We met Valerie Rhames, a first-grade teacher in New York City, at the New York City Elementary School Principals Association in March of 2024. She was a very active participant at our workshop Differentiated SEL: Equity and Access for Students with Learning Disabilities, and stood out by asking a ton of questions and sharing her passion for SEL. We felt that SuperDville strongly aligned with her own classroom practices and so inspired by her work and passion for educating the whole child, Megan Turner, the Education Program Manager at SuperDville interviewed Valerie Rhames.
Keep an eye out for the bolded purple text in the interview for some useful tips for the classroom!
Megan: What’s your professional background? What’s your experience been in education?
Valerie: I work at PS 46 in the Bronx as a first-grade teacher. At first, I was Gen Ed for eight years and worked in a Montessori setting. I just finished my master’s in autism spectrum disorder in November. I’ve utilized all the knowledge that I have from my master’s program in my classroom environment.
I always wanted to work in a New York City public school because I’m the product of one. I am someone who is successful, somebody who persevered, and I want to be that role model for other students. I always said when I become a teacher, I want to create a culture where my students can safely explore how they feel. That’s why I’m such an advocate for social-emotional learning.
Megan: What are some ways that you teach these social-emotional learning skills to your students?
Valerie: One, I have created a culture of a welcoming environment, and that’s greeting the students at the door, so they see my face first. How are you doing? And they’re able to choose. They’re given five choices, they can give me a hug, a high five, a handshake, a fist bump or just say hello. That’s giving them some ownership of how they want to greet me for their morning, just seeing a smiley face and small talk at the door.
And then when they come in, they have this mood meter check-in, which has their picture on it, and it’s four quadrants. Green means you’re happy, yellow means you’re excited, blue means you’re sleepy, and red means you’re angry or worried. So based on that, I’m able to collect data in the morning on how students are feeling. And then in the morning meeting, I ask them, who would like to express how they feel? In the beginning, kids are shy but now everybody wants to share their feelings. So that makes me excited because they feel safe, and that’s the culture that we want to create, where the kids feel very comfortable because they’re able to thrive in that sort of environment and just love coming to school. We have to get them to love coming to school.
One other thing that I do is I have a Promethean board, I have calm music playing, and it’s just pictures of ocean animals, and the music is very soft. I always have a citrus smell in my classroom as I want the kids to know that the environment is clean and the importance of keeping it clean and how that should carry that over into the home.
Megan: Do you think that social-emotional learning is effective or important for students who are struggling in school?
Valerie: I’ve had students who struggle in kindergarten through fifth grade, come into my classroom, and when they struggle, they come in, and the environment is calm. It calms them down. It really soothes them. And I’m able to ask, how are you feeling? What’s going on? Did something happen to upset you? How did it happen? I am allowing them time to feel angry, upset, and then approaching them I’ll say something funny like, what color is my eyeshadow? Do you like the color of my nails? Just to get them laughing and feeling good and to take the focus off their emotions, and then I’m able to talk to them. So, you can see – social-emotional learning is just part of life. That’s what it is.
Social-emotional learning is a lifelong skill that will carry over until adulthood. We have to get the kids while they’re young to instill these values, these core values that they need in order to function in society. It’s important to know how to socialize with people, what is appropriate and what’s not appropriate, and how to read body language, that all comes into play, but recognizing what others are thinking and then making good decisions on what to say to that person.
Also, focus on problem-solving between the students. At our assemblies, we talk about the social and emotional. We talk about what’s a small problem, what’s a medium problem, and what’s a big problem. I then use that in my everyday language. I will ask my students, you have a problem? Is it a small problem? Are you able to talk about it? Do you need an intervention? Or I’ll stand back and just listen to the conversation, and if I feel that I need to intervene, then I will because I tell them I’m not going to always be with you. So you have to learn how to solve problems on your own. I do a lot of skits in the classroom with puppets, and we act situations out and then I say freeze. We talk about it and then we talk about possible solutions.
Megan: There are some people or some spaces where social-emotional learning is not really embraced or people don’t feel positively about that. Why do you think that is? Do you think there are misunderstandings about it?
Valerie: I always hear there’s not enough time in a schedule and I feel it’s not that you make time for it. It needs to happen every single day. It’s part of our identity and who we are. To me, building character is so important. How to conduct yourself, how to speak to people is very important to me. And that’s something we miss sometimes in the educational system, we want the students to read and write and do math. I believe in all that. But I’m also an advocate of building character. I stress acts of kindness in my classroom, holding a door for somebody, if somebody falls, asking them if they are okay. But I do hear teachers say, oh, I don’t have time. We implement four hours of Mindful Monday on Mondays. But it’s not just I do it on Mondays, I do it every single day. It’s part of my classroom culture.
