Teachers Resource Force Blog

Students continue to struggle overcoming the pressures of social media. Help them see through the online facades of false confidence, and develop self-esteem the healthy way

16/11/2019

Well, this is an interesting one!

Instagram recently announced they are officially starting to hide likes in an attempt to promote mental health.

I had a brief chat with a couple of my students about what they thought of this news, and the conversations were fascinating...

So, what did I do? I made a resource of course!

Students continue to struggle overcoming the pressures of social media. Help them see through the online facades of false confidence, and develop self-esteem the healthy way | www.TRF.one

I believe all students who are using social media need to talk about this, as the likes have a bigger effect on their mental health than even they might realise.

What's more, this particular discussion topic and printable is FREE for you so you can have these conversations with your students too!

DOWNLOAD FREEBIE FROM TPT

DOWNLOAD FREEBIE FROM TRF

While I was at it, I ended up exploding this into a full blown lesson that delves deep into:

• The true point of social media
• What social media is most often used for instead
• To reflect on why they use social media
• Why and how social media can affect mental health
• The effects of comparing themselves to people on social media
• The reality of why people really post what they post [VIDEO INCLUDED]
• The reasons people obsess about likes and followers
• Why likes and followers create false confidence
• What triggers affect them on social media
• Alternative ways they can respond to triggers on social media
• How they can use their social media to make the world a better place
• …and more!

I delivered this lesson to my students and I was stunned at the response from them and the conversations we were having. It's like they were desperate to share their online experiences.

You have to realise, our students don't have adults in their lives who grew up with social media.

Take that in for a moment.

They're trying to navigate through a dangerous new world with absolutely no guidance.

Their mental health and self-esteem is at stake.

They need to talk about this with adults who can guide them.

So if you want to be that adult in their life who can get them seeing the truth behind the façade of social media and how they can use it for good rather than for comparison and gloating, you literally can change the world.

If you'd like to go all in on this with your students using the full pack, you can download it below:

DOWNLOAD LESSON FROM TPT

DOWNLOAD LESSON FROM TRF

I hope you give the discussion a go, even if it's just the freebie part, because this is happening now and will affect their lives. I know you will get so much out of this conversation with your students and you will empower them to the next level!

How do you feel about Instagram removing likes? Do you think it really will help with mental health? Share your thoughts below!

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6 ways to teach personal development in schools

19/9/2019

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Personal development is FINALLY making its way into more UK schools, especially since Ofsted's most recent updates where they announced this will be a new focus for inspections. Character Education has been around globally for a while, but it's more important than ever that we all do our best to bring this into our classroom if we haven't already - not because of inspections, but because our students need it.

If you're new to teaching character education or personal development, it can be overwhelming at first to know where to start. So hopefully this article will give you some ideas for how you can easily implement this fundamental quality into your day.

6 ways to teach personal development in schools | Teachers Resource Force [TRF.one]

If you've never heard of Personal Development or Character Education, you can first check out this article which explains all you need know about it and why your students need it.

Once you're clear on what it is and why you want to teach it, here are some simple ways you can implement personal development into your classroom, or across the whole school:

1. The easiest way I found to begin with, is by slotting a short activity into your mornings: those first few minutes of the day when everyone is settling in are ideal. (You might call it tutor time / morning meeting / home room / form time / advisory period etc. - there are so many names for this!)

I've created a brand new website especially for this time of the day, called character365.com.

Character365 is very simple to use and completely free! Every Monday a new discussion prompt or activity automatically appears. Every prompt revolves around making students think about their character and work on their personal development to ensure they are always striving to be their best. Because the prompt is up for a whole week, you can choose a specific day to do these activities or come back and review the same topic a few times during the week to check on progress and keep the focus at the forefront of your students' mind. Make sure you check it at least once a week as you won't be able to go back to old prompts or forward to new ones!

2. Another option for your mornings if you'd rather have something new each day, are these character themed morning meeting digital PowerPoints and printable journals. There are 10 different characteristics, one for each month of the year: resilience, respect, courage, compassion, tolerance, empathy, self-respect, leadership, honesty and self-esteem:

You can use either the PowerPoints on their own for class / peer discussions or the Printable Journals on their own for written activities for your students, or of course you could combine the two for maximum impact! They're such an easy and effective way of having the right conversations about these topics and having a different theme each month will really help your students hone in and focus on building that one characteristic at a time.

3. If you're fortunate enough to be issued specific curriculum time for personal development, then you can teach whole lessons, perhaps in PSHE or some advisory lessons which are a bit longer. These Character Education resources are different than the previous as they include detailed guided PowerPoints along with printable activities and task cards, which are ideal for complete lessons. Again, these come in all 10 characteristics and they are self guided so you don't need to be an expert or a counsellor to deliver them, but please do seek guidance with your school if you are worried about delivering any topic!

