Helping Troubled Teens: Group Counseling Interventions Work

Bill's new book coming out in early 2014. Published by Rowman & Littlefield, www.rowmaneducation.com, as are many of Bill's other books. Check out Bill's webpage, williamfibkins, com and his Facebook page for news on  his work and publications. Bill's email is Fibkins@optimum.net. Stay tuned!

Bill Fibkins two new books, spring, 2013

Good news. Two new books coming out:
1. Class Warfare: Focus on "Good" Students Is Ruining Schools. Out in March, 2013
2. Wake Up Counselors! Restoring Counseling Services for Troubled Teens. Out in June, 20123
Published by Rowman&Littlefield, http://www.rowmaneducation.com as are many of my books. Click on Fibkins for information. Also check my webpage, willamfibkins.com for information on my books and projects.

Bill's new book, Angel Teachers: Educators Who Care About Troubled Teens,just out. August 2012. Published by Rowman & Littlelfield, www.rowmaneducation.com. Click on Fibkins for description. Also on carousel as you enter site featuring new publications and on my webpage,
www.williamfibkins.com 

Too Much Dazzle, Hype, and Self Promotion can Derail the Real Mission of a Caring School: educating and guiding kids

Times are tough. With budget cuts looming every year school administrators and union leaders find themselves in a never-ending game of promoting how good their school is and why budgets cuts will derail their ongoing success.  And the vehicle they chose for this ongoing self-promotion is what I call the " dazzle" approach which focuses only on " good news." Good news that can easily be translated into an ongoing selling campaign aimed at convincing school board members, parents, citizens, and even their own staff that their school is performing at its highedst level. Message? Don't mess with success. Meaning if you make drastic budget cuts all hell is going to break out. Teachers and support staff will be fired, new inexperienced teachers will take their place, chaos will  become commonplace with students violence, bullying,  failure, absenteeism and dropouts on the rise.

And where do education leaders find good news? You know the drill. In data about college acceptances, athletic and academic scholarships, winning sports teams, reduced behavior problems , increased attendance, fewer dropouts, high quality music and arts presentations, and community service projects such as inviting senior citizens to lunch.  All fodder for the school's ongoing public relations efforts to say " we are doing good folks." Not unlike a candidate running for reelection, stressing all the reasons to keep he or she in  office. Yet, this good news process comes with a high cost that is often overlooked and can serve to derail the main mission of a caring school; educating  and guiding teens to be all they can be.

I have observed the dark side of this only " good news" process cause once-caring schools and their staff to abandon their major focus on helping kids and turn their energy and mission into becoming a sales machine for survival. Selling their school as a " product" becomes the number one priority.  Overtime school administrators and staff come to believe what their public relations guru's are promoting. They become smitten with these positive reviews rather than staying currrent in their classrooms. Often these schools take on an aura that they are number " 1" and that will never change. But as the actor Woody Allen suggests there is real " danger in reading your positve reviews." One gets to believe naively that only good things will continue to happen in their work. Same for educators.

As a result administrators and staff get to believe the constant hype, dazzle,  self-promotion and deny the dark-side reality of their marginal students. In this process they gradually lose focus and interest in whats are not "good news "kids and their stories. Their lives are not newsworthy. They are the " bad news" kids.  Kids who live at the margins of the school and community life;  who act out, fail courses, cause mischief and trouble, have alcohol, tobacco,, and drugs addictions, poor health, eating disorders, obsesity, on and on . They are the disenfranchised kids who have no real constituency in the school. They are labeled as " those kids" who don't participate in  " good news" programs such as sports, the arts, communiy service, and peer mediation.  They don't make the honor roll or receive any public accolades. Their names and the names of their parents never appear in the " good news " reports.That's only for the " other" kids.

So hubris does it's  work and gradually sets the tone for the school and staff. There is so much effort and push by the staff to save themselves and their school that the process often has a negative impact on their classroom teaching.  Unexpected consequences arrive. Often it takes the form of settling, laziness, drifting and abandoning the marginal kids who need their help, care, and energy the most. Sure the school's public relations ongoing " good news"reporting promotes a school that allows "no"child to fall through the cracks but marginal kids and a few caring administrators and teachers know differently. They know their school operates in two different worlds;  one for the " good news" kids and one for the " no good news" kids.

The result? The process often alters the helping behaviors of once-caring teachers. They pretend they haven't changed and love, care for "all"  their kids but the school they once knew now exists in name only. The " good news" process has become an unwanted visitor.It's now all about fame for the best and brightest and they are sucked up in the process, ready or not. Consciously or unconsciously using the god news stories of the best and brightest students as the ticket to the survival of their school and themselves.

Lessons to be learned? Be careful what you ask for. Self-promotion should be managed carefully.No, not easy as schools and their staff do feel the real  pressure to promote how  they are doing. However often in this process they oversell themselves. Result? In the process of " selling" their worth as a product they, as they saying goes in sports, "give up or ignore what brought them to the dance. " What made them a good school serving ,"every" students , has now become a school focused solely on the " good news" students who deliver the positive spin that says "all is well here."

