the floreo - change your mind · the floreo project setting the scene. ... over the next week,...

“Discendo floremus”

– Through learning we flourish.

Developing Resilience and Learning to Thrive.

TheFloreo

Project

Our Lady and St Patrick’s College,

Knock

Acknowledgement

This programme has been developed by Mrs N McCarry from

Our Lady and St. Patrick’s College, Knock, Belfast. The aims

and composition of the programme have been endorsed and

funded by the George Best Belfast City Airport. The College

would like to take this opportunity to thank the Belfast City

Airport’s Community Fund for their contribution and support.

March 2017.

The Latin verb ‘Floreo’ means to flourish, to bloom or to thrive. This programme aims to build resilience

and mindfulness skills with Year 11 students. It is hoped that these skills can be utilised to promote

positive emotional health, mental wellbeing and stronger academic and personal performance.

Research shows that resilience enables us to deal with difficult situations, to learn from them and to allow

them to help us grow – in short, resilience helps us thrive.

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Contents

Lesson 1: What is Resilience? ................................................................................................................................. 4

Resilience and you. ................................................................................................................................. 5

Lesson 2: Change your words, change your mindset ............................................................................ 8

Lesson 3: Recognising negative feelings and dealing with them ............................................... 13

Lesson 4: Disappointments and Mistakes – Bouncing Back ........................................................... 17

Lesson 5: Mindfulness – An Introduction .................................................................................................. 21

Lesson 6: Getting the most out of mindfulness – Mindfulness Colouring ............................. 24

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Programme Overview

6 lessons delivered by your Tutor during weekly Personal

Development lesson.

6 challenges for you to complete in your own time

between lessons.

Submission of workbook, feedback

and evaluation.

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Setting the scene.

Creating the best conditions under which to work.

The following programme may include discussing material and topics that are sensitive or may make some students feel a little uncomfortable. In order to minimise this, creating a ‘working agreement’ or ‘ground rules’ is always advised.

Fill in below some of the extra guidelines (not including normal classroom rules) that would help to make this programme effective and comfortable for all.

e.g. Listen to everyone

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Lesson 1You are learning to:

• Understand the term; ‘Resilience’

• Reflect on how resilient you are and what your core strengths are.

What is Resilience?

Task 1

With a partner, think for 2 minutes about what the term Resilience means. Record your ideas below.

With your teacher’s help, agree a class definition of Resilience below:

Resilience is…

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Resilience and You

Task 2

Write down some of the challenges you have faced in your life e.g. moving schools, choosing GCSE subjects, failing an exam, losing an important match.

• _____________________________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________________________

• _____________________________________________________________________

How have you coped with these challenges and how has your strategy left you feeling?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have these situations:

a) Made you more resilient and experienced?

b) Left you sad, angry, frustrated, and anxious or lowered your self-esteem?

What difference would an increased resilience have made to these situations?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________

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Task 3

Take a walk in these shoes …….

Imagine a young girl who enjoys writing stories to read to her sister when she is little. She finds life at home stressful – her mother is ill and her relationship with her father is not great.

She grows up, graduates from university, marries and has a daughter. She develops her ideas of a story she would like to write.

Her mother dies, she gets divorced, she is unemployed, dependent on benefits, raising her daughter on her own, broke and depressed.

She begins to write her story and produces her first novel.

It is rejected by publishers 12 times.

She has a choice to make:

What happened?

She sent her novel to the 13th publisher. It was accepted and published. She is J K Rowling. The novel – Harry Potter.

Her book series has been a worldwide success in 67 languages. She is the first person to become a billionaire by writing books. She has remarried and now has 3 children.

“I wasn’t going to give up until every single publisher turned me down, but I often feared what would happen.” J K Rowling

What would happen if she

was to:

Keep Going? Give Up?

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Challenge 1:

Who am I? What are my core strengths?

Complete the ‘VIA Survey of Character Strengths Questionnaire’ for the next class. This can be done using your iPad.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to: https://www.viacharacter.org/Survey/Account/Register

2. Register for free using your school email address

3. Use the College postcode for results: BT5 7DL

4. DO NOT choose payment option – There is no need!

5. You DO NOT need to sign up for future emails from VIACharacter.

List your strengths below:

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• Develop a positive inner voice;

• Focus on having a growth mindset;

• Self-coach.

Change your words, change your mindset.

Facts:

Resilience can be learned.

