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Build social and emotional skills into any class.

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Social and emotional learning (SEL) is at the core of learning and development. Research suggests teaching social emotional learning activities to develop life skills significantly improves behavior, attitudes, employment, classroom management, and academic achievement. Consistent SEL practice results in productive habits that shape student learning and life experiences.

The benefits of SEL development can be applied to any grade and subject, but not every teacher is an SEL expert or has time to become one. Nearpod's 21st Century Readiness Program includes over 400 SEL lessons, activities, and videos built on CASEL's five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Each resource helps develop knowledge and skills related to one of the CASEL competencies, pushing students to learn, apply, and reflect during the learning experience. This supplemental SEL curriculum includes lifelong learning strategies for goal setting, time management, and growth mindset lessons for persisting, thinking flexibly, and more.
Nearpod's 21st Century Readiness Program provides an easy way to integrate SEL practices like positive interactions, gratitude, and reflective moments into daily learning to help create safe, inclusive, and effective classroom environments.
Here are 7 social emotional learning activities to use in your classroom.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) activities to use in your classroom

1. Facilitate positive classroom interactions

Nearpod's SEL Collaborate Board activities bring limitless possibilities to instruction. The interactive discussion board facilitates positive interactions among classmates by increasing student engagement, crowdsourcing ideas, and delivering formative feedback. Bringing an interactive discussion board to your Nearpod lessons fosters the development of social and emotional learning skills and builds on core competencies such as self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills.

Students truly feel part of the conversation with Collaborate Board, which helps teachers foster classroom culture. A classroom culture of respect, happiness, security, and challenge is foundational to engaging and effective learning. Students need to feel open to honest communication about their progress for improved teaching and learning. As students participate in various social emotional learning activities, such as Collaborate Boards that are focused on fostering open communication, teachers intentionally build effective classroom culture. Students can feel comfortable sharing thoughts and challenges and see hurdles as opportunities to learn.

You can check in on how students are feeling by creating a Nearpod activity. Check-ins drive opportunities to build routines and create a comfortable learning environment. This can help teachers guide a rich dialogue among classmates. Students build an increased capacity to interact with others in a way that shows compassion and understanding.

2. Encourage self-reflection through drawing

Using drawing activities for self-portraits, scribble art, or providing a journaling opportunity for students to express their feelings supports self-reflection for students. Have students practice responsible decision-making, specifically analyzing situations, by completing a Draw It activity on Nearpod to share a challenge they are facing. Reflective Draw It activities help students understand their strengths and areas for growth.

Creating art is a practice of communication and empathy, a growth mindset, and self-reflection. The SEL Through Art series, part of Nearpod's 21st Century Readiness Program, explores the connection between art and social and emotional learning skills. This powerful medium elicits social and emotional learning experiences by helping students explore more about themselves and their life experiences.

3. Create moments for gratitude

Use Nearpod's Drag & Drop interactive feature in your lessons to engage and connect students with social emotional learning. Match feeling words, descriptions, and corresponding facial expressions to talk about resolving conflict and identifying different emotions. Students can discuss the importance of recognizing the good in their lives and expressing gratitude regularly. For instance, Nearpod's interactive features such as Collaborate Board, Open-Ended Question, and Poll are the perfect way to start or end your day with an expression and acknowledgment of gratitude.

4. Collect meaningful student feedback

Creating opportunities for student voice in the classroom is key to building positive classroom culture and gathering meaningful student feedback. To increase student talk, provide ample opportunities for engaging interaction through activities like Think-Pair-Share questions and Open-Ended Questions. When using Nearpod's Open-Ended Question feature, make sure audio recording is enabled to give students multiple ways to engage in student voice. Nearpod's formative assessment features, like Polls, empower educators to provide multiple ways for students to share valuable information personally. Include a Poll at the beginning or end of your lesson to gather student feedback, collect a formative assessment of emotions, or provide a reflective moment.

Additionally, utilize the Collaborate Board feature for a quick check-in at the beginning of class, asking simple questions to engage student thinking, build background knowledge, or gauge the overall mood of the classroom. Use what you've learned from gathering student feedback to help inform future classroom procedures or learning changes.

5. Brain Breaks!

Exclusive to Nearpod's 21st Century Readiness Program, Brain Breaks videos regulate the energy and focus of your classroom. Research suggests providing a quick break helps refresh the mind and makes it easier for students to focus on important tasks. Our videos help students break the patterns of fatigue, frustration, and lack of focus, and we made it easy for teachers to launch a video at any time throughout the day.

Use energizing Brain Breaks to provide needed movement and increase the blood flow to the brain. An energizing activity helps reduce stress and anxiety and improves students' ability to focus.

6. Choose from Nearpod's premade activities

Choose from over 100 premade social emotional learning activities using Nearpod's interactive features like Draw It, Time to Climb, and Drag & Drop to incorporate into lessons, or as a bell ringer, an exit ticket, for extra practice, or homework. Nearpod's social-emotional learning activities are built on the five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness. Students use information from their own experiences and values to guide their thinking and learn from others.

7. Collecting real-time insights

These engagement tools ensure students have low-stakes ways to share their thinking. As a result, this simple way to gather real-time insight gives students a voice in the moment while providing you with important feedback.

Nearpod's social emotional learning curriculum provides instruction, reflection, and practice opportunities around CASEL-aligned social and emotional learning competencies: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness.

Furthermore, when SEL curriculum practices are thoughtfully selected and used authentically, they have greater power to be effective. View your role as an educator through the lens of the five core competencies of SEL to enhance your teaching and enrich your classroom environment. Nearpod's 21st Century Readiness Program makes it easy to incorporate social and emotional learning in the classroom, helping educators meet students' social and emotional learning needs.

