Help me give my students beanbag chairs, a Bitty Bottoms cushion, a Swingo, and Loopeez kit, and Tangle Jr Fuzzies to have items to help with their sensory needs for when they are feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
I worked with students that receive counseling through the school. These are often the students at our school who struggle the most with social and emotional issues that impact their success with school. They may struggle with anxiety, depression, school or work avoidance, low self-esteem, impulse control, aggressiveness, fighting, ADHD or social skills among other things.
Students come to counseling to learn and practice the skills to manage their social-emotional struggles better in order to have better success and satisfaction with school.
Junior high can often be some of the most difficult years that students spend in school so we work to find new ways to manage negative feelings, develop coping skills, foster new friendships and skills and increase positive thoughts and beliefs about themselves among other things.
The students I work with are some of the bravest, smartest, most caring and sensitive students I have ever met. Their willingness to look at their struggles and take on the challenge of first being willing to talk about them and second trying new ways of managing at school is so impressive and humbling.
My Project
The need for a safe, calm place is a daily occurrence in my office. They feel relieved to know they can come to a place at school where they feel safe and supported.
A lot of my students are very fidgety and items such as these will allow them to relax and re-focus as they talk through their struggles preparing to go back to class and be successful.
As we do lessons on social-emotional issues such as social skills, calming skills and learning to identify feelings students often find it helpful to hold manipulatives. Often when difficulties are being discussed they don't want to hold eye contact or sit in a regular stiff chair. The more comfortable they can be in the room the more willing they are to push through and address struggles they are having.
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