👋 INTRODUCTION 👋

I am so grateful to welcome you into this course! This course will teach students about the field of Positive Psychology, as well as other aspects of well-being such as mindfulness, goals, and positive emotions. This might be extra helpful for students about to enter high school-- a situation where most feel out of place. Although Positive Psychology is an actual branch of psychological science, the course is meant to be fun, meaningful, and engaging. By the end, students will hopefully have a tighter grasp on their well-being and stress-relief strategies they could use in the future!

Read on to discover some more detailed information. I hope your student joins the family of Positive Psychology scholars! 

🧠 REQUIREMENTS 🧠

Most concepts may be entirely new for students, so no prior experience is required. Given my past experience with the course, all students have testified that they've learned something new. If you have any concerns, please message me!

😌 WHAT CAN I EXPECT? 😌

This class has a live session every week. These live sessions are interactive, but the level of interactivity mostly depends on student initiative. Students can interact in 2 ways: 
- Using our open chat box (as long as class rules are maintained)
- Raising their hand on Zoom and waiting for me to call on them
Students are never pressured to share anything they do not want to. 

I do my best to maintain an open, loving, and positive space for students of all backgrounds to grow. Because of this, I have 3 class rules that I expect all students to follow: 
- Be a good Zoom citizen (do not spam, do not share inappropriate things, stay muted when not talking... etc.)
- Be kind to everyone (absolutely zero tolerance on bullying)
- Be a supportive classmate (do not distract other classmates, stay relatively on-topic... etc.)

If your learner breaks these rules, I will remove them from the class.

Students should bring their workbooks to class every time to interact with the activities. Even though students will bring their workbooks, there is no formal "note-taking." I will never require students to take notes, but they are welcome to do so and I'll be happy to accommodate that! 

When students come into the live session, there is usually a "Welcome" slide to greet them and relaxing music playing in the background. Students are free to interact with each other using the chat box as long as they maintain a positive space. 

My teaching style is fun, engaging and upbeat! With this course in particular, I strive to create personal connections with students nad with the class as a whole. There will be a 5-minute break halfway through the session for students to use the bathroom or grab a snack.

After each session, students can expect to receive all the notes and materials I used during class in the Outschool classroom. All recordings are posted on the Outschool classroom. 

☀️FULL SCHEDULE ☀️

Our curriculum is divided into 5 topics over the course of 12 live sessions. 

WEEKS 1-3
Topic One: PERMA-V and Positive Emotions
Concepts include: 
- Introduction to the Course
- What is Positive Psychology? 
- Martin Seligman and the Beginning of Positive Psychology
- The PERMA-V Model of Well-Being
- Increasing Positive Emotions
- Barbara Fredrickson's Broaden and Build Model

WEEKS 3-5
Topic Two: Goals and Motivation
Concepts include: 
- Good and Bad Habits 
- Shawn Achor's 20 Second Rule
- Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
- Goal-Setting for Success
- Healthy Self-Image and Goals
- Positive Self-Talk

WEEKS 5-7
Topic Three: Mindfulness
Concepts Include: 
- Today's Digital World
- What is Mindfulness? 
- Grounding and Stress-Relief 
- Mindfulness in Daily Life
- Mindfulness for Students
- Meditation
- Yoga 

WEEKS 7-10
Topic Four: Relationships
Concepts Include: 
- What are Reciprocal Friendships? 
- Minding Friendships 
- Gottman Research and Constructive Conflict 
- Types of Interactions 
- Types of Conflict Resolution 
- Self-Confidence in Friendships 
- Collaboration with Friends

WEEKS 10-12
Topic Five: Empathy and Compassion
Concepts Include: 
- What is Empathy and Compassion? 
- Differences between Empathy and Sympathy 
- How to Work With Empathy 
- Sonder
- Summary of the Course and Closing Remarks

🚪 REASONS WHY PEOPLE DISENROLL EARLY 🚪

I am very fortunate on Outschool to be blessed with great ratings and good experiences with students. Just like all teachers do, I rarely encounter situations where some parents pull their students out of my classes early because there is a misunderstanding or a conflict. To avoid this, here are some of the most popular reasons why this occurs:

1. My classes are on the larger side and they are not meant to be "hands-on." 

I do not mention any "hands-on" activities in my descriptions, but sometimes parents are disappointed when they find that my classes are not one-on-one and they don't include experiments of any kind. I understand that some students need one-on-one attention, but I urge you to look elsewhere on Outschool for some great private lessons from other great teachers. My classes are an interactive lecture-style and they are very much a group setting where a student's participation is dependent on their own initiative. I do provide one-on-one help with the use of Outschool messenger if students need help.

2. I do not discipline students' behavior and expect them to know how to conduct themselves.

In general, I treat all my students like young adults. I expect that students know how to behave in an online classroom and that students are in my classes to learn and be productive classroom members. If your learner needs extra help or assistance with paying attention, being disruptive, or acting out, I will not spend lesson time teaching them how to behave and instead probably remove them from the class. Parents tend to love the amount of freedom I give to my students and it typically works out great. If your learner cannot maturely handle this freedom, there are many great teachers on Outschool who maintain a stricter environment!

3. I do not censor or silence students of specific backgrounds, identities, cultures, or orientations.

My main focus as a teacher is to create an environment where students feel accepted, strong, and loved. My zero-tolerance bullying policy and other classroom guidelines reflect this. I also think it is extremely important for students to interact with each other in the online classroom environment because many of my students are homeschooled and they struggle to make friends. To help with these goals, during certain periods of the class I allow my students to chat freely with one another and get to know each other as humans. This might mean that some students share their pronouns or identities. I do not and will not censor specific orientations or identities from being discussed as every type of student is welcome in my classroom and deserve to be supported. I do censor speech that violates our classroom guidelines; anything that is hateful, harmful, disturbing, or vulgar does warrant action.