by schoolcounselingbyheart | Aug 26, 2012 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons, individual counseling, personal safety
When thinking about perpetrators of child sexual abuse, many people picture an image of a creepy stranger. Parents and schools generally do a pretty good job of teaching their kids about “stranger danger.” But this is not where most of the danger lies. The vast majority of sexual abusers are known to the children they target, so it is incumbent upon us to teach kids not only how to respond when an uncomfortable or dangerous situation arises, but also how to recognize when danger is approaching. (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Aug 4, 2012 | abuse, classroom lessons, curriculum, personal safety
Disclosing sexual abuse is difficult on so many levels. Kids may have been threatened or bribed. They may be worried that the abuse is their fault and that they will get in trouble. They may fear that they won’t be able to live at home any more, that it will cause divorce or the breakup of a parent’s relationship, or that someone they care about will be put in jail. Confusion, shame, and fear are powerful, silencing feelings. And children may just not have the words, know what to say, or how to say it. We need to teach kids the importance of telling, but we also need to teach them how to tell. (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jul 29, 2012 | abuse, classroom lessons, curriculum, personal safety
It was the middle of summer, and all I could think was, “I wish I had all my fifth graders together.” This is not usually the kind of thought I have in July, but three things had happened: Jerry Sandusky had been convicted of sexually abusing ten boys, the NCAA had announced sanctions against Penn State, and a local couple had confessed to sexual assault against a 13-year-old. I knew that many of our students would have seen and heard lots about these incidents, from the media and from adult discussion around them. If school had been in session (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jun 20, 2012 | children's literature, classroom lessons, death and grief, feelings, individual counseling
It’s been something of a sob-fest around here recently. Last Friday, on our last day of school, the fifth grade boys in particular had a very hard time. Two of them burst into tears and could not finish reading their poems during the graduation celebration. Afterwards, the guy who ALMOST NEVER stops being silly was sobbing, as was a boy who is moving, and the boy who doesn’t like to show any feeling other than annoyance. The boy who is probably the coolest of them all threw himself into my arms before I even knew he was headed my way. Several others teared up over the course of the day and, for a few of them, crying recurred over the course of the day. It provided a great opportunity (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jun 11, 2012 | classroom lessons, middle school
If you were moving from elementary to middle school, what would you most want to know? Probably things like: Will I get to see my friends? How will I know where my classes are? Do kids get shoved in lockers? If you were a sixth grader, what information would you think was most important to share with the fifth graders? If you guessed Here’s how the automatic urinals work, you’re right in tune with some (very serious) boys from our town’s middle school who met with our fifth graders last week. Yes, there were others who presented about homework, teachers, dances, and field trips, but the technologically impressive presentation opened with the variety of automatic functions that can be experienced in the middle school bathrooms, and included a close-up video of a urinal doing it’s thing. (more…)
by schoolcounselingbyheart | May 31, 2012 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons, individual counseling, personal safety
. . . and I know what to do with it!
Do You Have a Secret? by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos is a great book about good and bad secrets, how to tell the difference between them, and the importance of telling secrets that make you feel uncomfortable, yucky, or unsafe. I use it — along with my Good Secrets Box and Secret Cards — in first grade class councils and with individual kids in a range of ages. It’s probably best for preschool-grade 2, but older kids sometimes like to read it too. (I love to give older kids books to “review” for younger readers. It helps teach or reinforce concepts and gives struggling (more…)
When thinking about perpetrators of child sexual abuse, many people picture an image of a creepy stranger. Parents and schools generally do a pretty good job of teaching their kids about “stranger danger.” But this is not where most of the danger lies. The vast majority of sexual abusers are known to the children they target, so it is incumbent upon us to teach kids not only how to respond when an uncomfortable or dangerous situation arises, but also how to recognize when danger is approaching. (more…)
