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Grade 6Grade 7Grade 8
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WeekSession #Session Title LinkSession #Session Title LinkSession #Session Title Link
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Sept 111WelcomeSession 11WelcomeSession 11WelcomeSession 1
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Welcome to Session 1! This session helps set the stage for the "What", the "How", and the "Why" for this year. It helps create clarity for both the educator and students which sets the program up for success. Welcome to Session 1! This session helps set the stage for the "What", the "How", and the "Why" for this year. It helps create clarity for both the educator and students which sets the program up for success. Welcome to Session 1! This session helps set the stage for the "What", the "How", and the "Why" for this year. It helps create clarity for both the educator and students which sets the program up for success.
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Sept 182Building ConnectionsSession 22Building ConnectionsSession 22Building ConnectionsSession 2
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This is the 1st of 2 sessions about building community. Connecting with peers and building friendships and relationships are important for our sense of belonging and can lay a good foundation for creating a sense of safety and community in our classroom. This is the 1st of 2 sessions about building community. The goal is to begin to develop relationships and create a sense of safety and community in our classroom space. This is the 1st of 2 sessions about building community. The goal is to begin to develop relationships and start creating a sense of safety and community in our classroom space.
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Sept 253Building CommunitySession 33Building CommunitySession 33Building CommunitySession 3
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This is session 2 of 2 in our community building series. It is focused on continuing to build connections and a positive classroom climate. We'll be doing activities to get to know each other better and learn more about each other's names.This is the 2nd of 2 sessions in our community-building series. It is focused on getting to know each other better and learning more about each other interests and insights.This is session 2 of 2 in our community building series. It is focused on learning more about each other and getting to know each other better.
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Oct 2Anti-Bullying Week
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Oct 94Middle School Mythbusting (Worries & Wonders)Session 44Developing Community AgreementsSession 44Developing Community AgreementsSession 4
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This is the 1st of 2 sessions that utilize videos to bring student voices forward with the goal of helping quell worries our students might have at the beginning of middle school. This session is about fitting in and belonging at school. This session is dedicated to developing Community Agreements. This process is designed to bring many voices forward to make sure everyone has an opportunity to reflect on and discuss how we want to treat each other. These Agreements are meant to help the class to become a safe place where people can be genuine without fear of mistreatment. The Agreements are designed to serve as guidelines we can refer to throughout the year. This session is dedicated to developing Community Agreements. This process is designed to bring many voices forward to make sure everyone has an opportunity to reflect on and discuss how we want to treat each other. These agreements are meant to help the class to become a safe place where people can be genuine without fear of mistreatment. The agreements are designed to serve as guidelines we can refer to throughout the year.
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Oct 165Understanding the CharacterDare ProcessSession 55The CharacterDareSession 55The CharacterDare Session 5
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This session will setup the first CharacterDare, which will be a consistent part of every session for the rest of the year. The CharacterDares are designed to help us practice putting values and character into action. The CharacterDare process includes a review of the challenge from the previous session, along with an introduction to a new challenge. Grades 6, 7, and 8 will all have the same challenge corresponding to this week's session. We will return to the conversation about character and values in a session called Values Exploration. Remember: CharacterDares are invitations, not demands! The power is in the conversation. This session sets up the first CharacterDare, which will be a consistent part of every session for the rest of the year. The CharacterDares are designed to help us practice putting values and character into action. The CharacterDare process includes reviewing the challenge from the previous session, along with an introduction to a new challenge. Every grade level has the same challenge corresponding to that week's session. We will return to the conversation about character and values in a 3-part series titled "What Do We Value?" Remember: CharacterDares are invitations, not demands! The power is in the conversation. This session sets up the first CharacterDare, which will be a consistent part of every session for the rest of the year. The CharacterDares are designed to help us practice putting values and character into action. The CharacterDare process includes reviewing the challenge from the previous session, along with an introduction to a new challenge. Every grade level has the same challenge corresponding to that week's session. We will return to the conversation about character and values in a 3-part series titled "What Do We Value?" Remember: CharacterDares are invitations, not demands! The power is in the conversation.