Being resilient means being able to stay strong when having a tough time and having the skills to overcome the challenges we face.

Developing a positive inner voice and a positive opinion of yourself and your situation are crucial to becoming more resilient. This can sometimes be referred to as a ‘growth mindset’.

Developing a growth mindset develops Resilience.

What kind of mindset do you have? (Use the results from your survey to help you).

Watch this short clip. (Press CTRL and Click)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNAMrZr9OWY Fixed vs Growth Mindsets in Children

Video clip sourced from “Lesson Plans on Teaching Resilience to Children.” Lynne Namka 9

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Which of these mindsets do you think best describes you and why?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Changing your thinking and learning to give yourself good advice can get you through hard times, difficult choices and stressful situations.

Complete the following table to highlight the difference between a fixed and a growth mind-set. Work with a partner or use your iPad to help you.

The completed table now contains a selection of HELPER WORDS AND PHRASES. These are words and phrases that you can use to coach yourself into thinking more positively and developing your Resilience.

I can’t do Maths.

I’m going to train my brain in Maths.

I’m awesome at this.

I’m on the right track.

I made a mistake.

Mistakes help me improve.

This is too hard. I am not good at this. I can’t make thisday any better.

I’ll never be assmart as her.

I give up. It’s good enough.

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Coaching:

www.mentormob.com/learn/i/positive-messages-growth-mindsets/youtube-will-smith-motivational-pursuit-of-happyness

Coaching simply means:

• Encourage yourself

• Praise your efforts, not your successes.

• Set goals and the steps to achieve them.

• Listen to your thoughts and feelings and turn them into positive ones.

• Learn to love challenge.

• Do not be afraid to make mistakes.

• Believe that you are in control.

• Failure is not bad; not trying is worse than failing.

• Making a mistake and learning from it is called growth.

• You are supposed to make mistakes - that’s why pencils have erasers.

Video clip sourced from “Lesson Plans on Teaching Resilience to Children.” Lynne Namka 1

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Challenge 2

Listen to your inner voice.

Over the next week, spend 5 minutes at the end of each day reflecting on your inner voice and mindset.

Complete the table for each day.

Example of unhelpful or fixed mindset thinking.

Example of helpful or growth mindset thinking.

Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

Day 5.

Day 6.

Day 7.

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Final Day:

How has focusing on helpful thinking this week allowed you to change a situation or think of a challenge in a more positive way? Give some details.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________

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• Manage your feelings;

• Deal effectively with complicated emotion;

• Develop coping strategies.

Recognising negative feelings and dealing with them

“In order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did and why you no longer need to feel it” – Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Task 1:

Watch the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssiqG6xU6qY

The movie Inside Out takes place inside the head of the adolescent girl, Riley. The film deals with her 5 emotions and their conflict in finding the best way to help her deal with moving city, house and school. One of the many lessons from this movie is that ALL emotions have a part to play in our overall happiness.

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Task 2:

There is no such thing as a good or bad feeling, they are simply feelings. However, sometimes feelings can get ‘stuck’ and take over. This is because we don’t understand them or know how to let them go.

How to deal with complicated or confusing emotions.

1. Identify the emotion you are feeling.

• Simply identifying what you are feeling gives you control over that emotion. Recognising it as a feeling that you can manage is a useful starting point.

2. Try breathing relaxation techniques.

• You can help deal with an emotional response by focusing on something else that you can control, such as your breathing. Research shows that controlling your breathing can help you control your response to an emotional situation.

• Try this - count to five while breathing in, hold for five, and count to five while you exhale. Focus on your each part of your breath.

3. Try a self-soothing technique.

• Self-soothing techniques are another way to focus on something aside from a difficult emotion.

• Name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 things you can taste.

4. Try throwing the negative thought away.

• It may be helpful to write down the negative emotion that you are feeling and throw it away. The physical act of doing this will trick your brain into letting the emotion go mentally as well.

5. Think of something positive.

• A place, a person, a smell, an event. Allowing ourselves to remember the ‘good times’ helps us better cope with the tougher moments.

*adapted from www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Your-Emotions

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Task 3:

Using the Scenarios below, identify the appropriate emotion and then, in pairs, come up with a strategy to cope with that emotion.

Dealing with Complicated or Confusing Emotions

Nothing is going right in my life and things are never going to change.

I feel ...

I have to give a presentation in front of the entire class. I am shaking and

sweating.

