Health Smart Virginia
Suicide Prevention - Finding the Words
Acknowledge, Care, Tell! Freshmen learn how to ACT to help a friend demonstrating warning signs for depression and suicide in a carefully scaffolded, scripted instructional activity. Scholars also learn positive coping skills,...
Health Smart Virginia
What Is Mindfulness?
Stop. Breathe. Think. A richly detailed instructional activity on mindfulness introduces freshmen to meditation as a coping strategy to deal with stress.
Health Smart Virginia
Social Networking and You
The positive and negative impacts of social networking are the focus of a powerful lesson for high school freshmen. Class members explore the risks of oversharing online and watch a video of one girl's experience. The lesson ends with...
Health Smart Virginia
So Stressed, Now Stress Less
Carrot, egg, or tea? A parable gets teens thinking about how, when faced with the same adversity, people respond differently. As the lesson progresses, class members learn about how stress is regulated by the sympathetic and...
Health Smart Virginia
I Hope I Can Cope
Teach your freshmen stress management techniques that help them cope with distress and stress. Class members create a Relaxation Station where they practice the C.O.P.E strategy for dealing with stress. They then choose from a menu of...
Health Smart Virginia
Networking
Sometimes it really is about who you know. High School freshmen engage in a series of activities to learn about the importance of networking.
Health Smart Virginia
Parachute Stress
Stress isn't necessarily a bad thing. The key, however, is learning how to appreciate eustress and manage distress. "Parachute Stress," a lesson designed for high school freshmen, has them identify 10 major stressors as well as the...
Health Smart Virginia
Face of Mental Illness
To develop an understanding of the stigma surrounding mental health problems and the impact stigma and discrimination have on those who would seek help, groups investigate the symptoms of and risk factors associated with eight different...
Health Smart Virginia
Cyber Tattoo
Designed to inform high school freshmen about the ramifications of sharing personal information through social media, this lesson focuses on sexting. Investigators first check the validity of websites using a Website Evaluation Tool....
Health Smart Virginia
Socially Conscious Social Networking
A powerful, award-winning video launches a lesson about socially conscious social networking. After watching the video and engaging in a full class discussion, individuals share their ideas about healthy social networking in a podcast or...
Health Smart Virginia
Shake It Off
It requires more than a twitch to shake off stress. But with the help of the stress management strategies taught in a very dynamic lesson, freshmen can learn to do so. Class members watch videos, examine an infographic, read an article,...
Health Smart Virginia
Stepping Up to Depression and Suicide
Health Smart provides a instructional activity that shows middle schoolers how they can step up and help someone exhibiting self-harming behaviors. After learning the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide, teams research local...
Health Smart Virginia
Decision Making
Researchers have discovered that when making decisions, teens' brains function differently than the brains of adults. After reading an article about this research, middle schoolers learn about a five-step decision-making process and...
Health Smart Virginia
Social Awareness: Empathy
As part of the unit on social, emotional health, seventh-graders examine the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Pairs then engage in an activity that analyzes a scenario and role play resolution strategies that show...
Health Smart Virginia
Relationship Skills and Communication
Relationship and communication skills are the heart of a lesson that focuses on passive, aggressive, and assertive communication. After examining examples of each type, teams develop an assertive, win/win solution that resolves a conflict.
Health Smart Virginia
Summative Assessment
As a summative assessment of the Health Smart unit, middle schoolers create a five-chapter autobiography demonstrating what they have learned about self and social-awareness, decision-making, and communication skills.
Health Smart Virginia
Mindful Yoga Introduction
Middle schoolers apply what they learned in the previous lesson about mindful yoga to design a project to help a teen cope with a stressful situation in a healthy way. Groups role play explaining the benefits of their approach and...
Health Smart Virginia
Mindfulness Yoga
Standing pose, tree pose, warrior pose, easy pose. Middle schoolers learn several basic yoga exercises and poses that can help them relax. They also keep a four-week stress log to track stressful situations and how they dealt with them.
Health Smart Virginia
Mindfulness Breathing
The more you practice, the better you get. That's the big idea behind a lesson for middle schoolers about using mindfulness breathing techniques to reduce stress. Class members practice Star Breathing and Rainbow Breathing exercises and...
Health Smart Virginia
Stressors, Coping Strategies, Mindfulness breathing
After discussing the benefits of positive coping strategies, class members practice the stress management and stress reduction technique of Mindfulness Breathing.
Health Smart Virginia
Carrots, Eggs, or Coffee
As part of the Health Smart social and emotional learning unit, seventh graders are taught the T.R.A.I.N Method (Talk to others, Resilience, Accept it, Inspiration from others, Need to be prepared) of coping with disappointment and...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental and Emotional Health
The first lesson plan in a social and emotional health unit is designed to help seventh graders develop the skills they need to cope with disappointment and manage stress. Groups practice stress reduction techniques and share ideas for...
Health Smart Virginia
What Is It Like to Be You?
Two poems, "What it is like to be you" and "I am more than what you see," provided young scholars an opportunity to reflect on how others see them versus how they see themselves. After reading the poems, individuals write their stories...
Health Smart Virginia
Effective Communication Skills
As part of a review of concepts taught in the Health Smart unit, individuals fill out a chart contrasting passive, assertive, and aggressive behaviors. They then practice their assertiveness skills by craft "I" messages and responses to...