WELCOME EDUCATORS & ADMINISTRATORS!
We are excited to support your efforts with social and emotional learning by promoting academic resilience with your students.
To further your students’ success please encourage them and their caregivers to sign up for Thrivelandia.
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This program provides you with evidence-informed lesson plans based on a five-factor model of resilience. There are five lessons in total with each supporting a particular pillar of resilience. Within each pillar, you will have access to a lesson plan outline and a supporting google slide presentation to guide each lesson. All worksheets are active links in the lesson plan to make access simple. In addition, extension activities are provided to further promote understanding of each pillar for educators who want to take it further. These lessons are ideal for students from grades 6 to 10.
Introducing: Dr. Diana Brecher
Dr. Diana Brecher is a clinical psychologist who has been working at the Toronto Metropolitan University counselling centre since 1991. She was the clinical director from 1994 – 2011. She is also adjunct faculty in the Toronto Metropolitan University Psychology Department, teaching graduate-level courses in CBT and clinical supervision.
Diana started the ThriveTMU program in 2016, which is deeply rooted in positive psychology and is dedicated to teaching resilience. Diana’s long term goal is to infuse the Toronto Metropolitan University programs, services and curriculum with principles of resilience and flourishing and to help facilitate a cultural change within the university.
She is an alum from the University of Toronto, a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, Diplomate in Cognitive Therapy, and a Clinical Psychologist.
Thrivelandia is an evidence-informed program designed to promote resilience in children and youth. The program is based on leading Canadian psychologists Dr. Diana Brecher and Dr. Deena Shaffer’s five factor model of resilience: mindfulness, gratitude, optimism, self-compassion, and perseverance. There are three parts to the program 1. Website/game (active link to kids game) for the youth to access and play 2. Parent component (active link to parent’s page on site) to help caregivers support their child’s journey in building resilience and 3.Educator resources to support social and emotional learning by promoting academic resilience. While there are three components of the program, each can be accessed and worked through on its own or implemented together.
The ThriveTMU- Thriving in Action website was designed so that each chapter describes the research and references the relevant evidence-based positive psychology research that supports it throughout. Also, the ThriveTMU college student weekly workbook Cultivate your Happiness Workbook has an exhaustive reference list at the back, with footnotes throughout. As mentioned in question #1, ThriveLandia has been adapted for a younger audience from the ThriveTMU college program and has its foundation in this research.
For additional resources, Seligman wrote the book Flourish – which is a great primer on the field of positive psychology.
Pillar 1: Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the ability to remain calm, alert, and rooted in the moment. By helping your students to be mindful it will help keep them grounded in the actual situation and realistically focused on solutions and actions that will make a difference and improve their performance.
To make it easier for you to share Mindfuless with your students to enhance their academic resilience, we have provided you with a Lesson Plan, presentation slides, and complementary student activity handouts. Please click on the links below. We also hope you’ll encourage your students to sign up for their own ThriveLandia account so they can build their resilience skills at home as well!
Pillar 2: Gratitude
Gratitude is far more than simply saying thank you when someone does something kind. It is about adopting a grateful state of being in which we feel blessed and worthy. Gratitude will make your students better friends, better classmates, better teammates, and better students.
To make it easier for you to share Gratitude with your students to enhance their academic resilience, we have provided you with a Lesson Plan, presentation slides, and complementary student activity handouts. Please click on the links below. We also hope you’ll encourage your students to sign up for their own ThriveLandia account so they can build their resilience skills at home as well!
Pillar 3: Optimism
When the world is viewed through an optimistic lens, more joy and satisfaction will be experienced. Being optimistic doesn’t always come naturally though. With the help of a few learned strategies, your students will begin to see more opportunities, even in times of struggle, and will feel more joy.
To make it easier for you to share Optimism with your students to enhance their academic resilience, we have provided you with a Lesson Plan, presentation slides, and complementary student activity handouts. Please click on the links below. We also hope you’ll encourage your students to sign up for their own ThriveLandia account so they can build their resilience skills at home as well!
Pillar 4: Self-Compassion
Being our own best friend can go a long way to help us cope in challenging situations and to improve our mental health. By teaching our students to have an inner voice that is kind and caring, they will be more apt to make better choices, heal faster from traumatic situations, give themselves a break when needed, and to be happier overall.
To make it easier for you to share Self-Compassion with your students to enhance their academic resilience, we have provided you with a Lesson Plan, presentation slides, and complementary student activity handouts. Please click on the links below. We also hope you’ll encourage your students to sign up for their own ThriveLandia account so they can build their resilience skills at home as well!
Pillar 5 Perseverance
Having perseverance and being persistence can promote personal growth and success. By having your students consider factors of perseverance that are naturally used in tasks that are enjoyable, these strategies can be applied to more challenging situations.
To make it easier for you to share Perseverance with your students to enhance their academic resilience, we have provided you with a Lesson Plan, presentation slides, and complementary student activity handouts. Please click on the links below. We also hope you’ll encourage your students to sign up for their own ThriveLandia account so they can build their resilience skills at home as well!
Karen Ashton, Grade 7 & 8 Teacher
Mental health, and promoting positive mental health is at the forefront of concerns in the education system. As teachers, we deal with this on a daily basis. The ThriveLandia program focuses on developing 5 pillars of resilience in students; mindfulness, optimism, gratitude, perseverance and self-compassion. There are 5 practical, ready to use lesson plans supported by slide presentations to guide lessons. I appreciate not having to do extra work to implement this program. There are also cross curricular extension ideas for areas that teachers can choose from if they feel an area of resilience needs more focus. The value of developing resilience in young people is tremendously important, especially in the shadow of Covid-19. When I looked further into this program, I discovered that there is also an interactive student platform for young people and support for parents which can be shared. Developing resilience is crucial to promoting strong minds in the students we teach, and I highly recommend this program from Strong Minds Strong Kids, Psychology Canada.
Paul, Elementary School Teacher
As a teacher, I see every day how much stress and anxiety students are dealing with. I am always looking for strategies and activities to use with my students that can help them manage their stress and support their mental health. Thrivelandia is an awesome resource. There are so many great activities for students to try and everything in the game is so well organized. There is also a teacher resource section with engaging lesson plans to use in the classroom. It’s so easy to find the right strategy or activity for any particular challenge students might have. I found the exercise on mindful time management really useful for helping students think critically about how much time they dedicate to certain tasks and how to plan ahead so they can get their work done while still having time for fun.
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