Tag SEL

SEL, self-care, and self-love

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

In collaboration with PebbleGo

Especially at this time of the year when school schedules can become challenging with spring activities, testing, and daily routines, focusing on SEL, self-care, and self-love is essential. More importantly, we need to help students develop habits that enable them to focus on their well-being and develop the skills needed to work through challenges and deal with emotions. We need to foster the development of practices and behaviors that will promote emotional, mental, and physical health.

By creating opportunities for students to develop SEL skills and a positive self-image, it will enable them to manage their emotions, develop supportive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

Self-care is crucial for students’ well-being and academic success. Students who practice self-care are more likely to have better mental health, reduced stress levels, improved academic performance, and higher levels of overall happiness. This, in turn, enables them to focus better on academic work and set and achieve their learning goals. One idea to try is to have students design vision boards. The boards can include each student’s goals in each of these areas and can be a great activity for students to use for personal reflection.

Self-love, which involves developing a positive self-image and nurturing oneself with kindness and compassion, can boost self-esteem, self-confidence, and resilience. These directly relate to the SEL skills that are essential for personal success. Developing these skills will enable students to navigate their social and emotional worlds and build meaningful relationships with others. Students will be better able to manage emotions, communicate effectively, develop empathy and understanding for others, and work through challenges they may face.

Ideas for focusing on self-love and SEL

Buncee: Teachers can use Buncee, a multimedia and creativity tool, to help students create multimedia projects that promote self-care, self-love, and SEL. For example, students can create digital posters that showcase self-love affirmations, gratitude journals, or mindfulness exercises. They can also create projects to share that teach SEL skills such as empathy, self-awareness, and responsible decision-making. Buncee and using PebbleGo Create foster creativity and when students have writing or art assignments, they can express their emotions and thoughts in a safe and supportive environment.

Here are some examples to try!

  • Healthy Habits: Use PebbleGo to research healthy habits. A focus on self-love involves practicing healthy habits such as exercise, nutrition, and getting adequate sleep. With PebbleGo, students can research healthy habits in areas such as health, physical education, or science. Students will learn about the benefits of exercise on the brain and mood, the importance of sleep for mental and physical health, or the role of nutrition in energy and well-being. By learning about healthy habits, students can develop SEL skills of self-management and promote their physical and emotional well-being. Students can then create a visual to share what they have learned and encourage others to focus on their habits too!
  • Gratitude Jars and Journals: Showing gratitude is a great way to promote self-love and positive emotions. Students can think about what they are grateful for, whether it is something they learned, a story they read, a historical figure that developed something that impacted the world. Students can then use PebbleGo Create to design a digital gratitude journal or a gratitude jar and can add pictures or audio recordings to personalize their journals. By doing this, it will help students develop positive emotions and SEL skills of social awareness.
  • Learning About Others and Building Awareness There are many wonderful non-fiction articles available with PebbleGo that cover a range of SEL topics that will help students develop self-awareness and social awareness. Students can find articles about emotions such as anger, fear, or sadness, and learn about strategies that will help them to better manage their emotions. Through the resources, they can learn about empathy, perspective-taking, and even conflict resolution, which are essential relationship skills. To share their learning, students can create a PSA to share in the classroom or the school!
  • Create Digital Affirmation Cards: Making affirmation cards is a powerful tool to better promote self-love and positive self-image. It can be a great way to help students connect with how they are feeling and set some goals. Students can explore the topics about health and wellness, and then create digital affirmation cards to refer to when they need a confidence boost or a reminder of their self-worth. The multimedia options available with stickers, animations and more boost creativity and help students to create visually appealing affirmation cards. Students can also create cards that highlight their strengths and accomplishments, such as “I am a good friend,” or “I am a talented artist.” These activities help students develop their self-awareness skills and boost their self-esteem.

PebbleGo can be used to explore feelings and emotions across content areas, such as science, social studies, or language arts. For example, students can research different animals and their emotions, such as how dogs show affection or how dolphins communicate with each other. Students can also explore emotions in literature by researching characters’ feelings and motivations in stories.

Researching inspirational figures, exploring feelings and emotions, creating positive affirmations, researching mindfulness practices, and researching healthy habits with Pebble Go, students can develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These skills are crucial for academic success and personal well-being. As teachers, we can use PebbleGo to provide students with access to a variety of non-fiction resources that promote self-reflection, positive self-talk, and healthy habits, which can help them develop a positive self-image and promote their emotional well-being.

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Spring Ideas to bring STEM to your classroom!

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

By Rachelle Dené Poth, @Rdene915

As we continue to seek ways to best prepare students for the skills that they need to be successful in the future, it’s important that we are not afraid to take risks in our classroom by bringing new methods and different digital tools for our students. In looking at resources from the World Economic Forum and the Job Skills Outlook for 2025, for example, many of the skills that we’ve been talking about for years are still in demand and predicted to be even more essential in the future. Some of those skills include critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity, collaboration and communication, flexibility, resilience, leadership skills, and digital literacy. Deciding on methods to use or which digital tool to use in our classrooms can be a challenge sometimes, however, there are some easy ways to get started with STEM learning activities that provide many benefits for students.

Regardless of the grade level or content area, all teachers can bring in ​STEM-focused activities for students in a variety of ways. There may be concerns about a lack of teacher training, however, it just takes a little bit of time to become familiar with the technology or the concepts and then let students dive in and take the lead in learning. It is great when students teach us as well. It does not require us to be experts in all of these areas. We just need to find a few ideas and get started.