I feel ...

I am not looking forward to going to the dentist tomorrow.

I feel ...

I am getting nasty messages on social media.

I feel …

I have been dealing with those people at school for years. They are

all stupid and boring.

I feel …

I don’t want to get out of bed or do anything at all.

I feel …

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Challenge 3:

Research shows that negative emotions can be controlled by relaxing and focusing on things that make you think of happier occasions or memories.

Music has a powerful ability to bring us back to happier times. Your challenge this week is compile a ‘playlist’ of 10 songs that make you feel better. Download them to a playlist on your iPod / iPhone.

Write the names of the 10 songs and artists below.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

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• Recognise the importance of correcting your mistakes;

• Deal with criticism;

• Fail successfully.

Disappointments and mistakes: Bouncing back.

Learning how to correct your mistakes and deal with criticism is an important part of building Resilience. This is a skill that needs to be learned and developed.

NOBODY goes through school, work, sport, without facing some critique or form of failure.

NOBODY likes the uncomfortable feelings that criticism and failure bring – shame, embarrassment, awkwardness, guilt, anger, loss of motivation, low self-esteem. However, they are feelings which we know from the previous lesson we can control and handle.

Imagine ……

John is playing in the final of the NI Schools’ Basketball Tournament. The College has won this for the last 3 years running. John has missed four shots already in this game and is set to take the final shot of the match to win the game. He dribbles …………he shoots …………he misses …………

If you were the type of person who struggled to deal with disappointment and criticism, how do you think you would react in that situation?

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

One of the biggest challenges in life is to take responsibility for your actions, correct your errors and see failure as a necessary part of success.

Watch the clip below:

www.mentormob.com/learn/i/positive-messages-growth-mindsets/youtube-michael-jordan-responds-to-lebron-original-video-mashup-maybe-you-should-rise

Video clip sourced from “Lesson Plans on Teaching Resilience to Children.” Lynne Namka Page 67

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How do you think Michael Jordan kept on going when he failed so many times when he shot baskets? What inner strength did he have that kept him going? What made Michael Jordan a success when he missed so many shots? Great athletes don’t become defensive when they make a mistake and are given criticism. They don’t get into the ‘Blame Game’. They welcome feedback so they can do better next time. They make videos of themselves to examine what went wrong. They ask themselves, “How can I correct this? How can I do better?” They analyse their errors to improve their performance.

Failure is inevitable; HOWEVER, you can learn to fail successfully

FAIL = First Attempt In Learning.

10 Tips to failing successfully – Bernd Geropp

1. Make room for feelings:

• Allow yourself to feel whatever you feel ….privately. Don’t let anger show. Then quickly take control of your negative emotions and use the strategies to bring back a growth mindset or positive thinking.

2. Focus on the failure, not the person:

• Failing at a task, does NOT make a person a failure. Learn to separate the act from the person. Do not judge a person by their failures.

3. Identify the worst possible outcome:

• When you do this, you will realise that your fears are not as bad as they seem. This can have a calming effect.

4. Allow yourself to fail:

• Anyone who wants to succeed must accept failure as part of the journey.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Robert F. Kennedy

5. Do not fret over your failure:

• Accept the defeat……then LET IT GO!

6. Anything meaningful carries risk:

• Successful people are not successful because they didn’t fail as often as others. They are successful because they failed more, but they did not give up. They picked themselves back up and tried again.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston S. Churchill

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7. Avoid excuses and assigning blame:

• It won’t help, you will not learn from your mistake and will repeat it.

8. Ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?”

• What will I do differently next time? Be prepared for some tough answers!

9. Take action:

• Figure out your options, look to the future and move forward.

10. After some time has passed, ask yourself “What positive came out of this?

• You’ll probably find an easy answer.

Task: Can you succeed in following instructions?

NAME________________________________ SCORE ___________

FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BELOW:

1. Read everything carefully before doing anything.

2. Fill in your name at the top of the page.

3. Circle the word NAME in sentence 2.

4. Draw 5 small squares in the upper left hand corner.

5. Put an ‘x’ in each square.

6. Put a circle around each square.

7. Sign your name at the bottom of the page.

8. At the bottom of the page add 6413 and 2381.

9. If you are the first person to reach this point, LOUDLY, call out, “I AM _______ _______

AND I CAN FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.