New book, Stopping the Brain Drain of Skilled Veteran Teachers, is at Amazon.com

Just in! New book, Stopping the Brain Drain of Skilled Veteran Teachers: retaining and valuing their hard-won experience, is at Amazon.com.  Also see my other books. Click on by entering William Fibkins in search button.

Step Two-Training Teachers as Advisors and Helpers.......

Session One-This session focus is on promoting the belief that many teachers already possess good helping skills. Skills they are unaware of  because they aren't considered important in their academic teaching role nor in the  supervisory and evaluation process. This is the time  to begin asking teachers what helping skills they possess and what skills they lack. This session then lays out a training curriculum suggested by teachers themselves. A process  which focuses on their own teaching world,  emphasizing what skills works well and what skills needs improvement.   And most important in these opening conversations is that the " teaching of helping skills" centers on  teachers converations rather than lectures by the trainers.  Remember teachers idea of " training," based on  their past experiences, is sitting siently while being lectured to by an outside expert. Teachers are seldom asked to share their insights, knowledge, and concerns.  Being asked to " talk" about what they know and need is new and unfamiliar teritory.  Yet it can be a welcome breath of  fresh air.  There is also a subtle teaching lesson in this process. If teachers are encouraged to " talk" about their own experience, they may learn that the same process is needed by  students, parents, and colleagues in need of an open door for help.

Session Two-This session focuses on why becoming an advisor and helper can improve their teaching skills and relations  with student, parents and colleagues. It's a " what's in it for me" session. Here are a few examples of the topics to be convered in this session:
1.Helping  students resolve their personal and well-being problems can serve to incease their chances for academic success and help them avoid isolation, risky behaviors ,school failure, and dropping out.
2. When teachers become helpers they become learners again. When teachers enter the profession they develop an " academic " persona and work style that follows them throughout their career. They often have little  awareness or importance  about the non-academic side of their  career. However in becoming advisors and helpers they are thrust into assesing the helping skills they have and learning the new skills to be successful. It's a challenging change and like most new learners they become energized, curious, and also  confused , anxious and uncertain. This new found energy can help them to find professional  renewal and capture the thrills and risk that can come with change.
3. When teachers become helpers they become more effecive teachers for " all" their students. This new role requires teachers to move beyond their one-dimensional academic role. What is now required is to view the whole student; personality, culture, background, successes and failures, health and wellness, relationships, family life, hopes and dreams.
4, When teachers become helpers they become more coupled with other teachers. Academic teachers often appear self-sufficient; they usually work alone and tend to be isolated from colleagues.When teachers beome advisors that changes.   Even teachers who are skilled advisers will encounter student problems that will leave them uncertain and confused  about how to respond. But they are not alone. As an advisor they will have a group of colleagues to serve as their support network, offering feedback on how to intervene.

Session Three-When teachers become helpers they begin to recall how they were helped or not helped as they tried to navigate through their risky teen years. Here are some examples of the topics to be covered:
1. What educators helped guide you during your teen years?
2. What skills did these educators have? Were they good listeners? Nonjudgemental? Encouraging? Capable of delivering critical feedback in a postive way that made sense to you? Were they accessible, trusting,  and able to make you feel safe, at home?
3.What words of encouragement and support did they use when talking with you? Do you still hear their words and use them with your students?
4. Have you modeled your professional life after these educators? Many teachers go into the teaching profession because they encountered positive teacher helpers in their own experience and want to pass on this care and guidance to their students.
5. And of course you probably have intereacted with teachers who lacked the helping skills, caring, and compassion you needed as a teenager. What were they like? How did they rebuff your effort to get the help you needed? Do you still try to avoid using the their words ? Words that send needy teens quickly away.

Session Four- When teachers become helpers they begin to become aware that they often tend  to help certain  students and avoid  helping others who they may  dislike, make them feel uneasy,anxious, and wish they would seek help from someone else. All normal feelings, but feelings that they need to explored and helped to find some positive human connection with.  Here are some of the topics that can be covered in  this session:
1, What are the characteristics of the students you like? For example, do you feel more comfortable with female than male students ? The brightest and more articulate students? Students who are well-behaved? Students who praise you?
2. What part does gender, race , color, culture, appearance, personality, and ability play in determining who you like to help and guide and those who don't fit on your helpig list ?
3. What personal needs of your are met through interactions with your favorite students? Are your needs for praise, affirmation, and support met by interacting with these students? We all come to our work setting with personal needs to be met, But is your overall efficiency as a teacher being diminished by focusing too much on students who are most like you, interest you, and make you feel comfortable?
4. In order to raise your awareness  about who you " include" and who you " avoid" in the helping process make a list of your profile for who you include and who you avoid. Remember we all come into teaching carrying baggage from our upbringing and family lives. It's only natural that we bring our own bias to the classroom. However ignoring these bias and not putting in the work to change them leaves each one of us being less than we could be, never reaching the goal of   becoming a great teacher.