Why STEM Matters

Helping students to learn about STEM is important for their future success as many of the in-demand careers are in ​STEM-related fields. These careers will increase in demand and it is important that all students have opportunities to explore their interests in these areas. There are many benefits of learning about STEM including that it helps students to develop problem-solving skills, which is a valuable skill for any type of career. Students build collaboration skills when working with classmates to solve STEM challenges for example. These opportunities also spark curiosity as students become more engaged in learning, not just the content area but also learning more about the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Providing STEM-related learning opportunities helps students to become more comfortable with taking some risks in learning and also shifts students from being consumers to creators and even innovators. ​

STEM also helps students to build social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. As students work through a learning activity, they build self-awareness in regard to their skills and their interests, self-management as they work through challenges, and develop persistence and resilience as they may face obstacles in learning. They also become better with time management as they plan their project-based learning​ (PBL)​ or need to meet a specific deadline for their work, depending on the methods used. Students build relationships as they collaborate with classmates and develop social awareness as they learn about one another or by exploring the United Nations’ ​S​ustainable ​Development Goals (SDGs) and learning about places and challenges being faced around the world. Decision-making skills are developed as they focus on their learning journey and make decisions and take greater ownership of their learning. Providing STEM activities helps students to become quite flexible in their learning as they have to continue to iterate and reflect on where they are in the learning journey.

Getting Started and Ideas to Explore

Finding the time to get started with ​STEM may present another challenge for teachers, especially with benchmarks that need to be met and specific curricula that must be followed. However, there are some different ways to bring STEM in even if it’s for a short term or as a class activity. 

  1. Start with a discussion about the various subjects of STEM and then encourage students to explore something related to their interests and share it with classmates. There are many online resources available and even educational programs and courses that can help students to learn about STEM subjects. It could be that they enroll in an online course or follow a tutorial and then create something to share in class. Hands-on learning is a great way to get students involved in STEM and that can require very little if any funding. 
  2. Think about the content that you are teaching and identify a real-world problem for students to solve or apply a STEM concept to it for a solution. Students can work individually or in small groups to come up with different solutions and then provide feedback to each other.
  3. Design ​h​ands-​o​n learning activities for students. Depending on the course you teach, it could be having students conduct an experiment in a science class, they could design a prototype for something, reconstruct a famous landmark from history or another course of study, and try to improve upon it using STEM concepts. Use the STEM challenges to connect students in the classroom and boost student engagement in learning.
  4. Bring in some digital tools and STEM materials. There are many digital tools available that not only provide students with opportunities to learn about STEM but also involve emerging technologies like artificial intelligence for example. We have been working with Marty the Robot, a humanoid that can be coded screen-free with color cards or using the app with text-based and block-based coding. This is another great opportunity to bring in STEM, PBL, and SEL and understand how AI is programmed. Also with the great choices focused on STEM and SDGs and more with iBlocks, students engage in learning that is authentic, meaningful, and personalized for them. Teachers have all of the materials they need to get started. Another option is Ozobot, a one-inch robot for teaching students about coding that is a favorite in my STEAM class. It can be used as a screen-free coding resource too!
  5. Think about cross-curricular collaboration. Finding time to bring in STEM activities can be done when collaborating with colleagues through cross-curricular collaborations. Find a common focus and have students apply their knowledge from these courses to design a project or work together with classmates to develop STEM and essential SEL skills.

Finding the Funding

Some of the challenges with bringing STEM into classrooms may include a lack of funding, depending on the type of resource that a school may want. Applying for grants or connecting with a local school or organization that offers a lending program or a library of resources that they share can be a great way to get started. Another suggestion is to obtain a few items and have students work in learning stations. Giving students a chance to explore multiple resources and then exchange ideas and reflect on their learning experience is also beneficial. When it comes to technology, not all schools may have access to the right devices, so finding a variety of resources to use that provide students with the opportunity to learn and engage with these tools is important. Also connecting subjects with other areas of the curriculum so that they see the real-world connection makes it more meaningful for students.

Another idea is to find guest speakers who can talk to students about STEM fields and the importance of these areas. In my school, we have access to a cohort that helps us find local organizations, technology companies, and local universities that offer resources or STEM-related learning opportunities for students.

The Benefits are Long-Lasting

Providing access to resources that equip students with the right information and opportunities to work at their own pace and explore based on their specific interests and needs is essential. Providing students with opportunities to engage in more student-driven learning through STEM-related activities will offer many benefits beyond just the content knowledge. It will prepare them for whatever the future holds and equip them with a variety of skills that will be adaptable to many areas of work and life.

About the Author:

Rachelle Dené Poth is an ed-tech consultant, presenter, attorney, author, and teacher. Rachelle teaches Spanish and STEAM: What’s nExT in Emerging Technology at Riverview Junior-Senior High School in Oakmont, PA. Rachelle has a Juris Doctor degree from Duquesne University School of Law and a Master’s in Instructional Technology. She is a Consultant and Speaker, owner of ThriveinEDU LLC Consulting. She is an ISTE Certified Educator and currently serves as the past -president of the ISTE Teacher Education Network and on the Leadership team of the Mobile Learning Network. At ISTE19, she received the Making IT Happen Award and a Presidential Gold Award for volunteer service to education. She is also a Buncee Ambassador, Nearpod PioNear, and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert.

Rachelle is the author of seven books and is a blogger for Getting Smart, Defined Learning, and NEO LMS. Follow Rachelle on Twitter @Rdene915 and Instagram @Rdene915. Rachelle has a podcast, ThriveinEDU https://anchor.fm/rdene915.

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here. Looking for a new book to read? Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks

************ Also check out my THRIVEinEDU Podcast Here!

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How students access core SEL competencies at school

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

In Collaboration with @x2VOL 

What is Social Emotional Learning

Social emotional learning (SEL) is the process in which people develop interrelational skills that include self-awareness, social and relationship skills, responsibility, empathy, and more. Social-emotional learning has become an important piece of high school education, as educators see improved student outcomes because of an emphasis on SEL. More and more schools and districts are adopting SEL programs or tracking social-emotional development during a student’s high school career in order to prepare a student for future success whether that is in a university or the workforce. 

What Constitutes SEL

According to CASEL’S SEL framework, there are 5 elements that constitute social-emotional learning. 

  1. Self-awareness
  2. Self-management
  3. Social awareness
  4. Relationship skills
  5. Responsible decision-making.

Why is this important?

Social-emotional development is a vital part of a student’s upbringing. This kind of development impacts how a student shows up in the world, how they interact with their peers, how they approach school and jobs, and how they develop meaningful relationships. Social-emotional development is crucial in positive student outcomes because they are learning valuable life skills and concepts. Additionally, universities seek students who possess a broadened perspective on the world and developed self-awareness. 

