Collaboration To Offer Educators an Emotional Intelligence Toolkit
Facebook,
the Six
Seconds nonprofit and the Yale
Center for Emotional Intelligence will collaborate on a new
educator toolkit
designed to help students understand and manage their emotions.
The
projected, titled InspirED, was launched
during the October 24 Emotion Revolution Summit at Yale University.
Along
with online resources created by high
school students and educators, there will be an award established to
recognize
projects that bring social emotional learning to schools.
Six
Seconds is a nonprofit that that teaches the
skills of emotional intelligence. Social and emotional learning is
intended to
help children and adults acquire the skills to manage emotions, feel
empathy
for others and make responsible decisions.
The Yale Center for Emotional
Intelligence conducts research on emotions and the role of emotional
intelligence in important life outcomes. The center also develops
approaches to
teaching emotional intelligence in school systems and other
organizations, and
studies the influence of emotional intelligence training on student,
teacher
and leader effectiveness.
Facebook
will provide a conduit to teenagers who
might be interested in the project, along with business, technical and
design
expertise.
Along
with about 200 high school students at the Emotion
Revolution Summit was Lady Gaga of the Born
This Way Foundation, which is
dedicated to finding solutions to bullying in schools.
The
InspirED Educator Toolkit includes more than
20 online lessons that teachers can use to foster school environments
where
children learn from their emotions, rather than keeping them hidden.
"This
collaboration with major players in the
fields of emotional intelligence and social media has huge potential to
change
the ways schools integrate emotional knowledge into their programs,"
said Six
Seconds CEO Josh Freedman.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.