According to the NCCP, nearly one in five children in the United States show symptoms of a mental health disorder, yet 80% of them will not receive treatment. 

While not a subject that is tested in school, giving students the social-emotional skills and tactics to help them better understand themselves and those around them can positively impact long-term learning and achievement.

To help educators teach Mental Health Awareness Month, we’ve bundled our favorite immersive learning games, activities, and resources that help students develop, recognize, and practice good mental health. 

Click here to download the free bundle!

Week 1: Support students in finding anxiety relief 

Finding outlets for anxiety and stress relief is becoming more and more important in our everyday life, and how we all manage this is different. This week, play learning game Vital Signs: High Anxiety with your students. When students take on the role of the boss in this immersive workday, students are challenged with diagnosing a patient who might be suffering from Anxiety. See the Answer Key here!

Later in the week, spark a discussion with your students to help them identify their feelings, explore strategies to manage anxiety, and make space to uplift each other with our Mental Health Awareness Supplemental lesson Anxiety Relief.

Week 2: Help students identify how to look for helpers

Knowing you’re never alone in life is key to managing mental health. This week play learning game Vital Signs: Diagnosis Unknown! As the director, students will need to work with their team to figure out the mysterious symptoms a patient is experiencing.  Answer Key.

Take it one step deeper and use Look for the Helpers supplemental lesson for students to find reassurance and hope while practicing compassion for the helpers in their communities.

Week 3: Support students in navigating complex decisions

Being able to navigate tough decisions is a muscle that has to be built over time. This week play learning game Community in Crisis: Medical Mystery to help students build that muscle. During this game, the community center team discovers a mold issue at the community housing complex. As the director, students must decide what they should do for the apartment residents while resolving the mold issue. Answer Key.

Later in the week, reinforce the importance of making informed decisions based on multiple forms of information using this supplemental lesson plan, Prioritizing Aid.

Week 4: Develop students’ self-awareness toward a bright future

Knowing your strengths and values is key to making the best decisions for a happy future. This week play learning game Community Pharmacy: Career Crossroads to help students develop their self-awareness. During this game, your student pharmacist is graduating and is torn between two career paths. As the Head Pharmacist, students must decide whether to support their student pharmacist’s decision to follow a new career path or recommend them for the hospital pharmacist job opening. Answer Key.

Later in the week, reinforce the importance of making decisions that will help students explore a future that can bring them happiness and a sense of fulfillment with this discussion and debate guide.

Bonus content: Show students how to manage emergencies

Unfortunately, in life, students will at some point have to manage emergency situations. To help them prepare, play learning game After the Storm: Emergency Management. During this game, the day after a hurricane hits the town, the editor-in-chief needs to decide the best method to get vital news and information out to the community while managing staff who are also dealing with the storm’s effects. Answer Key

Take it one step deeper and reinforce reading comprehension while promoting thoughtful reflection of the decisions made during the immersive work-day with this Discussion Guide. 

Quick tip!

You can now assign the learning games in the Mental Health Awareness Bundle right from the playlist section of your Activities Page Tab on the Read to Lead platform! Assign to your students in one click (yes it really is that easy!) A great activity for morning work, early-finisher activities, or extra credit!

Sign up for a free account to get started

Are you planning on using Read to Lead this month to support mental health awareness and social-emotional learning in your class? Sign up for a free account, and download your free lesson bundle!

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As part of the educator community, we know how important it is to weave anti-bullying life lessons into instruction so students are prepared to address bullying through effective conflict resolutions, instead of resorting to bullying tactics themselves. Instead of just sharing and reading stories about how others deal with bullies, let’s pumpkin spice things up a little and put your students in the mediator role with a fun activity: playing Read to Lead’s immersive learning games!

Check out our FREE Anti-Bullying Mediator Bundle filled with learning games, lessons, debates, and projects you can use with your class to teach students how to recognize bullying and how to resolve issues without resorting to bullying tactics. Pick one or do them all. The choice is yours!

Download the Anti-Bullying Mediator Bundle! 

Week 1: Play immersive learning games

Put students in a real-life scenario while they play learning game, Restorative Justice, where they gain literacy and reasoning skills while learning anti-bullying techniques. Or support students to learn the difference between gossip vs. fact and the dangers of bullying while playing Truthteller.

Week 2: Read about Anti-Bullying Month

Give students this reading comprehension lesson that uses informative text to uncover  the essential question “How does declaring October Anti-Bullying Month help reduce bullying?” 

