Schoolwide Approaches for Fostering Resiliency


Introduction by Barbara Wotherspoon

PART ONE:	Understanding Resiliency
Chapter  1	Resiliency in Schools: Making It Happen Nan Henderson	3
Chapter  2	Fostering Resiliency in Children and Youth:Four Basic Steps for Families, Educators, and Other Caring Adults	9
Chapter  3	Reflections From a Pioneer in Prevention, Positive An Interview with Jeanne Gibbs Bonnie Benard	17
Chapter  4	Don't Tell the Neighbors Ted Okey	21
PART TWO:	The Power of Service and Adventure Learning
Chapter  5	KIDS Consortium Turns Communities Into Classrooms Nan Henderson	29
Chapter  6	Sharing the Power: The ELF Woods Project Taps the Energy and Talents of Students as They Improve Their Community Maine Center for Educational Services	32
Chapter  7	KIDS in Action and other Service Learning Programs Produce Results Bonnie Benard	37
Chapter  8	Faces of Resiliency: L.W. Schmick Nan Henderson	40
Chapter  9	Adventures in Resiliency: The Power of Adventure Learning Helen Beatie	43
Chapter 10	Adventure Education and Outward Bound Make A Lasting Difference: A Meta-Analysis by John Hattie and Colleagues Bonnie Benard	50
PART THREE:	Additional Schoolwide and Classroom Strategies
Chapter 11	Integrating Resiliency and Educational Reform: Why Doing One Accomplishes the Other Nan Henderson	55
Chapter 12	Why Children Need Stories: Storytelling and Resiliency  Linda Fredericks	57
Chapter 13	Youth Communication: A Model Program for Fostering Resilience Through the Art of Writing Al Desetta and Sybil Wolin	64
Chapter 14	Caring Classroom Nurtures Children's Resilience (Reprint from Western Center News) Andrew Duncan	72
Chapter 15	Faces of Resiliency: Tonya Benally Nan Henderson	77
PART FOUR:	Creating Safe/Disciplined Schools
Chapter 16	How We Revised Our School Policy To Foster Resiliency  Georgia Stevens	83
Chapter 17	Seven Essential Steps to Safer Schools Rick Phillips and Chris Pack	86
Chapter 18	Building Resilience Through Student Assistance Programming Tim Duffey	89
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Bonnie Benard		99
ABOUT THE EDITORS OF THIS BOOK		105
SPEECHES, PRESENTATIONS, AND TRAININGS FROM THE EDITORS AT RESILIENCY IN ACTION. INC		106
PRODUCTS & ORDER FORM		107

INTRODUCTION Building Resiliency In Atkinson Academy: One School's Journey By Barbara Wortherspoon

