Full Description
Educators as First Responders is a comprehensive, hands-on guide to adolescent development and mental health for teachers and other educators of students in grades 6-12. Today's schools are at the forefront of supporting adolescents with increasingly complex, challenging psychosocial needs. Moreover, students are more likely to seek out a trusted teacher, advisor, or coach for support than to confide directly in a parent or even a school counselor. Succinct and accessible, this book provides tips and strategies that teachers, coaches, nurses, counselors, and other school professionals can put into immediate use with students in varying degrees of distress. These evidence-based practices and real-world classroom examples will help you understand the "whole student," a developing individual shaped not just by parental pressure or psychiatric diagnosis but by school and broader cultural and systemic forces.
Contents
Section I: Educators and Adolescents 1. Educators As First Responders 2. The Adolescent Mind 3. They Did What? Risk, Reward, and Impulsivity 4. Worried, Sad, or Something More? Section II: Outside Forces 5. Race and Culture 6. Socioeconomic Considerations 7. Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation 8. Crisis Section III: Strengthening Their Circle of Support 9. Meet the Parents 10. Encouraging an Emotionally Healthy School