Week 3: Discuss and debate 

Spark deep discussion and reflection with your students with an Anti Bullying Debate question.

 Extra credit: Watch past or upcoming debates on your local news channel and use it as an example of what not to do in preparation for respectful debates in your classroom.

Week 4: Create a Public Service Announcement 

Inspire action within your students. Allow students to create a public service announcement to promote kindness, acceptance, and inclusion.

There you have it! Four weeks of teaching National Bullying Prevention Month and fostering the skills students need express kindness, acceptance, and inclusivity.

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Photo Attribution: Alpha Stock Images | www.alphastockimages.com

The Presidential debate that took place on September 29, 2020 was not one of the United States’ proudest moments. However, like all historic events, there are lessons to be learned from the debate. As educators, it is our responsibility to guide students in critically viewing and navigating the information they may be seeing first hand or hearing about afterwards.

Respect and open communication are essential in a democracy, particularly one as diverse as the US. Sharing diverse viewpoints and trying to understand how others think and feel should be modeled by our leaders. This does not mean we have to agree with one another, but we should strive to engage in respectful dialogue. However, we continue to see, at the highest levels of our government, an absence of respectful dialogue and openness to diverse viewpoints. 

The 90-minute debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, was not our proudest moment. Both parties continually interrupted each other, and made personal attacks and hateful remarks. Ultimately, the presidential debate was more an instance of bullying at the highest levels of government, than a true debate to engage constructively with opposing viewpoints. Students today need to understand that bullying is not a characteristic of leadership.

October is National Anti-Bullying Month, which makes it all the more important to highlight instances of bullying, particularly when our most powerful leaders are engaged in it. Pointing out instances of bullying wherever we see them ensures students are aware of and can recognize bullying behaviors or actions when they encounter them in their own lives. As educators, we also need to equip students with the tools to address the problem of bullying.

What is Bullying?

With one in five students reporting having been bullied, this is almost certainly a term you and your students have heard before. Bullying goes beyond taunts in the playground, or stealing someone’s lunch money. It is important for students to understand that bullying exists in many forms. Generally, bullying can be hostile actions or words from one person to another with the intent to hurt someone.  

A bully can be any gender, shape, size or color, and may be bullying others for a variety of reasons. Bullying usually happens when there is an imbalance of power. In the school setting, the bully may be bigger in size, have superior knowledge, or is better in some activity. They use this to their advantage and act on their desires to hurt the other person. 

We often think of bullying as something physical – hitting, pushing around, stealing, or forcing people to do things against their will, but it can also be verbal. Teasing, insulting, refusing to talk to someone, spreading lies or rumors, or excluding someone from a group, are all examples of bullying. There were numerous examples of this during the first presidential debate, despite the fact that the activity of debating someone can be a helpful tool to address bullying. 

How Can Debate Help Address Bullying?

Debate is a long-standing tradition and a historic skill set focused on respectful listening to facts and evidence to engage in a productive and constructive conversation on a topic that two people may disagree on. There are ground rules in place that must be respected, such as only speaking when it is your turn, listening attentively and respecting all opinions. Read to Lead‘s lesson plans outline the ground rules for effective debate.

The beauty of debate is that you don’t have to agree with someone, but you do have to respectfully establish your position based on facts, with the goal of convincing others of your position, rather than bullying them to concede defeat. The opinions presented may not be in line with your own, but this does not mean you can’t have some level of respect for the person who holds these opinions.

This is how the Presidential Debate should have been conducted, but unfortunately, poor form on both the part of the participants and the moderator, led to what critics have described as “a disaster” and “one of the worst debates in televised American history”.

At Read to Lead, we believe giving students tools for respectful debate will reduce bullying. By giving students the skills they need to engage in meaningful and respectful dialogue, and disagree constructively with one another, we empower them to take control of situations where bullying may occur, and avert them.

Resources to Develop Debate Skills and Avoid Bullying

Read To Lead games explore the value of debate and offer proven resources to cultivate these skills in students. 

Many lesson plans include a debate component, such as “Is it worth it to have health insurance?”, “Should schools practice techniques like meditation during the school day?”, and “Which type of therapy for anxiety do you think is more beneficial? Why?”. The lesson plans also outline ground rules and guidelines about how to conduct debate sessions, while providing students with language to approach debate.

