Climate, Culture, and Collaboration: The Key to Creating Safe and Supportive Schools This article was very eye-opening to me as it highlighted positive climates and safety in schools. Author Nicole Cobb mentioned what research on school climates has shown, the roles that principals, teachers, and guidance counselors should have in regard to school climate, and how crucial it is to include student voices when planning school climate improvements.
When it comes to school violence and shootings, to educators and school personnel, it used to be an "if this happens," but in today's society, it is a question of "when will it happen." Safety has a huge impact on student's learning. "Students who do not feel safe on all levels - socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically - cannot perform at their highest potential (Cobb.)" The article talked about how research has shown that positive school climates have a big factor not only on safety, but also on discipline, bullying, suspensions, and other conduct problems. Having a positive school climate benefits everyone from teachers, to students, and to parents and allows everyone to stay connected.
I really liked how Cobb mentioned having surveys, interviews, etc. to help form a school climate plan because
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They are in the driver's seat and "lay the groundwork for a positive and trusting environment (Cobb)." The perceptions, expectations, and behaviors that teachers have can help sustain and improve school climate. School counselors can hold workshops and training sessions that allow collaboration amongst administrators, teachers, students, and parents as well as enhance student education opportunities. Students often go unrecognized when it comes to school problems; therefore, their voices need to be heard as it is "the most authentic means of advocating for social justice and promoting a positive school climate
While interviewing school counselor, Melissa Gomes from Friendship Southeast Elementary Public Charter School, I was able to obtain a lot of information pertaining to a school counselor’s profession. Although, I have acquired plenty of information about a school counselor occupation throughout the last year and half of attending Trinity, the interview was very beneficial and knowledgeable. Ms. Gomes gave great insight that allowed for a better understanding of a school counselors role. Ms. Gomes was kind enough to answer several different questions pertaining to her role and responsibilities as a school counselor. After completing her studies and earning a master’s degree from Michigan State in school counseling, Ms. Gomes worked in her field
Teachers can also help by advocating for their students. These efforts are important in order to build or create coalitions that support
What strategies would you use to assess the school climate with the intent of identifying and removing barriers to student learning? • School climate survey given to parents, students and teachers • Interviews with students, parents and teachers. • Monthly forums for parents and teachers • PTOs • Create an Advisory/Leadership Committee with members form the faculty, student body, parents and community (not just the principal, assistant principals and school counselors) to help make new policies to identify and remove barriers to student learning. Have monthly meeting with agendas and create action plans to be incorporated into the educational process that will benefit all of the students achievement goals. • Provide and maintain a safe environment for the faculty and students - this could mean that costly security measures have to be implemented, ranging from Security personnel to metal detectors.
This desire manifests itself in many ways, yet at its core is building relationships with students and teachers and then extending these relationships to families and the community. With students, I seek to be visible, greeting the students at the door and working to learn their names. When discipline is necessary, I believe that restorative correction is the best avenue to change behaviors while maintaining relationships. As teachers spend the most time with students during a typical school day, they are essential team members in improving educational outcomes and promoting an inclusive culture. I detail my strategies for working alongside teachers in the subsequent question; however, I strive to support them by creating a culture of trust, safety, training, and collaboration through professional learning communities.
After analyzing the California State Board of Education Policy and the sample plan, I retained great information that will help me become a better educator. Children go through many problems throughout life and many of those problems occur in school. This policy on school safety gives students the opportunity to seek options on so that they have a positive safe learning environment. Some of the few factors that I believe make the policy so effective is the school suspension, expulsion, and mandatory expulsion guidelines and also the sexual harassment policies. There must be consequences when an individual does something they were not supposed to do.
Their experiences allowed them to write about the types of issues that leaders hoping to begin a Safe Zone training program will be faced with. In their writings, they establish the importance of continuing forth in the development of these vital training programs with mindfulness to the types of resistance that they may encounter. Additionally, the types of people who decided to participate in Safe Zone training vary widely and may have different needs and motivations. This means that Safe Zone training can make some people uncomfortable and depending on the audience, there may be resistance encountered. Lastly, they establish that it is a significant commitment and people who take these leadership positions should note that they are choosing to be an active member in a vital role on their campus.
Teachers must feel welcomed, valued and safe in their environment. To achieve that end, the
School counselors provide information and support to students of all ages. They also help students make great choices
Students school environment should be overall safe and supportive. When a parent sends their child to school for eight hours they should feel confident that their child will return safely, and students should feel comfortable to learn and grow. No parent wants a broken heart from a phone call saying their child has been shot. I recommend that enhancing the existing federal policy that gives local school districts the flexibility to use resources to fund student services personnel (including counselors, psychologists, and therapists) as well as appropriate training for teachers to identify mental health problems. In the Parkland, Florida school shooting, the gunman was a student, who had demonstrated serious mental illness and that he had planned out the school shooting as he posted on his YouTube channel.
School shootings are a reoccurring problem in the United States. As of 2018, there have been over 18 school shootings in America (Cuddy). However, this is nothing new to us. Every year they are countless reports of school shootings ending in injury or death. It should be obvious that schools are the safest place for parents to send their children during the day, the sad truth is, it is not.
A nonprofit group that attempts to prevent gun violence called “Everytown for Gun Safety,” released a statement about school shootings. The organization claimed that the school shooting at “[Marjory Stoneman Douglas High] is the 18th school shooting in the U.S. in 2018.’” (Cox and Rich). In less than three months, there have been eighteen school shootings. This shows that schools are no longer a safe environment.
These terrible people make us all question what can be done to better protect the students and teachers that fill our nation 's schools. We need to make schools safer by, implementing more violence prevention, more school resource officers, and more metal detectors. Often times after a school shooting occurs, it is common to hear about the warnings signs that went unnoticed until after the tragic event had occurred. Since we have missed the signs, time and time again, we need to train one another to be more aware of what is going around us.
1. The mission of the school counseling program is to assist all student achieve to the best of his or her ability personally/socially, academically, and vocationally through comprehensive and developmentally appropriate program(s) to be productive citizens, community members, and lifelong learners. This is a collaborative and multi-tiered support approach involving students, parents, faculty and staff, and community learners as stakeholders in the success of our students. 2.
School safety is a very controversial topic in the U.S. There are many cases of people questioning the safety of schools. Recent school shootings raised concerns over school safety. While this has received a lot of attention, other things such as drugs, ara problem in schools. Even teachers have spoken out about the lack of safety of their schools.
Collaboration is critical to a school counselor since they necessitate active involvement with parents, teachers, school administrators, and community affiliates. School counselors also require assistance from others through collaboration designating it as an essential concept toward enhancing student well-being and performance. Consultation involves three contributors: consultant, consultee, and the client. Consultation differs from collaboration because the school counselor (consultant) utilizes his/her knowledge and leads the consultation process as the responsibility of the outcome remains with the teacher, parent or school administrator (consultee) (Erford, 2015). Consultation is an indirect service assisting the client by providing the