Managing Thoughts (Gr 6-12)

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Written By Jennifer Camus-Beebe

In this module, students will learn to better understand and manage their thoughts. They will learn that thoughts play a large role in determining feelings and behaviors, so it is important to gain a deeper awareness of thoughts. Students will learn to assess if their thoughts are true and helpful and to recognize and replace unhelpful thoughts. Finally, students will learn about typical negative thinking patterns and ways to replace these “thinking traps” with more helpful, positive, or realistic ways of thinking.

 
 

Part 1

Part 2

HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE USING THIS RESOURCE?

Adrienne Loftus - 7th Grade Science Teacher

  • I did this module over 2 days with my middle school students and asked for their thoughts after. It was a mixed bag in terms of how they felt: many students thought it was fun and could apply it in their own life, other students felt like it was not very useful.

  • A greater portion of students did not take this one seriously compared to previous modules that I have tried. For example, when reframing negative thoughts, they would lean into the negative aspect. 

  • However, many students did engage with it and expressed that they found it useful for better managing their own thoughts.

Claudia Dumpson - 6th Grade Teacher

  • I think this lesson is very useful for students, as well as adults, because I think at times we all struggle to reframe our negative thoughts. I was able to bring in some of my own experiences to make the module more relatable. 

  • My 6th graders, in true form, had trouble taking the module seriously and had a lot of “silly” questions. However, their questions were definitely their way of processing the information and ended up spurring some great conversations.

  • I spread this lesson across two days because we were having really great conversations.

Heather Cisowski - High School (9-12th Grade) Teacher

  • Such a wonderful lesson! My students and I found it very valuable.

  • My students (special ed) needed some frontloading so I created my own slideshow. The handouts were super helpful, though.

  • My female students struggled more than my male students which really got me thinking about the differences in messages sent to males vs. females. 

  • To get maximum benefit for this lesson, a class would need a safe classroom culture since it does ask students to make themselves vulnerable.

Jennifer Camus-Beebe
Next

Managing Thoughts (Gr k-5)