Thursday, February 8, 2007
Ideas for counseling groups
Look at this article about counseling (or advisory) groups at Essential schools, which I found on the net. (It is posted on the "Ideas and Documents" page.) It is long, but skim to see if it spurs ideas. It would be a good start for the "what are counseling groups for" conversation that needs to happen. My ah-ha favorite part is: "In fact, some of the best advisory group discussions start with historical, literary, or scientific situations that pose compelling moral dilemmas. In her 1984 book Making Decisions, from which several exercises are reproduced here, Nancy Faust Sizer sets out such cases in 26 pairs --one drawn from students' own environment, one from the world at large to encourage analytical thinking and moral reasoning. Emphasizing respect for the reasoning process over the actual outcome of the decision, she argues, allows students to 'compare, dissect, resolve' their common and individual principles." Wow, can you imagine turning CG into arenas for socratic discussion and exploration of real world stuff? I picture a viewing of "Inconvenient Truth" and resulting discussion - powerful way for kids to develop interests. Also, I like the idea that kids could do valuable learning without it being a formal class with evaluation and homework.
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6 comments:
cool idea and article, thanks Barbara. I will offer something like that to Coop's
group counselor. I have been in contact with Bob and he said his parent
helper has left and I offered to help with anything and it sounded like
he was waiting to let the group figure out what they (as a group) want to do. Maybe if I could give suggestions, something will spark them.
Wouldn't it be cool if we could get Bear Tooth to do a day time special
showing or something fun like that, if the students want it? It could be semi-social for them, maybe
parent group could pay for this?
I think this is a VERY important topic.
Counseling Groups can do a lot of things, it seems. Given that, it is
probably necessary to identify priorities and focus on those. Each group is
going to reflect the personality of the leader - but there are some things
that need to be the same.
I would like to see a couple of the things taught in 8th grade health
carried forward. One is the idea of creating a life goal. It seemed to me a
bit pre-mature to ask an 8th grader to do this, but if it was an
introduction that was attended too throughout the school career, it could be
very powerful.
Also, there were some techniques introduced for emotional self-management,
conflict resolution, and group interactions. It would be helpful if these
too were carried forward, reinforced and reiterated. You're getting into
psychodynamic areas that all staff may not have training in, but it
certainly would be possible to provide resources for this, so that staff
would have some skills in paying attention to these dynamics in individual
students and in groups. Some staff pick-up these skills along the way, or
have natural inclinations for them which are readily observed.
For instance, I would have wished that when the most recent school killings
happened outside, and were bombarding us in the media, the counseling groups
could have been activated to process and debrief the kids anxiety. Our
flexibility at Steller should allow us to do this sort of thing. Of course
we have to respond to the instructions from the central administration, but
a lock down drill doesn't decrease anxiety - it increases it. And as Abraham
Maslow has pointed out, if the basic needs - food, safety, security - are
not met, we aren't able to focus on higher level functions, like learning,
and the kinds of explorations Barbara referred too (and GREAT idea Alyse
about Bear Tooth!)
Of course, this is asking more of staff to have these sort of skills. But it
seems to me to be part and parcel of an educational approach that focuses on
the whole person.
Thanks for the link to the article. I talked with my daughter about it. I liked all of the ideas presented in the article. I'd love to see any/all of them implemented.
Sonda Juliussen
Okay, so what's next? It seems like many people have ideas, many agree on some if the ideas and many would like to see ideas implemented.
Can we ask the community, maybe starting with the students, where we should begin, what are the priorities?
Is possible that Op group (or another large group representing the community) could coordinate and synthesize, more importantly, prioritize these ideas regarding counseling groups so that some things can be done systemically, by way of proposals to Ad Board. Once we know where the community wants to start, we can get things rolling.
I think for me to make a suggestion in one counseling group is great but to have every counseling group thinking about how to enrich their group with discussions and activities makes a lot more sense. Of course, I am sure that within this framework, we will all keep in mind that each group will need room for their own choices.
I personally am excited that we have the chance to openly discuss how successful counseling groups are working and try to find something that the whole community is comfortable embracing so that each student has the same opportunities to feel engaged in the great value of these small groups at Steller.
Im just replying to a comment that charles posted to reply to mine. im Jacob Holley-Kline by the way. Im gonna make this as clear as possible. Steller is a place i know (And respect) i've been here for awhile now (Seventh Grade). And yes charles i am very afraid of this change, i DONT want it. simple as that, i like it the way it is! Renew steller is something i'm solely against. I have told people that this is going to affect me and other seventh graders largely, something i dont want. Im not trying to make this about me, i am saying "I dont want this passed and i hope it does not happen" To be blunt. So charles, yes i am very afraid of this chang and to me... thats not what education is about.
I disagree - change is what education is all about. How can students be in charge of their education if they can't change it? Also, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to when you talk about this 'passing.' The position paper is not a proposal, to be passed or turned down, and never could be. The position paper was meant to get people thinking abut what they want Steller to be. Do we want to be the school we tell everyone we are, or do we want to be the school that we are now, but were not once. If the latter is true, then we should make the decision for that should be our purpose, rather then our original one. Then again, it was the original propose that produced a generation of Steller graduates like our currant mayor that went on to lead great lives.
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