"What can be done in this school to help all children be more successful?" was the question we asked ourselves as a school family about 10 years ago as we evaluated what we did well and was working, and what we needed to do differently. I want to share a little about our school's journey of change to an effective resiliency-building organization-a "community for all learners''-as a way of introducing this book on how schools can effectively foster resiliency in their students.         Our school, Atkinson Academy, is a public elementary school of about 415 students in southern New Hampshire. Its community is a blend of rural and suburban. For most of the 1980s, there was a lot of turnover in leadership at the school (six principals in nine years), which lead to a lack of cohesiveness and shared vision.         Effective change starts when people see the need for change, and when I arrived as another new principal the staff at the Academy was ready to assess the status quo and develop a course of action for improvement. Our needs assessment involved interviews with all staff and about 100 community members. As the new principal, I shared at an organizational meeting the strengths of the staff as told to me by the community. I will always remember the sense of hopefulness that permeated the room when these educators heard their strengths-the feelings community members had shared about what was positive in their school.         When we started our change process, we weren't even thinking of the word "resiliency." We just determined to improve what we did for children in a collegial way, using our scant resources to develop the best teaching and learning environment possible. As we shared and listened to each other-teachers, assistants, other school staff, parents, town leaders, other community members-we developed a common vision that built on what was positive about the school, and we formulated a plan of action to make it better. Learning about resiliency along the way only validated our growing belief in the power of focusing on the positive.         Everyone who touched a child was seen in our common vision as a part of the solution of helping all children become more resilient. Comments such as "all of us we smarter than one of us," "the children belong to all of us," "we are all part of the team," and "we need to talk to Mama Lewis (the cafeteria manager) and John (the head custodian) for their opinions," were indicative of the growing power of our positive,"strength-focused approach to change.         Any lasting change in behavior requires a change of attitude and philosophy. The moto our school staff created, "Atkinson Academy: A Community of Learners: We Care, We Share, We Dare! "tells it all.  It is this attitude, not any specific program, that made the difference. This attitude is what motivates us to find the key to what will with any particular child or what we can do to prevent or to overcome any particular problem.        We discovered that the ingredients needed were already in our school. We just needed to put them together and highlight some in such a way as to wrap a web of resiliency builders around each child (see chapter two for an explanation of "The Resiliency Wheel and the web of resiliency). It was exciting to discover all we could do for all the children at Atkinson-not just a few at "most risk''-that was positive, hopeful, and powerful. They didn't cost a lot of money, but they have had positive, long-term results.           In addition to utilizing some of the myriad of strategies detailed in this book, examples of the some of the initiatives we developed included:

 

Monday Morning Meeting, which brings the whole school family together for 30 minutes the first thing Monday morning in a celebration of our school and the attitudes, strengths, and accomplishments of our children. These student-run ceremonies anchor our school and renew  our sense of purpose every week.  In-service training of teachers and all school personnel in such resiliency- fostering skills as healthy conflict resolution and creating more effective learning and teaching environments, which provide on-going skill development for our staff.  Student Response Team, a team of caring adults who are available to assist any child who may need to leave a classroom in order to receive support and/or problem solve in order to re-enter the learning environment. In addition, all educators in our school are focused on translating behaviors into an understanding of student needs, and on utilizing what is necessary to meet each student's needs.  Guardian Angels, a program designed so that each child who may benefit from a mentoring relationship is paired with an adult mentor in addition to the caring connection the child has with his or her classroom teacher.

Whenever our school community is faced with adversity of some kind-a death in a student's family or of a staff member, a challenging parent situation, misunderstandings among school-team members, an error in judgment-we remind each other to look at this as another opportunity to learn to put the child's needs first and to discover how we can work together in a more productive manner.          As we have studied the resiliency-building information, we have seen that it also applies to adults. Applying the resiliency framework to students and adults has taken learning on my part, as I have a tendency to push too hard and be too impatient. I am learning to walk my talk: to respect each person in the school as an individual, to discover each person's strengths and how to best foster his or her resiliency. I now try to view "resistance" as a communication of a need that I haven't yet figured out. "Another opportunity to learn" has also become my personal mantra.           If a school community creates a caring and responsive school climate for children and adults and is respectful of each other, then that modeling and that message becomes infused in all that happens in the school. It can be done classroom by classroom, but-as the improved academic outcomes, reduced discipline problems, and increase in morale at Atkinson has shown-it is stupendous when the whole school buys in and creates this type of change. When everyone in a school community believes they are part of the solution and when strengths are recognized and emphasized, hopefulness becomes the frame of reference. This leads to continual  improvement. And that is what resiliency is all about. ~  Barbara Wotherspoon, principal of Atkinson Academy, just completed a sabbatical leave as Visiting Practitioner at the Harvard University Principal's Center. In addition to her work as a school administrator, she teachers graduate courses related to contemporary critical issues in education and society and she also teaches in the Massachusetts Elementary School Principal's Association program for aspiring principals. Barbara provides training across the U.S. in creating resiliency-building school organizations, diversity, inclusive education, multicultural education, and creating safe schools. She can be reached at (603) 382-7503, or by e-mail: leew@tiac.net. Back | Top