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Tag Archives: Products

Introducing WhyTry’s “Surrendering the One-up” Workshop

teacher man with kids

Here at WhyTry, we believe that the key to creating positive change with youth doesn’t lie in interventions alone, but in the relationship you establish with youth. That’s why we’re excited to announce the new “Surrendering the One-up Relationship” Workshop, which provides staff members with several strategies for building positive relationships, and improving even the most dreary or frustrating classroom environments. The half-day workshop includes:

  • Tools to foster positive paradigm shifts
  • A strength-based approach to relationship building
  • Strategies to acknowledge accomplishments and build value and worth
  • A set of “lifetime rules” to establish in your classroom
  • Ways to create an environment of safety
  • Overcoming the fear of failure
  • Coaching on “giving second chances”
  • Discussion of WhyTry’s 3 R’s: Relationship, Relevance, and Resiliency

If you schedule a “Surrendering the One-up” before the end of June, you qualify for $1000 off. 

Click here for the workshop flyer, or contact us to learn more. 

What’s the difference between WhyTry’s elementary and secondary curriculum sets?

While trying to decide which WhyTry curriculum will best suit the needs of your students, you may be asking yourself, “What’s the difference between elementary and secondary?”  This list will give you a better idea. (And don’t forget: When you sign up for the WhyTry Online Curriculum, you gain instant access to both.)

WhyTry labels

Visual Analogies

Each WhyTry visual analogy teaches the principles you’ll be reinforcing as you go through the corresponding chapter.  The basic illustration and message of each visual analogy is the same in both the elementary and secondary curriculum sets, but the secondary visuals contain more questions and discussion points to process with older readers.  The elementary visuals generally contain the picture and one or two simple phrases or questions.

WhyTry learning activities

Activities

Each chapter in both curriculum sets contains a series of learning activities to do with your students.  The secondary curriculum activities are catered more to grades 6-12, while the activities in the elementary set are geared more for grades K-5. The elementary curriculum also has sections for art activities and music activities that can engage younger learners. Many of the activities in both sets apply to a variety of age groups, and you can access all of them in the WhyTry Learning Activities Expansion Pack or in the WhyTry Online Curriculum.

magic fishReading 

With young readers in mind, we’ve compiled a list in the elementary curriculum of story books that apply to each visual analogy.  While the secondary curriculum has no such list, you can find several youth reading material ideas at www.whytry.org in the “Bookstore” section under “Resources.”

 

Hip-Hop CDMusic 

Each curriculum set comes with a WhyTry music CD that corresponds directly to the target age group.  The secondary CD contains several hip-hop songs, while the elementary contains more mellow and age-appropriate songs that reinforce the messages in the chapters. You can listen to samples and print the lyrics of these songs in the WhyTry website’s Music section.

Overall Concept

Regardless of the age group you’re working with, your students will benefit from the principles in the ten visual analogies, and you as a facilitator will improve your skills as you read the chapter on “Surrendering the One-up Relationship,” which is the same in both manuals.

 

Contact us to learn more about which curriculum is right for your students. 

Journals: the missing link

The change began with two things: a great teacher and some journals.

Before WhyTry came to Hope Online, an online school with a physical building for students to attend, School Social Worker Kelli Korn was struggling to reach the youth in her small ISP/special ed group. “The students were unresponsive and didn’t talk much with each other,” she said.

When Kelli was introduced to WhyTry, she knew it was exactly what her Hope Online students needed to find real hope, and the motivation to succeed in life.  With a limited budget, however, Kelli couldn’t afford the WhyTry Student Journals. The students wrote in their regular, everyday notebooks grudgingly. One student refused entirely, and Kelli resorted to being the boy’s scribe while he half-heartedly dictated his response to the day’s journal prompt.  Kelli was seeing progress in her students, but the journal was a missing piece she desperately wished for.

Soon thereafter, that wish was answered in the form of a grant, giving her enough funding to provide each of her students with their own personal “WhyTry Game Plan Journal.”

Suddenly, the classroom climate began to transform faster than ever. Kelli observed that the students who were reluctant at first were suddenly eagerly journaling during their own free time. “The student who didn’t want to write for himself began to journal on his own and has become very active in the class,” said Kelli.

And it didn’t stop at journaling. “The kids really began to open up and share their feelings, especially after activities,” she said. What’s more, the same students who were apathetic and uninvolved a few months earlier were volunteering to help in other school programs.

“I love the WhyTry Program,” said Kelli, reflecting on the transformation she has witnessed. “It’s the best program I’ve ever implemented at the school. I can really see the difference in the students.”

Then thoughtfully, she added, “The journals brought everything together.”

 

If you have similar stories about how WhyTry has benefited your school or organization, contact us or leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.

 

WhyTry announces online curriculum launch

After months of building, planning, and re-building, WhyTry is excited to announce an online product subscription!  Not only is this move helping us go “green,” it will benefit WhyTry facilitators worldwide by putting all of WhyTry’s favorite products in one place. Below are the “top ten” highlights of what you get when you switch over to the WhyTry virtual community:

1. The WhyTry teacher’s manuals: Each subscription includes both the elementary and secondary teacher’s manuals, divided into colorful, comprehensive, and improved versions of the printed curriculum.  Each chapter also provides you with a “flexible lesson plan” sheet to fill out and create a lesson that meets your group’s needs and time restrictions.

WhyTry Online Curriculum

2. Visual metaphors: You’ll get beautifully colored, printable versions of the ten WhyTry visual analogies.  We’ve tried to improve the art as well as the questions included on these posters.

WhyTry Visual

3. PowerPoint: When you sign up for a year’s subscription, we’ll send you our full PowerPoint DVD, but a condensed version of this DVD is a click away on the WhyTry Online site.

WhyTry Online Curriculum

4. Music: At no additional charge, we’ll provide you with all of the WhyTry elementary, secondary, and hip-hop tunes, easily downloadable in iTunes. Printable lyrics and processing questions are also provided.

WhyTry CD

5. Student journals: You can print out elementary and secondary journal pages for each of your students, and find facilitator journal prompts to make the most out of journal time.

WhyTry Journal Activity

 

6. Learning Activities: WhyTry has 150 learning activities to engage students and help them effectively process the WhyTry principles.  Each activity has a recommendation for spatial requirements, age, group size, and time.

7. Tutorials and other video: Training videos for each of the metaphors will help you improve your teaching and better understand the activities.  The site also gives you recommended links for entertaining videos that help complement your lesson.

 

8. Recommended reading: For each lesson, we provide you with a book list and description of how each book can enhance the learning experience for your students.  Simply click on the book title to order the book from Amazon.

WhyTry book list

9. Virtual community: Your WhyTry online subscription includes free entry into the WhyTry social media site, where you can collaborate with other professionals and get new implementation ideas.

 

10. Instant product updates: Because WhyTry Online is, indeed, online, you’ll be the first to know when there are updates and improvements to the program.  You’ll instantly get to utilize these improvements…at no additional cost.

Click here to be directed to the online site. If you have additional questions, feel free to contact us at 866.949.8791.