Cloverdale Learning Centre 25-26

OUR FOCUS

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Self Awareness and Self Management

Learning Goals:

• Our learners can make connections between emotions and learning. They can identify their own emotions, as well as those of others.
• Our learners can recognize their strengths and can use strategies to focus and accomplish their goals.
• Our learners believe in their capabilities to achieve academic, career and/or personal goals.

Since 2022, Learning Centres have seen an increase in the number of students wanting to enroll at our school sites. With this intake of numerous students, across the learning centres, it has become evident that the pandemic interrupted not only the intellectual development of youth, but perhaps more importantly, their social emotional development. “Carla Elfers, a Vancouver clinical youth psychologist, said generation Z is struggling just as much from how the pandemic has reduced social contact, volunteer activities and extracurricular events as it has from the disarray in their formal academic studies.” (‘In the Dark’ – Douglas Todd Vancouver Sun, Jan 29, 2022).

As our students have moved along in their educational journey, we have been focusing on their social emotional learning (SEL) across the curriculum. In 2023 - 2024, one area of focus was their learning in Art Studio 10 & 12. One of the Big Ideas within Art Studio 10 is that "visual arts offer unique ways of exploring our identity and sense of belonging." One Big Idea in ART Studio 12 is "media arts are an essential element of culture and reveal insights into the human experience." Our particular focus was around the curricular competency "demonstrate respect for self, others, and place." Place being "any environment, locality, or context with which people interact to learn, create memory, reflect on history, connect with culture, and establish identity." The connection between people and place is foundational to First Peoples perspectives on the world. Our focus is extended through student learning in the Career Life Education 10 curriculum, in particular the curricular competency, "communicate with the intent to highlight personal strengths, talents, accomplishments, and abilities." 

Student learning experiences designed to promote growth in relation to the learning goals include the development of personal support plans, personal responses and journaling, and art.

At the Learning Centre, student learning begins right away. All students create a Student Learning Plan for themselves, highlighting their interests, learning preferences and learning profile. 

Additionally, in September 2024 we had six new grade 10 indigenous students join our cohort. Our goal was to get a baseline understanding of their personal thoughts regarding their own self-awareness and self management.  We conducted a very simple survey with these students.

Survey Results:

Self- Awareness

• I behave appropriately in a given situation - 5/6 students believe they do this most to all of the time
• I am able to identify the reasons for my feelings - 4/6 students believe they do this most to all of the time
• I describe and provide evidence of my strengths and areas for growth - 3/6 students believe they do this most to all of the time

Self-Management

• I implement specific action steps to achieve my goals - 3/6 students believe they do this most to all of the time
• I demonstrate perseverance and adaptability when faced with challenges - 3/6 students believe they do this most to all of the time
• I apply healthy strategies to decrease my stress level - 3/6 students believe they do this most to all of the time

These processes begin student work in the areas of Self Awareness and Self Management.

FOCUS 2025 -2026

As a continuation of our focus on the social /emotional development of students, we implemented a new course this school year, targeting particular students we believed would benefit from the competencies. The course enrolled 14 students, which were a mix of gender, age, learning differences and Indigenous/Non-Indigenous

Social Interactions 10 – Course Overview

Social Interactions 10 is a skill‑building course to support students in developing emotional awareness, stress‑management skills, and healthy interpersonal habits. The course is delivered through a combination of community‑based instruction, school‑based group learning, and individualized reflection.

During this school year, students participated in eight weekly 1.5‑hour classes facilitated by the Canadian Mental Health Association, focusing on foundational mental health literacy and practical coping strategies. In addition, students completed seven school‑based group modules led by a school counsellor and Youth Care Worker. These modules included:

• Understanding Anxiety
• Name It to Tame It (emotional identification)
• Breath Work and Regulation Skills
• Taking Perspective
• Self‑Forgiveness and Self‑Compassion
• Sleep Hygiene
• Evaluating Mental Health Apps (project module)

Students also selected three personal‑choice modules, allowing them to engage in Wellness Presentations that aligned with their interests and individual needs.

Throughout the course, students maintained journal entries and logged their practice of the strategies introduced in each module. These reflective components helped students track their growth, deepen their understanding of mental health concepts, and apply skills in real‑life contexts.

Social Interactions 10 is designed to empower students with practical tools to support emotional regulation, resilience, and overall well‑being while fostering a supportive, collaborative learning environment.

The particular curricular competencies focused on included:

Self Awareness and Understanding 

• Identify emotions in self and in others
• Identify and rate personal comfort with social/communication interactions
• Identify anxiety/stress signals (causes and effects)
• Predict, identify and define social problems

As part of student assessment, the students were asked to complete a Pre and Post Self Assessment.

OUR NEXT STEPS

Our students continue to demonstrate personal growth and progress in relation to our learning goals:

Learning Goals:

• Our learners can make connections between emotions and learning. They can identify their own emotions, as well as those of others.
• Our learners can recognize their strengths and can use strategies to focus and accomplish their goals.
• Our learners believe in their capabilities to achieve academic, career and/or personal goals.

At the heart of a student's learning journey at the Cloverdale Learning Centre, is what they learn about themselves. Themselves as unique individuals that thrive and learn and grow, despite the barriers that occur along the way.  The best part of this work is having the privilege to watch our students become their best selves.

2026 - 2027 

Social Interactions 10

Career Life Connections 12

Art Studio 10

The Altered Book Project in Art Studio 10 encourages students to explore their identity, promoting self awareness and self management. Students create pieces that reflect themselves, their interests and their sense of belonging. The particular focus with these students has been demonstrating respect for self, others, and place. As evidenced in the art projects and reflections, students have taken personal risks. Through this process, we have a better understanding of who they are.

Art Studio 12

Windspeaker Coast Salish Artwork

Career Life Education 10

Career Life Education 10 encourages students to develop their self awareness and self management. Exploring their own personal characteristics, interests, motivations, and personality, no matter how difficult this can be, is a very important and healing step that helps move students along the journey of becoming their best self. 

Moving forward...

We see that developing our learners skillsets in self awareness and self management is valuable. We are noticing our students progressing in their understanding of themselves and how this connects to their interactions with others (self-regulation), our school (belonging), and their future (hope). 

We will continue to build on this work in the following ways:

• Continue to focus on SEL, particularly the curricular competency, recognize and identify personal, social, and cultural contexts, values and perspectives in texts, including gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic factors. Students will continue to make connections to who they are in relation to self and others.
• Go deeper into the social and cultural aspects of personal identity. 
• Explore universal, targeted and intensive SEL supports and assessments - universal self-regulation strategies, targeted small group work such as Mindfulness, and intensive one-to-one support as needed.
• Explore additional learning goals. Possibilities include: Demonstrate respect for self, others, and place, Develop skills for maintaining healthy relationships and responding to interpersonal conflict, Practice effective strategies for healthy school/work/life balance 
• Further link the curricular areas of Art Studio 10 & 12 and CLE 10, New Media 11, CLC 12 to our learning goal(s).
• Refine Social Interactions 10
• Continue to celebrate our students and their personal learning journeys!