In the game Dad Genes  of Vital Signs, the debate question focuses on how to deal with a friend who is bullying someone. Students are encouraged to explore different options like approaching the friend directly or seeking help from someone else. By digging deeper into real life scenarios that students may encounter in their daily lives, we equip them with the skills necessary to tackle such situations.

In line with Anti-Bullying Month, we also have a special close reading lesson for October about bullying. This close reading passage provides a deeper look at what makes a bully, and some strategies to handle bullying, as well as teacher-guided questions to lead discussions around the effects of bullying on victims and students’ own experiences with bullying. By holding space for our students to engage in these conversations around bullying, we help them recognize and address the problem of bullying in our schools.

Bullying is an issue of serious concern in our schools, workplaces and even government, as demonstrated by the recent Presidential Debate. However, by drawing attention to it with our students and providing them with the necessary tools to engage in constructive debate, we can help address this problem and reduce the instances of bullying.

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When it comes to students’ learning success and overall well-being, their mental health is just as important as their physical health.

Mental health problems can affect a student’s ability to focus and their energy levels, and in turn, negatively impact their performance in school. It is something that we as educators always need to be aware of, but now more than ever before, our students’ mental health deserves extra attention. 

The Global Pandemic & Impact on Mental Health

The current COVID-19 global pandemic has necessitated social distancing and school closures to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. A consequence of these measures is the social isolation some of our students may be facing during this stressful and uncertain time. Humans are highly social beings, and an extended lack of social interaction with others could result in poor mental and physical health. 

May – A Spotlight on Mental Health

May is Mental Health Month, and a great opportunity to shed light on the importance of caring for mental health. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that almost 1 in 5 adults in the US lives with a mental health condition, and a similar incidence of mental health conditions has been observed in middle school students.

Educators and parents can demonstrate and promote healthy practices in mental and emotional wellbeing. Being open about your own challenges with your students and sharing positive strategies can encourage students to open up about their own struggles.

With the right structures in place, it is possible to foster a sense of community among our students, and to drive important conversations about our students’ emotional and mental well-being.

Read to Lead on Mental Health

Getting the conversation started on mental health can be tricky. To give educators and students alike a starting point to engage in meaningful discussions around this topic, we’re highlighting some of the Read to Lead games that can kickstart conversations on this topic.

Game-Based Learning 

In the Vital Signs series, students take on the role of Medical Director of a Family Clinic. They encounter different real-world scenarios dealing with health-related topics, including mental health issues and wellness, and must decide on the best course of action for the patients and staff.

The easy-to-navigate platform is designed for independent learning, which also makes it a great resource for students learning from home.

In the game High Anxiety, a patient believes she has an obscure disorder she read about on the internet, but the clinical staff on her case thinks that she suffers from anxiety and recommends counseling. Students learn more about the symptoms of anxiety and its causes, as well as treatment options.

The game is also accompanied by post-game discussion and debate questions. By encouraging students to think about and reflect on the topic of anxiety, educators open the doors of  communication with students who may be struggling with similar feelings. These tools can also be used to further the conversation about the challenges around discussing mental health. 

Crash Course is another game that is a valuable resource to educators in talking about mental health. A patient comes in for treatment for injuries from a car accident that he caused, and he appears to be suffering from an enormous amount of guilt. However, he doesn’t want further treatment. Students learn more about PTSD – its symptoms and treatment options – and must assess the situation to decide whether to refer the patient for therapy.

In the post-game discussion questions and debate, students are invited to explore mental health and learn some practices around effectively managing their own emotional and mental wellbeing. Educators can use this as a springboard to lead guided discussions to support their students. 

Play High Anxiety and Crash Course by signing up for a free Read to Lead account. 

Extension Activities 

Both games, like all other games on the Read to Lead platform, can be played independently and work as stand-alone lessons for students. Our accompanying extension activities can be used to foster more self-awareness and self-management among students. 

By sparking meaningful discussions, we hope to normalize the topic of mental health and emphasize the importance of implementing proactive strategies to maintain mental wellbeing and asking for help when needed.

• Learning to Manage Anxiety Lesson Plan

This activity will help students identify their feelings, explore strategies to manage anxiety, and make space to uplift each other. 

• Mental Health Awareness Lesson Plan

This activity helps students think more deeply about their own mental health and promotes the importance of taking care of their mental and emotional wellbeing. 

