Throughout the year, the district has what it calls “tribes” (the homeroom version) and has used these classes to teach a curriculum called GOODLIFE. The curriculum aims to teach skills such as how to maintain friendships and find gratitude. This is a way for students to build connections with each other and with senior students who will serve as their mentors.
GOODLIFE is based in Greene County, with multiple schools implementing the program, including Centerville, Tipp City, Xenia, Valley View, Miamisburg, Northmont and West Carrollton, said teacher and school support care specialist Jenny.・Mr. Holmstrom said.
“'The Good Life' is about something much deeper than what we have, what we do, and what we accomplish,” Holmstrom said. Told. “Fundamentally, GOODLIFE is a life of peace, meaning, power, and success.”
Ohio's mental health crisis remains unresolved, so it's important to bring a full range of coping skills to our children. Although Good Life is not explicitly a mental health program, it does have mental health benefits, said Christine Smith, a choir teacher at Stebbins who teaches tribal classes.
Smith said the program teaches coping skills such as gratitude, finding ways to relax and making caring friends.Those skills can be important in preventing
GOODLIFE is an evidence-based program using Search's Institute 40 Developmental Assets and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration framework. This year, it became an official science-based prevention program in Ohio.
According to GOODLIFE, in a survey of student leaders from 14 different schools between October 2022 and June 2023, 84% of respondents said they had a high level of social-emotional knowledge of students who participated in the program. reported an increase “somewhat or a lot” and 72% reported an increase “somewhat” in their social-emotional knowledge. Increased resilience among participating students. Additionally, 94% of respondents said implementing the program was “definitely or somewhat” easy.
According to GOODLIFE, more than 10,700 students have taken the program to date, most of them in the Miami Valley.
The program works by having students discuss topics related to the four F's: Focus, Friends, Freedom, and Future. It means focusing inward, understanding what healthy friendships look like, determining choices that lead to the life the student wants, and visualizing that good life.
Since the lessons are student-centered, there is less burden on the teacher. Teachers can also join groups, but this is not recommended as younger students are more likely to connect with older students.
Jadyn Tolvers, a junior at Stebbins College, is one of the student mentors. She struggled during her freshman year, she said, and she didn't understand how important GPA was. GPA says it helps him build relationships with the students he currently teaches.
“I also struggled as a freshman,” Tolvers said. “So they feel like they can talk to me.”
Tolvers said the program has helped her as well. Although she worked between nursing and teaching, she found so much fulfillment in mentoring children that she is now leaning toward teaching.
Relationships were a hot topic in the school district in January. The students were working on a section on romantic relationships. Tolvers said he wanted to do that when he was in school, said Kristin Smith, a choir teacher who teaches one of the tribe's classes with Mr. Tolvers.
Braylon Still, another of Stebbins' mentors, said students in his mentoring classes opened up to each other about relationships.
“I could put them in a group and I would sit there and they would just keep talking about something,” he said.
Eileen McCrory is the education reporter for the Dayton Daily News.
