From the Chair: The Power of Positive Relationships

Risk assessments, social media challenges, gaming and more. We’ve all faced difficult situations in our profession. Situations where you're faced with the challenge of helping support students after they have suffered the consequences of poor decision making, or helping guide students to avoid risky behavior and make healthy positive choices. As helpers, we naturally want to make sure that all of our students feel valued and supported. We want them to know that they matter and that they have the potential to do amazing things in this world. Navigating these challenges with our students isn’t an easy job but is something that we continue to strive toward every day by helping to teach our students essential skills to overcome the risky and potentially dangerous situations they may encounter.

As we enter the final stretch of the school year, many of us will be thinking about our students’ safety and well-being once they leave the school walls. We always hope we have provided enough guidance and support. We hope that we armed our students with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate tough challenges they might face during the summer months, in the next grade, the next school or after graduation. It’s easy to get caught up in the worry and anxiety of the unknown. I encourage you to spend the last few weeks of the school year not focusing on what you can’t control but instead focusing on the one thing that we as counselors know is essential for students to feel safe and confident in the world: relationships. The kind of positive relationships that teachers, counselors and other school staff can build to help students all feel a sense of belonging.

We can’t control things in a student's life outside of school but the strong connections we make with them will help them to know that they have worth. They are valued. They matter. When you feel the crunch of the last few weeks upon you and you anticipate summer break, find ways to be intentional with your student connections. Schedule “minute meetings” with each student where you can do a quick check-in. If you are running out of time, prioritize students who you know are struggling and students who may be leaving your building for the last time when the year wraps up. Create opportunities during lessons or advisory groups for students to share their worries, challenges and successes. Five or 10 minutes at the end of a lesson can allow enough time to give students a space to connect with you and each other. Maybe add a teambuilding game or fun activity to your lesson plan to encourage connection and positive engagement. You don’t have to do all the things, but it is important to be intentional with what you choose to implement.

Inevitably, this school year will end. Despite our best efforts, there will be things we don’t get to, lessons we don’t get to teach, groups we don’t get a chance to run and conversations that will remain unsaid. We can’t control everything but we can make sure to make the most out of every interaction we have with our students, every day. With every lesson, every conversation and every high-five, a stronger relationship and connection is built. The relationships you are building matter – and sometimes we won’t know how much our efforts impacted our students until years later or sometimes never. Just know that you are making a difference. You have worked hard this year despite so many challenges post pandemic. Despite these hardships, connections were made. As a result, students' lives were impacted in a positive way and you made a difference for those students that they will carry with them forever.

Contact Kim Raymond, MESCA Board chair, at kraymond@rsu22.us.