ELEMENTARY HIGHLIGHTS
Second Step Program Promotes
Social-Emotional Learning
This school year, students in
kindergarten through eighth grade
are receiving lessons from school
counselors using the Second Step
program. Second Step is rooted in
social-emotional learning, and its
goals are to transform schools into
more supportive, successful learning
environments that encourage children
to thrive and to foster a more
empathetic society.
“The K-8 lesson scope and sequence
focuses on self-management, social
awareness, relationship skills, self-
awareness, and responsible decision-
making for our students,” said Ashley
Constantine, Ed.D., Fox Chapel Area’s
executive director of elementary
education and instruction.
The program teaches students how to
be better listeners, fair ways to play,
how to resolve conflict, how to better
focus attention, and how to recognize
and manage their feelings. It also
demonstrates how to show empathy,
how to problem-solve, how to feel
confident, how to be respectful, how to
manage worry, and how to include and
get along with others.
According to Kerr Elementary School
counselor Sue Douglas, the use of
Hartwood Elementary School students
practice their listening skills in order to
become better learners.
the Second Step program is part of
the district’s comprehensive guidance
plan. She also said that it’s important
for school counselors to visit the
classrooms and teach lessons. She
particularly likes the Second Step
program because it is research-based
and used in 30% of the schools in the
United States, as well as 70 different
countries. Ms. Douglas pointed out that
Second Step looks at the whole student,
and is not a “behavior” program. It’s
a curriculum that helps students learn
to recognize and be aware of, not just
their own feelings and emotions, but the
feelings of others.
“As school counselors, we look beyond
just academics. We want all students to
become, not just better students, but
better people. We feel strongly that this
program can help us accomplish that,”
she said.
Fairview Elementary School counselor Stefanie
Lipke teaches students listening skills as part
of the Second Step program. She said students
often stop her in the hallway to ask when the
next Second Step lesson will be and have even
told her it is their favorite part of the day.
Hartwood Elementary School counselor
Jacqueline Decker demonstrates listening and
learning skills.
Mobile Fab Lab Hits the Road
This fall, Fox Chapel Area School
District’s Mobile Fab Lab traveled to
schools, visiting each first grade across
the district.
During the visit, students were tasked
with making a desk organizer out of a
variety of common household items,
such as cardboard, foam, and tape.
“I explained to the students that making
the desk organizer was going to be the
easy part and that the true challenge was figuring out how
to work collaboratively with their teammates,” said Stan
Strzempek, computer science teacher at Kerr Elementary.
At each stop, students also got to build with the Imagination
Playground, which are huge building blocks of various shapes,
and each received an engraved name tag as a souvenir of the
day’s activities.
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FOX CHAPEL AREA
These types of lessons are paramount to building lifelong
skills, Mr. Strzempek said.
“Being a creator can be stressful on one’s imagination. Failure
and frustration are a natural part of the process. It’s important
to teach students how to persist and that it is OK to fail as
long as they are failing forward.
“It never gets old hearing the kids say, ‘This is the best day
ever!’”