I’m in my twenty-fourth year of being an elementary teacher and my passion has always been fostering a caring community. There is so much that can be gained from teaching young children social emotional learning. They need help learning how to navigate relationships, social awareness, and self-management which are all essential SEL tools to carry into life. Teachers can find a simple and effective way to connect with students and equip them with lifelong tools to communicate their feelings and needs into the future with simple tools.

Social emotional learning helps to build healthy relationships between peers. Students that are supported in their school experience by helping them develop empathy and build stronger relationships with have healthy relationships in the future. Students, staff and parents all benefit in social emotional learning because it helps to strengthen well-being and improves the culture of classrooms.

My favorite way to implement social emotional conversations is with a morning meeting question. Here are some of my favorites. I’ve been making templets using Canvas and Google Jamboards. Both are terrific for giving a visual to children to make a connection and then share.

I’m a grad student at Arizona State University and learning more about research in education. Teachers are needing more tools to support learners’ SEL to positively impact students to relieve stress and anxiety. Next year I’m super excited to implement innovative technology and explore tech-mediated tools like Merge Cube with AR and VR . When teachers take the time to create a classroom culture that promotes shared learning and teamwork, everyone wins.