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Oct 276Developing Community AgreementsSession 66What Do We Value?, pt 1Session 66Connecting Values & Your Future (Values & Dreams)Session 6
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This session is dedicated to developing Community Agreements. The process is designed to bring many voices forward to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to reflect on and discuss how we want to treat each other. These Agreements are meant to help the class become a safe place where people can be genuine without fear of mistreatment. The Agreements will serve as guidelines we can refer to throughout the year.This is the 1st of 3 sessions related to values. Thinking about and identifying values, we personally feel are important, can help us make good decisions and can guide our actions in positive directions. In this session, we explore our individual values, including where they come from and ways we can put them into action. In this session, we will go through the full CharacterDare process: first, reflect on the previous CharacterDare, and second, introduce them to the new CharacterDare. Remember: these challenges are invitations, not demands! The power is in the conversation.This is the 2nd of 4 sessions where we look ahead and plan for our futures. In this session, we touch base with our individual values and use them to help guide us in thinking about dreams we want to see come true in our futures.
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Nov 37Middle School Mythbusting (Expert Explorers)
Session 77What Do We Value?, pt 2Session 77Connecting Values & Your Future (Values & Dreams)Session 7
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This is the 2nd of 2 sessions that utilize videos to bring student voices forward with the goal of helping to quell worries our students might have at the beginning of middle school. This session is focused on taking tests in middle school.This is the 2nd of 3 sessions focused on values. This session applies learning from the last session related to values and offers some perspective on how we might have the same (or different) values for various reasons.This is the 2nd of 4 sessions where we look ahead and plan for our futures. In this session, we touch base with our individual values and use them to help guide us in thinking about dreams we want to see come true in our futures.
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Nov 68Meeting New PeopleSession 88What Do We Value?, pt 3Session 88Values & Your Future in High School (The Story of Values)Session 8
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The theme of this year is "Belonging" and this is the 1st of 2 sessions with the goal of helping us make connections and build relationships. In this session’s activity, we make plans to get to know 4 adults in the building. This is the 3rd of 3 sessions focused on values. This session brings the three sessions together with a focus on application in our personal lives.This is the 3rd of 4 sessions where we look ahead and plan for our futures. Thinking about what we have already accomplished can help guide our actions in positive directions. In this session, we think about personal values that influenced us in elementary school, experiences we've had in middle school, and how remembering and acting on our individual values can help us have the kind of high school experience we hope for.
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Nov 139Get to Know Your SchoolSession 99Understanding EmotionsSession 99Connecting Your Future & This Year (Planning Ahead)Session 9
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The theme of this year is "Belonging" and this is the 2nd of 2 sessions with the goal of helping us make connections and build relationships. In this session, we identify opportunities to get involved in fun and interesting activities at school and think of opportunities we wish existed.This is the 1st of 5 sessions focused on understanding (two sessions) and regulating (three sessions) emotions. Across this session and the next, we learn some basic brain science to help us understand where our emotions come from. We learn that our brains all create emotions quickly and automatically, which means people don't have strong emotions on purpose. This can help us to gain a helpful perspective on both our own and others' strong emotions. This is the 4th of 4 sessions where we look ahead and plan for our futures. In this session we continue thinking about high school, what we hope for, obstacles we might face to achieving those wishes, and ways we might overcome those obstacles.
