Overview
This lesson was created by Jack.org one of the valued partners of the Center of Excellence for Health. The lesson begins by helping students recognize how digital platforms can influence emotions, relationships, and routines, especially during emergencies or stressful events. Students explore both positive and challenging aspects of online engagement, such as the ways social media can provide connection or increase worry and overwhelm. Video speakers normalize these responses and provide a safe space for students to consider their own digital habits and well-being.
The lesson emphasizes trauma-informed principles by giving students choice, normalizing diverse reactions, and encouraging reflection without requiring personal disclosure. Students leave with practical strategies to notice signs of digital stress, set boundaries, balance news and social media use, and maintain connection with peers and trusted supports while protecting their mental health.
Core Learning Goals
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Recognize that digital platforms can both support connection and increase stress during emergencies and uncertain situations.
- Describe common ways digital media use changes during emergencies and why people may feel driven to check updates frequently.
- Identify examples of how online spaces can foster community, information-sharing, and support during difficult times.
- Understand basic strategies people can use to reduce digital overload and protect mental wellbeing during crises.
- Use shared language to talk about digital wellbeing, stress, and connection in a respectful, non-judgmental way.
Note: Students are not expected to share personal experiences to meet these goals.
NB Curricular Connections
Personal Wellness 9
Strand: Mental Fitness – Big Idea: Positive Mental Health – Skill Descriptor: Discuss the role of hope in positive mental health
Big Idea: Positive Mental Fitness Strategies – Skill Descriptor: Identify strategies to build own positive mental health.
Big Idea: Helpful and Harmful Choices – Skill Descriptor: Analyze how food, screen time, and substances may affect an individual’s health (e.g., mental, social, emotional, and physical including brain development). Discuss how the use or misuse of food, screen time, and substances is personal and looks different for every individual
Wellness Through Physical Education (110)
General Curriculum Outcome:
- 1.0 Students demonstrate an understanding of the concept of wellness.
Specific Curriculum Outcome:
- 1.2 Students evaluate and address personal wellness needs.
- 1.3 Students analyze how society, media and culture influence wellness
What You’ll Need
- Slide Deck: Attached as PowerPoint or PDF
- Video: Together in Change: Digital Well Being in Emergencies | edHUB
- Handouts:
-Video Guide: Attached as Word Document
-Group Activity: Attached as Word Document
- Additional materials:
-Teacher answer key Video Guide: Attached as Word Document
-Personal Digital Well-Being Plan: Attached as Word Document
Instructions
*Review the slide deck for the remainder of the activity*
1. Land Acknowledgment
Slide 2:
In the slide deck, we have included Jack.org’s land acknowledgement. We encourage you to write your own, acknowledging the Nations, communities, territories and treaties upon which you live and work, and your calls to action for reconciliation / Self Pledge.
Here are some resources to support you:
2. Minds On (5-10 minutes)
Slides 3-5:
Slides 3-5: Opening & Emotional Safety Setup (2-3 minutes)
Review Objectives and Ensuring a Positive Experience.
A. Optional: Quick Grounded Check-In (1 minute)
This is a suggested activity if you notice your students are activated or dysregulated. It can be used at any point in the lesson.
After your students respond, invite them to take a few deep breaths. You can use the Kids Help Phone Breathing Balloon (slide 7) to help guide breathing, if needed.
B. Quickwrite or Discuss (2-3 minutes)
Choose one of the following questions for students to reflect on individually or with a partner:
- If something stressful or uncertain happened (e.g. wildfire, evacuation alert), what role could your phone or digital platforms play for you?
- Possible student responses: Checking on friends/family, getting updates, feeling connected
- Agree or disagree? During emergencies, social media is more helpful than harmful.
C. Gentle content notice and clear lesson roadmap before video:
Offer grounding reminder
“If you notice your body or mind getting tense while watching, you can try a few slow breaths, stretch, or gently refocus your attention. This is about learning strategies and seeing examples, not about reliving personal experiences.”
3. Action Tasks (45 – 55 minutes)
Slide 6-10:
Video (43:12) (See link above in materials)
Slide 6
Share the Video Guide with your students, and briefly review the instructions. Emphasize that the questions are meant to help them notice key ideas, and it’s okay if they don’t catch every answer. Students can use the space on the side for additional notes or thoughts, if they choose.
Activity: Post-Viewing Regulation Pause (3-5 minutes)
Slides 7-8
Included in the slide deck are some strategies for helping with regulation. Share the videos on the slides, and invite your students to try the activities, if they are comfortable doing so.
Post-Viewing Processing: Debrief/Discussion (5-10 minutes)
Slide 9
After the video, guide a whole-class discussion to review key takeaways. Invite students to share ideas, reflect on strategies, and notice patterns in responses. Emphasize that sharing is optional, and that multiple approaches are valid.
Activity: Scenario Practice (10-15 minutes)
Slide 10
Responding to Online Information During Emergencies
Group Activity: Scenario Practice
Help students practice digital well-being strategies in realistic situations. These scenarios focus on skills and safe responses, not personal experiences.
4. Consolidation (3 – 5 minutes)
Slide 11, 12:
You can invite students to think about things that help protect their mental health while staying informed during an emergency. Students can submit their answers as an exit ticket, record them in their notebooks, or simply reflect on them quietly.
Remind students (and yourself) of:
- School supports (counsellor, child and youth worker, trusted adults).
- Crisis or community supports as appropriate.
Extension ideas (optional)
Personal Digital Well-Being Plan: Attached as Word Document
Reflection Activity
A reflection activity has been created for students to recognize the impact that this lesson has had on their understanding of how digital platforms can influence emotions, relationships, and routines, especially during emergencies or stressful events. *Attached as PDF*
UDL Supports
Universal Design for Learning is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning by offering different approaches to learning:
- Videos: Videos are used as method of teaching
- Writing: Students can write down their ideas during discussions
- Discussions:
-Students have the option to discuss with a partner or individually (minds on activity)
-Post viewing discussion of videos: Invite students to share ideas, reflect on strategies, and notice patterns in responses. Emphasize that sharing is optional, and that multiple approaches are valid.
-Activity: Scenario practice (in small groups, students discuss scenario and guiding questions)
For more information about Jack.org EdHub and the new Jack Intersections, please visit their website: Jack Intersections
Global Competencies
Acknowledgements
This lesson was created by Jack.org one of the valued partners of the Center of Excellence for Health.
