Middle/High School Level Materials

The Character Chronicles for grades 4-8

Produced in association with CHARACTER COUNTS!©

Our newest award-winning series lets your students explore the Six Pillars of Character through the thoughts and personal experiences of six middle school video bloggers.

The Dangers of Sexting:
What Teens Need to Know for grades 7-12

In a recent survey of teenagers, more than half said it was common for explicit photos and text messages to be passed around among friends. Using a peer-to-peer approach, teens talk about the importance of resisting pressures to engage in sexting.

Big Changes, Big Choices for grades 5-9

with Michael Pritchard

Big Changes Big Choices helps young people work their way through the difficulties of early adolenscence by teaching them to make positive, healthful life choices and to gain confidence in their own better instincts.

Who Would You Hire? - The Series

Job skills video and activities for teenagers

Prepare your students to enter the job market with this two-DVD series. Students will learn the dos and don'ts of interviewing and how to make a strong first impression. The DVDs give teens the opportunity to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the dramatized job applicants and decide who they think should get the job.

In Search of Character for grades 7-12

Produced in association with CHARACTER COUNTS!©

In Search of Character spotlights ten core virtues that help teens develop into caring, respectful, responsible people who make choices based on what's right, rather than what's easy.

Stash that Cash: Budgeting, Saving and Investing

Money Management video and activities for teens

A teen with a job faces all kinds of decisions about how to use that paycheck: go out to dinner or save for a car? A new iPod or college tuition? This program introduces the concepts of money management and financial planning for the future in a fun, easy-to-understand manner.

Character Journal Interactive

Interactive Software / CD-Roms for grades 7-12

Launch your students on this dynamic, journal-based exploration into their character. Students work their way through a variety of stimulating activities for examining the quality and content of their character and for thinking about other (and perhaps better) ways of being.

Do You Have an Eating Disorder? for grades 7-12

Teens and young adults describe their eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, purging and compulsive exercising. The program stresses that there are warning signs to different eating disorders; that eating disorders have serious, even deadly, health consequences; and there are positive steps you should take if you or a friend are at risk.

Business Ethics on the Job for grades 7-12

Designed to be enlightening and interactive, Business Ethics on the Job makes it clear how young employees must behave in order to be successful. A series of engaging live-action vignettes help viewers to recognize the importance of key ethics such as honesty, loyalty, integrity, confidentiality and respect for others.

PeaceTalks for grades 7-12

featuring Michael Pritchard

These videos teach kids how to avoid dangerous situations, handle their own emotions, and use conflict resolution skills to defuse potentially violent confrontations.

The Power of Choice for grades 9-12

featuring Michael Pritchard

In this award-winning PBS television series, comedian/youth counselor Michael Pritchard helps young people discover that they have the power of choice, that they are responsible for the choices they make, and that they owe it to themselves to choose the best.

Life Steps for grades 7-12

featuring Michael Pritchard

Build character resilence and emotional intelligence in young people.

Reality Matters for grades 6-12

This exciting new series from Discovery School guides teens through the unique challenges they face in their lives.

Real Character / Real People for grades 6-12

This engaging 7-part video series and print curriculum profiles real people of extraordinary character, each of whom is making a difference in our world. Viewers will understand what exemplary character is, why it is important, and how it can be nurtured in every individual.

Not For Sale: Ethics in the Workplace for grades 9-12

Not For Sale is a video based learning program that helps prepare young people for the sorts of ethical situations and decisions they will face as they enter the work force.

Skills for Healthy Living for grades 6-12

This twelve-part video series helps teens learn the tools they need to make positive and healthful choices in their lives.

Preventing Athletic Injuries
for grades 6-12

While focusing on the personal stories of four young athletes (two males and two females), the program fully explores the most common injuries in school sports and how they can be prevented. The video focuses on the following key principles: the importance of stretching and warm-up exercises, developing a strong core, using the right safety gear the right way, proper nutrition and dealing with injuries once they occur.

The Five Essential Habits of Healthy Teens
for grades 6-12

All teens will benefit from learning these five “essential habits” based on recent wellness studies from top-ranking universities. The five essential habits explored include: eating a nutritious diet, starting each day with breakfast, exercising daily, getting enough sleep, and staying drug-free.

Matching Your Skills, Talents and Ambitions to a Dream Career
for grades 7-College

Using the experiences of real-life teens and young adults, this program coaches viewers on how to pinpoint their talents and aptitudes, evaluate qualities they would like to find in a “dream” job, and match up those characteristics to find a career uniquely suited to them. Showcases four young people as they embark on their careers as chef, pilot, photographer and stand-up comedian. Clearly demonstrates the connection between each career choice and the personalities, skills, and talents that match up for success.

Making a Good Impression: Resumes, Interviews & Appearance
for grades 7-College

This video brings viewers back to basics: how to write a proper resume, what to wear on a job interview, and how to behave appropriately in the workplace. Viewers will enjoy a series of dramatic (and sometimes comical) vignettes that identify what is—and is not—proper workplace behavior. Special emphasis is given to the importance of good speaking and writing skills. Treating bosses and colleagues with due respect is also presented as a crucial part of being a successful employee.

