Browse Books by Keyword: "High school"

Intervention Overview The Three Good Things activity gets students thinking positively by reflecting on good things that happen to them. For this activity, are encouraged to write down three positive things that have happened to them every day for …

Intervention Overview One way to increase your students’ optimistic outlook is by having them “count their blessings.” This gratitude based activity has students list 5 things they are grateful for, on a daily or weekly basis. This…

Intervention Overview Dr. Martin Seligman and one of his colleagues Dr. Peterson (2004) discovered that there are 24 positive personality traits that each person can possess, which they called character strengths. These strengths include traits such…

Intervention Overview Based on a Google initiative to promote employee engagement and productivity, “Genius Hour”, or 20% time, allows students the opportunity to dedicate part of the school day to work on research-based projects that ar…

Intervention Overview After learning about the VIA (Values in Action) Character Strengths(See Recognizing and Utilizing Personal Strengths), students are encouraged to look for those strengths in their peers. Additionally, teachers are encouraged to…

Intervention Overview Educating students about benefit appraisals (costs vs. benefits) encourages them to notice the helpful intentions of others, the benefits of gifts they have been given, and the sacrifices made by others. Froh et al. (2014) reco…

Intervention Overview The “best possible self” intervention invites students to imagine themselves at a time in the future, when 'they have achieved everything desired, after working hard towards it” (Carrillo et al., 2019, p.2). S…

Intervention Overview As you begin developing a health improvement program for your school, you might consider the creation of a student-led school health improvement team. Students can help model and promote healthy eating and physical activity hab…

Intervention Overview Poor sleep affects many school-aged children and adolescents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020) report that between 60-70% of middle and high school students do not get the recommended amount of sleep each n…

Intervention Overview To help students reach the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2019) advocate for integrated classroom physical activity, in addition to daily recess and phys…

Intervention Overview There are several ways in which educators can support kindness between students. While there are many variations of acts of kindness activities, Shankland & Rosset (2017) suggest two classroom kindness interventions to supp…

Intervention Overview Rick Hanson (2013) found that by focusing on and taking in our good experiences, even just for about twelve seconds, rather than ignoring them, we can train our brains to be more positive. In other words, when we use the amplif…

Intervention Overview As part of the mindful photography intervention, students are encouraged to take pictures of things that are meaningful to them throughout the week. By reflecting on these photographs either through a writing activity, or by sh…

Intervention Overview A variation of the Hope Map intervention was used by Pedrotti and colleagues (2000) as part of the Making Hope Happen program for children and adolescents, called “G-POWER.” G-POWER is an acronym that will help stud…

Intervention Overview Hope is essential to students’ academic progress and has been linked with a 12% bump in student achievement (Lopez, 2013). The Hope Map is an intervention developed by Dr. Shane Lopez that helps students plan out how…

Intervention Overview Researcher Carol Dweck discovered that students can have two mindsets regarding learning and intelligence. Students with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence and abilities are fixed and cannot be changed or improved.…

Intervention Overview This activity is based on the “Three Good Things” activity, but instead targets students’ sense of humor. This intervention exemplifies the well-known phrase “laughter is the best medicine.”  …

Intervention Overview One argument for the decline in mental, emotional, and social wellbeing among children and adolescents is reduced time spent outdoors. One study found that, in the UK, 37% of children spent fewer than 30 minutes playing outside…

Intervention Overview Setting up houseplants in your classroom can improve students' sense of comfort and safety.  Intervention Guide Grade Level: All Materials: Houseplants, pots, potting soil Duration: Set-up and care time …

Intervention Overview Bibliotherapy helps students to develop positive emotions, a sense of belonging, and resilience by relating their story to that of characters who are going through similar challenges. Students can see how the characters overcom…

Intervention Overview One way to increase your students’ motivation to learn and love of learning is to use the ARCS curiosity model developed by John Keller(2010). The ARCS model defines curiosity as a product of attention, relevance, confide…

Intervention Overview Arts Integration has been defined as an “arts-based approach to teaching and learning” (LaJevic, 2013, p. 2). Arts Integration gives students an opportunity to learn and practice content through meaningful and creat…

Intervention Overview Allowing students time to free draw or color mandalas has been shown to reduce anxiety and frustration, and improve focus, particularly before a test. Mandalas are circular designs made up of symmetrical shapes (Carsley & H…

Intervention Overview In recent years, there has been a dramatic decline in the amount of students attending enrichment field trips to museums, zoos, historical sites, and arts venues (McCord and Ellerson, 2009 as cited in Watson et al., 2019). Some…

Intervention Overview Yoga is defined by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) as a “meditative-movement practice,” an exercise of both the mind and body, which originated in Indian philosophy (Butzer et al…

Intervention Overview Students of color are at an increased risk of psychological distress, suicide, problem behavior, and decreased academic success as compared to their peers (Aud et al., 2011; Blake et al., 2011; Cholewa et al., 2014). Culturally…

Intervention Overview One way to improve teacher-student relationships is to have students write in a daily or weekly journal and then have teachers respond to their questions and responses on a consistent basis. Writing a response to every student …

Intervention Overview A sense of peer acceptance is a key component of developing positive peer relationships in children and adolescents (Nelson et al., 2008). Youth who feel accepted by their peers also exhibit more prosocial behaviors and interac…

Intervention Overview Volunteering benefits psychological wellbeing in two ways: by improving psychological resources, such as self esteem and self-efficacy, and by improving social resources and skills(Musick & Wilson, 2003). Volunteering will …

Intervention Overview Teaching students to have quality conversations with their peers can help them build strong, healthy relationships and increase their sense of belonging. For the fast-friend activity, students will be assigned a partner to befr…

Intervention Overview Carousel Brainstorming is a cooperative learning strategy in which students work together in small groups to brainstorm and assess their knowledge about various topics related to a class lesson. For this activity, the teacher w…

Intervention Overview Mental time travel involves both positive reminiscence about past events, as well as positive imagination about future events. Just as with the HEAL process, practicing mental time travel motivates students to focus on and abso…

Intervention Overview For this activity, students will write a gratitude letter to someone who has made an impact in their life, such as a parent, teacher, coach or friend. After writing a letter and reflecting on why they are grateful for this pers…

Intervention Overview Shane Lopez (2013) found “when students see a direct connection between the future they want and their attitudes and behaviors today, their commitment and effort soar(n.p.).” Thinking about the future is a large par…

Intervention Overview Resilience is the ability to face and adapt to challenging experiences and circumstances(APA,n.d.).  According to Cassidy (2015), resilience is “an asset or strength, a desirable and advantageous quality, characteris…

Intervention Overview “Grit is the quality that enables individuals to work hard and stick to their long-term passions and goals” (Bashant, 2014, p. 14). Grit has been studied by Angela Duckworth for its impact on the completion of goals…

Intervention Overview Giving effective praise to students can have a significant impact on student-teacher relationships, engagement, motivation, and student behavior. Dr. Paul Caldarella and colleagues (2020) found that when teachers praise student…

Intervention Overview Emotional self-regulation includes controlling our reactions, emotions, and desires. In a literature review of various studies regarding the positive effects of emotional self-regulation, Daniel and colleagues (2020) found that…

Intervention Overview One of the fundamental needs upon which engagement rests is belonging or relatedness (Fredericks et al., 2004). The social belonging intervention has been studied primarily with high school and college freshmen to help these tr…

Intervention Overview Active constructive responding encourages students to listen and respond to the successes of others in a positive way. Researchers have found there are four ways one can respond to the good news and positive events of others: a…

Intervention Overview Self-compassion is often defined as “treating yourself the way you would treat a good friend” (McGee, 2019, 5:30). Higher levels of self-compassion are linked to reduced anxiety, depression and stress, as well as gr…

Intervention Overview Love is more than an emotion. As a character strength, love is the ability to create close, caring relationships with others. “Where kindness can be a behavioral pattern applied in any relationship, love as a character st…

Intervention Overview According to Timm (1993), teacher modeling of healthy mental and emotional skills has a greater impact on student learning than any other tool or instructional method. Teachers can model self-regulation skills by explicitly nam…

Intervention Overview Self regulation includes setting, monitoring, and reflecting on goals. Research has shown that when “self-regulation instruction occurs within reading instruction[or other disciplines]. . .students can improve both academ…