Read to Lead’s Top Picks for Information for Educators on Mental Health

We curated some of our top picks for educators on how best to approach mental health with your students. 

• Mental Health Month, Mental Health America has compiled an extensive repository of information and printables on specific topics relating to mental health. These resources are research-backed and can be shared with your students remotely. 

• Child Mind Institute offers excellent classroom strategies and information on learning issues and the connection to mental health. 

• Edutopia is also a useful platform with resources for educators to address any behavioral, emotional, or social challenges their students may be facing.

There is no doubt that this is a difficult period for students and educators alike. Our students may be more susceptible to mental health issues, and as educators, we need to provide the necessary support to help them navigate these complex times.

By engaging students in meaningful discussions and providing them with tools to manage their mental and emotional wellbeing at this time, we are not only addressing their immediate needs, but also equipping them with skills for the future as well.

Sign up for Read to Lead today to explore the variety of games available for free, and jumpstart the conversation on mental health!

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Three ways teachers can better support their middle school students and ease anxiety, from breathing exercises to gamified learning.

With heightened demands for academic excellence and social changes (and stressors like bullying), it’s no wonder that 2.2% of American adolescents suffer from general anxiety disorder (GAD). The odds of one of your middle school students suffering from GAD is quite high, especially in our fast-paced competitive culture where studies have shown anxiety has been on the rise among children and youths since the 1950s and only around 20% of kids with a diagnosable anxiety disorder are getting the treatment they need.

Incredibly, studies have shown that anxiety can influence school performance just as much as ADHD and other learning disabilities and since an anxious brain can’t easily absorb new information or remember learned information, your student may be on the path to poor grades and low participation. The tricky aspect of anxiety is that it can affect each of your students differently, one student may constantly be interrupting or overtaking and another may look like they aren’t paying attention.

As an educator, what can you do when you notice a student or multiple students in your class exhibiting symptoms of anxiety? While we’re not mental health experts, we have three ideas on how to effectively implement mental health exercises to reduce student anxiety.

???? Normalize Breathing Exercises
A great way to give a student a break is to routinely lead breathing exercises since your brain slows down when your breathing slows down. If you notice that one or more students are exhibiting anxiety symptoms in class, like shortness of breath, inflexibility, or defiance, for example, announce that it’s time for a 3-minute “breath break” where everyone sits still, closes their eyes, and takes deep breaths.

Guide them through a breathing exercise (here’s a great video for inspiration) and let them know this is a great way to take a mental break and diffuse anxious thoughts. By implementing this exercise on a daily or as-needed basis, you’re showing the class that everyone can get mentally and physically stressed and that all people, no matter their age, can greatly benefit from “breath breaks”.

???? Create Opportunities for Movement
Whether or not your school has a recess period for your students, it’s crucial to allow for physical movement throughout the day to help expel anxious feelings and energy. Guide your students through a series of stretches to give them a chance to move and release tension.

A short yoga routine is a great way to get them moving, we love this video since it’s simple, doesn’t require a mat, and can be done in all kinds of clothing. Another fun way to get your students motivated to move is to ask them to each submit their favorite song. After you find the songs on YouTube and screen the lyrics, let them know there will be a daily dance break; your students will love hearing their favorite tunes!

???? Gamified Learning
The benefits of play-based learning are highly studied in early childhood education since it can help develop social and cognitive skills, so why aren’t more schools applying the same principles to middle school students? In our Read to Lead game, Vital Signs: “High Anxiety”, your students encounter a patient who is exhibiting signs of anxiety.

In about 20-30 minutes of gameplay, your student will be empowered to assess problems by gathering information, analyzing the situation, and making an educated decision based on their findings. After the game is finished, we provide educators with worksheets and discussion questions like:

What are the dangers of self-diagnosing by searching on the Internet?

Why was it important for Sofia to acknowledge her anxiety on her own?

Why does Marianne suspect Sofia’s real problem is due to anxiety?

In Vital Signs: “Crash Course”, a man is suffering from emotions relating to a car crash and your student must decide whether or not to refer Pierre for PTSD therapy. In this episode discussions questions include:

According to Sasha, what signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, is Pierre showing?

Why is Pierre more at risk to suffer from PTSD than others?

If you were Pierre, would you have admitted the true cause of the accident?

If you’re looking for a tool to start a conversation and mental health, click here to learn more about Read to Lead® and the resources we provide for teachers: bit.ly/platformreadtolead

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