If you’re a middle school educator or director, you know the importance of nurturing students’ emotional intelligence. Hope Rising’s EI curriculum, “My Best Me”, uses the science of hope to give students the tools they need to thrive emotionally & academically.
It's no secret that middle schoolers have an immensely complex set of emotions to navigate on any given day. As the risk for depression, anxiety, and hopelessness in teenagers continues to rise, teaching them how to manage their emotions and have hope for the future becomes more and more imperative.
Thankfully, Hope Rising has created an award-winning hope-certified EI curriculum, "My Best Me", to teach teens practical methods for viewing their life, relationships, academics, and future through a hopeful lens.
Go to https://info.hoperisingedu.com/emotional-intelligence/curriculumsample if you want to learn more.
✦ Our Teens Are At Risk ✦
As students enter middle school, their risk of experiencing prolonged feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, and depression rises dramatically. In the U.S., 16% of teenagers have been reported as experiencing at least one major depressive episode and nearly 12% of teens have or are experiencing extended severe depression.
Nearly 64% of the U.S. population has had an adverse childhood experience, with most people carrying the negative emotions from that experience with them into adulthood. Teaching students how to process such experiences and emotions can help them change their lives' trajectories in a positive, hopeful direction.
✦ Hope For The Win! ✦
"My Best Me" centers around fostering hope in students through a simple, three-step approach to goal-setting and achieving. This method teaches students to identify a goal based on their strengths and interests, create an actionable pathway toward attaining that goal, and build the inner willpower needed to achieve it.
This three-step method is carried into each of the program's five core EI competencies. Hope Rising's "My Best Me" gives middle schoolers practical tools for understanding their identity, role in relationships, and natural character strengths.
After this foundational section, students move into the other core EI competencies in the curriculum: creating mental, physical, and emotional health, fostering healthy relationships and interactions, discovering the natural environment, and building financial literacy and resource management.
"My Best Me" is designed to be taught in one-hour weekly sessions, but can be adapted to support a classroom's main curriculum, as the interactive lessons are non-sequential and can easily be paired with appropriate subject matter as teachers see fit.
Hope Rising strives to provide middle school educators with a well-structured program for opening a dialogue with their students about personal development topics that may be inappropriate during other class times. "My Best Me" has proven to improve academic performance and greatly decrease suspensions, drop-outs, and absenteeism.
✦ About Hope Rising ✦
Hope Rising is a specialized curriculum developer dedicated to providing students and teachers with the practical tools and knowledge they need to create a hopeful, productive classroom environment. The company's award-winning curriculum, "My Best Me", was developed by a team of early childhood specialists, education experts, and authors from around the globe and is the world's first hope-centered emotional intelligence program. Hope Rising provides further context and education around the science of hope and other emotional intelligence issues through its original blog series that is accessible through the website.
Want to learn more? Hope Rising is now offering a free downloadable sample of the "My Best Me" curriculum here: https://info.hoperisingedu.com/emotional-intelligence/curriculumsample
