Social and emotional learning isn't just for kids.
While evidence shows that teachers with higher levels of social emotional competence have more effective classroom management, better retention, and higher academic achievement in their students, very little training is provided to support teacher’s personal SEL.
To effectively teach SEL skills, educators first need space to reflect personally and recognize their skills and opportunities for growth. Give educators opportunities to check-in with themselves, and take the temperature of your school ecosystem, by using Reflect in class Teams.
Create a Reflect check-in
Encourage reflective conversations in your staff team by making check-ins a part of your routine.
Important: To create a Reflect check-in in a staff team, you must be a team owner.
1. Navigate to your desired staff team, then select the Reflect tab.
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From here you can see your recent check-ins. Select any check-in to see how team members responded.
2. Explore the check-in questions using the categories, then select a question.
3. Select your privacy setting. Responses are always anonymous, but you can decide whether or not to share the results of the check-in with the members of the team.
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Select Responses but not names if you want students to see the distribution of feelings in the class.
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Select No responses and no names to keep the distribution of responses private. In this case, only the team's owners will see the response distribution.
Important: In staff teams, Reflect never attaches responses to names.
4. Select Next.
5. Use the Duration dropdown to establish how long the check-in will be open for responses.
6. Use the Post check-in to dropdown to choose where you want the check-in to appear.
7. Select Post check-in.
You will see the Reflect check-in posted, and team members will be notified of the opportunity to respond.
Note: Reflect is not supported for Guest users. Ensure participants are members of the staff team.
Optional: Before sending your check-in, select Demo respondent view to preview the team member's experience.
View check-in responses
As the creator of the check-in:
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Return to the Reflect tab.
Note: You do not need to wait until the check-in closes. As team members respond, their reflections will be visible to you.
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Select any check-in from the list.
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You will see team member responses distributed based on the emoji they selected. Select any emoji tab to see how they named their emotion.
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Press Back to return to the full check-in list.
Privacy in Reflect
Staff names aren't displayed with their responses in staff teams, even to the check-in creator.
Note: Direct IT admins to our detailed information about data privacy and security.
The information collected and shown through Reflect meets more than 90 regulatory and industry standards, including GDPR and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for students and children's security and other, similar, privacy-oriented regulations.
Respond to a Reflect check-in
Healthy school ecosystems depend on educators with good social emotional skills. Reflection and naming your emotions helps develop self-awareness, while also giving valuable feedback in your school community.
Important: Check-in responses are always anonymous, but the team owner will see the distribution of responses. If privacy settings allow, team members will see the distribution of responses.
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When a team owner creates a Reflect check-in, you can access it through Activity and see it in the channel.
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Select the emoji that best fits how you're feeling.
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Name your emotion by choosing the emotion word that fits with how you are feeling. then select Submit.
See how your teammates responded
If the privacy settings allowed for team members to see the distribution of responses, you can see how your teammates responded once the check-in closes.
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Select the Reflect tab to see your previous responses and the distribution of responses from your peers.
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Select View team responses from a closed response to see bar graphs of how many team members selected each emoji.
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Select an open check-in to respond or to adjust your response.
Help team members be SEL role models
Mobilize Reflect check-ins to support yourself and your peers! Educators need opportunities to reflect on and process their emotions, and in doing so become better SEL role models for their students. Add Reflect to professional development and other staff meetings to provide opportunities to practice, and opportunities to listen.
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Use the question "How do you feel about how you mobilized growth mindset this week?" to jumpstart a conversation about mistakes and how powerful they are as learning devices. Providing an opportunity to share about mistakes can help trying new things feel less difficult.
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Host conversations about the emotion vocabulary Reflect introduces. Why is determined different than motivated? Why does it matter to be able to express yourself clearly as adults? How can you leverage this vocabulary with your students?
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Use questions in the Personal section to initiate journaling sessions. Provide time for educators to elaborate on their responses in a private space where they can track goals, express strong feelings, or make plans for their personal growth and wellbeing.
