Counselor's Corner

Q25: Give an example of a time your dyslexia required you to be resilient. *** Yesterday was the final class in our three-week exploration of “Resilient,” one of our school’s core values. We reviewed pre-spring break content via answering questions related to topics we had covered. Some questions explored the components of our operational definition (“I make space for my feelings and then I move forward bravely”), others looked into barriers to resilience (e.g. anxiety, not asking for help when it would be beneficial, fixed mindset, failing to upgrade problem-solving strategies), and some involved identifying coping strategies that help us navigate challenging times. Question number 25 was one I added simply because I wanted to hear their responses and how they connected our class discussions to their real-life experiences.   “So before, when I went to my other school…” Fourth-grader Maggie paused and we all nodded. “I didn’t know I had dyslexia yet and reading was really hard.” Heads

Morning will come whistling Some comforting tune, for you. You can do this hard thing. You can do this hard thing. It’s not easy I know,  But I believe that it’s so. You can do this hard thing.             “You Can Do This Hard Thing” (Carrie Newcomer) *** “Check this out.” I put a rubber band around my index finger. “Here is this rubber band, just going along living daily life.” I stretched it a bit with my other index finger. “And then something hard happens. It has to stretch outside of its comfort zone.” I stretched it a bit more. “And then something else hard comes along that pulls it a bit further outside what is normal.” My fourth-grade students’ eyes opened a bit wider. “It looks differently now, doesn’t it?” Their heads nodded. “One of three things will happen to this rubber band. The thing that we fear the most is what happens the least frequently – it will break and never be able to function again. Most of the times it will accept and adjust to the new pressures.” I demonstr

There’s a Chinese fable about a farmer. He grew typical crops, like corn and wheat, as did his neighbors. One day he went to market and, in exchange for a chicken, he left with seeds that were promised to yield an abundant bamboo crop. He went home, prepared his land, and planted the seeds. He diligently cared for the soil with daily watering. The first year, nothing happened. He continued watering the ground. The second year, the same thing. The third year, yet again, nothing occurred. By the fourth year everyone thought he was foolish and had made the mistake of a lifetime. The seeds never sprouted that year. One night in the fifth year, the farmer lamented the lack of any progress. He cursed the man who tricked him with the bamboo seeds and stole his chicken, and then cursed himself for not accepting that the seeds had been a hoax when they failed to sprout. He awoke the next morning, still despondent, and begrudgingly went outside to water the soil. He discovered that the bamboo ha