How do students develop social-emotional learning? 

There are a number of ways students grow in these areas and they don’t come from just one thing! Many of these competencies are developed through school-related activities and programs. Five days out of the week and 7-8 hours a day, students are in school. They spend additional time with their classmates in after-school programs, sports, extracurriculars, etc. Tracking and encouraging social-emotional learning has become a priority for educators as they know so much of this comes from school or school-related activities. 

There are three overarching ways students engage in social-emotional development through school:

  1. Community service requirements, programs or clubs. 

When they become active members of their communities through service, students are able to see outside of their small world bubble, and understand needs and different ways of life. Through service projects, students work with their peers, local or even national organizations, service activity coordinators, and individuals they are directly serving. This exposes them to needs and circumstances outside their normal bubble widening their world view. They are also learning valuable skills such as teamwork, communication, collaboration, and respect. 

Many schools have a service requirement for graduation. Others highly encourage student involvement in the community and award it at graduation, while others have clubs and programs where students can engage in community service. 

  1. Work-based learning and internship programs 

In part-time jobs, apprenticeships, internships, etc. students learn valuable workplace skills but they also learn the soft skills of problem-solving, relationship-building, empathy, understanding, cooperation, and collaboration. These school-based programs connect students with a job or internship and then have regular check-ins and assessments to evaluate a student’s development. It goes beyond a student just showing up for a shift, they are learning valuable skills they can take into the workforce in the future. 

  1. Service learning classes, humanities, or religion classes

Some schools have dedicated service learning classes or incorporate service and service learning in a humanities course. Private schools often incorporate service and service learning in their religion classes as it ties back to their faith and the mission of the school to encourage spiritual formation in students. 

Service learning connects service to what students are learning in the classroom – this gives students context for their work and provides deeper connections beyond checking service hours off a list. They can see and understand the impact of their work and reflect on their experiences in a meaningful way. 

Measuring and encouraging development

These school-based programs ensure students are given the opportunity to experience growth on a deeper level. Success and development come when educators can see a student’s progress month after month, year after year. Tracking their experiences, reflections, and areas of growth is an important step in advancing social-emotional learning. 

x2VOL becomes an extension of schools’ student programs to ensure students can track their progress and educators have insight into student development. With x2VOL, students and administrators track and manage these experiences and reflections all online, in one easy-to-use platform. Click below to watch our 1-minute demo of how x2VOL works.

How x2VOL Works

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here. Looking for a new book to read? Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks

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Spring Ideas to Boost Engagement!

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

The start of a new year is a great time to ​think about the progress we have made so far this year and consider trying some different methods and tools in our classrooms. Taking time to reflect on what has worked, what we have not tried, and areas, where we may be having some challenges, is important. We want to continue to reflect and implement new strategies and tools that will benefit our students and transform learning.

Just like at the beginning of a new school year, focusing on the continued building of relationships is essential year-round. To do so, we have to be intentional about evaluating our teaching practice and the opportunities that we provide for our students. For our personal and professional growth, we need to make time for ​reflecting on our daily work as ​​educators​. What are some areas that we notice where we have grown in our practice? Are there some methods or tools that we have on our list but have lacked the time to try? Have we asked students for feedback about their experiences in our classroom and what helps them to learn best? I think that this is important for our practice. Using surveys and having conversations with students makes a difference. There are even great tools available for educators to use such as LessonLoop, which helps teachers to better understand student engagement and their specific needs in our classrooms.  Another tool that helps educators to really focus on their methods and classroom interactions is Edthena, a virtual coaching platform. Teachers can record themselves teaching a lesson and then the AI Coach uses prompts to guide you about your lesson and what your perception of their effectiveness was. With videos, we can go back and focus on specific parts of our lesson, and our delivery and then use this to guide our reflection.

Taking time to reflect is important so that we can start the new year fresh. Now is the perfect opportunity to dive in and start the new year off with some fresh ideas! By choosing some methods or focus areas and then leveraging different tools, we can transform student learning and provide opportunities for building essential skills such as SEL. The power of choice not only helps students to build content area skills but also will lead them forward into their future careers with a variety of skill sets. With different tools and methods, we can spark curiosity for learning and foster creativity in learning!

For educators, this means we have to be willing to try new ideas, make mistakes and try again. Doing this sets a good model for our students. We want them to become more comfortable with learning and making mistakes and the process of learning itself.

Choosing methods in our classrooms that help to foster joy in learning and also foster the development of social-emotional learning (SEL) skills, will benefit students now and in the future. Being able to master the content while also developing skills that enable students to collaborate and develop strong and supportive relationships are important for future workplace success.

One thing to keep in mind is to find ways to streamline the workflow and the types of methods and tools that we are using. We want to provide choices but not overwhelm students in the process. Finding methods and tools that are versatile and applicable to different content areas and grade levels is key.  Here are four ideas to start with:

  1. Elementari is a tool we started to use this year and it has been fun seeing what the students create. There are many options available with Elementari, including the option for students to create an interactive story and build their skills in coding. There are more than 10,000 illustrations and sounds available to choose from.
  2. Genially can be used for genius hour, project-based learning (PBL), interactive lessons, and more. We have used it in my Spanish and STEAM classes for projects and I have used it personally for creating resumes, digital portfolios, and even presentations. Students can work individually or together on a collaborative presentation which also promotes digital citizenship skills too! Genially has thousands of templates to choose from with options for STEM and more.
  3. Spaces EDU is a great tool that teachers can use individually and create different types of “spaces.” There are individual, class, and group spaces through which teachers and students can collaborate and communicate using multimedia options. With an individual space, students can share their learning with teachers in a space where they are able to build confidence in learning. Individual spaces work well for methods like genius hour and PBL or for checking in with students.  A group space has been fun for doing activities in stations or a collaborative PBL or even something fun like a scavenger hunt. Spaces EDU also has curriculum tags and more that help teachers to connect the curriculum to the activities created in Spaces.
  4. STEM-related: There are some new resources we have explored this year including iBlocksPBL which helps educators to dive into PBL and students can learn about relevant topics related to the SDGs that help them to develop essential SEL skills, especially in the competencies of self-awareness and self-management. A few years ago I used Hummingbird Robots with my STEAM class and more recently, we used the Finch robots from Birdbrain Technologies. Teachers can use these tools in any content area and have students create something to reflect what they are learning in class while building coding skills and even learning about AI. These are just a few to explore in your classroom.  If you are interested in PBL, SEL, and STEM, any of these options would help to focus on those areas with the use of one tool. Involve students in the conversation and see what the impact is of using the different methods like genius hour or PBL or trying one of these tools. And for our own growth, using a survey created with Google or Microsoft Forms, or trying the LessonLoop student engagement survey, can help us to plan with our students’ interests in mind and continue to reflect on our practice. Taking risks and facing challenges along the way is a great model to set for students!

