{"id":1823,"date":"2022-08-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T06:40:12","slug":"new-teams-features-help-improve-your-classrooms-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/education\/blog\/2022\/08\/new-teams-features-help-improve-your-classrooms-well-being\/","title":{"rendered":"New Teams features help improve your classroom\u2019s well-being"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Listening to and empathizing with students through ongoing dialogue is vital to their current and future success. And with the right tools educators can foster an environment where students feel heard and help keep a pulse on their emotional well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019re excited to tell you about new Microsoft Teams features that help teachers recognize students\u2019 needs and foster more classroom communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflect helps students build their emotional skills<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reflect<\/a>\u2014a new feature in Microsoft Teams\u2014can help learners broaden their emotional vocabulary, recognize and navigate their emotions better, and deepen empathy for their peers. It does this in part by providing regular opportunities for students to share and be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflect also benefits educators by providing them valuable feedback and helping build a healthy classroom community that makes social emotional learning routine. Research has demonstrated that explicit teaching of social and emotional skills improves student academic and behavioral performance and has lifelong positive effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Microsoft, we know that self-awareness and self-management are critical skills for lifelong learning, so Reflect provides opportunities for students to reflect on their learning. This helps educators better understand how students receive their curriculum and work with students to increase the agency they have in their own learning process. The benefit is helping students develop a growth mindset by honestly evaluating their own effort, motivation, and progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflect also provides a safe space for students to practice asking for help in areas where they feel challenged. Students can do check-ins<\/a> using emojis and characters, which allows them to express themselves and develop emotional awareness. Only educators can see their students\u2019 reflections, so students never have to worry about privacy. Together view, another part of Reflect, allows students to build empathy for others by viewing the Feelings Monsters their classmates share (the Monsters are character representations of a person\u2019s own feelings). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reflect also allows teachers to create custom questions for Microsoft Teams check-ins and view improved data visualizations of previous check-ins in Teams and Class Notebook<\/a>. And using the OneNote Class Notebook toolbar, educators can easily insert a Reflect for learning poll that is contextualized on the Class Notebook page. These can be used as quick and easy pre- and post-assignment assessments, or as \u201cexit slips\u201d to help inform the next lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use Reflect to enhance your SEL routine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These are some quick ideas for how to use Reflect to either enhance your existing social and emotional learning (SEL) routine, or begin a new SEL routine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n