Objective: Utilize advisory periods to create a sense of community and help students build essential soft skills for future success.
Key Considerations:
Staffing Matters: Success hinges on having dedicated staff who are trained and supported.
Small Groups Work Best: Limit groups to no more than 8 students for meaningful engagement.
Diverse Student Mix: A variety of perspectives enhances discussions and learning experiences.
Time is Limited, Impact is Not: Though 30 minutes is short, structured sessions can drive significant outcomes.
Implementation Steps:
Assess Capacity: Vet both students and staff to determine how many advisory sections can be effectively hosted.
Develop a Clear Plan: Build a well-structured scope and sequence for advisory periods, ensuring alignment with student needs.
Provide Guidance & Training: Equip session leaders with appropriate resources and strategies to foster engagement and growth.
With thoughtful planning and execution, advisory periods can be a powerful tool for strengthening school culture and preparing students for success beyond the classroom.
🎯 Objective:
Leverage advisory periods to create a strong sense of community while helping students develop essential soft skills that contribute to long-term success in school, work, and life.
Advisory periods have the potential to be more than just downtime—they can be transformative. By creating safe, consistent spaces for connection and growth, advisory time can be used to build trust, teach soft skills, and support students in ways that impact behavior, engagement, and future readiness.
Led by: Carmen Chadwick, MTSS Facilitator
Timeframe: Daily, 30 minutes during WEROC (Advisory)
Student Selection Process:
Ms. Chadwick initiated the pilot by requesting a small group of students to meet with during advisory.
She partnered with campus leadership to review discipline data and identify the top 30 students repeatedly flagged for behavior or social-emotional concerns.
From that list, 8 students were thoughtfully selected and vetted by the team for participation in the pilot group.
The group began with building a Community Agreement, establishing norms and shared expectations.
Conversations evolved from light "get-to-know-you" chats to deep, purposeful discussions around emotions, relationships, and personal growth.
Ms. Chadwick has developed strong individual connections with each student—but what’s most impactful is how the students have connected with one another.
Students who once saw each other as mere acquaintances now check in on each other, hold each other accountable, and show genuine care for one another’s feelings and experiences.
This group has become a model of what’s possible when advisory time is used intentionally—with the right structure, relationships, and purpose.
Discipline referrals for these students have decreased, while classroom engagement and emotional regulation have improved.
This pilot shows the power of using advisory periods to:
✅ Build student relationships and social-emotional awareness
✅ Teach essential life skills like empathy, communication, and accountability
✅ Reframe students often “on our radar” as leaders in their own growth journeys
Next Steps:
With continued success, this model can be expanded to include more targeted groups or serve as a template for campus-wide advisory programming.