How Are You Feeling?

One of the joys of working in a middle school is the range of maturity of the students in the building.  There is still a sense of innocence and youth, and at the same time there is the "I'm not a little kid anymore" syndrome.  One thing is the same, however, kids can get angry and have a difficult time trying to calm down. 

Last year I did helping kids learn coping mechanisms, but I did not do a lot of assessing where they were on an anger scale.  I thought I would try it this year, by giving students a pre and post anger rating scale.  What I am finding is, that yes, coping skills do help.

When kids are coming down to my office, I am now having them assess their anger.  I hand them this sheet with a pencil and let them rate how they are feeling.  From there they fill out the rest of the sheet and then we do a few coping skills together, and after a few minutes, I have them reassess how they are feeling. 

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Interestingly, I am also finding that kids already know a lot of great coping skills.  I really don't have to teach them these.  With the sheet as a reminder to using their coping skills, there is a quicker response to them feeling better.  And, I'm sure you know what that means. . .getting back to class sooner, missing less work, and stopping the spiral effect.

Hope you like it.  Do you have a form that you use?  How does it help?  Let me know.  Leave a comment below or join in the conversation by one of the ways below:

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