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Dec 410Values ExplorationSession 1010Exploring EmotionsSession 1010Developing Values as GuidesSession 10
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This is the 1st of 3 sessions focused on exploring values. Getting clear on our own personal values can help us make decisions and act in ways that align with our sense of self and what we think is important. In this session, we explore the topic of values by reflecting on the qualities we value in other people.This is the 2nd of 5 sessions focused on understanding (two sessions) and regulating (three sessions) emotions. Across this session and the last we learn some basic brain science to help us understand where our emotions come from. In this session, we continue learning about how our brains create emotions quickly and automatically. This can help us to gain a helpful perspective on both our own and others' strong emotions. This is the 1st of 3 sessions on values and habits. Improving our ability to turn actions we want to take into habits makes it easier to take those actions when the time is right. In this session, we work on getting better at identifying our values and making them into habits to help us handle challenges.
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Dec 1111Understanding Values (Values in Community)Session 1111Expanding Emotion VocabularySession 1111Creating GoalsSession 11
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This is the 2nd of 3 sessions focused on exploring values. In this session, the class will review our group's Community Agreements from earlier in the year. The class will choose 1 Community Agreement and explore it from different value perspectives, considering how different people demonstrate their values and how we show others what we value. Following two sessions on emotion understanding, the 3rd session in this series of 5 focuses on emotion regulation. In this session, we learn about regulating our own strong emotions by Naming them and improving our ability to use this approach by practicing distinguishing between different intensities of emotion to help us find the right name for what we are experiencing. This is the 2nd of 3 sessions on values and habits. Our values can help us identify things we want to accomplish that are important to us. In this session we work on connecting our values to goals.
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Dec 1812Practicing Values (What's Important to Us?)Session 1212Practicing Emotion RegulationSession 1212Making Positive HabitsSession 12
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This is the 3rd of 3 sessions focused on exploring values, in this session by reflecting on how we want to feel in different situations and discussing how this relates to and can help us understand our personal values. We will spend time thinking about what we value and how that helps us to think about who we want to be. This is the 4th of 5 sessions related to emotion understanding and emotion regulation. Handling powerful emotions requires learning strategies for calming down and we learn two and revisit one learned in a previous session.This is the 3rd of 3 sessions on values and habits. In this session, we focus on how our values, goals, and habits are all connected.
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Jan 1513Building Listening SkillsSession 1313Identifying EmotionsSession 1313Happiness MythbustingSession 13
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This is a session on becoming better listeners. Listening is an important skill that improves peer relationships and is important for perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and group work. In this session, we practice listening closely with a partner and reflect on what was hard (or easy) about it. This is the 5th of 5 sessions related to emotion understanding and emotion regulation. Tools for regulating emotions are only effective if you use them. In this session, we work on thinking through how we'd handle emotional challenges presented in scenarios.This session examines emotion regulation. Understanding and being able to handle strong emotions is important for coping with a variety of challenges including maintaining well-being, building peer relationships and handling peer conflicts, and meeting classroom expectations. This session explores common myths about happiness that can make it harder for us to handle difficult emotions.
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Jan 2214Listening Practice Session 1414Understanding StressSession 1414Happiness Self-AcceptanceSession 14
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This is the 2nd of 2 sessions focused on listening. Listening is a valuable skill that improves peer relationships and is important for perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and group work. In this session, we practice identifying good versus bad listening. This is the 1st of 2 sessions on stress and coping. Increasing numbers of adolescents struggle with stress. In this session, we focus on understanding stress and learning ways to cope with stress.In this session we continue to look at the concept of happiness. In this session, we examine another myth about happiness - that if we're not always happy there's something wrong with us. Being unhappy at times is normal and knowing that can help us not feel even worse when we experience unhappiness.
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Jan 2915Understanding Others' Perspectives Session 1515Stress Coping StrategiesSession 1515Understanding How Emotions Work, pt 1Session 15
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This is the 1st of 2 sessions on perspective-taking. Perspective-taking is important for peer relationships and supports friendship, respect, and conflict resolution, including across student differences. In this session, we work in groups to practice trying to understand the perspective of other people. This is the 2nd of 2 sessions on stress and coping. In this session, we focus on coming up with and sharing ways to improve our well-being to help us cope with stress. This is the 1st of 2 sessions on understanding emotions. Our brains create our emotions by rapidly and automatically assessing what's going on around us and inside us and whether it is good or bad for us. We will all learn about this process in this session and the next. Understanding that emotions are natural, automatic, and arise very quickly can help us improve how we view ourselves and others when strong emotions arise and helps lay the foundation for learning emotion regulation skills.
