Social-emotional learning and health are crucial elements of a child’s education all the time and, especially after the pandemic upended traditional learning, it’s even more of a focus within many school districts. The importance of SEL is highly touted and many educational leaders have created positions in their schools or districts to ensure that all students are appropriately managing and processing their emotions—something that can affect their academic performance and overall mental health. So, for this Rising Resources post, we took a look at an online SEL resource called StrongMinded. With StrongMinded, educators can provide students with the tools, resources, and attitudes they need to thrive socially and emotionally.
There are multiple options educators have for infusing social-emotional learning in their instruction. One option is doing so directly by designing or discovering social-emotional lessons and making them a part of the curriculum. The other involves subtly including clearly defined SEL elements in traditional teaching and learning scenarios. In almost any classroom lesson, teachers can find the opportunity to tie discussions to social-emotional traits and competencies. This might be new to some teachers, however, and this could be challenging despite SEL remaining very important. Using StrongMinded, teachers can create various digital learning experiences that are engaging and help students connect more effectively with SEL.
On the StrongMinded site, educators can find examples of social-emotional learning curricula specifically for students in Grades 6-12. The curricular content helps educators reinforce key academic concepts and helps children build essential skills for both today and tomorrow. There are hundreds of lessons to choose from—many of which have “bite-sized” versions to make it easier on students and teachers to implement and digest. In creating StrongMinded, the intent was exactly that—providing an online SEL solution that's both student- and teacher-driven.
This resource also helps provide concrete guidelines for bringing an SEL program into the classroom. With managing emotions a huge focus in education right now, this guide is super valuable for both students and teachers. It can help kids regulate emotions, process events, and develop SEL strengths while also helping them develop a strong SEL foundation that they can always build on. All content is also geared to today's students with short lessons and videos that are relevant to how they learn.
Related Reading: 8 Skills Students Develop Through Social-Emotional Learning
These lessons also help students bolster critical thinking and problem-solving skills by helping them realize asking for help is okay. Because every student endures various academic and social challenges throughout their childhood, StrongMinded has hundreds of lessons to guide kids who might be facing various personal challenges. Whether they might struggle with self-management, self-awareness, relationship management, social awareness, or responsible decision making (the five core SEL competencies), the lessons within the platform can help them develop appropriately. They can also chart and track their learning so that they’re aware of the progress they’ve made!
StrongMinded also includes some personalization options for teachers. They could share different lessons with individual students and provide resources just for them without assigning them to the class. Teachers and students can also create and share “playlists” of various SEL lessons and then group them by theme to make them easy to find and share. There's already a set of playlists available in the platform, which the StrongMinded team created. They cover topics like stress management, nurturing relationships, and more.
As you might notice on the StrongMinded website, much of the content centers on the core competencies from the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). They're also good for student agency and help teachers utilize various instincts in deciding on SEL resources for kids. This, in turn, helps students relate SEL growth to personal experiences and allows teachers to integrate these discoveries into lessons. Plus, all StrongMinded lessons are practical and relevant with resources kids may not see often.
The platform also includes detailed teacher guides so they can support kids as effectively as possible. The dashboard enables teachers to quickly assign individual, small-group, or whole-class activities and capture real-time insights about student performance. Also, the StrongMinded platform was built around research-based information and allows teachers to provide immediate feedback based on individual student needs. And, this helps create an environment in which kids can express themselves, grow, and feel comfortable.
If StrongMinded sounds like a useful SEL tool for your students, we’d definitely recommend checking out their site. Browse some of our other SEL content too and explore our store to discover STEAM tools with SEL connections. And, follow us on Twitter and Instagram for the latest on EdTech, SEL, and more!