The Homeroom Institute for Social Emotional Learning (HISEL) is a cooperative effort between Megan Olivia Hall and Thomas Totushek centered around the idea that time and effort must be given to teach things that are outside the normal curriculum in a way that supports our students on their path to become happy and productive citizens.
While many schools have a time set aside announcements, school business, and the like, Tom and Megan advocate that student needs be addressed during that time as well. Megan and Tom believe that each student should have an adult in their educational setting that cares deeply for their well-being and guides them as they grow from dealing with adolescent issues like bullying, self-confidence, and decision-making to adult issues of getting and keeping a job, becoming college and career ready, and the importance of reading to children. These topics and more cannot be ignored and time must be set aside from them and many other things like: team-building, academic advising, service to school and community, health and wellness, conflict resolution, etc.
Tom and Megan lead successful homerooms of their own, create lessons for their homerooms and others in their educational network, and are looking to expand into teaching at local Universities and consulting with like-minded educators to facilitate their pathway toward more powerful Social Emotional Learning in their school settings.
If you would like to know more, please read about our approach, explore our lesson library, read some of our posts. We welcome your thoughts and questions. Please contact us!