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Understanding Your Students For middle school students that are facing extraordinary circumstances, the strengthening of resiliency is essential. A foundation for building resiliency lies in helping students to feel a sense of control over their lives. Although students exercise limited autonomy over their lives, they are in control of how they react to situations. School counselors and other staff can help students to establish a sense of control through teaching self-regulation, coping skills, recognizing strengths, building self-esteem and setting goals. Learning how to react effectively can lead to the ability to cope with trauma resiliently. Establishing Self-Regulation and Coping Skills Students facing difficult circumstances are in desperate need of self-regulation and coping skills, yet often lack them. In order to cope, many at-risk students have learned to sooth themselves and have developed self-soothing strategies. These responses may include constriction, aggressive behavi...

At risk students, or any students for that matter, have two choices when faced with an obstacle: they can see the mountain in their way and sit at the bottom or they can look at the mountain, climb the mountain, and summit the mountain. It is inspiring to witness students overcome what could or should be insurmountable obstacles and grow into healthy, smart and fully functioning members of society. Resiliency is what makes those students climb the mountain, no matter how big or small, with the goal of reaching the top. Promoting and teaching resiliency is an important function of any school and should be a school wide effort. In order to give our students their best chance of overcoming any obstacle they may find in their way we need to provide them with the tools and the resilience to do so. This ability to succeed despite adversity stems from resilience, or coping effectively with difficulties that might otherwise lead to anxiety, depression, withdrawal, physical  symptoms, or p...

Resiliency is thought of as a strong and tough characteristic. Someone with resiliency demonstrates the capacity to recover and rise from difficulties they have faced.   Do young adolescents have the capability to be resilient?   Can students overcome hardships with toughness to change, cope, and grow?    What if those hardships are living in poverty, having endured sexual abuse, or the death of a parent?  With support from caring adults who promote resiliency, lives of teenagers can be dramatically influenced to overcome their circumstances and use their experiences to succeed. School counselors have knowledge, skills, and expertise to provide support to help make students successful.  Together with teachers, counselors can provide interventions in school to increase student resiliency. School counselors play a crucial role in identifying students who have been negatively impacted by life experiences and promoting and teaching resilienc...

Resiliency  can be defined as, “The set of attributes an individual possess which enables him/her to bounce back from adversity, frustration, and/or misfortune” (Janas, 2002 & Sagor, 1996).   Resilient students are viewed as social, optimistic, cooperative, inquisitive, attentive, helpful, punctual, and on task (Sagor, 1996).   He or she is empathetic, determined, hopeful, persistent, autonomous, and possess a sense of humor, effective communication skills, and good problem solving skills (Bernard, 1993).  These are the character traits that allow some students to overcome adversity and continue to succeed in his/her life.   Examples of strategies include:  Evaluate all students based on character strengths and apply the information to provide classroom guidance lessons, individual counseling, and to form counseling groups . A strength-based approach has been shown to accentuate character strengths which, in turn, promotes resiliency among student...

Types of High-Risk Behaviors Passive – Behavior that avoids the domination of others or the pain of negative experience. Aggressive – Behavior that overpowers, dominates, harms or controls others without regard for their well-being. The child has often taken aggressive people as role models and has had minimal or ineffective limits set on behavior. Attention Problems – Behavior demonstrates either motor or attentional difficulties surfacing as hyperactive or inattentive behavior. Perfectionist – Behavior that is geared toward avoiding embarrassment and assumed shame from making mistakes. The child has unrealistically high expectation of self. Socially Inept – Behavior that is based on the misinterpretation of nonverbal signals of others. The child misunderstands facial expressions and body language.            Setting Classroom Rules Early Take time at the beginning of the year to set classroom rules. Engaging the students in the p...

Causes of Behavioral Issues Managing the behavior of seventh and eighth grade students can be challenging, to say the least. Their behavior can be baffling for educators and counselors alike to understand. In managing these issues, one must remember all of the difficulties these students are facing. Development As students go through puberty and transition into adulthood, their body experiences many changes. These changes may make them seem older and they may try to act older to accommodate these changes. However, as counselors, we need to remember they still have developing, impressionable minds that are still maturing. Transition from Elementary to Middle School The transition from elementary school to middle school proposes many changes. Students must adjust to new teachers, seven classes per day in different classrooms, meeting new students and a new setting. In addition, the expectations are greater and students must work harder than they had in the...

As Teachers, Administration and School Counselors it is so important to model behavior expected from our students. Classroom management not only affects the teachers but affects how an administration and school counselor can function as well. Students need to feel safe and comfortable in order to learn and be productive. When teachers can create an environment free from high risk behavior and disruption everyone wins. The following are just a few examples of classroom management: Quiet Zone Students are asked to remove themselves from the situation and sit in a quiet spot away from distraction, preferably in a comfortable chair/beanbag to gather their thoughts. There, a teacher may also take the time to quietly ask the student what they can do to help them be less agitated or resolve what is distracting them. This is an opportunity for the student to calm their nerves, reading a book is a great way to refocus and lower anxious behavior. Buddy System **This strategy will need direct com...