The Resilience Game Plan: The Playbook for Developing Cognitive, Communication, and Mindfulness Life Skills: Facilitator's Guide for Sixth Grade Student Edition

This publication is the Facilitator's Guide to accompany The Resilience Game Plan: The Playbook for Developing Cognitive, Communication, and Mindfulness Life Skills - Sixth Grade Student Edition. This manual equips educators with the necessary skills to identify at-risk students in their classroom, as well as provides the learning theories that educators will use as the framework for their Student's Understanding and Performance Goals. This playbook manual also includes The Resilience Game Plan Facilitator's Readiness Tool Kit which provides educators the tools they need to properly implement this intervention curriculum.

This playbook introduces social, emotional, cognitive, and biological self-regulation skills to help tweens improve their short- and long-term health outcomes. This playbook includes the following self-regulation life skills and eight topics:

1. Social Self-Regulation Life Skills: Media Literacy and Cyberbullying
2. Emotional Self-Regulation Life Skills: Self-Worth and Caring Culture
3. Cognitive Self-Regulation Life Skills: Impulse Control/Risk-Taking Innovator and Flexible Thinking
4. Biological Self-Regulation Life Skills: Getting Grounded and Brain-Gut Connection

In The Resilience Game Plan (The RGP), when a difficult life situation hits, students are going to train their brain to:

1. Acknowledge the life situation-processing any emotions.

2. Allow themselves to feel their emotions-describing their feelings of anxiety or distress.

3. Keep moving forward-applying the below steps to overcome their situation.

Colleen Carter Ster earned her Master of Liberal Arts from Harvard University in Psychology in 2023 out of concern for the self-harm cases among youth worldwide. Ster created The Resilience Game Plan: The Playbook for Developing Cognitive, Communication, and Mindfulness Life Skills to provide a curriculum to help students build resilience by giving them tools to understand how the brain works and help them deal with difficult life situations. In the mid to late 1990s, Ster served as Executive Vice President for The Electronic Bookshelf (EBS). At EBS, she created curriculum questions for K-12th grade students and developed continuing education credit materials for educators who attended the EBS Reading Power Seminars. In 1998, EBS was acquired by Scholastic, Inc., and Ster became the Director of Marketing Services for Scholastic Reading Counts! in the Learning Ventures Division of Scholastic. During Ster's years conducting the EBS Reading Power training seminars, she listened to educators who expressed a need for literature to help their students to navigate difficult life situations. In 2008, Ster addressed this concern by founding a children's publishing business, Reflections Publishing LLC. ALA Booklist called the first Reflections Publishing LLC book series "a unique series by children, for children." This special collection by Reflections Publishing LLC is a book series called "Kids Helping Kids Through Books." As a Girl Scout leader, Ster consulted with her troop members and developed the Reflections Publishing Communication Assessment. Since 2008, this assessment has been a useful tool to help individuals understand how their communication skills play a role and affect the way they communicate with others. Ster wants students to understand that communication skills are valuable interpersonal tools for them to learn at a young age so they can use these skills in school, personal relationships, and navigating professional work environments. Ster is vested in continuing her education to keep The Resilience Game Plan an up-to-date and valuable tool for schools. As a postgraduate student in the University of Oxford's Department for Continuing Education, Ster developed in-person and HyFlex training materials to support users of The Resilience Game Plan intervention program. Proudly born and raised in Indiana, Ster has called San Diego home for more than 20 years, and is married with three daughters and a son-in-law.

Dr. Cheryl James-Ward started her career as a software engineer for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California working on the Magellan Project which sent a spacecraft to Venus. Because of her love for education, she took a leave from aerospace and pursued her first love, teaching. She never looked back and served as a math teacher, dean of discipline, vice principal, principal, director supervising elementary and middle schools, a tenured professor, a CEO of a charter organization and superintendent of schools. Dr. James-Ward served as the Chief of Academics and then CEO for e3 Civic High, noted as one of the most innovative schools in the nation. Under Dr. James-Ward, e3 Civic High was a leader in developing mental health support systems, creating wrap-around services for students and families; one-on-one, group and family counseling sessions led by licensed therapists and interns; Saturday parent and student support groups; and a system-wide approach to responding to mental challenges with levels of care and second/third-level responders. Most recently, Dr. James-Ward was Superintendent of Schools for a High School District. In her tenure, she started site walks with district and site leadership teams to ensure that every child was seen, supported and educated to the highest levels. From 2007 to 2023, Dr. James-Ward was a tenured professor at San Diego State University (SDSU). From 2013-2018, she dedicated her research to 2030 schools. Dr. James-Ward's research led to her becoming a maverick in Design Thinking and training both districts and schools in the process. Some of her other accomplishments at the University include establishing the Online Masters in Educational Leadership (with a focus on technology) which after just five years was ranked 11th in the nation by BestColleges.com. She also started the Chinese and American Leadership Symposium bringing educators from across The People's Republic of China to collaborate and innovate with those from San Diego County. Currently, Dr. James-Ward enjoys the title Professor Emeritus, continues to chair dissertation committees, teach doctoral courses and is committed to making a difference for the most at-promise students by supporting them through self care advocacy and mathematics education. Dr. Ward is married with two children and resides in San Diego, CA.

Andrea Clark, an experienced educator and community advocate, began her journey in education with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary and Middle/Jr. High School Education and a Minor in English from Northwest Missouri State University. She furthered her academic pursuits with a Master of Arts in Educational Administration from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, equipping her with a comprehensive understanding of educational principles and best practices. Andrea's 26-year teaching career has been marked by various teaching and leadership roles in middle and high school settings across Missouri, Kansas, Ohio, and California. As an English teacher, she implemented innovative instructional strategies to support English Language Learners and fostered students' voices and reading interests. Her position as Independent Study Coordinator in the San Dieguito Union High School District in San Diego County was particularly impactful. She co-developed a district-wide pilot program and oversaw academic progress while maintaining rigorous administrative standards. Currently, Andrea teaches middle school English, ELD, ASB, and is an activities director at her school. As Andrea continues her professional journey, she remains dedicated to empowering students, fostering inclusive learning environments, and positively impacting education. Whether in the classroom, within the community, or through advocacy efforts, she is committed to championing every learner's limitless potential and creating opportunities for growth, achievement, and success. Andrea and her husband, Michael, are proud parents to their son, Maximus, who is pursuing a dual degree in Psychology and Business at Ohio State University. In 2017, their family welcomed Mohab into their lives and he attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he pursued his passion for football while earning his degree in Aeronautical Engineering.