All personal, academic and professional growth comes from us making the effort to leave the safety of our comfort zones to tackle challenges. These will stretch and engage us to learn new things to overcome them, which in turn, will create new proactive and elevated comfort zones for us. This ongoing continual process ensures that next year’s best efforts are better than this year’s. When both students and ourselves believe that we are growing our best selves, our levels of engagement and wellbeing soar. The Learning Curve program’s lessons, activities and resources are layered for all thirteen years of schooling; a little bit more sophistication is added each year. They also align with ACARA’s HPE Curriculum for all years of schooling and the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships research for F, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 & 11-12 from the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. There are Teacher Lesson Guides to support you in creating a learning environment for students to actually do the lessons and activities to experience personal and academic growth. Under the Wellbeing Program tab on the website are the individual year level guides.
To complement the student planners and journals, we have created a Staff Wellbeing@School Journal for you, and a Wellbeing@Work Journal for parents, to assist the adults in students’ lives to experience personal growth also. Our Learning Curve team provides professional development seminars for teachers, parents and leadership teams on how to best utilise the program to cultivate an optimistic mindset of wellbeing growth in your school community.
All the best, Mick Walsh, The Learning Curve Author
WALSH Author, Educator and Speaker
CHARACTER STRENGTH WEEKS
There are six Strengths Weeks spread throughout this planner. They provide you and your class with opportunities to practise using your strengths to welcome personal and academic challenges to create pathways for growth. They are also fun to do at home with your family. The order of these weeks are: Gratitude, Kindness, Bravery, Honesty, Creativity and Teamwork
From the website www.learningcurve.com.au download the Strengths Weeks sheets from Individual Resources/Character Strengths Weeks and the Wellbeing Awards Certificates from Individual Resources/Wellbeing Awards.
MICK
TRUSTED CHAMPIONS
TRUSTED CHAMPIONS
This content from Learning Curve Student Planner
This Lesson: WHY: for you to choose your Trusted Champions and ask them one by one to support you. HOW: ask family members and adults who you trust, and don’t hesitate to approach them when you need help. Your Trusted Champions will always be there for you to share any concerns that you have and they will never give up on you. They will stand side by side with you through tough times, and celebrate excitedly with you through good times. Everyone needs support from time to time.
CHAMPION ONE
There is always a pathway to follow to feel great again, even if your Trusted Champions help you to create one.
CHAMPION FOUR
Name:
The reality is that nothing can be so bad or shocking that you can’t ask your Trusted Champions. They won’t judge you, just help you.
Acknowledgement: Pierson
Name:
PICTURE OF YOU OR DRAW YOURSELF
Name:
CHAMPION THREE
Name:
CHAMPION TWO
Name:
There is no problem which cannot be solved through trust, perseverance and courage. It all starts with you asking. Are there fears you have about asking? How do you want to feel after you have shown the courage to share your concerns?
“Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” Maya Angelou
POSITIVE SELF-TALK IN ACTION
POSITIVE SELF-TALK IN ACTION
This content from Learning Curve Student Planner
This Lesson: WHY: for you to practise using I can and I will self-talk to contest negative thoughts and to motivate yourself. HOW: prepare and practise saying self-talk to yourself, to be ready in advance for when you need to use it. Make up some of your own I can and I will positive self-talk statements.
EFFORT: I can and I will ~ keep asking questions when I don’t understand ~ create a learning timetable to stay focused ~ apply what I learn to new situations ~ do the right thing and do the thing right. Make up positive self-talk statements for: I want to use a timetable to be more organised.
INITIATIVE: I can and I will ~ smile and say “hello” ~ feel good to do good and do good to feel good ~ practise what I learn to create habits ~ look forward to doing something every day. Make up positive self-talk statements for: I want to stick to the Big Five really well.
I don’t want to give up when things become difficult.
I want to be grateful for something every day.
COURAGE: I can and I will ~ forgive someone who upset me ~ ask someone I like to sit down to talk with me ~ say “sorry” when I upset someone ~ say “hello” to students who feel left out. Make up positive self-talk statements for: I want to say “no” to my friends sometimes.
SELF-CONTROL: I can and I will ~ use JOMO to stop looking at my phone ~ pause and notice something different every day ~ do at least three kind things every day ~ concentrate on using friendly body language. Make up positive self-talk statements for: I want to stop thinking the worst will happen.
I want to ask more questions and not be embarassed.
I want to listen to others’ words, not my thoughts.
Acknowledgement: Ryan & Deci
“I’m a very positive thinker, and I think that is what helps me most in difficult moments.” Roger Federer
“A
SEMESTER CURRICULUM PLANS
REFLECTIONS / INTENTIONS
SEMESTER CURRICULUM PLANS
REFLECTIONS / INTENTIONS
Health + strengths: FEEL-GOOD BRAIN CHEMICALS / CHOOSING LEARNING HIGHS
Fabulous First Five Minutes – ask students what is a positive emotion that they love feeling and what makes them feel it. WHY: for students to: Middle – to understand the power of serotonin and oxytocin released into their bloodstreams through being with family and friends. Senior –create patterns of behaviour which will ensure frequent in person interactions to release serotonin and oxytocin to grow their and others’ best selves. HOW: explain that only in person interactions of feeling valued and feeling a sense of belonging enable the release of serotonin and oxytocin. Share that the short term dopamine pleasure hits that social media gives them, come nowhere close to the long term natural highs which come from being with others in person to feel serotonin and oxytocin. DO: ask students to answer the PERMAH+ questions, share what the saying means to them, do the Big Five Check In, the Wellbeing and Academic Growth Tips and the Perspective brainstorm. Middle – ask students to do the Mindfulness Word Search activity. Senior – ask students to do the Problem Solving activity. Success Criteria: students will be able to: Explain – what releases serotonin and oxytocin. Do – spend quality time with family and friends to build social connectedness.
