It might not come naturally to think about Social Emotional Learning and Tech Class together, but it is totally possible to integrate these two things. Digital Breakouts are the answer, and students are begging for more.
What is Social Emotional Learning?
Bringing SEL into the Classroom
Digital Breakouts
Soft Skills and Digital Breakouts
What do these things have in common? They require students to work together.
I almost never have students do a Digital Breakout independently. Groups of 2-3 students is ideal.
This makes them collaborate, communicate, persevere, and problem solve together.
Collaborate – small groups can divide up the puzzles and codes or choose to work through them together.
Communicate – students have the opportunity to talk. I know, I know, how dare I let my students talk in class! haha I take this time as the teacher to facilitate their communication and work on skills with them if I need to step in.
Persevere – these puzzles are going to challenge them. They have to keep at it even if the group is arguing or frustrated about something.
Problem Solving – they can’t complete the digital breakout until all of the answers are correct. Not all of the puzzles are straightforward. Some have multiple layers to solve, kind of like a word problem. There is extra info, missing info, they have to work across slides (pages) to find the answers.
My brother is a Computer Engineer. He spends his day staring at a computer screen. Yet, he has to work with others at almost every step of every project.
When he was interviewing for the position, most of the questions they asked of him were about his ability to communicate and work with a team. It is unavoidable!
So, it has become my mission to get students talking and working together in the computer lab. Gone are the days where they plug in their headphones and work independently the entire time.
Are you ready to dive in and try a Digital Breakout?
I have tons of topics already. Click on a link to see the options.
Internet Safety
Online Research
Online Test Taking Tools
Coding Vocabulary
Keyboards
Computer Parts
Computer Lab Rules K-2
Computer Lab Rules 3-5
Or would you like to learn to build your own Digital Breakouts?
Make Your Own Digital Breakouts
As always, I want to hear from you! What are you doing to encourage students to work on SEL in the computer lab or any time they are using technology? Fill me in!
