Visits Warren City Schools
Leading social-emotional learning expert and nationally recognized veteran teacher, author and speaker R. Keeth Matheny spent some time inside Warren City Schools on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, meeting with teachers and administrators as part of the district’s long standing commitment to addressing the social, emotional and academic needs of all students.
Matheny, who spoke during morning and afternoons sessions, emphasized using SEL skills to increase engagement in teaching practices and relationship building strategies.
Matheny is the author of the new book “ExSELent Teaching” released earlier this year. He was the 2021 CASEL SELLY award winner as the Mary Utne O’Brien Award Recipient for excellence in advancing research and evidence-based SEL practices. He was also a 2015 winner of the Crystal Star Award for Excellence in supporting student success from the National Dropout Prevention Center. He was a member of the Aspen Institute’s Social Emotional and Academic Development (SEAD) Council of Distinguished Educators and contributed to their A Nation at Hope report.
A passionate and dedicated former classroom teacher with over 25 years of experience, Matheny created and taught an innovative social and emotional learning freshman seminar that had more than 400 educator visits from across the U.S. and abroad. The seminar was featured in an article in The Atlantic and has now spread to many more schools and districts. One of his former students, who went from “at risk” to Ivy League, recently did a Ted talk and referenced the class he teaches.
Matheny is a co-author of School-Connect, a research and evidence-based social and emotional learning curriculum now in more than 2,000 secondary schools. He is a frequent and engaging public speaker and keynote on SEL, emotional intelligence, and multi-tiered systems of student and staff supports. He was the keynote for 12 educational conferences in the past five years. His work and the schools he worked with have been frequently featured in national webinars, magazine articles, and journals of best practices.
