Social Emotional Learning & RULER
The RULER Approach
RULER is an approach to social emotional learning (SEL) that teaches emotional intelligence to people of all ages, with the goal of creating a healthier, more equitable, innovative, and compassionate society.
The Anchors of Emotional Intelligence
The RULER Anchor Tools build the emotional intelligence of school leaders, teachers and staff, and students and their families. The four RULER Anchor Tools are:
1. Charter
The Charter is an agreement guided by two questions:
- How do you want to feel when we're together?
- How will we help each other have these feelings?
2. Mood Meter
The Mood Meter is a tool that helps us understand our emotions. It's made up of four different quadrants.
- Blue like sad or lonely
- Red like anger or fear
- Yellow like joy or excitement
- Green like included and calm
3. Meta-Moment
The Meta-Moment is a pause between the moment something happens and our response. Its our steps are:
- Sense: Noticing body, thoughts, feelings like sweaty palms and a racing mind
- Pause: Taking a deep breath
- See Your Best Self: Remembering the person you want to be
- Strategize & Act: Use an action or thought strategy. For example taking a walk, getting a drink of water, remembering there is more than one way to look at a situation.
4. Blueprint
The Blueprint is a set of questions for resolving conflicts:
- What happened?
- How did I feel?
- What caused my feelings?
- How did I express and regulate my emotions?
- How might my actions have affected others?
- Next time how might I respond differently?