The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement™ launched a free social-emotional wellness program to support educators and students as they navigate the start of the 2020/21 school year. This special reentry unit, “Choosing Love in Our Brave New World,” is designed to help transition students back to class or to support them during distance learning. The Choose Love Movement honors six-year-old Jesse Lewis who was killed in the Sandy Hook, CT elementary school tragedy.
“Choosing Love in Our Brave New World” will help students and teachers find their way into the new normal of education. This special back-to-school unit was created with particular awareness of the current events and environment, and fosters the development of a growth mindset and perseverance. Lessons incorporate trauma-sensitive, healing-centered language and practices which are based on the latest neuroscience and post-traumatic growth research.
With the many different models for the return to school, whether in class, distance learning or a hybrid model, lessons can be taught as a whole or in smaller parts throughout the day or throughout the week. This gives educators the choice and flexibility to use components of the lesson and customize them to their individual needs.
Some of the highlights in “Our Brave New World” are:
- A personal video message for Educators from Scarlett Lewis, founder and CMO
- A welcome letter for teachers to read to their students that research shows will improve their academic, and social-emotional skills
- Grounding and mindfulness practices for students presented in videos and lessons for EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Tapping by Jessica Ortner, The Tapping Solution, and Healthy Compassionate Connection by Kate MacKinnon
- Strategies to help students identify and recognize somatic cues, feelings, and emotions
- Skills and tools to manage the underlying feelings of fear, uncertainty, and anxiety and practice responding in healthy ways
- Growth mindset as it relates to the COVID situation and how we can move forward
- Slides in each lesson for ease of access and to facilitate distance learning
These skills and tools are invaluable and provide benefits well beyond this unit. Practicing them often and incorporating them into daily class time offers students (and educators) the necessary grounding and calming tools to facilitate learning.
“Before any other learning can be effective, students and educators need to feel safe, a sense of belonging, cared for, and loved,” said Scarlett Lewis, Chief Movement Officer of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement. “The goal of this special back-to-school unit is to provide transitional support from any trauma or stress that students may be bringing back from an extended break as they begin to immerse themselves in a new year of learning.”
In response to COVID-19 and other transitional times for our children, “Our Brave New World” lessons were created as a gateway to the Choose Love for Schools Program. These lessons are foundational and provide students with skills and understandings that will transcend the units to follow in the rest of the Choose Love for Schools curriculum which focus on courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion-in-action.
Choose Love For School is a no cost Infant, Toddler, and Pre-K through 12th grade, lifespan, next generation, social and emotional learning program that teaches educators and their students how to Choose Love in any circumstance and helps them become connected, resilient, and empowered individuals. These skills, tools and attitudes have been proven through decades of scientific research to be the best way to ensure a healthy, meaningful and purpose-filled life. Choose Love programs are in all 50 states and have been downloaded in 100 countries. Additional programs include Choose Love For Home, For Communities, and For Athletes.
All no cost programs can now be accessed through ‘Choose Love Connect’, a community and program portal that also includes the ability for educators to exchange programs and SEL tips, resources, and best practices with each other. ‘Choose Love Connect’ now serves as the "digital heartbeat" of the Choose Love Movement, offering anyone the ability to join our movement and become part of the solution for the problems our society is experiencing today.
Find out more by visiting, www.chooselovemovement.org.
About Jessica Ortner
JESSICA ORTNER is the NY Times bestselling author of “The Tapping Solution for Weight Loss and Body Confidence” and producer of The Tapping Solution, the breakthrough documentary film on EFT tapping. She has led more than 11,000 women through her revolutionary Weight Loss and Body Confidence online program, and she is also the host of The Tapping World Summit, an annual online event that has attracted more than 1,000,000 attendees from around the world.
The Tapping Solution App is making it easier than ever before to use tapping to lower stress levels, reduce anxiety, get motivated, get better sleep, eliminate negative emotions and much more! There are over 200 Tapping meditations to available and has had over 1.6 Million completed tapping sessions. With over 200,000 people having used the "Releasing Anxiety" Tapping Meditation showing an average 41% decrease of anxiety in just 9 minutes.
Follow Jessica on Twitter @JessicaOrtner and on Facebook at facebook.com/JessicaOrtner.
About Kate Mackinnon
An author, speaker, and trained physical therapist specializing in craniosacral therapy, Kate Mackinnon has been using touch to support her patients in their healing and in accessing their physical potential for the last 30 years. She's passionate about helping people create comfort and ease in their bodies. In addition, she coaches other health care professionals on reaching their full potential and running their successful solo practitioner business.
Kate developed the Healthy Compassionate Touch Program for the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement. This program explores ways of teaching children and educators how to recognize and use touch that is nurturing and helpful, and how to avoid touch that isn’t. Touch is such an important aspect of who we are yet there is a lot of fear surrounding the topic. There are easy and simple ways to incorporate touch into the classroom that support the reduction of aggressive, problem behaviors and enhance the connection and sense of belonging for the children.
About The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement
Jesse Lewis, a six-year-old first grader, was a victim of the Sandy Hook tragedy whose action saved the lives of nine classmates. Jesse left behind a message on a household chalkboard, “Nurturing Healing Love,” that became the inspiration for his mother, Scarlett, to found the Choose Love Movement.
The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with a commitment to reach students, educators and individuals, nationally and internationally, and provide them with a simple, yet profound formula for choosing love. Its signature program, Choose Love For Schools, is a no-cost infant/toddler through 12th grade curriculum that contains the simple universal teachings of courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion-in-action – the foundational concepts of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Choose Love For Home, Choose Love For Communities, and Choose Love For Athletes are also available.
For more information, please visit www.ChooseLoveMovement.org. Also visit on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
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