A virtual two-day conference offers faculty and staff an opportunity to learn how a sports-based youth development model can teach valuable life skills to their students. Two graduate assistants with the Department of Kinesiology are part of the conference committee.
The 2022 Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Model (TPSR) Alliance Virtual Conference is July 13 and 14. It is free to attend. Participants will learn about the teaching model developed by Don Hellion, which promotes personal and social responsibility through physical activity. They will be able to build connections with other educators who appreciate and may use the model.
Yongsun Lee and Claire Newman are graduate assistants in Restorative Youth Sports at UNC Greensboro. Newman was introduced to the TSPR model while she worked in a soccer program for refugee youth. Lee incorporates it into teaching Taekwondo to students in high school, University, and afterschool programs. They say the model is flexible and is not limited to sports or youth programs.
Lee says there is a growing need to teach social emotional learning to students as early as kindergarten, as well as high school and University-level. These skills help them flourish in school, at home, and in their community.
“Life skills are just like math skills,” he says. “They should be taught explicitly. They need appropriate instruction and curriculum, and it takes time. TPSR can help people teach life skills with math skills.”
At the conference, participants will share the unique ways they have implemented the model into their own programs. They will talk about how to make those programs more inclusive to marginalized youth.
Newman says UNCG faculty and staff can “explore new ways to build relationships, not only with any youth they may encounter, but also with college-aged undergraduate and graduate students.”
“TPSR transforms from something you do, to something you are,” says Newman. “It is honestly a ‘way of being.'”
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications
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