WhyTry Program
Materials and Toolkit Overview
What is WhyTry?
The WhyTry Program is a flexible toolkit for teachers and counselors, as well as a structured curriculum that can be used in K-12 classrooms. WhyTry is also an approach to help teachers and counselors improve their ability to engage, motivate, and build resilience in students. Watch this brief video to learn more about our flagship program.
Looking for more details on how it works?
Watch this clip for details on how the WhyTry Program materials and toolkit can be used in your school.
(approx. 9 min)
Success Stories
Lake Chelan School District
Learn how staff, administrators, and students all worked together to improve academic success by combining WhyTry with a peer support network.
Bismarck Public Schools
Learn how Wendy Bakken, a Speech Pathologist at Bismarck High School, uses WhyTry to engage and motivate any student.
Holly Rohrer
Behavior Intervention Specialist, Rudyard Area School District
“We’re a big promoter of PBIS. And because the WhyTry Program has strategies and interventions that align with our goals, we can use it to develop that positive mindset in our students. I feel like they really do combine well together….I think every PBIS school should have some kind of program like this.”
Ashley Wright
Counselor in Houston, TX
“When you can see the purpose of each WhyTry lesson and use the attention grabbers, music, and metaphors to reach the kids with targeted interventions, WhyTry can help you achieve your goals. We saw a significant decrease in the number of referrals.”
Beth Foster
Counselor, Amanda Gist Elementary
“I’m a teacher at heart, and having WhyTry in my toolkit gives me the flexibility to introduce main parts of the program in my guidance classes, and then I can pull in more content as the kids progress through different grades. It works seamlessly for me.”
10 WhyTry Learning Units
The WhyTry curriculum utilizes a series often visual analogies that teach essential life skills like:
- Decision-making
- Positive self-esteem
- Emotional regulation
- Having a resilient mindset
- Peer influence & relationships
- Problem-solving
- Hard work & Determination
- Responsibility and expectations
- Relationship building
- Self-efficacy
The Power of Visual Metaphors
One of the most unique things about WhyTry is how we use visual metaphors to teach these important principles to students in a way they can understand and remember. The powerful thing about using this visual approach is the way it takes abstract concepts and puts them into a context through the use of a metaphor that students can understand. It essentially creates a language for educators to communicate the relevance of these things.
Start Where You Are, Work Toward Full-fidelity
Students who participate in a full-fidelity implementation of the WhyTry Program show improvement across several key metrics. To ensure you reap these benefits, we follow a rigorous, yet flexible implementation model. This includes in-person training, online program access, and tools to measure progress both before and after you implement the intervention.