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Feb 516Practicing Perspective-TakingSession 1616Understanding Community ConnectionsSession 1616Understanding How Emotions Work, pt 2Session 16
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This is the 2nd of 2 sessions on perspective-taking. Perspective-taking is not just a passive process. In this session, we practice improving our ability to understand someone else by applying our listening skills and asking thoughtful questions. This session focuses on social connections. Friendships and good relationships with others are important throughout life but can be especially important in middle school. In this session, we all work together to come up with as many ideas as we can for ways to be social and connect with others. This is the 2nd of 2 sessions on understanding emotions. In this session, we continue learning about how our emotions are natural and happen automatically. Understanding some of the science of emotions can help us improve how we view ourselves and others when strong emotions arise and help lay the foundation for learning emotion regulation skills.
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Feb 12Random Act of Kindness WeekRAK websiteRAK websiteRAK website
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Feb 1917Understanding Emotions Session 1717Building Social AwarenessSession 1717Dealing with EmotionsSession 17
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This is the 1st of 2 sessions focused on understanding and learning ways to regulate our emotions. In this session, we talk about the value of regulating and calming our bodies and learn some techniques focused on breathing. This is the 1st of 4 sessions on how we can effectively engage in empathy in ways that result in helping others in need rather than just feeling bad for them. To start this section off we focus on noticing as much as we can about others as a way to get us started on improving our empathy and perspective-taking skills. This is the 1st of 4 sessions on emotion regulation. Early adolescents experience their emotions especially powerfully and we can all struggle sometimes to handle powerful emotions well. In this session, we learn about how our emotions can sometimes cause us to do things we later regret. Exploring this can help motivate us to learn emotion regulation strategies.
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Feb 2618Regulating Emotions: (Naming Emotions)Session 1818Understanding Effective Empathy (Choosing to Care)Session 1818Practicing Self-RegulationSession 18
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This is the 2nd of 2 sessions on emotions. Research shows being able to name our strong emotions helps us stay calm and think through difficult situations. This is the 2nd of 4 sessions on effective empathy. The first step, which we worked on last session, is noticing how others are feeling and what's going on with them. The second step, which we focus on today, is the importance of caring about others and caring when we can tell others are unhappy or could use some help. This is the 2nd of 4 sessions on emotion regulation. Early adolescents experience their emotions especially powerfully and we can all struggle to handle strong emotions well. In this session, we learn 2 different strategies that can help us regulate our emotions.
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Mar 419Strengthening FriendshipsSession 1919Acting with EmpathySession 1919Building an Emotions ToolboxSession 19
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This is a session on friendship. The goal is to reflect on the qualities we value in friends. This is the 3rd of 4 sessions on effective empathy. In this session, we focus on the 3rd ingredient that makes empathy effective - taking action to help others. This is the 3rd of 4 sessions on emotion regulation. Early adolescents experience their emotions especially powerfully and we can all struggle to handle powerful emotions well. In this session, we learn more strategies to add to our emotion regulation toolbox.
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Mar 1120Exercising Perspective-TakingSession 2020Practicing Effective EmpathySession 2020Connecting Emotion Regulation and ValuesSession 20
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This is the 1st of 2 sessions on perspective-taking. Learning to understand others' perspectives is a fundamental social skill important for making friends, solving conflicts, and working in groups. In this session, we practice thinking about how different people might react differently to the same situation. This is the 4th of 4 sessions on effective empathy. In this session, we reflect on and explore ways to engage in all three parts of the effective empathy formula: noticing, caring, and taking action. This is the 4th of 4 sessions on emotion regulation. Early adolescents experience their emotions especially powerfully and we can all struggle to handle powerful emotions well. In this session, we explore ways to get better at using emotion regulation tools to put our values into action and work toward our goals.