Megan: In your dream elementary school program, what would the incorporation of SEL look like?
Valerie: It would be students helping each other, a lot of partnerships. It would be teaching others what strategies to use when they get upset. Talking more about socialization, because that leads to mental health. So having critical thinkers, what would you do in this situation? I like those conversations amongst students because even if they have three or four suggestions when they are in that situation, it’s more likely that they would use one of those strategies because I always ask my students, okay, you’re upset. What strategy are you using? Are you inhaling and exhaling, doing your breathing exercises? Are you counting to ten and backwards? Do you need to draw a picture? Do you need to take a walk? No, no. Okay, so what do you suggest? What do you need? So now I put the ownership on them because it can be something different and I may not know.
I’ve seen it work because certain students who at the beginning of the school year had some anger issues, now, I see them really problem-solving. And I even speak to the parent. Do you notice a change in your child? What have you seen that your child used to do before that they do differently? And they’ll tell me, oh, they’re able to calm down themselves. They don’t have as many tantrums as before. They’re able to express how they feel and name each emotion, which is very important. So teaching them other words besides happy, sad. Oh, I’m content, you know, I’m serene, I’m worried. And then explaining, what does that look like? Why are you feeling that way?
Megan: Is there anything that you want to share about what’s happening in your classroom, with the work that you’re doing yourself?
Valerie: One other thing that I do is talk about healthy eating. Healthy foods like salad and the importance of fruits, like apple, has a lot of fiber in it, and you need that for your body. I taught my students how to read the back of labels, so they look for the sugar content and the sodium content so they know when it’s high in sodium. I give them that opportunity to learn about that because there’s a lot of diabetes with kids going on, and I just want them to know that healthy eating is very important, and you need that to grow your body healthy, and to think clearly.
I also teach them breathing exercises and the importance of inhaling and exhaling. And what does that look like? By showing them my belly, you know, how it expands and contracts. Also, I teach them stretching exercises, how to touch their toes, which a lot of them complain about. They’re like, oh, this hurts. I’m like, okay. That means you need to practice. I said, if you can’t do it, you can touch your ankles but soon you’ll be able to touch your toes if you keep practicing. That means you practice at school, you practice at home, you know, to build up your body. So that’s also important too, I want students to have a healthy body and a healthy mind.
Megan: I mean, I’m walking away thinking that there’s a lot of emphasis on the child as a whole person.
Valerie: And, you know, it’s a great thing. I mean, it brings joy to my heart to see my students enthusiastic about coming to school. Because once they have the willingness to learn, they will persevere. They will push themselves to do better for themselves. I tell them, I can teach you, but you have to be willing to want to receive what I’m giving you in order to become a better person in life or to strive for your goals. So, again, putting the ownership on them. Oh, you mean I have a choice in this? Yes, you do have a choice. I mean, we want them to make the right choice but that comes through repetition.
And like I said, every day I do the same things, every day, so by the end of the school year, I feel that they are equipped.
Megan: Well, as we wrap up, I’d love to know what are some words of encouragement you would give to other teachers who are considering incorporating SEL into their classrooms? Or for those who don’t know how to begin, where can they start?
Valerie: I would say that putting a smile on your face. The first face that the kids see at school is very important because you’re creating a culture where it’s a happy environment and also having a social-emotional board with different strategies that the students can use when they feel upset. So even if they’re upset, they can go to the anchor chart and point to what strategy they want to use.
Always create an environment where you’re sharing your personal experiences with the students so they know that this person is human like I am. I go through similar things that you guys go through. When you get frustrated, show them your frustration level, and then use the strategy right in front of them. When I get upset, I inhale, exhale. I count to ten. I count backward, and the students know, okay, Miss Rhames needs a little break. But showing them that in order for them to learn, you have to explicitly teach them what you want them to learn, and that’s through repetition. Just know that these children are the future and we want them to be the best lifelong learners that we have in society and to know that you made an impact on them.
Megan: That is wonderful. I think those are great tools and those are things that people can start off with. Thank you for taking time out of your day. I know your school day has wrapped up and you are still taking this time to chat with me. I learned so much from you. So thank you.
Valerie’s Picks for SEL Resources:
