Educational Leadership: Creating a Climate for Learning: Building Resiliency in Students. September 1. 99. 6 . THE HEALTH RESILIENCE PROGRAM : CareOregon, Health Share of Oregon, and Community Clinics Partner to Improve Care for High Risk/High Cost Patients. Lead Like A Woman is an evidence-based program, uniquely designed to help women emerge with the kind of true confidence, career clarity and vibrant wellbeing that creates lasting leadership success. Based on our work with thousands of. The Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Competitive Grant Program supports projects that reduce communities’ vulnerability to the growing risks from coastal storms, sea level rise, flooding, erosion and associated threats through strengthening natural ecosystems. The majority of people are not given proper resiliency training to manage the chaos and complexity of the world that we have created for ourselves. Resiliency skills are all about overcoming the natural, counterproductive tendencies we have developed over the. What are some of the characteristics that set resilient children apart from their at- risk peers? Experienced educators have an intuitive ability to spot these students. Leadership Development Program Sample Agenda Phase One: Getting Started The Leadership Development Program is driven by detailed, personal data. Participants fill out several assessment surveys prior to attending the five-day on-site session. Position Designation Tool Human Resources and Security Specialists should use this tool to determine the correct investigation level for any covered position within the U.S. The mission of the PAL Non-Medical Counseling Resources for Military Families Non-medical counseling is available through the Military Family Life Counselor (MFLC) program and through Military OneSource. These programs offer trained, licensed professional counselors for service.I often ask teachers to describe resilient students. Here are descriptors that were brainstormed by classroom teachers in a workshop I recently conducted: social, optimistic, energetic, cooperative, inquisitive, attentive, helpful, punctual, and on task. Not surprisingly, these are some of the same characteristics described in the literature on motivation (Pintrich and Schunk 1. Assembling such a list is easy. What's difficult is determining what makes one child inquisitive, positive, and social, while another child is withdrawn, negative, and anti- social. While self- image is undoubtedly a factor, I think it is more than that. To describe the difference between children . This concept summarizes research findings (Glasser 1. Manning and Baruth 1. Wehlage et al. 1. These key experiences are ones that provide them with authentic evidence of academic success (competence); show them that they are valued members of a community (belonging); reinforce feelings that they have made a real contribution to their community (usefulness); andmake them feel empowered (potency). Conversely, we know that students who regularly have feelings of failure, alienation, uselessness, and impotence reinforced through their school experiences will be young people poorly equipped to cope with adversity. Instilling these positive feelings in students will not result from pep talks or positive self- image assemblies but, rather, from planned educational experiences. Simply put, we must structure opportunities into each child's daily routine that will enable him or her to experience feelings of competence, belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism. What Schools Can Do. Many of the building blocks of a CBUPO- rich school experience are already present in most schools. In fact, if we shadow some of our most successful students, we will likely observe them participating in such activities. Rather than developing new strategies, therefore, we must become more strategic and deliberate about some of the good things we are already doing. Specifically, we need to examine why some students are benefiting from resiliency- building experiences and others are not—and plan strategies to make these invaluable feelings available to everyone. A starting point for schools is to develop a CBUPO inventory. When I am working with a school, I ask the faculty to brainstorm practices that have the potential for building feelings of competence, belonging, usefulness, and potency. The results of such a brainstorming session often look something like the list in Figure 1. Figure 1. An Inventory of Resiliency- Building Practices. Organizational/Instructional Practices. Trait- Reinforced. Logical Consequences. Potency. Mastery Expectations. Competence. Service Learning. Usefulness. Cooperative Learning. Usefulness. Teacher Advisory Groups. Belonging. Authentic Assessment. Competence. Student- Led Parent Conferences. Potency. Learning Style- Appropriate Instruction. Belonging. Activities Program. Belonging. Portfolios. Competence. After generating such an inventory, a faculty's next task is to visualize the rationale for their efforts through a map or web of the relationship between strategies/interventions and expected consequences. Frequently, school teams will spend weeks talking, thinking, and negotiating ideas until a picture finally emerges representing their consensus. From my experience, the time invested here is well spent, because it can result in a schoolwide approach with deep staff ownership. A completed web might look like the one illustrated in Figure 2. This particular web is a composite drawing derived from my work with several schools. Figure 2. Building Resiliency. A web can be considered complete when the theory it illustrates is logical and clear enough that most staff members are prepared to say, . At this point, however, the work of the planner is far from done. The Role of Data and Assessment. If the goal is to build resiliency for all students, then a deliberate and disciplined assessment effort is necessary to determine whether the desired results are being achieved. Assessment is critical, as even the best programs may miss many of the students who need them the most. For example, an athletic program may be a key element of a school's resiliency- building efforts because it builds a sense of competency and belonging. Faculty must, however, regularly audit the program to ensure that it is, in reality, serving all students. A simple sorting of data by ethnicity could alert them to important trends. They might ask: Are Hispanic students involved in the program at the same rate as white students? Are both genders being equitably served through athletics? Are remedial students, those with disabilities, or those coming from low- income homes receiving the same opportunities as more advantaged students? Another example of a resiliency- building effort that would benefit from thoughtful assessment is the student- led parent conference. A school might use this practice to help students build an internal locus of control (which is a direct indicator). When introducing such a program, a school staff might ask themselves these questions: How can we determine whether all students, regardless of achievement level or ethnicity, felt encouraged and supported while preparing for and conducting their conferences? Did participation in the student- led parent conference program contribute to enhanced feelings of potency for these students? To answer the first question, a school would assemble data on participation in the conferences and the preparation activities, as well as anecdotal information from the students themselves on the support they received. If these results were positive, the school could then assess the ultimate impact of the conferences. Teacher- conducted action research (Sagor 1. For example, teachers at this school could begin by asking critical questions like: Did cooperative learning and service learning significantly increase students' feelings of usefulness? Did expectations for mastery, authentic assessments, and portfolios help students feel more competent? Although data to answer these questions are readily available in most schools, assembling the information requires a real commitment. For example, if teachers want to know whether students are feeling . First, they might survey students and record their responses. Then, they might further validate these findings by surveying the students' parents and teachers. Finally, they could examine school and teacher records for evidence of improved performance—a likely indicator of enhanced feelings of competence. Once faculty members have assembled and analyzed all the relevant data, they are ready to ask the ultimate evaluative question: Are we getting the results we hoped for? If students are exhibiting evidence of greater feelings of competence, belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism, they should be delighted. It is possible, however, that even if all students have fully experienced an intervention, desired outcomes may not have occurred. As educators, we need to avoid being defensive about data. Information that a treatment didn't work for a particular patient doesn't necessarily mean the doctor was incompetent. Rather, it indicates to the competent doctor that it would be wise to employ another approach. Likewise, if our data show that in spite of our best efforts, our students are still feeling academically incompetent, alienated, useless, or powerless, we should be willing to openly question our theory and try alternative strategies. Consistently conducting action research and reviewing assessment data does for educators what computerized rocket telemetry does for NASA. It helps us determine whether we are on the right track and, if not, what corrective actions we should take. By continuously constructing and testing our theories on resiliency- building, it is much more likely that we will ultimately be able to supply our students with the antibody of resiliency. The Matter of Time. Building resiliency in students need not take substantial time from teachers' other instructional pursuits. A lot of the techniques are likely already part of many teachers' repertoires. But, more important, feelings of competency, belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism result from authentic experiences. Deep down we all know that assemblies, classroom posters, and happy face stickers cannot change a student's attitude toward school or life outside of school. On the other hand, infusing the classroom and the curriculum with resiliency- building experiences can have a profound impact on our students' self- images. When taking this perspective, we begin to see that building resiliency and teaching are one and the same thing. Likewise, assessing the efficacy of resilience- building interventions shouldn't require expensive, time- consuming evaluations. This is because the best source of data on student attitudes is close at hand: the students themselves. While specific evaluation strategies will differ by teacher and context, a simple strategy will illustrate how easily data can be assembled. Teachers could use a checklist, like the one illustrated in Figure 3, as part of their plan book. By filling it out weekly, teachers can keep track of their perceptions of how targeted kids are feeling about class activities. Then, on Friday, they can confirm their perceptions by talking with the students. This simple procedure can turn assessing the development of resiliency into an almost routine classroom ritual. Figure 3. Teacher's Checklist for Assessing Resiliency. An Uncertain Future. As adults, we would love to ensure that the world our children inherit will be better and brighter than the one we now occupy.
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