Social-emotional development includes the child's experience, expression, and management of emotions and the ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with others (Cohen and others 2005).
The positive, proactive, social and emotional effects are what make the Badge Messenger® key to the learning environment. Many companies today are working on character development and/or positive social and emotional curriculum. One of my favorites is Top 20. A favorite quote from Paul at Top 20 is "Human beings proceed human doing." The majority of teachers I have had the privilege of working with over the past 30 years are very devoted to all of their students. They see potential in each and every one of their students, knowing that even the difficult behaviors stem from some social or emotional situations. They do their very best to build a caring, supportive and safe environment for their students to learn.Badge Messenger allows the teacher to quietly and seamlessly request help when they see a student in need. The messenger is worn on the teacher and so it's with her all the time. If a child deals with behavior issues, and the button has been pushed quietly before they are out of control, someone will be able to come and swoop that student out in a positive manner – "I need your help, come take a walk with me." before the situation affects everyone. Badge Messenger provides those students who suffer from behavior situations more positive opportunities to deal with their situations and therefore, in the long run, have a more rapid progression in changing difficult behaviors.
The other students' perception of this learning won't be viewed as negatives but positives. In any classroom, students learn from all the interactions in the classroom. When a student has a behavioral situation, the other students watch how the situation is handled and their behaviors are affected by these situations, too. If the teacher has support, she will be able to more positively deal with the situation and all the students will benefit.
Dr. Elizabeth Studwell is a New York City Clinical Psychologist whose work centers around children and young adults. She says, "Traumatic events cause the brain to enter a heightened state of awareness, activating our limbic system and flooding the brain with the stress hormone cortisol. Excess cortisol is toxic to the brain and primarily damages the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. These areas of the brain are directly related to memory and executive functioning respectively. As a result, there becomes an overall decreased ability to process new information, objectively analyze complex data and engage in memory consolidation."
Student growth in a school community is important to not only benefit them but also empower teachers. Badge Messenger promotes the positive, social and emotional growth in the classroom. In relationship to Top 20 or any other positive emotional behavior curriculum, Badge Messenger is an important tool in promoting positive interactions more fluidly. We often hear that it takes a village and with Badge Messenger, teachers, students, parents and the community will know they are a button push away from the help they need to support positive learning in the classroom.