Lesson 1 Transcript
Below is the full transcript of Lesson 1.
This lesson and transcript are part of the RAD for Life social-emotional learning program. Educators, counsellors, and parents may view and use this material for personal learning or classroom discussion. The content may not be reproduced, redistributed, or used commercially without permission. The lesson is provided so you can preview and plan how RAD may be used in your classroom or particular setting. Copyright © RAD for Life. All rights reserved.
Lesson 1 Transcript: What is RAD?
The following transcript accompanies the RAD Lesson 1 video and introduces the Recognize, Accept, Do framework used throughout the RAD social emotional learning lessons. In this lesson, learners explore how understanding thoughts and feelings can help guide actions toward what matters most.
Welcome to radforlife.com — the home of the RAD SEL lessons.
Welcome to Lesson 1: What is RAD?
If you didn’t guess from the title, this lesson is an introduction to RAD — what it is and why it’s important.
First things first: RAD is a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program. It’s not counselling or therapy — and there’s nothing wrong with those things — but RAD is something different.
RAD is for everyone, anytime. It’s a way of learning how to understand yourself and how you interact with the world, including responding to uncomfortable feelings and thoughts and making choices that improve your life.
RAD helps you build SEL skills so you can focus on what’s important to you. It’s about learning how to handle challenges and go after what matters most. These are lifelong skills that everyone can benefit from.
Second, RAD is an acronym — like LOL, BRB, or SMH.
It stands for Recognize, Accept, and Do.
I chose this acronym for two reasons. First, it’s just a cool word. “RAD” reminds me of fun things like surfing or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It literally means excellent or cool — which is what we’re going for here. Of course, I can’t show an image of those characters because that would violate copyright, but fortunately I can talk about Altered Adolescent Martial Arts Axolotls.
Second, the letters in RAD stand for three important skills: Recognize, Accept, and Do. Just like the letters work together to spell RAD, the skills work together to help you live a RAD life.
As we go through the lessons, we will learn to recognize uncomfortable thoughts and feelings and notice how they might get in the way. We will practice ways to accept those thoughts and feelings instead of fighting them. We will also learn to recognize what really matters to us — our values — and how they can guide us.
Finally, we’ll learn how to do the things that matter to you, even when it’s hard.
And here’s the key: this is about what’s important to you.
You might be doing this program because you chose to, or maybe because a teacher or someone else asked you to. But no matter why you’re here, the goal is to help you live a life that feels meaningful — on your terms.
That might sound a little scary to your parents or teachers, but don’t worry. RAD is also about making healthy, wise choices that help you.
One last thing: you may be wondering if you will have to share your feelings or talk about difficult things in your life even if you don’t want to. The answer is no. Once again, this is social emotional learning. The activities are designed so you can practice RAD skills without needing to disclose uncomfortable thoughts, past events, or other personal information.
That doesn’t mean sharing those things is bad. It just isn’t required.
However, as you progress through the lessons, you may find that you start applying these skills to your own life. The way you think about, relate to, and respond to difficult situations may change, and you may find yourself doing more of the things that are important to you.
This is what we call in the program living a RAD life.
To start things off, the worksheet connected to this lesson will help you learn and remember the key terms. Instructions and a copy of the worksheet are available on the website.
Thank you for visiting radforlife.com, and as the adolescent martial arts practicing axolotls would say: Be RAD!
Activity Time
For the first activity, your job is to create an image that will help you remember RAD.
Your image should include the letters R, A, and D along with the words Recognize, Accept, and Do. You should also add images that help you remember what RAD stands for. If possible, try to make the images meaningful to you.
In my example, I included glasses for Recognize, because I need my glasses to recognize what I’m reading. I used a check mark for Accept, because that’s what appears when my phone payment at a store is accepted. And I used a hammer for Do, because whenever I have a hammer it means I’m doing something — usually something constructive and useful.
The worksheet provides a place for you to create your image.