The SMARTS Executive Function Curriculum has been helping students with ADHD and learning differences for a long time—long enough to see some of our SMARTS students grow up into teachers!
SMARTS began over a decade ago as a peer mentoring curriculum. Older students mentored younger students on the use of executive function strategies and the importance of self-awareness through challenging academic tasks and fun activities (apple picking to teach planning, carving pumpkins to teach time estimation…why not?).
This long history has helped SMARTS grow into the versatile and effective program that it is today. It has also given us the pleasure of watching some of our students become incredible teachers.
Chace Nolan was one of our first SMARTS mentors as a high school student. Years later, while teaching in a fifth-grade classroom, he announced to his students, “I have ADHD.” Responses ranged from “WHAT?” to “Me, too!”
Chace reminds us that we can be powerful role models for our students, and one of the best ways to help students develop executive function strategies and self-awareness is to be honest about our own development as learners.
Watch the video below for Chace’s full story.
- Michael Greschler, M.Ed., SMARTS Director