I don’t have the suggested amount of time in my instructional day to spend on emotional intelligence. Can I still teach this curriculum and make it effective? Yes! In the various pilots done with this curriculum, not every teacher taught it for the designed 40 minutes per day, four days per week. Lessons can easily be cut in half. Many teachers have taken the program slowly, choosing to teach for optimal student retention and learning rather than getting through the program material in 12 weeks. One way to fit in the lesson material is to preview the lessons and decide which scenarios and activities you are going to do. For example, you may decide to do two examples one day and one the next as a review. Or, you could teach a lesson with one or two examples one day and use the rest of the examples throughout the week for review.

Another aspect of this curriculum is that you can plug various lessons into different parts of the day. For example, the lessons on brain anatomy easily fit into science as a subunit. The lessons on promoting brain health can easily fit into health or science. Lessons on emotional intelligence and untangling thoughts can be included in Bible, social studies, health, or even morning worship. Once students have started learning the emotional tools for calming down and untangling their thoughts, you can gently remind them to use the tools throughout the day as situations come up to reinforce practicing the skills that build emotional intelligence. These tools, even in small doses, will go a long way to foster healthy thinking and emotional brilliance in your students for the rest of their lives.

Yes, the materials included are: teacher’s manual with a full instructional script, student worksheets/workbooks, discussion questions, activities for all material, PowerPoints, teaching videos, music playlist, references to all materials used, references to information for further study, unit tests and recommended evaluations, grading rubrics, student objectives, pre-lesson preparation and materials lists, and pre- and post-assessment tests.