Social And Emotional Learning
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Instructional Tools & Materials:
Social and Emotional Learning
The following are instructional tools, resources, and example lesson plans to effectively teach students how self-esteem and empathy impact their school and personal life and the benefits of practicing mindfulness.
TeenHealthFX Related Questions:
How do I stop comparing myself to others?
How can I better prioritize my life?
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Objectives
Students will increase self-esteem
Students will explore ways to understand empathy
Students will create ways to spread acts of kindness
Students will practice health mindful techniques
Multi Day Lesson
Day 1 - Self-Esteem
Do Now: List 3 traits you like about yourself.
Students journal/draw a time when they demonstrated each trait (self-reflection or pointed out to them by someone).
Reflect and think about how it made them feel.
Have students work in small group to discuss their own self-esteem and how to reinforce it with each other and work on acceptance of self and others.
Brainstorm a complete list of character traits that each person in the group felt described them. Then, come together as a class through a group post or zoom.
Then, have students go back and recreate a list a 3-4 traits to see if it changed and if they feel prouder of themselves.
Day 2 - Empathy – putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Do Now: What does empathy mean?
Discuss emotions and feelings.
What would you do if you saw someone being bullied – in person? On-line? Or someone you know is doing the bullying.
- Accept and understand differences in each person
- How can you know and understand how someone feels?
- How can you recognize if someone is being let our or excluded?
Create or have students create scenarios and to work through them using role-play (in classroom setting) or utilizing a PSA.
Brainstorm a list of acts of kindness – figure out a plan to spread them around in school or on-line.
Day 3 - Stress & Stress Reduction
Do Now: Is all stress bad? Why or why not?
Brainstorm the difference between good stress (eustress) and bad stress (distress).
Discuss when each type of stress and why they are important.
Break students in small groups/ online discussion board of ways to reduce stress.
Discuss healthy ways to reduce stress versus unhealthy ways.
Create a list of ways students can reduce stress in a healthy way.
Towards the end of class, play a soothing/calming melody. Have students close their eyes or put their head down and listen to the song.
Discuss with students how it made them feel and introduce the following days lesson on Mindfulness.
Day 4 - Mindfulness
Do Now: What is your stress reduction to go technique?
Have students journal/make a list of methods they use to reduce stress.
Give students the option to have a “mindful day”.
Students can meditate, draw, journal, exercise, etc. to get a break.
Provide a guided meditation, color pages students can print, timed journaling (set a timer for 10 minutes and write about anything) , any in home exercises or activities. Examples listed below:
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Listen to Music
- 10 minutes of journaling
- Go for a walk or run, jumping jacks, or push-ups
Additional lesson ideas and resources can be found here.
The TeenHealthFX Teacher Pages correlate with the following National Health Education Standards:
1. Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
2. Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology and other factors on health behaviors.
3. Students will demonstrate the ability to access valid information, products, and services to enhance health.
4. Students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks.
5. Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.
6. Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health.
7. Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks.
8. Students will demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family, and community health.
You can also access your state’s school health policies.
