Resource Roundup: 11 Resources for Starting the School Year Strong

Key Points

• Prioritizing social and emotional learning (SEL) from the start of school builds a powerful foundation for a successful year. SEL empowers students to excel academically, cultivate positive relationships, and lead happier and healthier lives.
• Browse this list of CASEL blogs and resources, including webinars, lesson ideas, and a free course, to help you start the school year strong.

1. 3 Back-to-School SEL Tips for Families 

Help children feel connected, supported, and empowered as they navigate the start of the school year with these three tips.

2. 5 Back-to-School SEL Strategies for Educators

Use these five strategies to create a welcoming environment, build connections with students and families, and lay the groundwork for rules and expectations that help the school day run smoothly. 

3. What Are You Bringing to Your Classroom This Year?

Teacher Maddie Richardson (“Ms. R”) answers the question, “What are you bringing to your classroom this year?” in the form of a TikTok video. 

4. 5 Meaningful, Standards-Based SEL Activities for the Classroom

Jacqueline Pelliccio, a former high school English teacher now working in ed tech, shares five classroom activities she has used to introduce and teach each of the SEL core competencies.

5. 3 Strategies to Engage Families in SEL

Partner with families around SEL this school year using these three tips, which can be easily incorporated into the family engagement strategies educators are already implementing.

6. SEL Quick Start: The SEL 3 Signature Practices

Learn how to use CASEL’s SEL 3 Signature Practices, which offer a straightforward, tangible way to integrate SEL into classrooms and staff meetings. Whether you’re implementing SEL for the first time or introducing SEL to a new group of students, the 3 Signature Practices are a great first step. 

7. How to Create Effective SEL Professional Learning

Use SEL principles and practices to create professional learning that is hands-on, engaging, effective, and models SEL for educators while offering the tools and support they need.

8. What Strategies Can We Use to Integrate SEL & Academic Learning?

In this webinar, CASEL’s Heather Schwartz talks with Drs. Veneschia Bryant and Jen Newton about how to integrate academics and SEL in the classroom. 

9. Free Course: An Introduction to Social and Emotional Learning

As you embark on a new school year, take CASEL’s free course for an SEL introduction or refresher. Learn more about ways you can (and already do!) use social and emotional skills to support young people. Download the facilitation guide if you’d like to lead a group through the course. 

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

Alison Boardman and Ashley Seidel Potvin share a step-by-step process for using SEL exit tickets, a simple, yet powerful way to check in on how students are feeling from the start of school.

11. CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL

Schoolwide SEL helps students excel academically, build stronger relationships, and lead happier, healthier, more fulfilling lives. CASEL’s Guide to Schoolwide SEL is packed with guidance, resources, and tools to help you infuse SEL into every part of students’ educational experience.

Related Posts:

• Our Favorite Tools for Starting the School Year
• Let’s Make Schools Places Where Students Want to Be
• Inquiry-Based Learning: What Happens When We Put Kids In Control of Their Learning?

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