About the Author:

Rachelle Dené is a Spanish and STEAM: What’s nExT in Emerging Technology Teacher at Riverview High School in Oakmont, PA. Rachelle is also an attorney with a Juris Doctor degree from Duquesne University School of Law and a Master’s in Instructional Technology. Rachelle is an ISTE Certified Educator and serves as the past president of the ISTE Teacher Education Network. She was named one of 30 K-12 IT Influencers to follow in 2021.

She is the author of seven books including ‘In Other Words: Quotes That Push Our Thinking,” “Unconventional Ways to Thrive in EDU”, “The Future is Now: Looking Back to Move Ahead,” “Chart A New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow’s World, “True Story: Lessons That One Kid Taught Us” and her newest book “Things I Wish […] Knew” is now available at bit.ly/thingsiwishedu.

Follow Rachelle on Twitter @Rdene915 and on Instagram @Rdene915. Rachelle has a podcast, ThriveinEDU available at https://anchor.fm/rdene915

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here. Looking for a new book to read? Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks

************ Also check out my THRIVEinEDU Podcast Here!

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Your staff is the biggest key to making your SEL program work

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Guest Post by Al Kingsley, @AlKingsley_EDU

One of the largest questions schools are facing this year is how to try to improve student behavior. We all understand that one side effect of the pandemic was students were deprived of learning key social skills that can help regulate their behavior.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 84% of schools agree that student behavioral development has been negatively impacted and that has led to everything from student misconduct to acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff to prohibited use of electronic devices.

In reaction, many schools have used their COVID relief federal funding to start or bolster existing social-emotional learning programs. In fact, 88 of the top 100 districts in the U.S. reported spending funds on SEL – that meant more districts expanded SEL than sought additional technology, teacher training, or extended learning opportunities.

And that’s not a surprise. Many studies show that addressing and building students’ social-emotional skills can result in better academic performance, fewer disruptive behaviors, and less emotional distress.

As a quick aside, if your district is still searching for a solution, I have a detailed column that explains how to best vet a new program, considering your district’s available funds, current climate, and hoped-for outcome.

But if like so many districts, you have already purchased a program and are in the early stages of implementation, I have some advice that seeks to flatten your learning curve, enhance buy-in from staff, and start producing results quicker.

The first key lesson is that even if you have chosen the right program, simply buying something and beginning to train staff isn’t enough to guarantee success. Just as we know that students do better when they understand the relevance of the work they are completing, your staff is more likely to find success if they believe in the option you’ve chosen.

One way to accomplish this is by sharing with them the process you went through to choose your solution. You likely not only gauged your product’s effectiveness in schools in general but also studied exactly how it worked in schools that mirror your district. Let your teachers know what research went into it, and freely share any examples you have from other implementations, from successes to roadblocks.

If you completed a trial with a small group, let staff know. Allowing teachers and others to talk with multiple people about implementation will help tamp down fear of the unknown.

You should also set clear expectations for your program, even if it’s already been rolled out district-wide. Explaining that usage can deepen in coming years will offer a roadmap to staff, and help teachers see the end goal without allowing day-to-day frustrations to hamper their efforts.

The last method to improve your staff’s buy-in is to extend your SEL program to include care for their social and emotional states. During the last several years, teachers may have been working so hard to mitigate the negative effects from the pandemic on students, they ignored their own self-care. Teacher resignations and polls that show increased unhappiness in their jobs are proof that stress, extra work, and uncertainty have taken their toll on your staff.

Remind your teachers to take care of themselves and offer them programs in yoga or controlled breathing. This can not only reduce their stress, but also prove you care about their well-being. In short, take care of your staff like you hope they take care of your students.

Above all, remind staff that all of this work takes time to master, like any new skill. While you can’t expect students to absorb SEL lessons and improve behavior immediately, if staff is consistent with their lessons, progress will begin in mere weeks. This will then reinforce the importance of your SEL program.

Al Kingsley is an author, the CEO of NetSupport, Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust in the UK, Education Author and co-chair of Workstream 5 at the Foundation for Educational Development, whose mandate is to develop a framework for long-term vision and sustainable planning for education in England. He travels the world, speaking about and studying education. Al’s latest book is My School Governance Handbook. @AlKingsley_Edu.

Guest blog opportunities

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here. Looking for a new book to read? Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks

************ Also check out my THRIVEinEDU Podcast Here!

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MTSS Part Two: Essential Components of MTSS

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Guest post by Bonnie Nieves, in collaboration with Class Composer

In the previous blog, I outlined the first step of initiating Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), a framework designed to meet the needs of each and every learner in a school district. When your school community has completed its inventory of instructional tools and supports for academic, behavioral, and social-emotional learning, it is time to move on to putting these resources into action. 

The next steps include planning for three essential components of MTSS: 

  • Instruction that includes academic, behavioral, and SEL learning opportunities for all students.
  • Assessment tools that measure the effectiveness of this instruction.
  • Ensuring that your master schedule has space for per diem support for students.

MTSS is typically represented as a pyramid with Tier 1 universal supports being the foundation. It can be accurately represented as a triangle or funnel. 

All students receive universal supports and transition between tiers 1, 2, and 3 based upon progress monitoring data monitored according to a reliable universal tool at predetermined intervals. These tools do not need to be school-wide standardized tests. According to the American Institutes of Research (2021), high-fidelity screening is universal, accurate, and conducted at least quarterly.

