Jump Anywhere in the World (JAITW) is a seven-series mobile video game that supports social emotional learning (SEL) by demonstrating the skills necessary to survive and thrive. JAITW engages players in a captivating, action-filled journey of adventure and survival. Prepare to battle vicious, mystical wildlife while working through hurdles and challenges. Imagine a video game that engages and motivates students to embrace their own SEL journey!
Our Mission:
To promote social emotional learning strategies and techniques that improve interpersonal skills and achievement.
Our Vision:
Students will demonstrate the value of positive lifestyle choices.
Program Goals:
- Introduce educators to the 5 SEL competencies via gamification.
- Include professional development for educational technology practices in a collaborative environment.
- Impact educators to create state-of-the-art teaching and learning systems.
- Increase student engagement and academic achievement through effective use of a video game.
- Improve self-regulation, relationship skills, social behaviors, and
lifestyle choices. What Can Schools Learn from Video Games.
As we all know, most communication today is accomplished through a keyboard or touch screen, leaving many without the basics of simple conversation. As social media connects us within the digital realm, it is creating a social skills deficit in our kids. The Impact of Social Emotional Learning.
JAITW Benefits:
- Research shows that students who participated in SEL programs saw increase of 11 percentile points
- Increase student engagement.
- Improve student attendance.
- Rewards students for making positive lifestyle choices.
JAITW Aligns to:
- Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
- American School Counselor Association.
- Violence Intervention/Prevention Strategies.
- The 5 SEL Competencies.
JAITW is a seven-series mobile video game that teaches SEL skills necessary to survive and thrive. Each game is set in one of the seven continents and will:
- Teach (SEL)strategies
- Promote financial literacy to build lasting wealth.
- Provide mindful strategies to maintain balance
- Explore diversity and inclusion to deepen social awareness.
- Use cause and effect strategies to establish connections for better decision-making.
Learning Objectives/Outcomes:
- Practice mindful strategies to maintain balance and self-awareness.
- Develop skills needed for effective self-management.
- Explore the connection between diversity and inclusion to broaden social awareness.
- Exhibit the importance of conflict resolution and empathy in sustaining positive relationships.
- Demonstrate how intentional use of each strategy improves decision-making.
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- Module 1: Self-awareness (Mindfulness)
- Module 2: Self-management (Critical thinking)
- Module 3: Social awareness (Diversity and inclusion)
- Module 4: Relationships (Conflict resolution/empathy)
- Module 5: Decision-making (Wrap up)
Lifestyle offers opportunities to align SEL skills in settings that are both community-based and personally relevant to improving lifestyle choices. To integrate SEL efforts across the school day and out-of-school time, school staff and community partners should align on common language and coordinate strategies and communication around SEL-related efforts and initiatives.
Merit’s Lifestyle framework focuses on:
- Interpersonal communication
- Responsibility
- Self-motivation
- Resilience
- Self-management
- Collaborating and working well in teams
- Managing sociability
- Cultural awareness
Family and school partnerships can build strong connections that reinforce students’ social and emotional development. Families are children’s first teachers and bring deep expertise about their development, experiences, culture, and learning needs. These insights and perspectives are critical to informing, supporting, and sustaining SEL efforts.
Merit’s Family framework centers on:
- Showing compassion
- Responsibility to others
- Building and sustaining solid relationships
- positive peer family relationships
- Community engagement
- Empathy
Self-awareness: A realistic understanding of your strengths and limitations and consistent desire for self-improvement.
Do you ever feel like there is constant chatter going on in your mind or that your thoughts flit back and forth between past, present, and future or get stuck in unproductive ruts? When self-awareness practices are intentionally included as part of a daily self-care routine, both teachers and students positively benefit from the outcome.
Self-awareness skills include:
- Developing interest and a sense of purpose
- Practicing mindfulness techniques
- Understanding the relationship between emotions, thoughts, values, and behavior (i.e., mindset)
- Identifying positive traits and triggers in oneself
Social awareness: The capacity to interact with others in a way that demonstrates respect for their ideas and behaviors.
Community partners often provide safe and developmentally rich settings for learning and development have deep understanding of community needs and assets; are seen as trusted partners who have connections to additional supports and services that may help to improve lifestyle choices. Who we are is a combination of our mental and physical wellness, strengths and weaknesses, healthy and unhealthy habits, and values.
Social awareness skills include:
- The ability to understand social cues
- Civic engagement and community appreciation
- Demonstrating empathy and compassion
- Being tolerant and accepting of differences in others
- Expressing gratitude
Self-management:To self-manage is the ability to successfully navigate one’s emotions and behaviors to make decisions, reach goals, complete a task, or succeed in a new or challenging situation.
Effectively integrating self-management schoolwide involves ongoing planning, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement by all members of the school community. SEL efforts both contribute to and depend upon a school climate where all students and adults feel respected, supported, and engaged.
Self-management skills include:
- The ability to identify, express, and regulate emotions
- The ability to direct thoughts and actions toward achieving goals
- Using planning and organizational skills
- Practicing self-compassion to manage negative feelings or self-talk to successfully accomplish tasks
Relationships:The ability to build positive relationships with oneself and others especially in the performance of socially acceptable actions that promote and maintain positive connections with others.
Research suggests that SEL programs are more effective when they extend into the home. In fact, families are far more likely to form partnerships with schools when the schools’ norms, values, and cultural representations reflect their own experiences. Implemented with fidelity, these efforts should help families to better understand and support the social and emotional development of their students and promote academic achievement and personal success.
Relationship skills include:
- Communicating effectively
- Resolving conflict
- Demonstrating leadership in groups
- Expressing empathy and perspective
- Demonstrating teamwork and collaboration
Decision-making:The approach to problem-solving that involves learning from others and your own previous experiences.
Responsible decision-making involves critical thinking and self-discipline. Youth make critical decisions every day. And, whether we realize it or not, schools, educators, families, and those within the community impact their decisions. Therefore, it is important to cultivate students’ abilities to navigate ethical decisions and act in socially acceptable and responsible ways. This is particularly important as students learn to analyze the consequences of their actions for themselves and toward others.
Decision-making skills include:
- Evaluating the consequences of one’s actions
- Understanding how decisions affect you and others
- Developing critical thinking skills that promote ethical behavior
- Learning to make ethical judgements
- Creating action plans based on decisions