The West Bend School District is proud to offer the WBSD Way, a framework of supports designed to maximize academic engagement and achievement for all students. The goal of the WBSD Way is to promote and teach appropriate pro-social skills and behaviors to maximize academic success for all students. 

Be Safe
Be Ready
Be Respectful
Be Responsible

Why is social and emotional learning important?
Physical, social, and emotional, as well as technological safety, help ensure an optimal learning environment.  For children, these skills are taught at both home and school throughout their lives.  Our goal is to help students to achieve the skills needed to be successful learners in the classroom and responsible members of our community. Social and emotional learning enhances students’ capacity to integrate skills, attitudes, and behaviors to deal effectively with daily tasks and challenges.  

Many of these skills are referred to as “soft skills” in the workplace such as positive relationships with peers, enhanced self-efficacy, good attendance, collaboration, confidence, and persistence. According to LinkedIn, the soft skills developed by social and emotional learning are exactly what 59 percent of hiring managers surveyed look for in new hires.

How is Social and Emotional Learning Incorporated into Student Learning?
Teachers and counselors often use a mini-lesson model to help students make connections to social emotional skills and how to practice their skills.  Click on the image to the right to review what a mini-lesson may look like. 

When do students learn this?
Review the chart to the right to find details on the portion of their day that children in grades 4K-8  take part in social and emotional learning. 

What do they learn?
The charts at the right show the weekly lessons in social and emotional learning by grade level. 

Materials Available for Viewing
The West Bend School district has received several inquiries from members of the school community requesting access to various instructional materials related to the district’s social and emotional learning. In accordance with the district’s commitment to transparency, we desire to share information regarding student instruction and curriculum with parents and others. Many instructional materials used by the district are the intellectual property of third party providers and are protected by copyright laws as well as licensing agreements. In this case there are no textbooks to view and materials include teacher kits for grades K-4, which contain items such as lesson planning books, posters, and puppets. There is also a staff-only online portal to access materials (slides, videos, worksheets). The district is restricted by law in its ability to reproduce and distribute such materials, including to parents and other members of the school community. The district is not restricted in removing lessons or skipping portions of a lesson.

In light of these legal restrictions, the district may not simply provide copies of all instructional materials to anyone requesting them, or post the materials to its public website or to Google Classroom or Canvas (our online learning management systems) for anyone to view and/or copy. However, the district has made an overview of lessons available above with other materials available for in-person public review at the district offices. In this way, the district is attempting to provide transparency to members of the school community, while not exposing the district to legal liability for failing to abide by applicable copyrights laws and licensing agreements. The materials available for use continue to be accessible for viewing by appointment by contacting the district at 262-306-4800.