Finding the Perfect Job: How to Succeed in the Job Hunt
for grades 7-College

This video/DVD follows teenager Bethany, as she experiences the highs and lows of her own real-life job search. Viewers learn the basics, from preparing a resume and cover letter, to scouting the help wanted ads, to job interview dos and don’ts, including what to wear and what to say. Advice from professionals and tips from the featured young people deliver useful information and encouragement in a teen-friendly style.

Think Before You Click: Playing It Safe Online
for grades 5-9

Using real teens in a peer-to-peer format, this video helps teens navigate problems and learn important rules and strategies to keep them safe while surfing the net. Program explores online bullying and rumor spreading, identity theft, blogging and the real threat of sexual predators. Viewers learn to “think before you click” in order to avoid embarrassing yourself or hurting others, while keeping yourself and others safe.

Beyond High School: Strategies for Nontraditional Students
for grades 7-12

Two students with learning disabilities talk about a college program specifically designed for students like them. Other options explored include a recent high school graduate getting a certificate in culinary arts as she pursues her dream of a catering career, and an apprentice in a brick-laying program who never felt comfortable being a student and decides that an apprenticeship made more sense for him.

Pharm Parties: A Lethal Mix
for grades 7-College

One of the newest and most frightening trends in teen drug experimentation are so-called “pharm parties”—where teens gather at someone’s home, drop an array of pharmaceuticals (like Vicodin, Oxycontin or Xanax) into a bowl, then consume handfuls of this dangerous “trail mix.” This program clearly demonstrates the extreme dangers of this rapidly escalating form of prescription drug abuse.

White Hot Jobs: The Fastest Growing Jobs Today
for grades 9-College

This video and print package explores five hot job growth areas: health care, financial management, technology, the service sector and the environment. In each sector, jobs are profiled from the entry level through to mid management and above to show a career path. Teen viewers will learn where the opportunities are, what education is required, and how to plan now for tomorrow’s job.

Study Skills for People Who Hate to Study
for grades 7-12

Designed to help students get organized, this program helps set goals and priorities, and allows students to stay in charge of their schoolwork. Viewers learn about the processes in the brain that help us plan, organize, concentrate, and focus. Program identifies the three main obstacles to effective study—Disorganization, Procrastination, and Distraction—and demonstrates tips and strategies to allow viewers to develop their own unique style of overcoming these obstacles.

Cliques: Where Do You Fit In?
for grades 5-9

Explains the nature of cliques, why they develop, how clique leadership controls members, how at best cliques help establish group identity, and how at worst they can be destructive. Demonstrates that friendships with a wide range of students are both enriching and necessary for a fully developed personality and life experience; and that by building awareness and tolerance students can avoid the down side of cliques.

B Careful When U Txt: The Dangers of Texting and Sexting
for grades 5-9

This video gives viewers a primer on the Do’s and Don’ts of text messaging, including the laws on privacy and child pornography, setting and maintaining personal boundaries, dealing with unforeseen consequences, and underscoring the need to “think before you click”.

Service Learning: You Can Make a Difference
for grades 7-12

Inspirational as well as pragmatic, this how-to video and curriculum guide details how to implement a successful service learning project in your school. It showcases successful case studies of existing projects and the young people behind them. This program is sure to get students, teachers and administrators excited about service learning and making a difference.

Buzz in a Bottle: The Dangers of Caffeine-Spiked Energy Drinks
for grades 7-College

With the lure of an over-the-counter jolt, kids are consuming more energy drinks than ever before and in many cases mixing them with alcohol. This program arms kids with the facts and gives a strong “no-use” message with particular emphasis on the real health risks of too much caffeine and the grave danger of combining alcohol and caffeine-spiked drinks.

Drowning in D's: You Can Turn Your Grades Around
for grades 7-12

Empowers teens at risk of failing or dropping out of school by showing them how real students around the country have gone from drowning in D’s to swimming in A’s and B’s. Video follows several struggling teens as they go through their academic transformations. Their compelling stories clearly detail effective strategies to enable viewers to get their grades back on track.

Drug Facts Action Pack
for grades 4-8

This fact-filled drug education program uses a mix of teen hosts, kids talking about real-life experiences, animated characters and creative skits. The videos are filled with fascinating facts, as well as concrete ways to resist peer pressure, to make good decisions and to avoid dangerous situations. Each video models positive behavior by featuring an outstanding student who has faced drugs but resisted and steered clear of danger. While the presentation is fast-paced and entertaining, the message is unmistakable: Drugs are dangerous and deadly.

Stopping the Pain: Teenage Self-Injury
for grades 7-College

In this program, several teens describe what led them to self-injury, how they got help, and how they found healthy ways to deal with their problems. Identifies some of the reasons why young people self-injure, and emphasizes that it is possible for self-injurers to address their problems in more healthy ways and to learn coping skills. The program also advises viewers on how they can help friends or classmates who self-injure.

Say Know to Diets
for grades 6-12

Many teens feel pressure to lose weight, often resorting to diets that don’t work and may even be dangerous. This program exposes myths promoted by commercial diet plans and why their advertising claims are false or misleading. Includes advice from a registered dietician, as well as the story of a real teen whose obsession with dieting became an eating disorder.

How I Started My Career - The Series

Job skills video and activities for grades 9-college

In this two-part, interactive video program, your students will accompany Alex as he searches for his first full-time job and faces the challenges of the first six months at Zephyr Industries, a wind technology company.