Monday Musings: The Check In

Checking in with your students is important and conducive of a socio-emotional learning approach in your classroom. Therefore, I make a habit of having a quick check-in with students either at the beginning or at the end of class to have a general idea of their emotions and feelings. Unfortunately, due to time constraints I am not able to do this daily, however Mondays are a non-negotiable for me because I believe it is essential for me to check on them after the

weekend.

If this sounds like something you want to incorporate to your current daily practice, here are some helpful tips to add this to your toolkit and with a tech-y twist.

1) Padlet

You can quickly create a Padlet for students to type up a quick answer to a question like "How are you feeling today?

" "What are some concerns you have for this week?" I try to keep it open-ended as much as I can and also in the target language whenever possible.

2) Nearpod

This is one of my favorite digital tools. You can have a similar check in with the questions mentioned above in different formats

. Nearpod offers a "collaborate board" which is a digital bulletin board where students post "sticky notes" with their answers. This feature has now been updated and students can also reply with an image, a video, a picture and even a GIF! So, if they're feeling great you may get something like:

Nearpod also has an open-ended question feature, a poll, and drawing activities which can all be used for a quick check in with your students.

3) Flipgrid

This platform allows students to record videos based on a prompt or question. This option might take a bit longer but if you have the time, I think it's worth it to give students the opportunity to record their answers.

4) Google Slide

A Google Slide with a placeholder format is also a quick and simple way for students to briefly describe how they are feeling. Just share through your LMS, a link, or a QR code and it's ready to go!

5) Jamboard

This digital "whiteboard" can be customized so each student has a "square" or tile assigned to jot down their answers.

One of the things I really like about these resources is that they all offer the option to keep students answers anonymous by either encrypting their names (make sure you have this feature checked beforehand) or in the case of Jamboard, by previously assigning each tile to a number - and not a name- and privately sharing that number with each student.

I hope you found these tips useful!