Social & Emotional Learning

New Mexico Makes SEL Resources Free to Teachers Students and Families

• By David Nagel
• 09/16/21

New Mexico’s Public Education Department is making social and emotional learning resources available statewide to teachers, students and families.

The department partnered with 7 Mindsets to provide access to the company's curricular materials and courses at no cost through a new portal. That includes full course curriculum for preK–12, as well as content specific to students, families and educators. Content includes "lessons, videos, discussion prompts, activities, projects, and reflective journaling activities for students." The resources are available in English and Spanish.

“Both the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest have heightened children’s need for community and for positive relationships with their peers, teachers, and families,” said 7 Mindsets President Lupita Knittel, in a prepared statement. “With all the stress and trauma of the past year and a half, as well as the need to re-acclimate to physical classrooms, students are going to need the help of SEL in order to focus on learning.”

The program also includes teacher professional development.

“We have a lot of work to do to expand our social emotional learning,” said New Mexico Secretary of Education Kurt Steinhaus, also in a prepared statement. “That’s why these new resources and tools from 7 Mindsets will be so valuable. I encourage our educators to get on the web page, let’s learn these new tools, and let’s make better use of social emotional learning in our work with parents, students, and each other. I appreciate so much the work that has been done so far to make social emotional learning an integral part –and an important part – of everything our educators are doing during their work in schools.”

New Mexico's SEL portal can be accessed here.