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I love NPR and I rely on them to provide relevant and accurate information.  I would use this to help students understand this unique way we are connected.

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When Emotions Are Contagious | Invisibilia | NPR

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All of Jeremy Anderson's videos are a great way to show students that people who grow up roughly can make it if they are willing to put in the work.

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"jeremy anderson" "next level living" motivation inspiration sda "tell the world" "eric thomas" preacher ministry outreach "the grace tour" "next level stude...

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Bullying situation & possible solution.

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Bullying - The Roles We Play.

I think this would be a good resource to use to talk about bullying. We often think of bullying occurring between 2 people, but if you ignore it; then you are involved in it also.

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S.T.A.R. Rubric for Group Work (Teams)
I'd could see myself using a variation of this for students to self assess how they worked as a group or team.

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An offline version of Twitter can help with both social and emotional learning.

I would use a classroom bulletin board for this.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

An offline version of Twitter helps with both social and emotional learning and formative assessment.

"I suck. No one really knows me. I'm basically an outcast," Angel, one of my seventh graders, declared as she walked into my classroom during recess.

I was surprised because Angel was outgoing and seemed socially well balanced. We discussed her feelings, and I realized that while she felt her peers didn't know her, it was also true that she didn't really know them. She perceived that they didn't like her, but she couldn't give one example to explain why she felt that way.

I used to spend little time on social and emotional learning (SEL) in my sixth- through eighth-grade classes because at my school SEL is only taught during advisory. I decided to change that, and in an effort to have all of my students relate to one another in an intentional way, I decided to create a communication board modeled on Twitter. Once I had created it, I realized it could also be used for formative assessment.

Setting Up a Twitter Board

Creating a Twitter board is simple. Make a template with space for a profile picture, the student's real name, a Twitter-style handle, a short bio, and a list of followers. That takes about a quarter of a page, leaving room for tweets. Have students fill out profiles-some of mine drew a profile picture, but most used a photo-and slip the profiles into clear sheet protectors. When we do this exercise, I display the profiles on a whiteboard for a few days, using magnets to hold them in place. When we're done, I store the profiles in a folder-they don't take up much space and are ready for next time.
Courtesy of Jill Fletcher
Cut some paper into small slips that students can use for tweets, which they can tape onto the appropriate profile.

To ensure that each student has an audience, they all have to enlist at least three followers-a friend, an acquaintance, and someone with whom they rarely interact. Followers promise to respond to initial tweets. I also encourage students to respond to peers they aren't following.

To generate tweets and responses, I developed a multistage activity:

1. I share an open-ended prompt or question.

2. All students tweet responses.

3. Students respond to the peers they're following.

4. They can also respond to anyone else in class.

5. Students make connections with hearts.

6. I read a selection of tweets aloud to the class.

Step 5, making connections, consists of having students add heart stickers or hand-drawn hearts to tweets they personally connect with. I find that middle school students still enjoy stickers. A nice touch is to have students write their initials inside the heart to build relational capacity.

If you have multiple periods, allowing students to heart tweets from other classes is a good way to build positive social engagement between peers.

It took me about 45 minutes to introduce this idea, and the students spent about 30 minutes tweeting to each other the first time-they got a bit faster after that. When the exercise is over, students can keep the tweets they received.

Using the Board for SEL and Community Building

When we do this activity as a way to build community, I suggest to students that they tweet about topics such as current mood, life updates, funny observations, or random (yet appropriate) thoughts.

If possible, students should self-moderate their tweets to practice SEL competencies. Allowing this freedom nurtures students' SEL competencies of self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision-making, self-management, and relationship skills.

It may be difficult for you as the teacher to refrain from comments about the length and randomness of the tweets. For example, initial tweets like "School sucks" or "I like sleep" may trigger you to suggest more positivity or more elaborate reasoning, and response tweets like "#goals" or "same" may cause you to question the quality of the interaction.

It's important to not say anything about these tweets. If you let students have a writing space that is theirs, they'll have an opportunity to authentically connect with one another. This is important if you also want to use the Twitter board for formative assessment.

Once they're done tweeting, I look over the board and read out some highlights. This is the final step in publishing student work-their ideas, humor, and feelings are acknowledged by the entire group. This is a meaningful statement to students, telling them it's OK to feel the way they do.

Using the Board for Formative Assessment

Using the Twitter board for formative assessment follows the steps described above, but the prompts are different. For example:

Summarize the main idea of the lesson.

What is confusing about the lesson?

How did this lesson connect to previous learning?

Be sure to encourage students to tweet any questions they have when they try to address your prompts. Tweeted questions are beneficial for several reasons. When students see their peers' questions, they realize they're not alone in their questioning. So questions are an essential element in students making connections with peers. Posting written questions can also reduce the embarrassment some students may feel about asking a question in front of the class-they use their Twitter handles when they tweet, so they may feel a little distance from their tweets.

And when you see that several students have the same questions or misconceptions, you can adjust your instruction. Starting off the next day by acknowledging the most common questions or misconceptions that students tweet is a powerful strategy to show them that you hear them. If a student has correctly answered a peer's question, you can give a shout-out about this as well.

All of these acknowledgements signal to students that they are co-creators in class instruction-their voice truly matters.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) An offline version of Twitter helps with both social and emotional learning and formative assessment. "I suck. No one really knows me. I'm basically an outcast," Angel, one of my seventh graders, declared as she walked into my classroom during recess.

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Teacher Wellbeing-
Teachers must learn how to be mindful of their own emotions as well as the social dynamics of individual and group relationships.

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10 Days/10 days of Kindness

This would be something great to start out each semester!

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Bullying Presentation and Bullying: The roles we play
These would be great to use for students when we discuss 'acts of kindness'. I especially like the role playing resource.

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10 Acts of Kindness- This would be great to implement when we return in the fall. It helps the students get to know one another and focuses on the IB trait of caring

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Yoga Techniques: Seven movements for the spine
These would make excellent movement breaks for our age group and the students could stretch using their chairs

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This is an excellent rational for student participation in the Arts. Participation in performing ensembles build those social and emotional skills - focusing on working together, communicating, learning to hold others as the same value as yourself.

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Social and emotional learning teacher support material

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Social and emotional learning teacher support material

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Social and emotional learning teacher support material

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Social and emotional learning teacher support material