Nearpod is a collaborative software that allows educators to share their presentations and increase student engagement. There are options for students to share real time comments anonymously, draw pictures, and collaborate with one another.

Nearpod builds SEL skills by help students take the anxiety out of publicly commenting or asking questions. They can share their voice without the fear of being judged.

Pear Deck is another collaborative presentation tool. In the preset options of Pear Deck, presenters can choose slides to check in with students. The slide above is a great example of a way instructors can gauge a student's stress level and make real time adjustments as needed to help the student feel more confident and less stressed. It is also a great tool to allow students to let their teachers know that they may be carrying things into class that have nothing to do with school but may affect their learning.

Microsoft Teams presents a great opportunity for students to build their social skills. If a school uses teams students can chat directly with their teachers and ask questions as they arise. It is also a great tool to bring students together in online learning. Students can form teams of like minded peers and discuss, collaborate and learn from one another. Another benefit is that a school can have administrative control and investigate claims of bullying or inappropriate behavior on Teams. This tool allows students to develop a positive social presence online and practice social interactions.

One of the keys to social and emotional learning is to help students with their self management. Online learning can often provide a challenge for students when it comes to organization, planning, and time management. There are several planning systems that a family or school can invest in to help their student succeed. Todoist is a great system in that it allows students to manage their time digitally. They can set up reminders, organize their page to their liking, and even collaborate with others. Teacher and parents can also gain access to a student's Todoist and add assignments and tasks to help students in their pursuit of self-management.

One goal of social and emotional learning is to help learners work together to achieve goals. One of the best tools to encourage positive collaboration is Google Docs. Student can work in real time on papers, presentations, and discussion in google docs. They can share their work with their instructors too. One of the best uses of google docs is the page history. With this all collaborates can see who has done work on teh document which will encourage a more well rounded collaborative experience.

Flipgrid is a wonderful tool that allows students to interact with one another through video. Flipgrid enhances social and emotional learning by encouraging students to interact with one another face to face. It also scaffolds in emotional learning for the anxious student. Students can scramble their face, add a sticker over their image or just record audio. As students grow more comfortable with the tool they can work towards using their cameras or allowing their face to be on camera.

Forest is an app that encourages students and adults to focus on tasks to build their own virtual forest. Users can plant a tree of their choice by pledging to stay focused on a task for a specific amount of time. For example a user can pledge to focus on their work for twenty minutes to plant a virtual tree in their forest. If they touch their phone before the time is up the tree will die. This encourages self control and goal seting. As your forest grows you can reflect on all your completed goals and unlock different types of trees.

Calm is a stress management app that provides users with the ability to select guided meditations and relaxing music. You can select different white noises, stretching exercises and guided sleep routines too. These elements can be used to destrss and build a healthy sleep routine. It is a great app to teach students about mindfulness and self care.

Stoic is another mindfulness app focused on self reflection and building resilience. Stoic uses different guided prompts to help users reflect and process their emotions and values. The questions focus on helping users conquere their fears and overcome anxiety. Stoic provides visualization and meditation exercises too. There is even a reminders feature included for tasks or assignments.

Moodfit is an app that encourages users to be mindful of their feelings, diet and exercise. Users can track their performance overtime to see how they are feeling on a weekly basis. The app includes CBT and breathing exercises. Users can add tasks too and track how often they are remembering to perform them.

Headspace is an app that provides access to different exercises, meditations and sleep routines. Users can select a different routine each day to help them learn and try new methods for dealing with stress and anxiety. The app has an emphasis in sleep hygiene and building a healthy sleep routine.

Habitica is a reminder app that makes completing tasks fun. Users can create an avatar and make their to do list. The tasks are viewed as items needed to complete a quest. When a user completes a task their avatar gains skills or earns rewards. This can be a very engaging app for younger students who need motivation to complete homework or chores.

Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame, is a resource app for young children (ages 2-5) that teaches problem solving, self-control, planning, and task persistence skills in a fun Sesame Street themed environment. The app is one of a suite from Sesame Street’s Little Children, Big Challenges initiative, which aims to provide tech tools to aid children in building skills for emotional and social resilience, and strategies to meet everyday challenges.

GoNoodle, suited for ages K-5, aids parents and teachers to motivate kids to be more active by modeling short interactive exercises. Classroom-based movement events encourage kids to be more engaged and to achieve more. Key features are, it’s free, models research-based activities, is fast, designed for long-term engagement, and can be used in multiple classes.

The Social Express teaches children and teenagers emotion perception and how to navigate social situations. The app employs interactive animated videos depicting various situations in which the player evaluates the scene and decides what her character should do. Participants are taught how to interpret their own emotions and those of friends and companions through school and extra-curricular virtual activities. “Players are encouraged to adopt positive social behaviors and develop their social emotional intelligence.”

“Social-emotional learning is the process of developing and using social and emotional skills. It’s the skillset we use to cope with feelings, set goals, make decisions, and get along with—and feel empathy for—others. (You also might hear SEL referred to as socio-emotional learning or social-emotional literacy.) People with strong social-emotional skills are better equipped to manage daily challenges, build positive relationships, and make informed decisions. SEL helps students and adults thrive in school and in life. And the skills can be taught and learned from preschool all the way through adulthood.”