UTOPSS 2014In Search of the Good Life

Randal ErnstUTOPSS

October 3, 2014

Today’s Agenda

• Gratitude• Josh & Permelia• Positive Education• Resilience and PERMA• Skill Building• Honoring the Good Life

In Gratitude

• Kristen Habashi Whitlock

• Westminster College

• Utah’s Psychology Teachers

• Ludy “Ben” Benjamin, Clifford Fawl

• Susan Wunder and Kathy Wilson

• My folks, and Joshua Mecham

Audience Participation

• HTGS: Last 24 hours

• What made it good?

• How can you get more of this or something like this?

Rejected Titles for Today’s Talk

• The Early Years of TOPSS: Behind the Budget Battles of 1995

• Best AP Psychology Rubrics of the 90s

• U of Nebraska’s Football Big Wins in this Century

Utah Forever, Forever Utah

• Joshua Mecham & Permelia Chapman (9 kids)– Baptised 1837– Both endowed and sealed in

Nauvoo Temple

• Caleb Mecham• Sara Mecham• Mary Belle Whitmore

Why?

• The Good Life

• Teachers: Every day

• Students

Two words or fewer

What do we want most for ourchildren, nephews, nieces?

Most Common Answers

• Happiness• Confidence• Kindness• Contentment• Good job, good insurance• Good relationships, love• Private residence

Two words or fewer

What do our schools teach?

Teaching: Most common

• Literacy• Success• Discipline• Math• Thinking skills• Achievement • Conformity• Point: Almost no overlap

Disconnect?

• What we want for our children: Well-being

• What schools teach: Tools for Accomplishment

• Positive Psychology

• Positive Education

Positive Education

• Evidenced-based findings enabling students, teachers, & families to flourish

• The Path to Flourishing – increase positive emotions– engagement– relationships– experiences of meaning and accomplishment– Learning to resilient.

Positive Education: Why?

• Data – Reduces hopelessness (hope/success)– Prevents and reduces depression– Prevents anxiety– Reduces problem/risk behaviors

• Strath-Haven (Philadelphia) : Increased– engagement in school– enjoyment in school– social skills– achievement

Prominent G20 Schools

• Geelong Grammar School (AU)– http://www.ggs.vic.edu.au/School/Positive-Educat

ion/About-Us/About-Us

• St. Peter’s College (AU)– http://www.stpeters.sa.edu.au/wellbeing/

• Wellington College (UK)– http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/2288/school

-life/well-being/

Positive Education Model

• Learn It– Science and skills of Positive Psychology to teachers,

administrators and board members• Live It– School leaders model the skills of Positive Psychology

• Teach It– Stand alone courses/lessons in Positive Psychology

• Embed It– well-being is reflected in classrooms, on teams and clubs

• Measure It

Bridging the Disconnect

• Positive Psychology’s concepts

• Learning, teaching, embedding, living, measuring

• Specific Concepts: Happiness, gratitude, hope, flow, forgiveness, resilience, etc.,

• Resilience Skills & PERMA

Resilience: Invictus

• Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tears, Looms but the horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the years, Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

Resilience: Winnie The Pooh & Piglet

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.“Pooh!” he whispered.

“Yes, Piglet?”

“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”

Resilience: U.S. Army

• Self-Awareness• Self-Regulation• Optimism• Mental Agility• Strengths of Character• Connection

Resilience

• Skills

• Teachable

• Default flexible thinking

Three prompts:

a. That’s not true because…

b. A better way to think of that is…

c. OK, what’s more likely is ____ and I will ____

Mental Agility: On-Call Resilience Randy’s Brain

• Pair up

• Partner A thinks, tells B of a stressful situation

• Partner B becomes Partner A’s brain

On-Call Resilience: Your turn

Elements of PERMA Based on the work of Martin Seligman

• Positive Emotion– Barb Fredrickson, Robert Emmons

• Engagement– Mike Csikszentmihalyi, Chris Peterson

• Relationships– Shelly Gable

• Meaning– Martin Seligman

• Accomplishment/Achievement – Angela Duckworth, Roy Baumiester

Skills of PERMA

• Positive Emotion (3 Blessings Exercise)

• Engagement (Strengths and Flow)

• Relationships (Active Constructive Responding)

• Meaning (Acts of Altruism)

• Accomplishment (Grit)

Barbara Fredrickson

• Positive Emotion

• Losada Ratio

• 3-1 for dept. meetings

• 5-1 for partners

• Tops out at 13-1

Active Constructive Responding (ACR)

• Shelly Gable

• Active & Constructive

• Passive & Constructive

• Active & Destructive – Story stealer – Story Destroyer

• Passive & Destructive

Positive Education And The Good Life: Moral Imperative

• The Data: It works

• Bridge what we want with what we teach?

• Positive School Reform

• Student Learning Objectives (SLOs)

• PLCs?

• Permelia High School

Thank You Utah