Emotional check-in for students online starts with having the right tools.
The quick answer is YES, you should include an emotional check-in for students online! It doesn’t matter if you are meeting in person or virtually; you should regularly check in with your students’ emotions.
With a simple Google search, you’ll see that SEL (Social Emotional Learning) is at the forefront of supporting our students’ learning. SEL is all about teaching students to identify how they feel, what to do with their emotions, and focus on empathy.
When you have a classroom full of 25+ students, it’s overwhelming to think about meeting the emotional needs of each student and teaching them how to feel their emotions. (And what about your feelings too?!)
That’s why I developed these daily check-in forms! With some pre-teaching about feelings and identifying them, students will communicate clearly with you about how they are feeling. Then you can use that data and respond appropriately. For example, if a student checks in with a difficult day, you can touch base with them and add additional support.
Although emotional check-ins were common in classrooms pre-2020, these digital versions allow you to check in with your students at school or in a virtual classroom.
Online emotional check-ins are more crucial than ever with the possibility of having a quarantined classroom. In addition, students may be going through varied emotions being at home all day without their friends or in less than optimal living conditions.
Why Should You Do Morning Check-In For Students?
Privacy:
The virtual morning check-in is private. Paper versions may tempt other students to take a peek at their neighbor’s paper. This may create distrust, and students won’t feel safe to open up.
Efficient:
Assign these in your Google Classroom. You can even schedule them to be posted every day within a few minutes.
Less paperwork:
You know that teacher you can’t find when you walk into her room because she’s hidden behind stacks of ungraded papers? You don’t want to be her! There are no paper copies to track and no extra visits to the copy machine (thank God!). Instead, you can quickly turn the results into a handy Google sheet to review responses rapidly and accurately (don’t worry, I have a video showing how to do this!).
Builds Trust:
When you check-in consistently, your students are more likely to feel safe in your classroom (win!), and they will begin to trust you.
How To Add Emotional Check-In For Students Online
Here’s a quick list of ways you can seamlessly implement emotional digital check-ins:
- As an entry task
- Workshop station
- Part of morning meeting
- Virtual learning check-in
Emotional check-ins are an essential part of building a safe classroom environment. Let me help you create a community of pupils that trust you and their feelings to become successful students. So head to my shop to get your set of check-ins now!
Do you love Google as much as I do? Every month I send out an exclusive Google Slide template just for my email list! Want in? Tap here to access a 10-minute digital lesson plan Google Slide Template!
