Antioch School District 34’s mission is to inspire a passion for learning that empowers all students to achieve personal excellence. This includes educating the whole child, including social/emotional learning. The district began using Second Step as a resource for tier 1 several years ago, fully adopting the program for grades K-8 during the 2018-2019 school year.
According to their website, Second Step is a program rooted in social-emotional learning (SEL) that helps transform schools into supportive, successful learning environments uniquely equipped to encourage children to thrive. More than just a classroom curriculum, Second Step’s holistic approach helps create a more empathetic society by providing education professionals, families, and the larger community with tools to enable them to take an active role in the social-emotional growth and safety of today’s children.
Second Step is used by schools in over 70 countries and reaches more than 15 million students annually, is a longstanding partner in education, and is built on decades of research and experience. Educators turn to Second Step because of its record of results, its commitment to research, and its intuitive programs that are designed with empathy and scalability. Second Step is a comprehensive and sound investment to support improving child safety, readiness to learn, school culture, and academic success.
Second Step gives teachers what they need in a way that makes a real difference, right away. Easily managed lessons and minimized up-front training and prep time allow teachers to buy in to the programs quickly and take their concepts further as SEL champions. Experienced veterans and first-year teachers alike are quick to embrace the intuitive formats, supported and developed through rigorous research and testing. Second Step is successful precisely because it works for teachers.
Dynamic, interactive content and explicit skills instruction are worked into every Second Step lesson to ensure it meets its objective. From beloved puppets and catchy songs during the younger years to candid Real Voices videos for middle schoolers, learning and practicing the skills and concepts taught in Second Step is an enjoyable, memorable experience—one that’s relevant and engaging for every grade level and reaches every learner in the classroom.