4. You could also go the extra curricular route and start a club - even better if it's a student leadership club led by older students who could mentor the younger ones. The club could have a specific topic they would like to focus on, perhaps as individuals but also in including the whole school. For example a "Character Club" might want to encourage the whole school to be more kind to one another and they might lead an activity such as leaving notes of kindness in peoples' lockers or on their chairs and encouraging others to do the same. I'm sure your students would be able to come up with even more fun ideas in a brainstorming session!

5. Another useful way of impacting the whole school in a short space of time is through whole school assemblies. You can get the message across to the whole student body on a regular basis. Ideally you'd want to follow up with the things shared, perhaps in lessons or in future assemblies as character isn't a one-stop-shop you can hit once. It needs to be addressed, practised, reviewed and practised some more on a continual basis!

6. Finally, you could get some inspiring quotes up on display in classrooms and on walls in the corridors. While quotes are inspiring, they are only effective if you refer to them often and make them relevant to your students and their experiences. For example a quote on resilience will be great to refer to if your students are wanting to give up on some class work - you could point to the quote and use it to help inspire them to keep going!

When it comes to personal development, something is better than nothing! We just want to encourage our students to develop the characteristics to be the best they can be. How do you like to teach personal development? Leave a comment below!

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The best morning meetings for middle and high school

23/7/2019

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Morning meetings (a.k.a. tutor time / form time / advisory period - it has many names!) is an extremely powerful way to start the school day with your students. It sets your students off on the right foot. It gives them a routine that is safe and predictable, whilst still being something exciting to look forward to when done right. Establishing a powerful morning meeting is easy to do and doesn't need hours of prep, if you know where to look! Keep reading to learn some great tips for an effective morning meeting for your middle and high school students.

The best morning meetings for middle and high school | TeachersResourceForce.com

Whether you officially have time set aside for a dedicated morning meeting or not, it is a powerful addition to your school day that can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes. Even if you can't start the day this way, you can still use this strategy to start your lesson that will provide the same benefits!

What are morning meetings anyway?
Well here's the beauty of it - they can be whatever you want them to be! They're often used to develop classroom community and character, but there is no one way to achieve this of course, and things can vary depending on your students' needs at the time. It's just a slot of time at the start of the day (or lesson if you prefer) where you focus on the 'whole child'. I'll give you some suggestions and resources further down this article.

Are morning meetings for you?
That depends... Do you want your students to settle quickly at the start of the day?
Do you want to focus on character development and help your students be the best they can be without compromising heavily on the subject content you need to teach?
Do you want your students to look forward to the start of the school day with you?
If you said yes to any of these things then yes, morning meetings might well be for you!

What are some ideas for a great morning meeting?
For many years I had quite the challenge of coming up with new content for my form group every day - and I had them for 7 years so that was quite a lot of content that had to be brand spanking new each day! During this time I figured out the most effective way of preparing for the mornings and that was to have themed days. This meant that every day was predictable so they felt safe with what to expect, but the content was always new and fresh which kept the anticipation and excitement high! Win, win!
Here's a great example:

In this pack, there are 200 slides - that's more than enough for one for every day of the school year!
Each day has a theme:

• "Motivational Mondays" to start the week with a positive quote / thought / discussion.
• "True or False Tuesdays" to start the day with a bit of fun and engaging trivia! You can have students put their hands up for true or false and then have a short discussion (or giggle) about some of the random facts they'll learn throughout the year.
• "Wellness Wednesdays" to focus on wellbeing, both mental and physical, that will help both themselves and demonstrate acts of kindness to others.
• "Thoughtful Thursdays" to develop their thinking skill with some deep, philosophical thoughts and discussions. This can be done as a whole class or discussed in pairs or groups if preferred.
• "Funny Fridays" to end the week on a high with a funny joke!

This is ideal if all you have is a few minutes at the start of the day, but still want to get a sound routine in place and want to have something for your students to look forward to. If you're interested in trying this resource for free, you can get week 1 right here with the benefit of also joining the mailing list where you will get access to the VIP area which is full of exclusive freebies not found on TpT!

Another option for you if you want to focus more on character education, are these sets:

There are 10 sets of these in total, each focusing in a different trait. They come in both whiteboard and journal version to suit your needs. The whiteboards are convenient for classroom discussions and if you want to go paperless, but the journal can stretch out the activity to last a little longer as your students can work on their writing skills too!

If you want to download a freebie of the Resilience whiteboard and journals then you can grab your copy right here!

Of course you can fill your mornings with anything that takes your fancy, but there's something to be said for knowing you have a kit to pull from that you know will last you all year long - especially great for those emergencies and when your enthusiasm might perhaps be waning and you need something tried and true that you know will work!

What are some ways you like to spend morning meeting in your middle / high school classroom or is this the first time you're considering incorporating it into your routine? Leave a comment below!

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