Social and Emmotioanl Approach to Teaching with Technology Svetlana Lungu, “Mihai Eminescu” Lyceum, Chisinau

“All learning has an emotional base.” (Plato) Technology is our new social glue for creativity.

What is Social Emotional Learning?

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. 

Social & Emotional Learning Core Competencies Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. Self-management: The ability to regulate emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals. Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports. Relationship skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed. Responsible decision making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well- being of self and others.

We are all here today because we know that we are not just teaching language, we are teaching people. As teachers we can teach language better through integrating social and emotional intelligence into the communicative process. Technology makes this easier because it allows for enhanced creativity through social interactivity.

Social & Emotional Learning at different levels Brain-friendly level and best practice (Creativity) Personal levels with regard to social responsibility (Caring) Social interaction through learning (Collaboration)

How can we develop Social & Emotional Intelligence through technology? Video presentation tools Mind Maps Comics as creative mediums Storytelling Technology helps us to get socially & emotionally engaged

Benefits Digital tools can connect people’s feeling to enhance emotional learning: Digital tools can support students’ emotional connection to a content or other people that helps students learn better. Technology can satisfy personal learning pace and style to support emotional learning: The flexibility of new digital tools enables students to learn based on the ways (watching videos, listening to a CD-ROM, manipulating animations, etc.) that they feel most comfortable. Digital tools can provide private spaces for students to explore difficult issues: Robin Stern says that “Digital technologies can help kids who might otherwise not be able to explore difficult topics or who “aren’t comfortable” talking about something like their parent’s divorce with their teacher”. Cognitive learning can be enhanced through emotional learning by means of technology: For example, students may have a deep empathy with situations and people seen in videos. Technology is a powerful tool to share personal and other people’s experiences: Teachers can make use of technological resources such as YouTube and TeacherTube to find educative experiences shared by people to support students’ emotional learning.

How can videos help students develop their social emotional intelligence? Facilitating thinking and problem solving Inspiring and engaging students Increasing student motivation Enhancing learning experience Better results Deeper learning of the subject Developing learner autonomy Enhancing team working and communication skills A source of evidence relating to skills for interviews Learning resources for future cohorts to use  

Think of an activity that could develop your students’ social emotional intelligence using videos on a topic you teach. Make them create a video. What other language skills do you develop?

Mind Maps A mind map is a kind of framework. It helps you Organise Visualise Summarise Its purpose is to give you a better way to store information on one page. Many topics can be studied and revised easier and more meaningfully by making a mind map.  Mind maps can be made by hand or by using a special program on the computer. Information and ideas can be added on a branch from the central topic, and can be linked or grouped together using colours, text and pictures.

Activities to use in the classroom Encourage personalization, creativity, facts+feelings All about me ? A time I was happy A holiday I remember ? A famous person I know My best friend ? Important things in my life

Mind maps for writing Title in center Main ideas Details / examples/arguments Divide mind map into ‘paragraphs’ Add Introduction and Conclusion Add connectors Add language (e.g. tenses, conditionals, comparatives, phrasal verbs, idioms, specific vocabulary, etc.) Greater challenge for higher levels

- Compare - Show and tell - Q and A Mind maps for reading Title in center Main ideas Details about events and characters Students’ opinions Group/pair work: - Compare - Show and tell - Q and A

Mind Map for Reading

Mind Maps provide: Creative Thinking Problem Solving Making Choices Organizing Ideas Organizing other’s ideas Memory Collaboration Communication

Examples

Group Activity Create a mind map about your group members. Introduce them to the audience speaking about their qualities and life goals. Use as many adjectives as possible. Read the story and create a mind map on its plot and characters. Use as many possible details. Using the following vocabulary …. create a mind map that tells a story. Use the ready-made mind map and make up a story.

Comics and Cartoon Makers BRAINFRIENDLY: Comics are fun to read and easy to remember and demonstrate linguistics in action. CREATIVE: Students using comics improve their self-expression and self-discovery through story- telling CARING: Theme-based topics can be planned to teach interpersonal and intrapersonal skills through language development in non-threatening ways.

Benefits Collaborative story-telling Social themes Dialogue building Problem solving Dilemmas Mixed-up stories Practicing parts of speech Improving Language Skills

Classroom Activities using Cartoons and Comics Show students a cartoon or a comic strip Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. Corresponding SEL “self-awareness”, “social awareness”, and “responsible decision- making” skills: Label and recognize own and others’ emotions Analyze emotions and how they affect others Evaluate others’ emotional reactions Reflect on how current choices affect future

Ideas of how to use comics and cartoons describe pictures using adjectives learn synonyms and antonyms to expand vocabulary practice formation of different verb tenses practice story telling write a story using a comic as a starting point

Language Development through Comics

Language Development through Comics

Tools for making cartoons Chogger Kerpoof Storybook Pixton Make Beliefs Comix Toondoo Toonlet

Story Telling Story Telling is a short form of written production tool that allows students share aspects of their everyday life story.

Useful Tools to create stories Stupeflix Storybird Storyjumper Piclits

https://storybird.com/books/the-sweetest-teacher-ever-a-story-written-by-third/ http://www.storyjumper.com/book/search https://storybird.com/books/mr-bobbleheads-new-gadget-and-the-valentines- surpr/

How will you integrate into your teaching these tools ?