One of the joys of working in a middle school is the range of maturity of the students in the building. There is still a sense of innocence and youth, and at the same time there is the “I’m not a little kid anymore” syndrome. One thing is the same, however, kids can get angry and have a difficult time trying to calm down.
Last year I did helping kids learn coping mechanisms, but I did not do a lot of assessing where they were on an anger scale. I thought I would try it this year, by giving students a pre and post anger rating scale. What I am finding is, that yes, coping skills do help.
When kids are coming down to my office, I am now having them assess their anger. I hand them this sheet with a pencil and let them rate how they are feeling. From there they fill out the rest of the sheet and then we do a few coping skills together, and after a few minutes, I have them reassess how they are feeling.
Interestingly, I am also finding that kids already know a lot of great coping skills. I really don’t have to teach them these. With the sheet as a reminder to using their coping skills, there is a quicker response to them feeling better. And, I’m sure you know what that means. . .getting back to class sooner, missing less work, and stopping the spiral effect.
Hope you like it. Do you have a form that you use? How does it help? Let me know. Leave a comment below or join in the conversation by one of the ways below:
