Middle schoolers have started participating in a Daily Focus, a new curriculum that gives students the opportunity to expand their social and emotional skills during a daily session.
“Students begin each day by meeting for ten minutes in their advisories for activities that foster self-reflection and vital self-management and social and communication skills,” said Courtnay Veazey, Middle School Counselor and Learning Specialist.
Each trimester students will follow different lessons that provide positive social and emotional tools, and students will engage with various activities each week in their advisories that align with the current lesson plan.
Last week during the Daily Focus, middle school students spent time creating paper license plates to highlight community building and creating safe spaces for personal and communal exploration. This week, students will work on planning strategies and taking action to achieve personal and academic goals.
The Daily Focus is a continuing step in giving students at Lausanne the best possible learning experience and will accommodate the Mindful Moments that begin each middle school class period.
“Children in today’s society live in an accelerated culture, and at this stage of their development they are going through significant changes on the physical, emotional, psychological, and social levels,” said Greg Graber, Head of Middle School. With that in mind, we use the Daily Focus as an opportunity to cultivate their social, emotional, and executive functioning skills. We are confident that they will attain life-long skills from this innovative program which will benefit them both inside and outside of the classroom. Kudos to Courtnay and Julie Cooper for taking this idea and developing it into a sustainable curriculum.”