CASEL Water Cooler

Happy 3rd Anniversary, CASEL Blog! Check out our 10 Most Popular Posts

August 12, 2025
CASEL
a piece of birthday cake with a #3 candle lit, in front of a yellow wall with pink streamers

Key Points

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  • The blog is 3 years old, so celebrate by checking out the top 10 posts.
  • Learn how YOU can join these voices by writing for our blog.

It’s happy birthday time for CASEL’s blog, Constellations! For 36 months, we’ve been sharing stories of SEL champions from all around the world. Students, teachers, researchers, parents—they’ve all contributed to this ever-growing collection of expert voices and real-life SEL practitioners. That’s why we named it Constellations—we envisioned a pattern connected by many bright spots. Check out our 10 most popular blog posts since the blog first launched and find out how you can add your voice!

1. 5 Meaningful, Standards-Based SEL Activities for the Classroom

Check out this collection of take-and-use activities that can be incorporated into a systemic, schoolwide approach to SEL, offered by Jacqueline Pelliccio of Sustainable Education.

2. Creating the Villages We Need

A collage of colorful profiles of people.

Dr. Dena Simmons of LiberatED contemplates the importance of generating positive and supportive work environments so that we can support the children and youth we serve.

3. How Does Creativity Connect to Social and Emotional Skills for Greater Well-Being in School?

A profile of a head in blue with a white star behind it. In front is a hand with a lightbulb floating above it, with lines like orbits around it and a few stars.

Emotions and mindset play an important role in supporting creativity. Dr. Ross C. Anderson describes how SEL can support creativity in students.

4. AI + SEL & The Mental Health Crisis: How Can We Leverage New Tech to Meet the Moment? (and What Are the Risks?)

An image created with AI depicting  teacher showring a group of teacher how to use a computer

How will AI impact education? SEL program developer Margot Toppen offers a “SWOT” (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to suggest areas for exploration.

5. 3 Important Shifts in our Guidance on Adult Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

What role could adult SEL play in helping create workplaces where teachers thrive and learning environments where students are supported? CASEL’s Heather Schwartz and Claire Schu explain.

6. How Trauma-Informed Strategies Transformed My Classroom

a drawing of three children, backed by large hands and leaves

Teacher Melanie Barbas describes the role that SEL can play in supporting students who have experienced trauma.

7. 3 Back-to-School SEL Tips for Families

These strategies are based on our printable SEL tips for families, developed with the Leading with SEL coalition. Available in English and Spanish.

8. Even if it Seems Like SEL “Isn’t Working,” Keep At It. Here’s Why.

cartoon of a seed being planted in the ground

Dr. Amanda Moreno of Erikson Institute illuminates how SEL is a long game, and one worth playing.

9. Are You Okay? Checking in With Students Using SEL Exit Tickets

Teacher looking over students shoulder as she works on a computer, both smiling

Alison G. Boardman and Ashley Seidel Potvin of the University of Colorado Boulder offer a simple, yet powerful way to check in on how students are feeling.

10. What Does the Research Say About SEL and Academic Integration?

Screengrab from a webinar. Slide shows the text "What does SEL look like in a school" and the 10 indicators of schoolwide SEL, with an image of the speaker beside it, as in a Zoom call.

We share key insights from the Igniting Lifelong Learning Webinar Series, Part 1, exploring the research, practice, and policy around academic instruction integrated with SEL.

The views in these blogs are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of CASEL.

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