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Your Students, Your School: POWered by Kindness See it, plan it, achieve it … with tools from By Stephanie Jumps
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t’s back to school time and your gym or classroom is ready. You are looking forward to a new year and new beginnings with your students, knowing that this school year your students will need you to guide them and teach them the skills they need to improve their physical, mental, and social-emotional health. The health. moves. minds. program gives you the standards-based lessons and activities you’ll need to do that while also helping your students develop positive character traits and feel a sense of pride in helping others. But how do you use the health. moves. minds. program?
SEE IT It starts with your vision for the year ahead. Do you want to improve your students’ health by getting them to move more? Do you want to empower your students to give back to their school or community? Do you want to teach your students how to manage anxiety and other emotions?
Do you want to inspire your students to help their family make healthy lifestyle changes? The health. moves. minds. program can help you do all of this and more. This year, your students can be POWered by kindness!
PLAN IT You have the vision, now it’s time to decide if you want to register for the health. moves. minds. program as a Team Champion or an SEL Educator. Since this is a new feature of the program, let me walk you through the two choices: 1. As a Team Champion, you’ll use the SEL-focused health. moves. minds. curriculum (including our new mini-lessons) to teach students how to manage their emotions, be kind, feel empathy, and move their bodies more. You can share the resources with your entire school and even encourage family wellness with the at-home activity ideas.
Principal Larenda Denien of Idlewild Elementary School in Charlotte, NC, shares how the health. moves. minds. program made a positive impact in her school.
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Momentum • Fall 2021
Plus, you’ll take advantage of the program’s simple fundraising options to raise funds toward new health and PE equipment for your school. Your students will be empowered and filled with pride to be part of a team that is helping their school and — if you choose — “paying it forward” by sharing a portion of the funds raised with a charity of your choice. 2. As an SEL Educator, you’ll use the health. moves. minds. curriculum (with new mini-lessons) in your classes and throughout the school to maximize the positive benefits for students all year long. Once you’ve registered for the program, it’s time to create your timeline. Of course, you may need to adjust the timeline due to unexpected circumstances (such as snow days or quarantine), but you can still make it to the finish line and achieve your goal. If you’re an SEL Educator, that means getting your health. moves. minds. lessons and activities onto the calendar. Random Acts of Kindness week in February is the perfect time to put into action what you have implemented in your classes. If you’ve signed up to be a Team Champion, you’ll have a little more planning to do. Your job is bigger, but so is the reward. Here is what your timeline will look like: Save the Date The first step is to send a save the date announcement to parents and everyone involved about a month before your