Take a look at a short video for an overview of the program:
Navigating Middle School Years is a unique Candor program that allows students to explore common middle school situations, ideally, before faced with the experience themselves. This scenario-based program will take students along as our 8th grade characters reflect on situations they experienced in middle school and what they learned from them. Students will gain valuable insights, along with academic and social skills such as – time management, self-advocacy, self-reflection, talking to a trusted adult, identifying risks and benefits, taking responsibility, refusal skills, on-line safety strategies and more. Additionally, students will be learning about the brain development during these critical years and how it can impact the decision-making of young people. By helping students think through common experiences they may encounter as they transition into middle school, students feel more prepared and confident to navigate these important years of social, emotional and physical growth.
Schools will select the scenarios to include in the program, based on what is most relevant to their school population. Scenario topics include:
- Shifting Friendships
- Self-Advocacy
- Peer Pressure
- On-line Safety & Social Media Use
- Taking Responsibility
- Unkind Behavior
Program Goals:
Students will…
- Understand the uneven development of the adolescent (still developing) brain
- Understand that it is common for friend groups to shift in middle school and identify one strategy to manage that
- Practice using self-advocacy by developing a respectful email to a teacher regarding an academic concern
- Apply specific refusal skills to employ in a peer pressure situation involving substance use
- Apply specific steps to be safer and more thoughtful when using social media
- Apply specific strategies for responding to unkind remarks and behaviors