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Mar 1821Connecting Through Perspective-TakingSession 2121Understanding Mental Health & Well-BeingSession 2121Practicing Emotion RegulationSession 21
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This is the 2nd of 2 sessions on perspective-taking. Learning to understand others' perspectives is a fundamental social skill important for making friends, solving conflicts, and working in groups. In this session, we explore and practice "perspective-getting" by actively asking questions of each other to better understand the perspectives behind their thoughts and opinions - rather than simply assuming we know. This is the 1st of 4 sessions on mental health and well-being. Recent science has shown that we can benefit from increasing our well-being (which we use synonymously with mental health) even when we struggle with mental illness and life’s challenges. Well-being matters for all of us and in this session we learn about three types or aspects of well-being. We know being in touch with our personal values can help us make good decisions. In this session, we work on understanding impulsivity, ways we can notice our impulses pulling us away from our values, and how to use that awareness to avoid impulsive reactions to situations.
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Apr 822Connecting Motivation & EmotionsSession 2222Exercising Well-BeingSession 2222Regulating Emotions in Academics (Overcoming Obstacles)Session 22
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This is the 1st of 2 emotion-focused sessions that build on earlier emotion sessions in this grade. In this session, we work to understand the different ways people can notice and feel emotions in their bodies. Being able to notice physical sensations related to emotions can help us catch them early and use emotion regulation strategies before emotions get too intense. This is the 2nd of 4 sessions on well-being. In this session, we continue to focus on the three aspects of well-being and explore ways we can support and increase our well-being.In this session, we focus on the academic goals we have for ourselves and create maps of our journey towards those goals. One powerful way to make goals more effective is to anticipate and plan for overcoming barriers that can interfere with our progress toward our goals. In today's session, we work together to anticipate different types of obstacles and come up with ways to overcome them.
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Apr 1523Regulating Emotions (Calming Our Emotions) Session 2323Well-Being In PracticeSession 2323Using Values to Increase Belonging (Our Influences) Session 23
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This is the 2nd of 2 emotion-focused sessions that follow up on earlier emotion sessions in this grade. In this session, we learn and practice a skill for helping us stay calm by focusing on the sensations where our body contacts solid surfaces. This is the 3rd of 4 sessions on well-being. In this session, we continue to work together to generate and share ideas for ways we can boost our well-being. In this session students work together to identify things that can get in the way of their shared goals for the school community and come up with strategies to combat them.
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Apr 2224Helping Others Resolve Conflict (Saying I'm Sorry)Session 2424Developing Well-Being HabitsSession 2424Grit and WillpowerSession 24
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In this session, we work on learning to apologize, a simple but important skill that can help us handle some of the conflicts we get into with others. This is the 4th of 4 sessions on well-being. In this session, we think about personal goals we have for our well-being and identify the barriers we may face in trying to achieve them.In this session, we will use the song “I Will Survive” to reflect on the lessons we have learned from our past challenges. We will also discuss how we can use those lessons to overcome future obstacles.
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Apr 2925Final ReflectionsSession 2525Final ReflectionsSession 2525Final ReflectionsSession 25
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This session focuses on thinking back and reflecting on things we've learned and ways we've grown through a process called a Sankofa Session. This reflection process is important for us to cement the learning as we look to the past to inform our future. This session focuses on thinking back and reflecting on things we've learned and ways we've grown through a process called a Sankofa Session. This reflection process is important for us to cement the learning as we look to the past to inform our future.This is a review session focused on thinking back and reflecting on things we've learned and ways we've grown this year through a process called a Sankofa Session. This reflection process is important for us to cement the learning we have done this year. In this session we will continue identify what was most valuable, what we used or benefitted from, and what we'll keep trying to use.