Most students will remain in tier 1, some will transition to tier 2, and fewer will move to tier 3. If a school community finds that a large number of students are in need of tier 2 support, it would be prudent to investigate the evaluation tools and quality of the universal curriculum being used.

Now, envision a system of three triangles, one for each indicator: academic, behavioral, and SEL. Students may be at any of the three tiers for each of the three instructional areas (academic, behavioral, social-emotional) at any one time. For example, a student may be receiving tier 1 instruction for academics, tier 2 targeted support for behavioral instruction, and tier 3 for social-emotional instruction.

When teachers work with all of this information, academic, behavioral, and social-emotional, it can require a great deal of time and organization. Providing for all students is essential and each of these represents important data points that teachers need to focus on in order to provide the best for students. However, there needs to be a more effective and efficient way to do this.

MTSS and Class Composer 

Class Composer provides everything that teachers need to be able to monitor student progress and is readily accessible to anyone, at any time. It enables all teachers to access the information they need about each individual student when they need it. Easy to track and record student growth toward individualized goals.  Simplify how you manage all the assessment data collected! With progress monitoring, teachers can easily track student progress and provide the right supports.

Having access to all this information in one space enables teachers to create a supportive learning community for students. These teacher-student connections lead to the development of the essential relationships that need to exist for all students to be successful.

Give Class Composer a try today using their sandbox. You will experience a simpler, more streamlined experience when in the easily accessible, data-driven platform that promotes student academic achievement and the development of essential SEL skills.

Head to Class Composer to learn more!

Coming up next:

The final part of my MTSS blog series will elaborate on two essential components: assessment tools and instructional resources. Assessment tools that can help your school community provide common experiences without impacting teachers’ ability to use Universal Designed for Learning (UDL) planning tools. Instructional resources for each of the three tiers for academic, behavioral, and social-emotional instruction.

About the Author

Bonnie Nieves is the author of “Be Awesome on Purpose” and has over a decade of experience as a high school science teacher. She has a Master’s Degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Educational Leadership. Her passion for creating immersive and authentic experiences that fuel curiosity and creating student-centered, culturally responsive learning spaces that promote equity and inclusion has led her to establish Educate On Purpose Coaching.

In addition to being an award-winning educator, Bonnie works to ensure equitable and engaging education for all through her work as a copy editor at EdReports and Classroom Materials and Media reviewer for The American Biology Teacher journal. She serves on the MassCUE board of directors and enjoys connecting with educators through social media, professional organizations, conferences, Twitter chats, and edcamps. Bonnie is a member of the National Association of Biology Teachers, the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science, and the National Science Teaching Association. She encourages you to connect with her on Twitter @biologygoddess, Instagram @beawesomeonpurpose, Clubhouse @biologygoddess, and LinkedIn.

Please visit www.educateonpurpose.com for information about her current projects.

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here. Looking for a new book to read? Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks

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Reflective Teaching and Powerful Professional Learning with LessonLoop

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Reflective Teaching and Powerful Professional Learning with LessonLoop

Educators are always looking for new ideas to boost student engagement in the classroom. To do so, they need to understand student interests and needs and also be intentional about reflecting on their teaching practice. While teachers want to understand the impact of their instructional methods and tools on students’ learning, they often don’t have time to solicit feedback from individual students, and students are afraid to provide honest feedback when they feel saying the wrong thing could impact their grade. Yet students need to be part of the conversation, because not only is student voice a powerful tool that can be used to engage students in their learning, but student feedback surveys are better predictors of academic growth than principal observation and teacher self-ratings (Hanover Research 2013). 

As Alex Isaacs, an 8th-grade math teacher notes, “LessonLoop allows me to quickly conduct a survey with great questions built-in where I can quickly push this out to my students to better inform my practice.” 

LessonLoop instantly shows you how engaged your students are with a class lesson so you can gain immediate insights and adjust your instruction in real-time to help them learn better. As shown below, LessonLoop works through the four simple steps of:

1. Anonymously survey students, 

2. Review instant actionable lesson engagement reports, 

3. Receive personalized instructional recommendations, 

4. Discuss results with students so learners feel seen and heard. 

How LessonLoop Works

How do the surveys guide teachers about their practice?

LessonLoop measures student engagement in nine actionable categories (see below) that provide you with insight on how to calibrate your instruction to support active learning at each student’s just-right instructional level. With these categories, teachers have better ways to focus on the specific needs and interests of their students. Especially for social-emotional learning (SEL) and determining student progress in class, the categories and questions provide tremendous insight for teachers with information not easily accessible in any other way. 

With the information the surveys provide, teachers have many ways to evaluate, analyze and then act upon authentic student feedback to improve their practice. Working with LessonLoop’s instructional coaches/Tip Masters, they can explore new methods and tools to help address some of the areas indicated in the survey.

Sample Lesson Engagement Report

What can we learn about student engagement from using LessonLoop?

Through lesson embedded feedback, teachers better understand the impact of their instructional strategies and how students experience the learning environment. By reviewing the responses, especially the free responses, teachers receive feedback that promotes reflective practice. Using the survey results, Tip Masters work with each teacher to find strategies and tools that will increase active student learning.

Sample LessonLoop Student Free Responses

How does LessonLoop facilitate getting to know students? 

LessonLoop provides opportunities for every student to share their perspective on their immediate environment and how they are experiencing a lesson. Incorporating student voice allows students to experience a sense of respect and empowerment from their teacher. With LessonLoop, students can provide valuable feedback to their teacher and all feedback is provided through an anonymous survey, which promotes more honest feedback. Students feel comfortable responding to the survey, and because their opinions are heard, they feel more connected to and comfortable in their classroom community. When teachers circle back and discuss how to improve a lesson with students, students feel their voice is impactful and are empowered to take ownership of their learning. Students that feel seen and heard have greater motivation for and engagement in learning because they feel like an impactful member of the classroom community. 

How does the gamification aspect of LessonLoop lead to better and more authentic, honest feedback from students?  

