Thursday, November 17, 2016

Resilience

Resilience means to have a sense of elasticity or holding a sense of stretch with an ability to revert to its original size. 

When I think of the word resilient, I think of having the ability to keep moving on in life regardless of  the exterior influences; negative or positive. In this perspective I think resilient can relate to the word perseverance which means to never give upon yourself. 

As for the Center For Resilience, I did not know this place existed. 

While viewing these videos on Center for Resilience I had difficulty with loading them. However, I did see the quotes of the people who were assisted by Center for Resilience. The quotes all had a common factor of positivity. 


For example, one said "It makes it a positive classroom culture, where students are learning to care for themselves and care for others." and "It calms me down and relaxes me."

I love what the director envisioned for this center because it went beyond learning in the classroom. She said she wanted to assist student's growth in their character, personalty and well being. I find this to be so respectable because she wants students to do well in school but she also holds an understanding for what a child needs to do well in school. 

counselor Polanco spoke on behalf student that was exposed to a group of mean girls who influenced her to act like another mean girl. Polanco also saw this student suffer from emotional stress and anxiety. Polanco said that once these mindfulness activities were taught in the classroom, she saw a huge improvement in this student. One mindful activity that was utilized was deep breathing. I thought how simple that is and it made me question its effectiveness. However, I forget to breathe sometimes and when I am stressed and I take myself out of the anxiety provoking equation I take a second to breathe. It makes all the difference. 


This reminds me of working with children who deal with autism. One boy in particular would immediately scream, kick, and cry when something went inaccurately in his mind. Sometimes he needed lunch but he did not want to go inside because he was having so much fun outside. I would have to remind him that he needed food to keep playing and sometimes he would lose his composure and I would help him breathe deeply. I would have to say that I always felt better when I took a deep breathe because that would heightens the chances of him taking a deep breathe. What I remember most is the change in his facial appearance, it would go from terrified like he was being chased by a monster form his closet to a smiley, dimpled relaxed expression. 


These moments were so small in retrospect to life. Yet to my time working with him, they were so huge. Watching his terror was alarming and when I was successful in calming him down, it felt like I won first place in a competition as I felt a huge sense of relief. 

2 comments:

  1. I love your personal stories, you are always one to have a personal relation to our topics... and it makes the concepts we are learning so much more real!! Thank you!

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  2. Hey Emma, thanks for sharing with us! I really like how you focused on positivity ! I think it is so important to teach that to our young students!

    Take care, Megan

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