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One common element among schools that are thriving in these challenging times is a culture focused on social and emotional well-being, first for teachers and then for students.

During the three years my colleagues and I spent researching our book Whole: What Teachers Need to Help Students Thrive, we investigated the unique success stories of schools that were “out-performing their zip code.” Often situated in poor neighborhoods, the one consistent element across these “success outliers” was a culture focused on social and emotional well-being, first for teachers and then for students.

Enter COVID-19 and an explosion of stress, emotional challenge, and a distance in space and time between teacher and student. Much of what we understood about schooling changed in a matter of days, including schools’ ability to connect with teachers and students in an emotional, caring, and personalized manner. Technology had to immediately fill the gap, and that need will continue.

One critical finding in Whole is the idea “Relationships are the oxygen for learning.” We know that students must first be ready to learn before they can consume new information, retain it and synthesize it. Technology has a critically important role to play in supporting the social-emotional well-being of teachers and students.

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