We often focus intensely on student emotional well-being while overlooking a crucial element: our staff’s emotional health. Yet research consistently shows that educators who develop strong self-awareness skills are better equipped to handle classroom challenges, build positive relationships, and model emotional intelligence for their students.
Why Daily Emotional Check-Ins Matter
Teachers and youth-serving staff make hundreds of decisions daily, often in emotionally charged situations. Understanding their emotional state can help them:
- Respond rather than react to challenging behaviors
- Recognize when they need additional support
- Make more intentional instructional decisions
- Build authentic connections with students and colleagues
- Maintain their own well-being
Creating Space for Emotional Awareness
Consider implementing these practical strategies to support staff emotional awareness:
Start Staff Meetings with Check-Ins
Begin meetings by having staff identify and share their current emotional state. This normalizes emotional awareness and helps team members understand each other’s perspectives. Read more about integrating social and emotional skill building into team meetings.
Create Emotional Check-In Stations and Provide Reflection Tools
Designate a quiet space in the staff room where teachers can pause and reflect. This physical reminder helps integrate emotional awareness into daily routines. Offer individual tools that staff can use throughout their day to track their emotional patterns. Understanding these patterns helps adults identify triggers and develop proactive coping strategies.
Downloadable Resources

#1 Check Your Battery
Give staff the opportunity to check their “social” battery. Create unique stickers or magnets for each of your staff so that others can be aware of how their colleagues are feeling.

#2 Emotions Wheel
An abbreviated version of Plutchik’s wheel of emotions helps staff label and track their emotions throughout the week. This can be shared in a public place, or handed out individually.

#3 Mood Meter
Similar to the Emotions Wheel, a Mood Meter is an alternative to illustrating your staff’s emotional experiences. Visual cues are reminders for staff to pause and check-in on they are feeling.
Digital Resources

#4 Padlet
Padlet is an interactive digital platform that youth-serving staff can use to enhance self-awareness by reflecting on their emotions, experiences, and personal growth. Teams can create private or shared boards to post journal entries, mood check-ins, or gratitude reflections, fostering a habit of recognizing and naming emotions. Using visual elements like images, videos, and color-coded categories, staff can track emotional patterns over time and engage in self-reflection activities.

#5 Mentimeter
Mentimeter is an interactive presentation platform that can be a powerful tool for youth-serving staff to boost their self-awareness skills. By using live polls, word clouds, and anonymous Q&A features, teams can reflect on their emotions, identify personal triggers, and recognize patterns in their responses. Facilitators can prompt staff with questions like, “What emotions do you experience most during challenging situations?” or “How does stress show up in your work?”—allowing for real-time self-reflection and group insights. The anonymous format encourages honest participation, helping teams develop a deeper understanding of their emotions while fostering a culture of openness and emotional intelligence.
More Ideas
#6 Visual Diaries & Mood Boards
Shared Mood Board: Team members contribute images, GIFs, or colors representing how they feel at work.
Personal or Team Emotion Journals: A daily or weekly check-in using drawings, symbols, or color coding.
#7 Color-Coded Systems
Colored Cards/Sticky Notes: Team members place color-coded sticky notes (e.g., green for positive, yellow for neutral, red for challenging) on a shared board.
Desk Flags or Wearable Pins: Employees display their emotional state with different colored indicators.
#8 Journey Mapping
Work Experience Timeline: Team members chart highs and lows over a project, marking stress points, moments of flow, and achievements.
Check-in Graphs: A line graph where individuals track their emotional state over time.
#9 Interactive Visuals
Emoji Check-Ins: A board where employees pin an emoji that represents their current mood.
Group Word Cloud: Team members anonymously submit how they feel, and the most common words appear larger in a visual display.
#10 Art-Based Approaches
Doodle Wall: A communal space where people express emotions through doodles or sketches.
Metaphor Drawing: Team members draw their emotions using metaphors (e.g., “How’s your work life? Draw it as a weather forecast”).
Model the Practice
As leaders, when we openly discuss our own emotional awareness journey, we create psychological safety for staff to do the same.
The goal isn’t to eliminate challenging emotions but to help staff recognize, understand, and navigate them effectively. By supporting teachers’ emotional awareness, we strengthen the foundation of our emotional climate.