Helping students develop hope
- Set Goals– This is the BIG picture. Goals academically, sports, family, career, etc. The beginning of the school year is a great time to check in with students and help them develop big-picture goals. Make sure that goals are set to accomplish something in the future rather than avoid something now.
- Idea: have students create individual goal sheets for the year and rank goals in order of importance.
- Identify Pathways and strategies for attaining these goals– this step helps students break down the long-term goal into steps. It is important to teach students that goals are attained in multiple steps and DO NOT have to be accomplished all at once. This will allow them to celebrate smaller successes on their way to attaining the long-term goal.
- Idea: have students break down their goal into at least 3 individual steps. This is the journey to the set long-term goal.
- Cultivate Willpower and stay motivated– check in on goals and allow modification of pathways to achieve set goals. There is not just one way to attain a goal. As a teacher, it is important to make sure students do not believe that barriers make those goals unattainable, make them less successful, or make them less talented. Share stories of success and overcoming obstacles. Willpower is a resource that can be depleted. Willpower depletion can be caused by a simple lack of sleep, anxiety, emotional distress, lack of exercise, etc. This is where “My Best Me” comes in and helps the educator keep an open dialog, giving students the tools to manage stressors in a healthy and productive way.
Benefits of Hope
- Academic Improvement: The science of hope has proven that children with higher hope scores have better grades, attendance, ad graduation rates. Hopeful children are more engaged academically and perform better.
- Emotional Livelihood: Children who have hope are more capable of self-regulating their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Hope allows them to flourish in their overall well-being.
- Decreased Drop-Outs: Classrooms with more hopeful students see decreased numbers of chronic absenteeism, fewer incidences of truancy, and lower drop-out rates, even when controlling for socioeconomic status.
- Thriving Teachers: Teachers with more hope are better at implementing strategies to reduce burnout and stress, increasing their ability to thrive in and out of the classroom.
Hope Rising SEL’s curriculum is based on Dr. Chan Hellman’s definition of Hope, and it is making a difference in many schools and communities across the country.
If your school isn’t using My Best Me yet, we would love to help you bring Hope to your school. Our sales team is ready to answer your questions and demo My Best Me for you. Contact us to start spreading Hope in your school.