We are pleased to announce the Danish translation of Strengths Gym, published by Dafolo in 2011. The materials were reviewed in October 2011 by the Danish Teacher’s Union Magazine and here’s what they had to say:

“Strengths Gym consists of a teacher’s manual and three student booklets to grades 3-4, 5-6 and 7-9. It can be used in both ordinary teaching and teaching of students with special needs.

The inspiration to the material is found in the latest research within positive psychology that looks at “how to be happy, successful and live life to its fullest”.

The teacher’s manual starts with an introduction to the concept and after that the 24 strengths are presented and defined. Then the different strength activities are presented. A strength is defined as a way of  thinking, feeling or acting, and the idea is to help the students to explore and develop their own strengths. For this, they can use the student booklets that all focus on the same strengths but on different levels. Though the booklets, the students work with different exercises and strengths challenges.

When I first read through the material I felt personal ambivalence. On one hand Strengths Gym seems to be too time consuming for the teacher compared to how much he is required to work with a non-academic subject like this. Not all the exercises seemed equally appealing either. On the other hand, it is easy for you as a teacher to pick and choose between the many ideas.

I have never before been presented to a material that has such a consistent focus on personal strengths. It opens up possibilities to define, discuss and reflect on strengths such as love, honesty and friendship and to strengthen these – for the benefit of the group.”