High School REACT

(Likert scale - from 1 to 5) I believe in my ability to do well in school. I feel confident in my ability to submit assignments on time. I wait until the "last minute" to start working on assignments. My phone is a major source of distraction when I am trying to do homework or study. I am able to stay focused in class. I worry about my grades.  I lash out at people when I am angry. I am easily annoyed. I feel I am able to freely express or communicate my feelings with others. I feel pressure from my family to do well in school. I have a clear idea of what goals I want to accomplish this year in school. I am confident in my ability to communicate with my teachers. I feel my classmates accept who I am.  I look forward to going to school each day. I doubt myself. I feel alone. I feel like I get enough sleep each night. I feel like I can talk to others about difficult things I am going through. I try to shut down and run away from painful feelings. I try to hide my feelings from ...

  "You must not abandon the ship in a storm [just] because you cannot control the winds." - St. Thomas More   "Against the temptation to regard utility as the sole criterion for measuring anyone's worth, [St. Pope John Paul II] has insisted that every human being possesses an inherent and inalienable dignity and value." -Witness to Hope - the Biography of Pope John Paul II published in 2004 (G. Weigel, Harper Perennial)    "Every one who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As ...

How to define mental health for 8th graders?     Pain does not just come from tripping and falling or scraping your knee or having a headache, getting our teeth pulled . There is also the type of pain that comes from facing a challenging situation, having to endure a heated argument, someone being mean to you, failing a class, losing a game, and pain of being told we have an upcoming appointment with the dentist. This type of pain does not stem from the physical, it is pretty much invisible, there is no visible wound.      But the feeling of the pain that comes from it can be even worse than what we get from getting our teeth pulled. This type of pain can lead to negative thoughts and we can end up doubting ourselves. Such as the pain of failing an assignment might change how you feel about yourself and doubt whether you are cut out to succeed in high school. And pain from mental causes can have significant physical effects.      Have you not...

High School REACT What are we doing? Our objective for the High School REACT program is to help 8th grade students become aware of their mental health as a way to better prepare them for high school. We will help 8th graders define what is mental health and how it affects them. For instance, they will come to understand the difference between physical and mental health, and the causal connections between the two.  They will understand what it means to be mentally healthy, and why it is necessary to consider and tend to their mental health.  We will empower them with a sense of personal responsibility and the understanding that it is in their control to make choices that contribute to positive outcomes in areas of their life that have a direct impact on their mental well-being such as relationships, communication, and self-concept.  They will come to understand how to respond in a healthy way to challenging situations and emotions. What is REACT? REACT is an acronym for o...