the tools necessary to understand that emotions matter and to understand ourselves and others in a very different and supportive way.””
As 2022 approaches, District 10, a district deeply impacted by the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, moves forward, leading with emotional intelligence and hope. The district’s resilience is rooted in their commitment to a systemic implementation of RULER that involves entire school communities.
With over 2,000 educators and 25,000 elementary students in District 10, doing anything in a systemic way requires time, dedication, and significant investment. District 10’s commitment to making RULER a common language is evident in many ways and has stood the test of the pandemic. School staff and students leverage the RULER tools to check in with their emotions and use healthy emotion regulation strategies to create positive environments to work and learn. Students expand their emotion skills with the RULER core routines and classroom instruction. Families participate in workshops about what students are learning in the classroom, like how to create a Charter and how to improve their own well-being.
RULER aims to deepen students’ emotion skills and help create healthier emotional climates in schools. Gina Mautschke-Mitchell, District 10’s deputy superintendent, discussed RULER’s impact on students: “RULER schools are warm, welcoming, and affirming, and children and staff are empathetic to each other and understand emotions matter as much as academics. When our students and staff feel welcomed and affirmed, they are more engaged and have better tools to manage stress and build relationships with others.”
Students use the Meta-Moment tool to pause, sense, envision their best self, and strategize and act with their best selves in mind.
Earlier this year, the Good Samaritan, Inc. contributed a generous grant in recognition of District 10’s dedication, leadership, and perseverance to creating emotionally intelligent schools where educators, students, and families thrive. As a result of this grant, this February, the district will send the last of its 7 elementary school teams to the RULER Institute Online. This is part of a larger initiative at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to bring RULER to priority districts starting with District 10.
“With the help of this grant,” says Andie Eisen, Bronx Instructional Lead, “we will be able to provide opportunities where they might not have existed before, for students to express their feelings, for teachers to support students as they move through emotions, and for administrators to have a system in place that helps everyone to address and work through their ever-changing moods as we try to return to some sense of normalcy. RULER provides a constant that we all are struggling to find.
This student is checking in on the Mood Meter. The Mood Meter is a RULER tool that enhances self and social awareness. It also supports the development of a nuanced emotion vocabulary and a range of strategies for regulating emotion.
Dr. Marc Brackett, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, has deep admiration for District 10’s work. “When we all lead with emotional intelligence, schools and homes become warmer, safer, and more supportive spaces where educators, students, and their families thrive. NYC’s District 10 is creating a path of health and resiliency for their school communities that is needed now more than ever.”
—> Join us in the coming months as we visit with District 10 educators, students, and their families to see what RULER in Action looks like and how it changes lives. We are thrilled to partner with this dynamic district to showcase how they leverage RULER to move forward as a community.
Are you interested in giving more districts the opportunity to implement RULER? Please visit our Donate page.
All educators who have worked during the pandemic have experienced and continue to experience wide-ranging emotions. YCEI researchers surveyed Rhode Island educators to determine not only the emotional experiences and impacts of the pandemic, but also how it created opportunities for resilience. Thank you to the Rhode Island Foundation, the National Education Association Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Federation of Teacher and Health Professionals for funding this research.
A study conducted by YCEI researchers Dr. Christina Cipriano, Dr. Lauren Naples, and former postgraduate research associate Abigail Eveleigh was recently published in the Children & Schools journal. The study focused on educators of students with learning differences during the pandemic and their use of SEL. Most of the educators were RULER-trained.