New to Nearpod? Sign up for free here to access these lessons!
References
CASEL.org. Social Emotional Learning competencies. (2022).

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D. & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1): 405-432.

Immordino-Yang, Mary Helen, et al. "Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain's Default Mode for Human Development and Education." Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 7, no. 4, July 2012, pp. 352-64. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612447308.

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7 Social Emotional Learning (SEL) activities to use in your classroom

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Social and emotional learning (SEL) is at the core of learning and development. Research suggests teaching social emotional learning activities to develop life skills significantly improves behavior, attitudes, employment, classroom management, and academic achievement. Consistent SEL practice results in productive habits that shape student learning and life experiences.

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View the interactive image by Gina Solano

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Facebook - Earth/Environmental Science Teacher Resources

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Earth/Environmental Science Teacher Resources | Facebook

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A place to share lessons and resources for Earth/Environmental Science.

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Facebook - NYSSLS Regents Living Environment

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Facebook - NYSSLS Regents Living Environment

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Podcast - Teachers off Duty. Something to help unwind and laugh about our profession.

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Teachers Off Duty Podcast - YouTube

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education technology e-learning ict edtech innovation coding programming teachers "school leaders" "higher education" "life long learning" investment startups

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Code Combat - Coding Games to learn Python and Javascript

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Code Combat - Coding Games to learn Python and Javascript

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I'm an Educator

I'm a Student

Our innovative game-based learning technology has transformed the way students learn to code.

Game-Based Learning

With our unique approach, students embrace learning as they play and write code from the very start of their adventure, promoting active learning and a growth mindset.

Text-Based Coding

Our custom code engine and interpreter is designed for beginners, teaching true Python, JavaScript, and C++ programming languages using human, beginner-friendly terms.

Student Impact

Our products have helped over 20 million students enjoy learning Computer Science, teaching them to be critical, confident, and creative learners. We engage all students, regardless of experience, helping them to realize a pathway to success in Computer Science.

Ozaria Classroom

Ozaria is our brand new adventure game and your turnkey solution for teaching Computer science. Our student-facing __slides__ and teacher-facing notes make planning and delivering lessons easier and faster.

CodeCombat Classroom

Our original game teaches real-world skills through the power of play. The scaffolded curriculum systematically builds on student's experiences and knowledge as they progress.

CodeCombat Worlds

Embark on a 3D coding adventure in Roblox, where you can program pets, play with friends, and develop games all while playing one. Join the CodeCombat community and unleash your creativity in the metaverse!

CodeCombat AI League

Competitive coding has never been so epic with this educational esports league, uniquely both an AI battle simulator and game engine for learning real code.

Professional Development

Learn the skills to effectively teach computer science with our self-directed, CSTA-accredited professional development course. Earn up to 40 credit hours any time, from any device. Pairs well with Ozaria Classroom.

CodeCombat Live Online Classes

Our online coding classes combine the power of gameplay and personalized instruction for an experience your child will love. With both private or group options available, this is remote learning that works.

__num__ Million

Learners

__num__ Billion

Lines of Code

140,000

Teachers

190

Countries

Scott Baily , Bobby Duke Middle School
Name any program online, I've tried it. None of them match up to CodeCombat & Ozaria. Any teacher who wants their students to learn how to code... start here!
Latthaphon Pohpon, Parent
Even though the class starts every Saturday at 7am, my son is so excited that he wakes up before me! CodeCombat creates a pathway for my son to advance his coding skills.
Joey, 10th Grade
I've always had aspirations of designing video games and learning how to code ... this is giving me a great starting point.

What programming languages are available?

We currently support Python and JavaScript.

Why should you choose Python?
Python is both beginner-friendly and currently used by major corporations (such as Google). If you have younger or first-time learners, we strongly recommend Python.

Why should you choose JavaScript?
JavaScript is the language of the web and is used across nearly every website. You may prefer to choose JavaScript if you are planning to also study web development. We've also made it easy for students to transition from Python to JavaScript-based web development.

1. Create your Teacher Account

2. Create a class

3. Add students

4. Sit back and watch your students have fun learning to code

JavaScript's syntax is a little more difficult for beginners than Python, so if you cannot decide between the two, we recommend Python.

How do I get started?

Can I use CodeCombat or Ozaria as my main curriculum?

Absolutely! We've spent time consulting with education specialists to craft classroom curriculum and materials specifically for teachers who are using CodeCombat or Ozaria without any prior computer science experience themselves. Many schools are implementing CodeCombat and/or Ozaria as the main computer science curriculum.

Does CodeCombat and Ozaria support Clever Instant Login?

Yes! Check out our __clever__ for more details on how to get started.

What about Google Classroom?

Yup! Be sure to use the Google Single Sign-On (SSO) Modal to sign up for your teacher account. If you already have an account using your Google email, use the Google SSO modal to log in next time. In the Create Class modal, you will see an option to Link Google Classroom. We only support rostering via Google Classroom at this time.

Note: you must use Google SSO to sign up or log in at least once in order to see the Google Classroom integration option.

How much does it cost to access all of the available courses and resources?

We customize solutions for schools and districts and work with you to understand your use case, context, and budget. __contact__ for further details! See also our __funding__ for how to leverage CARES Act funding sources like ESSER and GEER.

Is there a recommended browser and operating system?

CodeCombat and Ozaria run best on computers with at least 4GB of RAM, on a modern browser such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge. Chromebooks with 2GB of RAM may have minor graphics issues in later courses. A minimum of 200 Kbps bandwidth per student is required, although 1+ Mbps is recommended.

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CodeCombat - Coding games to learn Python and JavaScript

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Learn programming with a multiplayer live coding strategy game for beginners. Learn Python or JavaScript as you defeat ogres, solve mazes, and level up. Open source HTML5 game!