Mental Health Lesson – “Tennis Ball Toss” Resiliency
A “fly on the wall” look into our classroom.
Full 8th Grade mental health lesson included!
RESILIENCE: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Notice the ups and downs of classroom energy throughout the activity. The group of students were presented with a challenge– watch and listen in as the class battles failure to finally achieve success.
The tennis ball toss stirred the classroom with just a bit of movement to boost brain activity. The props are analogies, and this metaphorical look at mental health is meant to create connections and deeper understanding. This also helped create social connectedness, which is a huge piece in a person’s developing mental health.
You’ll hear this group socialize throughout the activity. 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. Often, teenagers blurt out questions or comments because that’s how they learn. These don’t always need a response. In fact, you’ll hear the group get louder and then quiet down to absolute silence as they internalize specific analogies presented to them.
Subsequent lessons take the focus off of the teacher and allow students to be the central part of activities. We will reflect through small group discussions, journaling, and further activities to develop life skills.
Health concepts in this lesson/unit: resiliency, coping strategies, decision making, influence analysis, bullying, upstanding behavior, peer pressure, self-esteem, and social connectedness.
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44 Comments
Very good metaphors…totally using this! Thanks for sharing.
Amazing, very inspirational. You have more?
It is very astonishing to hear the most important communication between teenagers
Human communication and social communication
Feeling, emotions, experience, simulation
This is great. I will return to Yemen soon and will be keen to implement it as an independent activity
Thanks for sharing
Probably one of the best approaches to mental health I've ever seen. Interesting metaphors that are easy to grasp and are never too subtle, and that are funny and entertaining at the same time. The kids seemed to enjoy the lesson just as much as I did. Bravo to you, keep up the good work.
I've been teaching middle school health for over a decade and I really feel this lesson would make a huge impact on my students. I plan on incorporating it into my curriculum, asap. Well done, Mr. Todnem. You seem to really enjoy your job AND your kids seem to enjoy you. What an amazing feat! 🙂
I absolutely loved watching this lesson. I'm a counselor in an elementary school, and I taught a unit on connectedness. Now I'm teaching my last transition to middle school and the social-emotional and developmental changes that lie ahead. This lesson is perfect (and it's mental health awareness month in May so double win)! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
I’m running a workshop on adolescence and resiliency that’s two hours long and will use this as my opening exercises to introduce them and teach them the definition of resilience
I love your lessons.. why squeezhy ball gotta be female tho ? 😂
Great analogies! I really like your teaching style and will be checking out more of what you have to offer. On a side note perhaps construction workers should bring bowling balls to work when demolishing old buildings, sounds like a fun stress reliever
this was very engaging. nice. Thanks for sharing
thanks homie, ima steal your ideas for my job, keep them coming, SUBSCRIBED
Right when he said mental health everyone went silent
Great teacher!
what grade is this ?
Hi, I just wanted to say thank you for uploading this. I'm a first year teacher who just had a difficult day at school and I have been browsing the Internet looking for inspiration to improve my practice going forward. Loved your ideas, style and enthusiasm – thanks for sharing it with the world.
What school is this, Im doing online best practices where I will compare and contrast different lessons.
This is an amazing lesson. I love the student engagement and metaphors you utilized!
Thank you for this video! I am currently finishing my application for student teaching and I want to teach health. I loved this lesson and the way you engaged with the students. I cannot wait to follow similar examples!
I wish my school had this class
This lesson AND teacher is awesome. I wish I had more teachers like him. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
I had this man as my health teacher at sculler middle and he was the one teacher who made my day better when I went to his class and wasn’t boring
I love it when teachers are so real with students…
His ability to keep focus keeps the kids in order great job!!! Excellent class control without missing a beat!
Do you hear the "don't do its" getting louder?? Finding their voice not even realizing it!!
Fantastic video and explanations, i didnt think i had time to watch 27minutes whilst planing my current R U OK unit, but this captured me! Thank you so much for sharing, I watched start to finish, wrote notes and will add to my program 🙂
In my 36 year of teaching Health in Middle School and that was an awesome lesson!
Used this as a counseling lesson. Worked great, thanks!
Mr Todman Fantastic lesson. i love your engagement with the kids and your practical use of everyday things to drive in the lesson. and you made it fun me laughing and engaged as if i was actually there .
I am a grad student co-leading group counseling sessions addressing chronic absenteeism. I did this demo in my last session and connected it to my students dreams and aspirations (i.e., "you need to be resilient to achieve your dreams"). This was the most my students have been engaged during sessions and gave me the opportunity to practice my leadership skills. Thank you for this amazing resource!
I love this video, thank you for this.
Hey Mr. Todnem, this was so wonderful to watch! You have such an awesome way of engaging with your students! I do want to ask what happened after they started discussing how the different balls (lol) would have been like in a social setting? What was kind of the wrap up of this? Thanks, and keep up the amazing work!
I was wondering if I should pursue being a health teacher and I came across this. I always wanted to make this kind of impact to this age especially. Looks like I’m gonna do it. Thank you!
This would be great for my students, thanks for sharing
i have questions for all you need to answer this question
How can they apply their talents to that activity?
I think health class isn't just about bodily science, disorders, mentality, and food; isn't human communication a part of it too? It's been a while since I was in health class, but the teacher said one part of the subject is telling your friend the truth about not liking her new hairstyle, but with sensitivity.
Great video!
I wish I had a teacher like you back in a day! Loved it!
You can tell the teacher hoops lol
Hi sir, good day wishes to you.Iam Jenita from India.Iam doing PhD in education.My topic is Effectiveness of mind games in enhancing Emotional Resilience and Creative Thinking among IX standard students.I would be happy if you share your email ID for suggestions regarding the module. Thanking you
What an awsome exercise. Its awkward enough to be in a room full of people u dont know but by doing this everybody gets to know each other, the kids feel more relax and therefore participate and learn a lesson at the same time
How can I get the lesson plan for this, like the beanbag one?? This would be greatly appreciated!!! #incredible
I found this video while looking for classroom observation videos to watch for my teaching certificate. I was so engaged watching these kids cheer each other on! I love how the teacher incorporated SEL into a fun engaging game! These kids seem so happy to be in his class and he obviously has fostered a wonderful learning environment. Rock on!!!
Why to throw if they can just pass it 🤔🤷🏻♀️
The part of using a scissor to open the tennis ball is wrong, so wrong!!! Ethically!