Never Stop Grinding Impact Brings Total Physical Response to Rialto Unified School District

Darious Harris, founder of Never Stop Grinding Impact, is collaborating with Rialto Unified School District and Program Director Tameka Grayson for Total Physical Response (TPR), a program geared to strengthen students’ social emotional learning and access to physical education.

“Tameka and I are Carter High School alumni and we reconnected to bring the TPR program to students at Morgan Elementary School beginning September 7 and soon to be available to students at all level schools across the district. The program is tailored to improve students’ self-control, self-care, problem solving and nutrition; it’ll show students how to handle emotions better,” said Harris.

This specific type of programming is coming to the district at a time where students are coming off of virtual learning, since March 2020, and an imperative experience to transition back into in-person classroom learning.

“More than anything, this program teaches self-love and TPR is important, especially through this pandemic because we don’t know how children have been affected emotionally, so we’re addressing children’s emotional needs and tending to their mental health,” continued Harris.

The program is utilizing social emotional learning (SEL), which is known as an imperative component of human development and is comprised of five areas of competence, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

“Our intentions are to set the tone with students and show them they’re in a fun-loving environment and partaking in lots of hands-on, minds-on activities through disguised learning activities. On day one we’re doing a lesson where students will be mingling with other students and writing positive statements about others in the classroom; and that all plays a part in SEL building,” shared Grayson.

While the SEL learning component is being led by Greyson, the physical portion of the programming is being coordinated by Harris, who’s a professional boxer and will focus on fitness, technique, coordination and fun.

“Programs like this are important to our community because it encourages students to sort through emotions and learn how to be a good friend, love themselves and be there for their peers…which will make for a better future. Our goal is to align with our school district partners and build upon what they’ve already started. It takes a village and we’re here to support the teachers and give them this portion while they focus on the academics,” concluded Grayson.

To learn more, visit neverstopgrindingimpact.com.