10. Now that you have finished reading everything, ONLY do sentences 1 and 2! Keep busy

so that others continue without realising that you have read to the bottom!

(name)

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Reflection:

1. Did you fail this task?

_____________________________________________________________________

2. How did you feel when you realised you failed?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What steps could you take to ensure you don’t make the same mistake again?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What has this exercise taught you?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Challenge 4

Research one famous person you admire. Identify in his /her story his /her mistakes and failures and how they contributed to his /her success.

Record your findings below and be ready to report back to your class:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Lesson 5 You are learning to:

• Understand and appreciate Mindfulness;

• Practice mindfulness in your daily life.

Mindfulness – An Introduction.

What is mindfulness?

Definition:

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing a person’s awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings.

What are the benefits of mindfulness?

Some of the many benefits of mindfulness include:

• Body and Emotion Regulation – When our bodies and emotions are balanced and appropriate in our lives.

• Mindfulness can reduce stress, anxiety and depression.

• Mindfulness improves the brain – A Harvard University study showed that meditation (mindfulness as an example) can rebuild the brain’s grey matter. Grey matter is involved in muscle control, memory, emotions, speech, decision-making and self-control.

Watch the video at the bottom of the web page:

www.mindfulnessforteens.com/youth-voices/

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Let’s have a go……..

Mindful Breathing – The First Step.

*Tutor may do this as a whole class activity, alternatively, student may use their iPad and headphones and listen individually with minimal distraction.

Go to www.mindfulnessforteens.com

Click on ‘Guided Meditations’.

Select no2 – Mindful Breathing (5 minutes).

Complete the questions below:

What was it like to pay attention to your breathing?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What was it like to come back to the present moment?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you notice anything interesting or surprising during the 5 minutes? - Think about your breathing, how relaxed you were, what you thought about, what you forgot about.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Challenge 5

Visit www.mindfulnessforteens.com over the next week and try out at least another two meditations.

Record your thoughts below:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Lesson 6 You are learning to:

• Develop more ways in which to practise mindfulness;

• Research the benefits of mindfulness colouring.

Getting the most out of mindfulness.

How was Challenge 5?

Discuss for 5 minutes in pairs how you found practising mindfulness meditation at home.

Try to come up with one advantage and one disadvantage and write them below:

Advantage: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disadvantage: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There is more to mindfulness than meditation ….

Mindfulness colouring allows you to still reap the advantages of mindfulness without the guided meditation. It has become hugely popular in recent years with adults and children alike.

Do a quick web search and write down 5 facts about the popularity of mindfulness colouring and its benefits:

1.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Each pair gives feedback on one piece of research to the whole class.

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Now let’s give it a try:

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Evaluation

Which of the following statements apply to this Programme?

a. The Programme was well prepared.

Strongly Agree Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly Disagree

b. The Programme was interesting with a variety of tasks.


c. Each lesson had a clear focus.


d. The tasks and challenges were clear.


e. The Programme helped me develop skills that I will use in the future.


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(Circle the most appropriate answer below)

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References

Namka, L.’ (2014). Lesson Plans on Teaching Resilience to Children. Talk, Trust & Feel Therapeutics.

Copyright 2014: “This book may be shared freely for personal use and for the education of children but none of the content may be used for commercial purposes.”

Kelly, R., (2013). Thrive Workbook for Teenagers. Rob Kelly Publishing

McGrath, K and Noble, T., (2003). Bounce Back! Techer’s Handbook. Pearson Education Australia

Further Reading

Boniwell, I and Ryan, L., (2012) Personal Well-being Lessons for Secondary Schools. Open University Press.

Burns, S., (2015) The Resiliency Skills Handbook. Loggerhead Publishing Ltd.

Web References

A website for teens dedicated to the art of Mindfulness. Created by Dr Dzung X. Vo, MD, FAAP, “a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at British Columbia Children’s Hospital, and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine, Vancouver, Canada. His medical practice, teaching, and research emphasize promoting resilience in young people to help them thrive in the face of stress and adversity.”

www.mindfulnessforteens.com

Our Lady and St Patrick’s College, Knock120 Gilnahirk RoadBelfastCo AntrimBT5 7DL

Telephone 028 9040 1184Fax 028 9079 9890Email [email protected] www.knock.co.uk

“Discendo floremus”

– Through learning we flourish.

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www.knock .co.uk

the floreo - change your mind · the floreo project setting the scene. ... over the next week,...

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