Materials Used: Townsley, D., Hughes, R., & Crooks, C. (2016). The Fourth R: Healthy Relationships, Safe Choices, Connected Youth. London, ON: The University of Western Ontario.

Introduction

Today we will be discussing the importance of support & resilience. Everyone will experience challenging situations in their lifetime and it is important to build personal skills/strategies and a positive support network to help us to move past these challenges.

Activity #1 – Resilience Introduction

Strategy – Balloon Activity

Stand in a circular formation in the room. The teacher will pass out a number of balloons. Name each balloon with the different parts of your life that you try to “keep afloat” (eg. school work). Have one person keep as many balloons in the air as possible. Now try the same activity with the whole class trying to keep the balloons in the air. 

1.  How difficult was it to keep up many balloons compared to just one balloon?

          2.   How difficult was it for one person to keep the balloons up to compared to the whole class?

  • Trying to keep all of the balloons up in the air is sometimes what things can feel like when you are in high school.  There are so many things going on and so much to think and worry about. This is why it’s important to consider the idea of resilience.
  • Trying to keep all the balloons in the air without support from family and friends is increasingly difficult. Create a group of individuals around you who can support you can help carry the load of life.

2.  What is resilience? Think about a definition of resilience as you watch these video clips, then answer the questions below.

  • Discuss with a partner what resilience means?
  • Share out your ideas with the class as the teacher records.

 

Resilience means a person may deal with difficult situations or circumstances but  that they can bounce back from those and  move forward with their lives in a positive direction.

Activity #2 – Protective and Risk Factors

Strategy – Discussion

 

Activity #3 – Things Resilient People Do

Activity #4 – Assignment 

My Personal Health and Wellness Inquiry

The purpose of your Personal Health and Wellness Inquiry is to create a culminating health and wellness plan. Your plan is created and built by you, based on your own personal inquiry into a number of important questions about your health and wellness.  It is a journey of learning more about yourself, exploring a variety of valuable topics, and understanding how they relate to you. You will use each lesson’s topic as a springboard to the begin your personal inquiry. It is expected that you will refine and improve your responses, as you gain more knowledge and understanding, until the final product is completed in grade 10. A draft will be submitted at the end of each of the three units.

Steps

  1. Open your Office 365 Word document titled My Personal Health and Wellness from Unit 2 lesson 1
  2. Create a Heading – Unit 2 Lesson #1 – Why is it important to show resilience? Which of these strategies for resilience do you do well and give an example of a time that you used it. If the resilience strategies are a challenge for you, pick one and discuss how you could work towards improving it.
  3. Using information provided in this unit, personal reflection, and additional research, answer the question above to the best of your ability in complete sentences. Please feel free to use real life examples whenever applicable.

Health Education Rubric

Additional Resources