In this video, Jessica shares her middle school teaching experience and highlights the ways Acknowledge is making a difference for her classroom.

"Middle school is kind of the age where they're trying to find a sense of identity, but I think they're also trying to find a sense of belonging...which can make them vulnerable. I feel like once you can get to know the child and start trying to address all of their needs—academic, physical, social emotional—then you can really start to make some some progress with the kids. They put their walls down. They feel more safe. They feel like they can take more risk in the classroom (intellectual risk). They tend to have more of a growth mindset. They're less worried about what their peers are going to think or say about them because they know this is a safe place."

Acknowledge is serving more middle schools this school year. Some of the schools we're working with include: Kennedy, Sunnyvale, Columbia, Crittenden, Beechwood and Selby Lane. With the success of our 3rd to 6th grade Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, we have developed a 7th grade curriculum to reach even more middle school classrooms. In addition to SEL lessons, our Resilience Consultants are continuing to support teachers like Jessica through mentorship and coaching.