My project is an app that surfaces relevant social-emotional lessons and tools for teachers, based on their classroom’s needs. Social-emotional learning has become a bit of a buzzword in schools around the country and world, but many struggle with implementation of social-emotional learning in practice. While teachers want to support their students’ holistic development, they aren’t given much guidance when it comes to implementing social-emotional learning, and often they just have too much on their plates already. SELect Lessons makes it easy for teachers to find high-quality materials that can be customized to their students through an algorithm that surfaces lessons that are best fit for any given classroom. Teachers can also connect with other communities to learn from one another and grow together.
Teachers start with an onboarding quiz that helps understand their classroom’s needs. Teachers will complete this quiz once a year to personalize the experience.
The algorithm will then recommend various lessons deemed appropriate for that classroom. Teachers can explore lessons, save them, and react with thumbs up and thumbs down to further refine the algorithm. Each lesson page includes an introduction, a video of the lesson being done, and reviews from other teachers. Teachers can explore other teachers’ lesson plans and create their own. Teachers can also join various teams, including teaching teams, communities of practice, and broader teaching communities.
Lastly, students will share how they’re feelings each day, as well as how each lesson makes them feel. Teachers can track this data over time, and it will serve as an additional input to the algorithm, for more refined lesson recommendations.
This project has challenged me to think deeply about the context and constraints for learning, which is crucial in informing the learning design process. An important feature of this app is that it’s designed to be implemented immediately. Great learning design often requires lots of reflection and iteration, but for many teachers, they just don’t have time, and instead, they need actionable materials. Teachers are already great at what they do, and don’t need an app to teach them how to teach. Instead, they need something that will lighten their burden by deeply understanding their needs and providing guidance and resources.
References
Whitcomb, S. A., Parisi, D. D. M., Carrizales-Engelmann, D., Feuerborn, L. L., Gueldner, B. A., & Tran, O. K. (2016). Merrell’s strong start—Grades K-2: A social and emotional learning curriculum, second edition. Brookes Publishing.
Kurtz, M. (2023, April 11). What is social and emotional learning (SEL)? Region 13’s Blog. https://blog.esc13.net/social-emotional-learning/
