January 14, 2025

Top 5 Resources to Kick Off the New Year Strong: Empowering Schools and Future-Ready Students to Navigate Social Media and Tech

As we step into 2025, school leaders are embracing the opportunity to set clear goals for fostering future-ready students. In fact, research reveals that 76% of students say tech makes learning more engaging, with 90% of teachers saying that tech helps them assess student learning more effectively. To help schools navigate challenges like maintaining student focus, managing digital distractions, and fostering resilience, we’ve compiled a list of The Social Institute’s most popular resources among educators in 2024.

From strategies for building essential life skills to playbooks on striking a balance with technology and integrating positive A.I. use in the classroom, these resources empower educators to help students be future-ready. 

Setting our school community up for success in 2025

The start of a new year offers school leaders a chance to reflect on lessons from 2024 and set data-driven, evidence-based goals for the year ahead. By equipping their educators with the right tools and insights, school leaders can create environments where students adapt to modern challenges and excel in building the life skills they need to thrive, like critical thinking, responsible decision-making, effective communication, and digital citizenship.

Here are the five most popular resources of 2024 that educators used to equip students with essential life skills. Each resource offers proven strategies to help schools create engaging learning environments, build student resilience, and empower future-ready learners.

1. Evidence-Based & Effective: Building Essential Life Skills in K-12 Education

With 95% of students active on social media and half online “almost constantly”, technology shapes nearly every aspect of their lives, from how they learn and socialize to how they manage their well-being and make decisions. While social media offers opportunities for engagement and innovation in the classroom, it also poses risks such as digital distractions and FOMO. Addressing these challenges is essential to fostering student well-being, academic growth, and future success.

The Social Institute’s white paper emphasizes the importance of modern life skills, such as self-awareness, responsible decision-making, effective communication, and digital citizenship. It details actionable strategies for integrating these competencies into K-12 education, helping students navigate their online and offline worlds in positive ways.

Top Insights:

  • Research-Backed Strategies: Leverage proven methods like inquiry-based learning, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and CASEL’s SEL framework to build student skills in self-awareness, critical thinking, and decision-making.
  • Real-World Relevance: Engage students with real-life scenarios and timely topics, from navigating AI to managing digital distractions, to boost learning outcomes.
  • Family Collaboration: Use tools like Family Huddles and The Social Toolkit to align school and home, empowering families to reinforce lessons and model positive behaviors.
  • Actionable Solutions: Implement effective tech policies and promote healthy digital habits to create thriving, balanced learning environments.

Download Evidence-Based & Effective: Building Essential Life Skills in K-12 Education to learn more.

2. Helping Students Strike a Balance with Technology

Did you know that 87% of students believe better time management and organizational skills could improve their grades? While technology and social media fuel engagement, they can lead to distractions when students aren’t equipped with the necessary skills to manage their time online.

This playbook provides a roadmap for creating engaging learning environments by promoting healthy tech habits

School leaders love this resource because it highlights:

  • The effects of media multitasking on academic performance.
  • Strategies for fostering healthier digital habits.
  • Best practices for aligning tech use with student well-being.

Download School Playbook: Educators’ Role in Empowering Students to Strike a Balance with Technology to access the full playbook.

3. Empowering Students to Navigate A.I. Positively

While 58% of teachers haven’t received training on generative A.I., half of students are already using A.I. tools like ChatGPT and Snapchat’s My AI. This guide bridges the gap, equipping educators with strategies to empower students to use A.I. responsibly and confidently, fostering high-character decision-making in a tech-driven world.

What you’ll learn:

  • Insights into student and educator perspectives on A.I.
  • Guidance for fostering ethical and informed use of A.I. in schoolwork.
  • Tools to help students make values-based decisions when engaging with A.I..

Download School Playbook: Fostering Student Excellence: How to Empower Students to Play to Their Core as They Navigate A.I. to learn more.

4. The Essential Guide to Empowering Students Online and Offline

Students spend an average of 32.5 hours in class every week. After you factor in parents’ busy work schedules and student extracurricular activities, some students spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents on weekdays. The classroom plays an important role in student development, academically and socially, making it a prime place to integrate modern life skills education. But how?

What you’ll learn: 

  • Ways to integrate modern life skills into your classes.
  • How to empower students with skills, like self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness, across divisions.
  • The secret to using modern life skills to empower students online and offline.

Download The Essential Guide to Empowering Students to Make High-Character Decisions Online and Offline.

5. Creating a Classroom Technology Policy to Avoid Digital Distractions

Technology is a double-edged sword in classrooms, offering tools for learning while posing risks of distraction. As phones and school-issued devices increase among students at younger and younger ages, educators face the challenge of delivering strong learning experiences while digital distractions are everywhere. So how can we empower and equip students, instead of scare and restrict?

What you’ll learn:

  • Huddle with your students and brainstorm the standards you will have for technology in your classroom.
  • Empower students to manage their relationship with social media and technology and avoid digital distractions.
  • Help your students strike a balance and create an engaging learning environment.

Download Creating a Classroom Technology Policy to Avoid Digital Distractions.

Building a Strong Foundation for 2025

The resources highlighted above provide a roadmap for addressing the challenges (and opportunities!) schools face today. From aligning your school community on positive A.I. use to crafting effective technology policies, these tools empower educators to navigate online distractions, enhance student well-being, and build thriving school communities.

Start the year strong and request a demo today to see how #WinAtSocial can empower your school to confidently tackle 2025 with innovative solutions and lasting impact. 


The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in empowering students by understanding students. Through #WinAtSocial, our gamified, peer-to-peer learning platform, we equip students, educators, and families to navigate their social world – in the classroom and beyond, online and offline – in healthy, high-character ways. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips, rather than scares and restricts. We incorporate timely topics about social media, tech use, and current events that are impacting student well-being and learning. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach life skills for the modern day, capture student voice, and provide school leaders with actionable insights. Through these insights, students play an essential role in school efforts to support their own health, happiness, and future success as we enable high-impact teaching, meaningful family conversations, and a healthy school culture.