3 Ways to Support Social-Emotional Learning with Video

Real talk: Are you currently working on one or more of the following goals?

• Managing emotions
• Setting and achieving positive goals
• Feeling and showing empathy for others
• Establishing and maintaining positive relationships
• Making responsible decisions

If you’ve answered yes, then a) you’re human and b) you understand how important it is to have social-emotional skills as part of a healthy lifestyle.

While these five social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies can’t be learned overnight, there are easy ways to incorporate them into our teaching regularly.

Read on to learn how using video lessons in Edpuzzle can help you support your students’ social-emotional learning and create a safe space for them to grow!

1. Give feedback that promotes a growth mindset

Think of the last time you started learning a new language or picked up a new hobby. Did you give up quickly or keep trying?

Being resilient and persistent when we learn how to do something new is the key to a growth mindset. It’s what helps us tackle new challenges, even if we know we might fail at first.

That's why it's our job as educators to give students feedback that’s not only positive, but also constructive and specific.

When giving feedback that encourages a growth mindset, consider praising the following:

• Effort - e.g. "All that hard work and effort paid off!"
• Persistence - e.g. "I am very proud of you for not giving up, and look what you have to show for it!"
• Personal growth - e.g. "I can see a difference in this work compared to __. You have really grown (in these areas)."
• Using strategies - e.g. "I see you using your strategies/tools/notes/etc. Keep it up!"

Like any other assignment, a video lesson is a great opportunity to give your students feedback. Edpuzzle makes it easy to give feedback in two different ways.

First, you can leave immediate feedback on a multiple-choice question if you want to explain why an answer was incorrect or send your students a little encouragement. That message will automatically appear after students submit their response to your question.

You can also give more personalized feedback on open-ended questions. This is a great opportunity to provide students with clarifying information, helpful tips, or encouragement.

Whichever way you give your feedback, these messages can help students take the time to see their progress and create life-long lovers of learning.

2. Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is so many things, but at its core, mindfulness is a type of meditation. As far as mindfulness in the classroom is concerned, think of it as a way of hitting the reset button and bringing your students to a place of calm.

You don’t need to take out a large chunk of your day to help your students practice mindfulness.

Making time for mindfulness is as easy as showing a quick video in class, no matter what time of the day it is.

Start your morning routine with a short video of yoga, calming sounds, or meditation. You can use Edpuzzle to stop the video at strategic points with prompts like:

• "Consider how you feel right now at this moment."
• "Think about what you need in order to be successful today. This might be something from me or it might be something you ask of yourself."

You can also practice mindfulness after students return from a special, lunch, or as a brain break if students’ energy is high.

Over time, these small moments of mindfulness will have big lasting effects on your students’ ability to stay focused and regulate their emotions.

3. Use stories to build social awareness

Social awareness is the ability to empathize with and understand the views of people who are different from you. And what better way to put yourself in somebody else's shoes than with a story?

Read alouds help students hear stories that aren’t always told and might not typically show up in the classroom. You can even step it up a notch and look for a video version of the book!

Video read alouds give you access to an entire virtual library on YouTube and are easy to use in Edpuzzle.

Simply upload your video from YouTube and use Edpuzzle to embed questions to make sure students are following along with the story.

Want to watch the video as a class? Use a projector to show the read aloud with Edpuzzle’s Live Mode. Students can answer the questions in realtime and their responses will be displayed anonymously.

Just like a regular read aloud, you can use the questions to spark discussion and empathize with the characters in the story.

These stories will stay with your students for a long time and help them keep an open mind whenever they work with others!