LessonLoop incorporates gamification elements through our fun, animated surveys (see pictures below). According to Dr. Shawn Clybor, “These gamification elements keep students more alert, more active in engagement, and therefore more likely to read the questions and think about their answers.”  LessonLoop is designed to be a robust platform that informs instruction and involves students in their learning experiences. It is also meant to “encourage joyfulness, to be fun, to be funny,” says Clybor.  Using it becomes its own experience, building bonds between teachers and students.

LessonLoop Gamified Surveys

In addition to the gamified surveys, LessonLoop provides educators the ability to ask custom questions and generate two new games (humorous poll and secret word) with one click. These games focus on student engagement at the beginning of class, serve as a pick-me-up if attention is flagging mid-class, or are a fun way to end a student engagement survey.

What professional learning comes with LessonLoop?

LessonLoop provides personalized data-driven professional learning for teachers.  While all teachers have access to a knowledge base of free tips, with a paid tips subscription, every teacher is assigned an experienced Tip Master to help with reviewing their surveys and finding strategies and tools to try. The real-time lesson-embedded feedback helps educators better connect their instruction to students and be more reflective in their practice. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) also benefit as all teachers receive instructional recommendations from subject-area specialists and coaches! PLCs can be organized around student-centered data for engagement and professional learning. Within the PLCs, teachers can share ideas and provide support to one another which then enhances the learning experience for all students. In addition, educators accumulate continuing education units (CEUs) based on minutes of use of the platform aligned with Learning Forward and/or Charlotte Danielson standards.

What to expect with LessonLoop

So many benefits!

Student Engagement Surveys: 

  • Amplify student voice through anonymous surveys
  • Strong predictor of academic outcomes 
  • Provide missing actionable data on why students aren’t learning 
  • Provide daily feedback on the delivery of the curriculum with a clear focus on social-emotional learning (SEL),  critical thinking and collaboration, and culturally responsive instruction.

We are offering free trials of LessonLoop to educators who provide feedback on our new gamified student surveys. Click here for a free trial!  And if you missed our webinar, here is the link!

Follow Rachelle on Twitter @Rdene915 and on Instagram @Rdene915. Rachelle has a podcast, ThriveinEDU available at https://anchor.fm/rdene915

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here. Looking for a new book to read? Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks

************ Also check out my THRIVEinEDU Podcast Here!

Adult SEL and Why it Matters

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

In Collaboration with Peekapak

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an area that we need to intentionally focus on in our classrooms. As we reflect on the challenges experienced this past year, we must closely focus on our own well-being and make sure we can provide the right support for our students. For many educators, SEL has become a new addition to planning for each day. We need to be intentional in facilitating opportunities for our students to build their SEL skills each day and to do so, we need access to the right resources and support.

In our classrooms, it is crucial that we model SEL skills for our students. For example, the importance of building and maintaining positive relationships, developing self-awareness and social awareness are essential for everyone. And as we have experienced this year, being able to manage stress, making decisions and focusing on self-care practices are vital for us as educators and in our daily lives. Educators need access to the right professional development to know how to bring SEL curriculum into every classroom. With Peekapak, schools have access to structured and easy to use curriculum for students and SEL workshop resources for educators.

Research shows that teacher well-being has a substantial effect on school climate. If educators are experiencing burnout and elevated levels of stress and do not have the right strategies to push through, it will negatively impact students. To prevent this, we need to establish routines, work with colleagues and with students, and build trust with each other.

Building Our SEL competencies

To learn more about SEL, there are many resources and professional learning opportunities available. Peekapak offers the SEL Summit which has been providing informative webinars each month full of valuable ideas and resources for getting started. These webinars have been a great opportunity to not only learn about how to build holistic and school-wide strategies, but also ways that educators can practice SEL skills and feel more confident to bring it to life in our classrooms. During these live sessions, it is also a great opportunity to ask questions and connect with other educators.

During the most recent June 15th “SEL Starts with Adults” SEL Summit, the panelists discussed the latest research and shared some best practices and tips for supporting educator SEL. You can access the recording here to learn how the panelists have been supporting SEL in their schools and what their plans are for the coming school year.

Here are a few of my favorite tips from the event, given the importance of starting the year with a focus on SEL. There was a “Turn off the Noise” suggestion from Dr. Salvatore, encouraging us to limit distractions and give yourself mind breaks when possible. Additionally, I found Dr. Grant’s “Caller #10” activity to be an intriguing way to not only show appreciation for staff, but to get the students excited for their teachers to call and possibly win a well-deserved prize. Some other strategies included icebreakers during meetings, creating activities during PD days, trying out “half smiles,” and providing opportunities for staff collaboration. This emphasis on self-care and mental health is essential for teacher wellbeing, and more schools need to provide such resources for educators that promote SEL, and in doing so, help design meaningful experiences for students.

You can access the June 15th recording here to learn in greater detail the different ways the panelists have been supporting SEL in their schools and what their plans are for the coming school year. I think that if we all recognize and work toward improving SEL for all of us it is going to benefit us as educators and we can nurture all students through the upcoming recovery in the years ahead.

Sign up for your free trial with Peekpak today!

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This is hard

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Guest post by Deidre Roemer, originally posted on her site.

This is hard.  I was very tempted to have that be my entire post as that is how so many people, including me, are feeling these days.  I am always very solution focussed and generally very positive.  That hasn’t changed, but I am trying to adjust how I approach solutions and celebrations.  I am trying to listen to more, acknowledge that this is hard, recognize amazing work frequently, encourage everyone to take several deep breaths, and then offer as much support as I can to help. I have also been reaching out for help from my incredible support system. I need it. This is hard for everyone.

Our community has been asking questions about how we are supporting the mental health of our students right now.  It’s a question we should be asking every day all year long whether we are in a pandemic or not, but this time has undoubtedly brought the concern to the forefront more than ever.  As I compiled the list of what our team has done over the last several years to support learners’ mental health, it was staggering to see how much we have added and embedded across contexts.  We have added licensed therapists to each school site that see learners through their insurance and help families who don’t have access to insurance apply for it.  Some of those therapists also co-teach in classrooms and have office hours for staff so they can problem solve how to best help learners.  We have classroom teachers all over our district embedding social-emotional learning lessons and Mindfulness into daily instruction.  Our teachers spend a lot of time building relationships with our learners and offering them opportunities to build relationships with one another.  We have a school counselor, social worker, and/or a school psychologist at each school to work with staff, learners, and families.  We have Hope Squads at all our secondary schools so our learners have peer to peer support. 

