The FuelEd Blog

Welcome to Part 1 of the Think Safe series where you'll hear from Derek Espadas, seasoned educator and FuelEd trainer. In this series, Derek will lead school leaders through the process of developing a relationship-driven leadership style.

There are no quick fixes. Teachers carry so much in their day-to-day lives—along with lunch duty and lesson planning, educators are often on the front lines of supporting students with unique educational and emotional needs. They are coaches, encouragers, and mentors—they give math lessons, relationship advice, and snacks— sometimes all at once. It’s a lot to carry.

Student social-emotional learning has gained traction over the last decade. But, given the stress placed on teachers due to COVID-19m, folks are finally starting to see the need for educators to grow their own social and emotional skills and wellbeing first.

FuelEd is thrilled to announce that we have received a $1 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) in order to promote supportive teacher communities and boost teacher well-being, and to promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging for educators of color.

In our “Real Talk” blog series, we defined what genuineness means and discussed the two main steps to take in order to improve your sense of being genuine. We also touched on the principles of fear and risk — this valuable information is just the beginning!

Fortified in silence, our genuine selves remain imprisoned, haltering our growth and hindering our relationships. Does it have to be this way? When life's relationship problems assail us and the risks of being true to ourselves seem so daunting, is our only option to clamor up and close off?

Throughout the years, the term, “Social Emotional Learning” or SEL has gained significant traction. Whether you’re a teacher trying to figure out how to implement it in your classroom, a school leader working to improve school climate, or a district leader looking into how you can reduce student discipline—lots of folks in education are talking about SEL. But what exactly is it?

Since the pandemic, our education systems have experienced multiple crises at the same time including high teacher turnover, increased burnout, and falling retention rates. But at FuelEd, we help school systems navigate these problems.

In this episode, Counselor Accents speak with Megan Marcus and Kelley Munger from FuelEd about:

• how educators can heal student trauma through relationships, and the need for educators to first do their own healing
• how equipping educators with relationship skills can make school counselors jobs easier and better
• how the best student SEL is actually educator SEL