Help CenterThinkHumanTV is designed to be flexible and robust enough to fit into whatever constraints you may have as an educator. Whether you’re simply looking to fill ten minutes with a movie clip or have multiple class periods available, ThinkHumanTV can fit into your schedule.
Here are some of the most common ways educators use ThinkHumanTV in their classroom:
1. During a homeroom, advisory, or check-in period. Many educators choose to use ThinkHumanTV during a daily or weekly advisory period. ThinkHuman provides an engaging, fun, and low-stress way for students to practice social-emotional skills during this time. Usually, teachers can complete one ThinkHumanTV unit during a class period (which includes some active class participation and discussion).
2. During a class period specifically dedicated to SEL, Health, or Psychology. We understand that not all schools have classes specifically set aside for social-emotional learning or wellness. That said, it’s worth noting that ThinkHumanTV can also be used in class periods devoted specifically to SEL, health and wellness, or psychology. ThinkHumanTV can either be used alone during these periods, or in conjunction with exercises from another SEL or wellness program. THTV might also be used as a homework assignment in such classes. Learn more about this use case.
3. As a supplement during ELA, Social Studies, or History classes. ThinkHumanTV’s structure fosters not only SEL skills in students, but also media/text comprehension. For these reasons, educators can use ThinkHumanTV to deepen student understanding of certain texts or historical events while building emotional skills at the same time. For example, an English teacher might use ThinkHumanTV while watching 10 Things I Hate About You (a Shakespeare adaptation) while teaching a class on Shakespeare. Similarly, a history or social studies teacher might watch When They See Us (a movie about the Central Park Five) while teaching about recent American history. In this way, ThinkHumanTV can enhance learner experiences in a variety of classes. ThinkHumanTV also helps students reach critical ELA standards around perspective taking, character analysis, plot analysis, and media comprehension.
4. As a supplement to Science class. Developed by two cognitive scientists from Columbia Teachers College, ThinkHumanTV isn’t just an SEL program: it’s also an emotion science curriculum that focuses on helping students understand how emotions work. As a result, ThinkHumanTV makes an excellent addition to a science curriculum. Science educators might be best served by using ThinkHumanTV once or twice a week in addition to their main curriculum.
5. As a quick and engaging opening or closing exercise in a class. Some educators use ThinkHumanTV as a way to fill up spare minutes at the end of a class, or as a quick, fun, and engaging unit before the day’s main learning. With ThinkHumanTV, students can start practicing emotion skills in just a few minutes while watching movies and TV shows they love. While in this case, students may not get through an entire module in one sitting, they will still be practicing valuable skills. And the system will automatically save your place, so you can return to it next time!
6. Anytime your students watch a movie. Maybe there’s a substitute teacher coming in, or maybe students have just had a long day and need a more relaxed class period. Whatever the case may be, ThinkHumanTV gives you the chance to transform any movie into an interactive, SEL building experience.
Note that ThinkHumanTV also works well as an independent/homework assignment, especially for higher grades (your students will certainly be excited about it!). To learn more about using THTV as homework, see this article.
We hope this article has been helpful. If you have more questions about how to implement ThinkHumanTV into your curriculum, feel free to schedule a free call with us. We’d love to meet you!