Our professional development has also included training over the last several years in understanding trauma, culturally responsive practices, restorative practices, empathy and design thinking to solve problems, Zones of Regulation, Universal Design for Learning, innovative classroom practices, and many more.  The idea is that staff members (including teachers, administrators, secretaries, assistants, recreation staff, facilities, and food service) have a wide array of tools to use in our schools to understand and empower all learners.  They often get to choose sessions that are important to them or suggest topics on which they would like professional development as we want all staff to feel empowered in their work.  We have also tried to build a lot of support for our staff through coaching as they need to feel our support to make it all work.  

Now, we are trying to make education work in the middle of a pandemic.  Our learners are all virtual right now.  We are anxious to see them back in school and were optimistic a few weeks ago that we could start bringing them back a few days a week until our health metrics took a turn for the worse.  We meet regularly with our local health department to discuss safety and are furiously planning safety measures and logistics for the time when we bring our learners back into physical schools.  In the meantime, our recreation department has opened camps for elementary students and students with special needs that families who need care and/or support with virtual instruction can access.  The camps can be kept small and can spread out across large spaces while providing a needed resource for some of our families in the safest way possible.

Our teachers are more stressed than normal.  Our families are more stressed than normal.  Our learners are more stressed than normal.  Our administrators and coaches are more stressed than normal. Everyone is feeling disconnected from one another.  The unpredictability of the current situation is overwhelming for all of us.  The length of time this has gone on with no foreseeable end in sight is making it even more challenging.  We are also headed into the cold and flu season with the weather getting colder, which means fewer opportunities to be outside.  We have all had to adapt and do it quickly. It can be done, but this is hard.  It is okay to say that out loud and recognize it.  

I am really proud of the work we have done to shift the learner experience over the last several years, which is serving us well in virtual instruction.  It does not make this less stressful on our team, but many of them have been adapting and shifting for years so they have tools to do it. We have been very purposeful in finding ways to meet teachers and administrators where they are and encourage them to make small steps that add up to big ones.  As a district leadership team, we have tried to share the message that we are here to support our schools in any way we can to empower our learners to be ready to live life on their own terms when they graduate from our system.  We are now forced to make shifts at warp speed and shift more frequently than we would ever normally ask people to do. It means instead of just support to grow as professionals; we had to start thinking creatively about how to take some things off their plates.    

Our teachers have the option to teach from home or school during virtual instruction as we trust them to know what is best for them. We have built more planning time into the day at each level and shifted our professional development days to be planning and self-directed time for teachers.  Purposeful professional development with choice for teachers is still a key element of our strategic plan, but that needs to look different right now.  Instead of planning required sessions for all staff to attend, we shifted to self-paced courses that teachers could choose from and complete at their own pace and time. They could also choose not to select one at this time if they didn’t feel it was something they could take on.  We will circle back to those staff later and build professional development support for them when they are ready for it and as they need it throughout the year.

We have encouraged our administrators to give our teachers permission to engage learners differently and focus on their interests.  Academic content is an essential part of our work, but we can spend more time connecting and embed content as we go.  In a collaboration session during emergency remote teaching last spring, a staff member shared how a learner went to work with his dad each day and spent a huge portion of one day on Facetime with his teacher showing her his community and what he had learned about his dad’s job.  Others in that same session shared similar stories apologizing that they weren’t doing anything “academic”. My response was that what they were doing was building a sense of belonging and an academic mindset, which IS essential to academics and life success.  We worked all summer to be ready for virtual instruction that was more robust than what we were able to do in emergency remote teaching last spring, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be focused on the whole child and embed time to connect as people.  Teachers can find a balance synchronous time with some asynchronous time to meet the needs of learners. They can use choice boards, complete planned activities, write reflections, or work on long-term projects during the time they are asynchronous.  They know their families and learners best, and we trust them to make the right decisions on finding balance.

We always want to hear feedback from our learners, staff, and community as it allows us to know what we are doing well and where we need to improve.  We have sent out an employee engagement and parent satisfaction survey twice a year and learners complete a social-emotional learning survey so we can gauge how they are feeling about the development of their own skills in self-regulation, social awareness, classroom effort, growth mindset, and curiosity for the last several years.  This year, we had the opportunity to offer different surveys that were much shorter for staff and families.  While we still needed their feedback, we also needed a quick and easy survey for them to complete that gave us fast results so we can adjust resources and support.  We added a wellness survey for our learners and do empathy interviews to ask them directly about how they are doing, if they are connected to adults and peers for support, and what they need to feel successful. 

We have encouraged our principals to think about a shift in teacher evaluation as well.  Our teacher evaluation process is intended to be one of self-reflection wherein the teacher sets a student learning objective for the year and a professional practice goal.  The observations should be an opportunity to collect evidence towards those goals with time to check-in with the teacher to help them celebrate success and adjust the goals throughout the year.  We have not always approached teacher evaluation that way but have been trying to move to a more reflective process over the last year.  We get to take this unusual year to accelerate that process so observations can be done in short one-on-one meetings during which teachers can share the evidence they have collected about their own their own practice to share with us.  We want to take the pressure off the formal nature of teacher observation but still get at the intent of the cycle of self-directed, continuous improvement in a way that also gives us more time to connect individually with each staff member.  We have some schools trying this out in the next couple of weeks. I am anxious to hear how it goes and to find out if the change alleviates some stress for administrators and teachers.

Our teachers also had the opportunity to meet as grade levels and departments before school started to share ideas and create lists of resources they thought they would need to make this all work.  We have ordered thousands of whiteboards, music kits, art kits, sensory tools, apps, and online subscriptions. We want our learners to have access to instructional materials in addition to technology and hotspots at home.  We trade reading books and give out learning kits once a month in a drive-up system at most of our schools. We also added many supplies to schools as students won’t be able to share materials with one another as easily in classrooms once we are back.  We’ve added some new and adaptive resources for teachers that all still align with our strategic plan but make the work more doable in a virtual or distance learning.  Teachers continue to send us requests regularly as they plan engaging activities to do at home in the next few weeks.  Sometimes the requests make me wonder what will come next, but mostly they make me excited that our learners are still having interactive, hands-on opportunities in our virtual world.  

