Think about a challenging behavior that (a) student(s) in your school exhibit.

Provide some background

information about the student(s), identify the possible reasons for that challenging behavior, and think
of some plausible first steps to begin to incorporate SEL in your school(s). (600-word limit).

Background information about my students

As I have already pointed out on previous posts through the forum, I am currently teaching
students from 2nd and 3rd form from Ciclo Básico in Pando. The vast majority of these
teenagers come from a middle-low sociocultural background. They have serious issues in
building positive relationships among each other. They lack the tools to work cooperatively
and they are unable to empathise with peers. This latter mentioned leads to a constant
negative attitude towards each other. It has been really hard to strike a balance between
setting clear and solid classroom rules to create an appropriate caring learning environment
and building a positive rapport with them.
Challenging behaviour found on my students
The most challenging aspect I have been dealing with so far has been to detect the reasons of
their fallouts or constant negative attitude towards each other. I felt that there was a missing
piece since explicit problematic situations did not occur within the classroom. I discuss thess
impressions with other teachers and we came to the conclusion that many conflicts started
through their Whatsapp groups.
Every beginning of the year, each group creates a Whatsapp group, which is supposed to be
used for multiple purposes: for establishing closer bonds among each other, for educational
purposes, for fun, etc. However, from the very beginning of its creation these groups started
creating conflicts among students: some are harassed because they simply ask for class notes
or homework, others start teasing the shyest ones; others use these peer grouping to spread
lies, rumors or secrets, others are simply ignored when they try to interact. In other words:
cyber bullying via Whatsapp. These peer groups are the clearest proof of the lack of social
emotional competencies our students have. I found this issue particularly challenging since
teenagers are especially vulnerable to cyber bullying. This is more so when they feel the need
to seek the approval of a peer group for social acceptance.
Steps to incorporate SEL strategies
This challenge chosen embraces the five SEL competencies since these students lack the tools
and skills to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show
empathy for others, build and keep positive relationships and make responsible decisions
(CASEL, 2012).
My first steps to tackle this issue would be:
 Deal with cyberbullying and its differences between traditional bullying.
 Speak about the problem explicitly and show students how their negative attitudes affect
and reflect in the classroom and needless to say their lives outside highschool.
 Plan activities that include role-play cards that show typical Whatsapp group problematic
situations and any other cyberbullying examples.
 Teach the THINK (T—is it true - H—is it helpful - I—is it inspiring - N—is it necessary
K—is it kind) process to help students recognize responsible social media use before
posting an unkind or untrue remark about someone.
 Present the material shown below and ask them to create a poster to exhibit at highschool
about cyber-bullying on Whatsapp groups and a list of behaviour ground rules for these
peer groups.
Source: Pinterest “Cyber-bullying”