Recently, we hosted Andy Vasily for a full-day workshop on social and emotional learning (SEL). It wasn’t just a PD day, it was a turning point in how we think about our classroom and school culture.
A challenge to examine what our school culture really communicates about belonging. A challenge to ask: If we say wellbeing matters, how is that reflected in our daily practice?
Here are four key reflections that stayed with me, and why I believe SEL is about more than strategies. It’s about creating a culture where students feel heard, respected, and that they belong.
Belonging isn’t an outcome; it begins with how we design learning
It’s something I’ve long believed, but hearing it again made me step back and ask: Are we fully living it across all areas of school life, or are there still blind spots?
SEL isn’t a separate initiative or something to squeeze into morning meetings. It’s embedded in how we talk to students, the teaching, learning and assessment routines we build, the expectations we set, and the space we give for thinking and emotions to coexist. It shapes the classroom tone and impacts whether students feel safe being themselves.
If students are constantly corrected, rushed, or unheard, they don’t feel they belong, even in the most innovative learning environments. So the question becomes:
What are our practices really telling students about who belongs here?
How do we work on building trust with and amongst the students?
Andy shared four domains of trust: competence, reliability, care, and sincerity. I found myself wondering:
- How often do we name these with students?
- Do we model what it looks like to show care and reliability?
- Do we pause when trust breaks, and help students repair it?
Trust is what allows students to take risks and open up. It’s the foundation for classroom belonging. However, trust doesn’t just appear, we have to name it, teach it, model it, and protect it.
The Head, Heart, and Hand
Head: What am I thinking?
Heart: What am I feeling?
Hand: What am I doing?
When students pause to reflect this way, they start noticing patterns. They learn how their emotions shape their decisions. They connect self-awareness to action.
But here’s the thing: When we collect student reflections, do we truly listen? Do we use them to understand students better? Do we change anything based on what they share? Because that’s where belonging begins, when students realize their reflections matter.
What are our next steps as a school?
How do we move forward as a school while still responding to what students need right now?
As a pedagogical leader, I often hear: “Let’s figure out the whole structure first.”
But when it comes to belonging, wellbeing, and learning culture, waiting for the perfect plan means missing the chance to respond to what matters most, now. Instead, a design thinking mindset helps us move forward. Start with what we know. Inquire into what’s working. Design, observe, refine.
Design thinking isn’t plan-less. It’s planning through action. It starts with empathy: understanding the needs, feelings, and experiences of the people at the heart of the challenge, in our case, the students. From there, we move through cycles of trying something out, observing the impact, gathering feedback, and refining as we go. It’s flexible, responsive, and grounded in real-time learning. Instead of waiting for certainty, we create clarity by doing, reflecting, and improving. That’s how we design practices that actually fit our context, not just replicate what worked somewhere else.
We don’t need to roll out a program. We need to shift culture. That can begin with just a few shared tools. A shared language. A shared commitment to noticing what students are showing us, and adjusting accordingly.
The question isn’t whether SEL matters. The question is: Are we willing to revise what we do, to pause, revisit, and design differently, so that every student feels they belong here?
The Organized Chaos In The PYP Classroom 
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