RULER April Newsletter
Creating emotionally intelligent school communities
Intro
We have practiced recognizing, understanding, and labeling our emotions, and now it is time to think about how we express our feelings. The skill of expressing emotions goes beyond conveying how we feel. It involves considering the influence of factors such as personality, culture, gender, power dynamics, societal norms, race, and ethnicity and then choosing how we show our feelings with different people and across contexts. If we pay attention to these influences, we can have a better understanding of our own emotion expression tendencies and those of others, and we can show our emotions in ways that are helpful.
We all have different comfort levels for expressing emotions and tendencies to express certain emotions. For instance, one individual may be naturally bubbly and tend to express more yellow emotions. Someone else may be more comfortable expressing green or blue emotions. Also, societal "rules" often dictate how, when, and where feelings are displayed, leading to our hiding or suppressing our emotions to conform. The work we do to manage our emotions according to norms is referred to as emotional labor. Emotional labor is necessary and often helpful. However, in excess, it can lead to burnout and decreased well-being. The key is to keep it in check.
Let's commit to honoring our feelings, and those of others, while navigating the complexities of expressing emotions.
Pro Tip
Reflect on your own emotions and how you typically express them. Are there certain situations in which you feel more comfortable expressing yourself? What about people with whom you tend to express certain emotions? Are there emotions you tend to suppress or avoid showing? By increasing self-awareness of your own expression of emotion, you can make conscious choices about how you show your emotions and how often you engage in emotional labor.
The RULER Implementation Conference
Upcoming Ruler Training
Do you know of a school interested in starting RULER, or do you have a team at your school that would benefit from a refresher? Our training sessions fill up quickly, so please act soon!
Applications are processed on a rolling basis until the training is at capacity.
Please consider applying to the May 2024 session if you are looking to attend in person.
Announcements
Apply to Become a 2025 RULER Spotlight School
Does your school have RULER success stories to share with the wider RULER community? If so, we invite you to apply to become a RULER Spotlight School. This program celebrates schools actively paving the way toward more emotionally intelligent communities. Applications are due May 10, 2024.
Help Shape the Future of Social and Emotional Learning
The Education Collaboratory at Yale is embarking on an exciting new research project aimed at transforming the landscape of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in the United States, and we're inviting you to join the project. This initiative, led by Dr. Christina Cipriano, seeks to develop a comprehensive roadmap for SEL stakeholders, enhancing the communication of rigorous and relevant research evidence. As a RULER leader, your perspective is invaluable. By participating in virtual affinity focus groups and surveys, your insights will contribute to a living resource that supports effective SEL implementation. To learn more about how you can contribute to this study, visit the enrollment webpage.
Research
Teenagers often struggle to find the right words to describe their emotions and effectively convey their experiences to others. Researchers at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence found that teens express themselves with more than just basic emotion labels like "angry" or "frustrated." In a workshop study designed to teach emotional and creative skills, adolescents participated in arts-based activities and journaling to reflect on their weekly emotions. These activities can be powerful tools for teaching emotion skills. After the study, adolescents reported an increased ability to use metaphors and symbolism to describe their feelings. Consider how common it is to speak of being "broken-hearted" instead of simply "sad" or using the term "petrified" as a metaphor for "fear." Articulating emotional experiences more descriptively contributes to a richer understanding of both the experience itself and the underlying emotional state. Educators can leverage stories, imagery, and metaphors to discuss emotions in class, fostering more descriptive emotional expression in their students.
In the News
Are you interested in writing an article for Edutopia about social emotional learning in your school or classroom? Please contact Erin Brough.
Quote
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