Building Resiliency in Students

School:: Laurel Oak Elementary
Subject:: Character Education
Teacher:: Amy Gaillard
Students Impacted:: 999
Grade:: K-5
Date:: August 21, 2020

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Ray Harman, in honor of Karen Harman - $365.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 1000

Resiliency has been the theme of our school this year. I go regularly to our classrooms at Laurel Oak Elementary School and teach resiliency to students and teachers. I also provide resiliency activities and strategies to small groups of students who are struggling mentally, socially, and emotionally. I use books and develop art, writing projects, games, and exercises to help students learn resiliency. This year, I also discussed my program and goals to parents via Facebook and Twitter. Here is one such link: https://www.facebook.com/ccpsloe/videos/820658638759822/

I used our Morning News Show to “kick off” school wide projects focused on kindness and resiliency. I used the materials I purchased with the grant. My favorite lesson was “Bounce or Splat” by The Responsive Counselor. Students enjoyed it a lot. Other lessons I purchased included “Size of the Problem,” “Coping Skills for Classroom Guidance,” “Classroom Resiliency,” and “Empathy” by Counselor Keri. The grant made it possible for me to buy slinkies for all our students as they learned about being “flexible” and “bouncing back” during life challenges. Students painted resiliency rocks with meaningful words that remind them of their resiliency. I continue to purchase more rocks and more paint with my own money since this activity is so meaningful to students. I also put my lessons and materials into our school counseling canvas course so that our virtual students could easily participate. This has been a project that impacts students daily at Laurel Oak Elementary School. Thank you so very much for helping so many students. Amy Gaillard

Original Grant Overview

Goal

My goal is to help students develop personal strengths when handling life’s challenges, seeing themselves as capable and a source of their own solution. Children will learn resiliency by participating in activities that teach them about personal health, goal setting, problem solving, emotional knowledge, stress management, self-efficacy, social competence, and a positive sense of future.

What will be done with my students

As the school counselor, I will visit all K-5 classrooms within the school to teach skills that support social-emotional learning. Comprehensively, I will provide meaningful student lessons using books, art, stretching and breathing exercises, and writing to teach the following 8 competencies related to resiliency (as researched by Dr. Karen Griffith):
*Being healthy
*Setting goals and maintaining a positive sense of the future
* Problem Solving
*Having a sense of personal competency and self-worth
*Understanding and communicating feelings
*Identifying and effectively handling stress
*Making and keeping friends
*Interpreting events and situations in a positive manner

Benefits to my students

Students will learn to remove their own barriers so they can feel capable handling personal, social, and emotional issues. Consequently, they can overcome obstacles and create a more self-actualized life. Resilience is a set of flexible, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional responses that can be learned by anyone through the teaching of improved attitudes and skills. Resiliency theory focuses on pre-existing strengths and emphasizes “what is right” about the child. It can be learned through structured activities using books, art projects, and school counseling (guidance) so that children can overcome hurdles and become their own heroes.

Budget Narrative

I will buy recommended books for Resiliency:
Book: Oh, The Things You Can Do That Are Good For You, by Tish Rabe
Book: Marta And The Bicycle, by Germano Zullo
Book: They Didn’t Use Their Heads, by JoAnn Stover
Book: Double Dip Feelings, by Barbara Cain
Book: Mind Over Basketball, by Weirbach and Phillips Hershey
Book: Be The Boss of Your Stress, by Timothy Culbert
Book: Terrific, by John Agee
Book: Alicia’s Best Friend, by Lisa Jahn-Claugh
Book: No Bad News, by Lonnie Michelle
Book: It Could Be Worse, by Vlasta van Kampen

Students will use and keep slinky as a tangible for their own resiliency and so they can model and teach their families what they learn. I will also do stretching and breathing as part of stress management using materials from teachers-pay-teachers. Students use sticky notes to categorize emotions and participate in activities about feelings, problem solving, and self-efficacy.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Childrens Books about Resiliency	$80.00
2	Resiliency Slinky's	$200.00
3	Emotions lesson from Teachers Pay Teachers	$10.00
4	Paper products	$75.00
	Total:	$365.00

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