Health, Safety, and Well-Being Program Utilizes The Social Institute Resources

As part of ESJ's Health, Safety, and Well-Being initiatives grades six through nine will participate in The Social Institute's (TSI) grade specific social media curriculum starting next week. The Social Institute programming is made possible through the Technology and Teenagers grant through the Winston Family Foundation. The Social Institute curriculum, #WinAtSocial, will be taught in Technology classes, Advisory, and Freshman Seminar, for Middle School and ninth grade.

"The grade levels participating are potentially those most impacted by the interruption to school as we know it, forced upon us by Covid. They are a tech-savvy population, but developmentally missed the opportunity to gain the same social skills as their older peers due to the isolation and online learning environment they endured. We want to revisit what their new normal looks like and invest in digital citizenship that will also benefit them offline IRL (in real life - that’s the way they text about it!)," said Amy Burrows Perkins '92, Director of Student Services. "This year’s partnership will also provide an opportunity to explore expanding the curriculum into the rest of Upper School and into the Lower Schools in an age appropriate way as well. Our thanks goes out to our faculty leaders Tracy Jester, Philippa Marks, Hilary Case, Rachel Ricker, Katie Ellis, and Debbie Deppe for their collective time and energy to launch this effort."

The Social Institute offers an online learning platform that empowers students to navigate their social world positively — including social media and technology — to fuel their health, happiness, and future success. The program empowers students to navigate social media and technology in healthy ways and gives families resources to inform healthy tech standards at home. Parents of sixth through ninth graders will be given parent accounts on the Social Institute website with free access to useful resources. The Social Institute's "7 Social Standards" are in line with Episcopal's community culture and the curriculum promotes a positive proactive approach to technology use.