Session Five- When teachers become helpers they become aware that their are certain problems they like to help with and problems they tend to avoid.. Her are some exmples of the topics in this session:
1, What kinds of problems do you like to help with, even gravitate toward?
2. What kinds of problems do you avoid, want to run away from, may even frighten you?
3. Here's a list of common problems teens face. Which appeal to you? Which send a red light of caution off in your mind and  belly?  Here they are: school problems such as failure and poor achievement, conflicts with teachers and peers, hostile,  abusive,  pressure  parents, family crisis such as divorce, death and loss, suicide , emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, eating disorders, tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse, bullying.
4. Time for truth. Make a list of those problems you tend to gravitate towards and those who make you think " I'm out of here , referral right away. "

This kind of training session can be offered in two -hour intervals during the school week or on weekends.

Many students, parents, and a-risk educators are in need of intervention, support, and an open door to find help and a respit. Teachers are ideally positions to offer this support if they are encouraged, trained,  and in the end required to help their students achieve both academic gains and personal growth.. One need not interfere with the other, We need teachers  to elevate their role and expect them to be responsile strewards of the schools in which they teach. Teachers who can plant little seeds of hope and opportunity. Teachers who can say to their students, " you are valued and you can take your rightful place in the world." I believe the training program I descried above is beginning step in helping teachers learn how to think, speak, and act so their students are valued and cared for.

Here  are more extensive resources concerning " why" and "how" we need to bring teachers on baord as helpers:
William L Fibkins, An Educator's Guide to Understanding the Personal Side of Students' Lives. Rowan and Littlefield Education, http://www.rowmaneducation.com/.
William L. Fibkins, Students in Trouble: Schools Can Help Before Failure. Also Rowman and Littlefield
William L. Fibkins, "Training Middle School Teachers To Be Effective Helpers." Schools in the Middle, NASSP, April 1999, pg. 6-8
William L. Fibkins, " Stronger Advisory Programs can Stem the Spread of School Violence., " ,Middle Ground, NMSA, Oct. 1999, pg. 41-42

Step One in Training Teachers as Advisors and Helpers to Offer an Open Door for Troubled Students, Parents, and Colleagues

Training teachers as advisors and helpers to intervene, guide and support troubled teens, parents, and educators  is a win-win program for our secondary schools. Why? Let's do the math.  A high proportion of these schools enroll 2,500 or more students.  It's unreal for policy makers to think that a few guidance counselors, socal workers, and school psychologists can meet the growing personal needs of at- risk teens, parents, and educators. A constituency  heading towards the margins of school and community life and becoming locked in a permanent cycle of failure.   

So what's the answer to this growing problem? Who do we turn to  join  in this effort to help  members of the school comunity when they encounter tough times and need a caring adult to guide them out of their troubled lives?  Again , let's do the math. The obvious answer is teachers on the frontlines of the school who daily observe students in need of intervention.  However to get teachers involved as advisors and helpers they need to be sold on this new role, be well-trained in the helping-intervention-referral process, and expected to act, not look the other way, when intervention is clearly needed. No, not every teacher will become a become a great helper but they need to understand, be required, to give it their best shot.  That means helping students, parents, and colleagues becomes a critical element in  the supervision process between administrators and teachers.

This new role for teachers, I called it a "dual" role,  being both an academic teacher as well as personal advisor and helper, calls for an expanded definition of  what is " the work of teachers." For far too long we have allowed teachers to define their role in academic terms. When they observed teens heading for trouble their reaction has often been to say, " not my job to help, that's the counselors job," or to quickly refer these students and absolve themselves from further responsibility to stay involved.  Given the increasing personal problems of students, parents, and colleagues, that definition of " the work of teachers" demands change. 

However any proposal for teachers to take on a dual role will be no walk in the park. We should expect great resistance from teachers to come on board with this new role. And much of their resistance is understandable.  We simply can't expect teachers to embrace this new helping role without vocalizing their discomfort  and anger . They are right when many of them say, " I'm not trained to be a counselor." In  selling this new role it is important to hear their voices, understand their anxiety, and in this beginning process demystify the helping role. That is make it seem doable so resisiting teachers can see themselves as being able to handle this new role without appearing inadequate or a failure. 

One of the best ways to proceed is to help teacher remember how they were helped or not helped with personal problems by a teacher, coach, school nurse, or  administrator..  What helping words and interventions worked to help them solve problems? What were these helpers like? Caring? Involved? At their side when all seemed lost? And what words and interventions did the helpers who  failed them use? What were these helpers like? Aloof? Too busy? Quick to refer them to others? Too busy with college admissions counsling and scheduling? Not a priority?

Using the teachers own personal history serves to help remind them how they were helped or not helped and what words and interventions worked. Words and interventions they can adopt in  this new role and remind them one does not have to have a M.A. or Ph.D in  counseing to help others. And remind them that what is important in helping is one's caring, accessibility, and ongoing support.A person to be counted on. And to suggest by becoming advisors and helpers they will get to know their students, parents, and colleagues well, learn to embrace them on a personal level, and stop hiding behind " I am just an academic teacher" " In  the process, become a real person to others and themselves.

In Step Two to follow I will provide a training process that can be offered by a team composed of skilled counselors and  teachers along with the support of key staff resources such as a school nurse and  administrator. Because of the limit of space this is a simplified version. In Step Two I will list where followers can find a more detailed training process.