Acknowledgement: Diener & Biswas-Diener
FEEL-GOOD BRAIN CHEMICALS
WHY: by understanding that feel-good brain chemicals are released into your bloodstream when you enjoy yourself with family and friends, your challenge is to experience these feelings more often by spending quality time with others.
HOW: Serotonin comes from you feeling valued by others. Oxytocin comes from you feeling loved and cared for. Both of these cause long-term positive feelings from being with real people, not from social media. Short-term feel-good dopamine and endorphin hits are released by finishing something, social media and exercising.
Acknowledgement: Diener & Biswas-Diener
DO: describe when you have experienced warm feelings of being valued and cared about by other people.
SENIOR PLANNER
HEALTH + STRENGTHS
CHOOSING LEARNING HIGHS
WHY: choosing to learn and study with students who are prepared to leave their comfort zones to tackle challenges, will enable both you and them to experience exciting personal and academic growth. Your challenge is to identify those students with a similar work ethic to you.
HOW: humans are hardwired to be at our best when working well together with like-minded others, and we are rewarded with the uplifting feelings which come from serotonin. Be selfdetermined to choose self-regulated peers to study with and disassociate yourself from those whose learning intentions will hold you back.
Acknowledgement: Lodish, Diener & Biswas-Diener DO: share your thoughts about how learning and studying with like-minded students could assist you to experience academic growth.
What feelings do you get from social media and how long do they last for?
What is a self-determined decision that you need to make to grow?
“Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.”
“Self-determination and self-regulation are kings in senior schooling.” MW
PROBLEM SOLVING
Arranging Letters
Arrange the five letters so that the same letter is not in the same row or column more than once.
Fast food puts you in the fast lane to becoming overweight and unhealthy.
Albert Schweitzer
MONDAY APRIL 2025
TERM: WEEK: DAY:
Wellbeing Growth Challenge
What are you looking forward to most this week?
“Your life is your garden and your thoughts are your seeds, so if your life isn’t awesome you’ve been watering the weeds.” What are you watering?
PRIORITIES / MEETINGS
Eat poultry at most twice per week.
PREPARATION AND FOLLOW-UP:
“If
you can’t see the bright side, polish the dull side.” Saying
DONE
TUESDAY
TERM: WEEK: DAY:
Rewards
People from all walks of life enjoy being acknowledged for their efforts, including both our students and ourselves.
Using a combination of both formal and informal rewards encourages our students to adopt “want to” and “can do” attitudes assists them in becoming self managed.
The Classroom Management Plan in the Teacher Resources section of the website will be a great help.
PREPARATION AND FOLLOW-UP:
PRIORITIES / MEETINGS
Set aside quality time to share with friends.
“If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.” Saying
DONE
WEDNESDAY
TERM: WEEK: DAY:
Consequences
To be “readable” for our students it is essential to have a clearly agreed and understood process of rewards and consequences to follow when expectations and agreements are met and not met a whole school approach to this is highly desirable it ensures a school wide consistency and reduces variations between classrooms students don’t have to adapt to us every class; their formative brains don’t cope well with inconsistency.
PREPARATION AND FOLLOW-UP:
PRIORITIES / MEETINGS
Reduce your meal portions; bigger is not better.
“If you don’t know where you are going, every road will take you nowhere.” Henry Kissinger
DONE
REFLECTION TIME MAY 2025
Regular and deep reflection on our professional practice and encouraging honest feedback from critical friends are essential to the ongoing development of learning and teaching in our classes. Be constructive; this is a development exercise, not a judgemental one. Be creative and innovative.
CLASS DID THE CLASS ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WISHED? WHY OR WHY NOT? THINGS TO ACHIEVE/FOLLOW-UP NEXT MONTH
IDEAS BANK / ANY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REQUIRED?
Mindfulness Mazes – help the bug make its way out of the bottle.
Answer page 339
“Leadership is action, not your position.” D.H. McGannon
WELLBEING GROWTH BUILDER JUNE 2025
This content from Learning Curve Student Planner
SENSE OF PURPOSE
Sense of Purpose
This Lesson: WHY: for you to discover a purpose to strive for, which gives you meaning and drive in what you do. HOW: answer the questions in the lesson, and reflect on things that mean a lot to you that give you a sense of purpose in your life. Japanese people call their reason for waking up every day their ikigai. Not having a purpose in your life can lead to a lack of motivation to do what you need to do.
What is something that means a lot to you that gives you a sense of purpose in your life, and why?
Look at the diagram. What is your ikigai, or your reason for waking up every morning?
What do you love?
What does the world need?
What are you good at?
What jobs interest you?
What are little things you do which make a positive impact on others’ lives? What would happen if you stopped doing them?
Who is someone you admire who has a strong sense of purpose to help other people?
Acknowledgement: Frankl & Nakanishi
Acknowledgement: Frankl & Nakanishi
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Carl Jung
REFLECTION TIME DECEMBER AND 2026
Regular reflection of professional practice and encouraging honest feedback from critical friends are both essential and beneficial to the ongoing development of learning and teaching. At the end of each month, reflect on your teaching practice and record your thoughts below. This is a developmental exercise, not a judgemental one; be constructive.
Did you achieve what you set out to do? Why or why not?
Things that went well and why:
Things to improve on and how. Any professional development required?
Things to achieve in the future:
Things to follow up:
Ideas bank:
“When I hear somebody say, “Life is hard” I am always tempted to ask, “compared to what?” Sydney Harris
NETWORKING
“When
we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” William Arthur Ward
