High school seniors, in October, right after lunch.  As teachers, we understand what this means as far as classroom dynamics go for about the first 5 to 10 minutes of class.  Students go off campus, load up on sugars and carbohydrates, chat in the parking lot with friends, conjure up the next plan for the weekend events, commentary on social media, and have a moment of disconnect from the demands of performing on AP assignments and exams and college preparation as well as maintaining a work-school-home balance. It was this class that prompted the utilization of Color Code as I recognized a disconnect with clique-like groups that had form

Historically both elementary and secondary schools have existed primarily to support analytical intelligence commonly referred to as “book smarts." And, while this is a very good thing, more and more studies are finding that this is not the entire recipe for a well-rounded and intelligent individual. Enter Social and Emotional Learning (or SEL for short). Social and Emotional Learning, defined as life skills which include how to interact with others and manage one’s own emotions, is slowly finding its way into classrooms across the world and making a BIG impact as mentioned, for example, in an article¹ by Daniel Goleman: "The data sh