Brave The Waves Program - Sharon Neiss-Arbess

It’s the book everybody’s talking about!

Me and My So-Called Friends

What the book is about:

When you are left alone without any friends, it’s like nothing else matters.

Fifteen year-old Lizzie is home from camp and life just got a little too much to handle! Lizzie realizes that her three best friends don’t seem like the friends she used to know, her math class makes her stomach turn into the perfect knot and, one night at a party, Lizzie meets the guy of her dreams but ends up being ridiculed by her so-called friends, and they won’t let her get away with what she has done—and to whom. How far will Lizzie’s so-called friends go to punish her? How much can she take? Who will show up during all of this turmoil to help her get back on her feet?

And Then This Happened:

After Me and My So-Called Friends was published in 2015, Sharon visited several middle school classrooms in Toronto and received tremendous feedback about the humorous and relatable storyline. Bringing the novel into the classroom was a natural fit and so a teacher’s manual called Brave the Waves was born.

Brave The Waves – A Program for Building Resiliency is the result of a collaboration between Sharon Neiss-Arbess, social workers, educators, and psychologists and was formally written by Ms. Deborah Rogers, B.Ed, M.A. It is targeted towards middle school youth, in grades 6 to 8.

Why Brave The Waves?

The world we live in can be incredibly challenging, competitive and lonely and yet, it can also be exciting, fun and wonderful. Kind of sounds like the way a body of water naturally moves right? Ah, the life of a teenager! Managing these waves in their lives can be easier with “a hands on” experience and that is what Brave The Waves promises to deliver.

What is so good about it:

The manual was written to support the Government of Ontario’s Open Minds, Healthy Minds initiative (2011), covers several Ontario Curriculum requirements and is extremely user-friendly for teachers and camp staff. Each lesson presents excerpts and activities that address the most complex challenges teens and middle schools are facing today: bullying and mental health.

There are ten lessons in the manual with topics including Effective Communication, Stress and Anxiety, Healthy Eating, Facing Challenges, Building Positive Relationships, Changing our Thinking, Belonging, Social Media, Making Good Decisions and Building Resiliency.

Click here for a sample of a lesson that deals with Stress and Anxiety.