Our Focus

Over the past couple of years, McKinney has focused on students’ ability to communicate what they are learning, sharing the big ideas behind what they are working on in class.  After a thoughtful discussion with the entire staff, we have decided to switch our focus for the 2024-25 school year to SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Students have shown much growth in their ability to communicate what they are learning (and why it is important); however, we noticed that there is a need to grow students’ capacity in the Personal and Social core competency and SEL knowledge. SEL will be our focus for the 2024-25 school year, so that all learners can:

• Build their personal awareness and personal responsibility

• Appreciate their personal and cultural identity and have a sense of belonging at McKinney

• Build their social awareness and social responsibility

Our Actions

1. Let's explicitly teach SOAR, SEL skills, have SOAR assemblies, buddy lessons, ACT lessons, etc.  

2. We will engage in self-reflection: asking students about their SOAR knowledge, self-regulation habits, and SEL strategies they utilize. 

3. We will use literacy activities to anchor our SEL knowledge and grow our Personal and Social competencies as we engage in the reading of picture books and texts with SEL themes. We will build upon students' abilities to "exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding" (a language arts curricular competency) and connect it to our ability to the same when using SEL skills with our peers. 

4. Collect Data: School-wide surveys, class-wide reading activities and note-taking of student responses, as well as 1-to-1 walk-and-talks with staff and a focus group of students.