Mental Health Metaphors - Mindfulness for Teens

A "fly on the wall" look into our classroom. Full 7th Grade mental health lesson included!
MINDFULNESS: a mental state of paying attention to the present moment in an accepting, nonjudgmental manner. Being mindful is being conscious of thoughts, feelings, and behavior in relation to our interactions with both ourselves and with others.
Notice the NOISE in this lesson! The classroom energy throughout the activity is all part of the lesson. Yes, it can be annoying. ;) But it's a part of the learning experience and draws attention to mindful living.
Students were presented with multiple tasks with a quarter dollar coin-- watch and listen in as the class battles focus issues to achieve great connections to real life.
The coin challenges stirred the classroom with just a bit of movement to boost brain activity. The quarter is simply used to encourage analogies, and this metaphorical look at mental health is meant to nurture higher level thinking.
You'll hear the group socialize throughout much of the activities. The reactions and chatter are all on-task; students are engaged and learning-- the quick side conversations are allowed because you'll hear they all involve thoughts about the class activity. That's how teenagers learn. This helps create social connectedness, which is a huge piece in a person's developing mental health.
There isn't necessarily a "right" or "wrong" when it comes to the responses to the reflection prompts-- there are many metaphors we may have missed here that viewers can come up with on their own. That's the point! For instance, the last "magic trick" could easily be linked to hiding true feelings when it comes to interacting with others. We may try as hard as we can to push through hard times (like slamming the coin through the table), but negative emotions keep coming back. Is it really about eliminating human emotions? Mindfulness practice encourages us to allow those feelings to set in without self-judgement, then appropriately respond when the time is right. See how many more analogies can be made, all "correct" and all worthy of attention.
What else could work well as a coin challenge and/or question prompts for debriefing afterwards? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. :)
Full lesson write-up here: tinyurl.com/Hea...
Be sure to check out more mindfulness activities here: LifeIsTheFuture...
BOOKING & CONTACT
🗞️ Newsletter: tinyurl.com/Lif...
🎙️ Podcast: Anchor.fm/LifeI...
📲 Teaching insight, blog posts, and more: LifeIsTheFuture...

[@MrTodnem]

🎥 Full lesson write-up here: tinyurl.com/HealthEd-CoinChallenges

[@kristenceleski1633]

I am a clinical group facilitator at a re entry center in Arizona, facilitating groups of men and women who have been released from prison in the last 3 months. I can’t begin to tell you how similar your 7th grade class behaves to my members who are between the ages of 18 and 80. Personally, I can’t imagine being so defiant in class, group, work, or any other setting where a leader has instructed me to do something specific. Yet so many people never grow out of that, even years later.

[@MrTodnem]

Interesting. Appreciate the comment and insight, Kristen. And thanks for watching and checking out what we do. 🙌

[@MissMelindaFCC]

You rock. Stealing components of this lesson for a youth center on a reservation tomorrow. Thanks!

[@MrTodnem]

Please do! Hope it goes well!

[@tombabyak9258]

Thanks for your help. One more question. If I were to do this with a ping pong ball and a stack cup what type of questions could I ask

[@MrTodnem]

If you check my lesson plan link in this video description, you can see all my reflection questions typed up. Obviously you can add your own for whatever purpose you and your class needs! Read through those and let me know if it helps. 👍

[@julianavelasquez7300]

Love this!