Interviewed Jan Elise Sells
Author Lost and Found: Healing Troubled Teens in Troubled Times
"This book invites you into a counseling office at a contemporary urban middle school as students show up, open up, and share their pain. "
About Empathy in the Schools
Jan was counselor in the Berkeley Schools.
She had set up counselling programs . for 20 years.
She was given a class of 18 student 'troublemakers'
students liked her because she didn't do discipline
She set up a peer counseling class
17 boys - Rowdy
16 black
1 Jewish - straight A student
1 girl
She started class with Talk about listening
talked about how counseling worked
gave a statement - how would you rephrase that
and don't sound like a parrot. use different words and put in different order
students had really low vocabulary.
the better your vocabulary the better you do in school
I am mad, translated in you 'feel pissed off
took her months to get them to the point of being able to do reflections
students worked in pairs.
Didn't have a big vocabulary so she took in words and they learned new feeling words.
the student shared.
was reflected.
how did it feel to be reflected and heard?
kids loved it
How to make it fun and engaging?
hearing each others real stories
the sense of feeling hear.
(Ann talks about nerver having felt feeling heard growing up. )
Fan of Robert R. Carkhuff art of helping 20th century
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599961792/