This is hard.  Saying so doesn’t make it any easier, but it does create space for us to rely on each other to get through it.  I want all our staff, learners, and families to know that we see them.  We see the efforts they are putting in each hour of the day.  We see that they sometimes need us to support them in new and different ways.  We see that they may feel overwhelmed by the world right now and sometimes need some space to feel that.  We see that we need to find even more ways to connect and listen to them.  Mostly we see that they are all doing the best they can each day, despite everything that is thrown at them, to always keep what is best for children at the forefront.  I love this quote by Todd Whitaker, “The best thing about being a teacher is that it matters. The hardest thing about being a teacher is that it matters every day.” Not only does teaching matter, but the people who do it each day matter too.

I am a proud mother, wife, and educator dedicated to creating experiences for all learners that are authentic and connect their time in school to what and who they want to be well beyond high school. I serve as the Director of Leadership and Learning for the West Allis- West Milwaukee School District in West Allis, WI. The thoughts I share here are my own and my reflections on our work. View all posts by Deidreroemer

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Explore New Ideas and Learning With Buncee

Rachelle Dené Poth Leave a comment

Explore New Ideas and Have Fun Creating With Buncee!

Now that the school year has started and for many, some are moving toward the end of the first grading period, you might be looking for some new ideas to try. Don’t worry, once he definitely has you covered when it comes to finding new ideas to use in your classroom. Whether you check out the many visually engaging tweets of Buncees created and shared by educators from around the world. Educators are posting how they are using Buncee in their classrooms with their students or in their roles as administrators and tech coaches. You should also explore the many templates available or ideas in the Ideas Lab, you can find exactly what you need.

Join the Buncee Educator Facebook community Check out some recent Idea o’clock live sessions that were held. The past couple of weeks had Shannon Miller, Amy Storer and Karina Q sharing ideas for journaling and time capsules, tips for instructional coaches and interactive Buncee journals and OneNote.

Sometimes we just need a few ideas to get started with and then before you know it, we come up with a bunch of ideas and what I find even more often, our students come up with many of their ideas as well. One that I start with in my Spanish and STEAM classes is creating an About Me. I love creating a new one each time with them! We are just getting started this week and I cannot wait to see what they create!

More Ideas to Try

With many schools looking to hold events for families virtually, why not try using some of the templates available within Buncee. It would be fun to have students create their own Buncee to share what they have learned and how they are enjoying their class. Students can add in a video of them talking about their experiences so far and add 3D objects, animations, stickers, emojis and more! All of the student Buncees can then be shared on a Buncee board to share with families. Imagine how fun it would be to see and get to know classmates and post comments even!

Perhaps create your presentation to share all of the information about your class and design your virtual classroom choosing from many the templates available. Why not also include your bitmoji and then record audio and video to go along with it. It’s very important for our students and their families to be able to see and hear us and our excitement for teaching and working with the students. What better way than to create a Buncee virtual classroom

Love these ideas shared from Buncee! Find the templates available in the Buncee library:

Meet the teacher flyers

Virtual classrooms

Daily remote learning journals

Time capsule activities

Digital citizenship lessons

Social media profiles

Record a video for genius hour

So many choices!

Get involved in the upcoming Global Write with Buncee and help to connect students with students from around the world. Daily prompts are provided for students to create and share stories. Learn more about this amazing collaborative project and get involved today!

Check out the many ideas that have been shared by Holly Clark. Look how many great ideas are listed in this graphic! Check out what teachers and students can do with Buncee and see which apps you are using that integrate with Buncee too! My students love using Buncee with Flipgrid and I love being able to share Buncees through Microsoft Teams and even schedule meetings! The possibilities are endless!

Explore the many new templates and have students create vision boards and more with Buncee! Virtual lockers, class schedules, organizers, newsletters, About me Buncees and so many other options to get started with here.

Learn about how other educators are using Buncee in their classrooms. Read about how Teresa Liu is using Buncee to engage special needs students in this blog post.

Updates and training!

If you’re looking for some help in getting started with Buncee, don’t miss out on the daily live training that is offered throughout the week. Each session is focused on helping educators get started with Buncee by showing some of the many possibilities and where to find all of the amazing graphics and the options that are available within Buncee. There really are endless possibilities when it comes to creating with Buncee and there is something in it for everyone.

I love taking courses through the Microsoft educator program, check out the Buncee course on Creative Expression & SEL with Buncee.

Buncee is always adding new features and expanding all that they provide for educators and for student learning. Recently they had a partnership with Flipgrid where now you can find many Buncee templates available to use in combination with Flipgrid, especially some for promoting SEL and also for organization. Stay tuned for some new updates coming with Buncee’s partnership with Microsoft.

Get involved!

Buncee is currently taking applications to become part of their Ambassador program. Applications are due on October 9th and if you’re looking for a supportive network to become a part of and to learn more about the power of creating with Buncee, I definitely recommend that you check out the ambassador program and see what is happening in the community. Especially at a time like now, where we are working through a lot of challenges in the world and an education, we need to have a supportive network to learn and grow with, especially one that is focused on promoting student voice and choice!

One of the ambassadors, Ilene Winokur has been telling the story of Bunceeman’s adventures! Bunceeman is visiting all of the Buncee ambassadors and this is a fantastic way to collaborate and learn about people and places from around the world! Check out his adventures here!

Global Events Coming up!

DigCit Summit happened on October 14th and Buncee was a sponsor of the event. See all of the digital citizenship templates and graphics available in the Buncee library! One of my first Buncees was a digcit lesson! Add in links, videos, audios, questions and more to create a lesson for students and then have them create their own digcit PSA! Join in the #Usetech4good Buncee challenge!

Global Maker Day is coming up on October 20th! Sign up to join in this day of amazing learning opportunities! Looking forward to seeing some Buncees created and shared throughout the day!