Middle School Life Skills Program

Objective

The goal of The Willows’ Life Skills Program is to help students develop and strengthen their skills in communication, problem solving, and decision-making. We are aware of the sometimes rocky road that middle schoolers face, and our aim is to provide tools for successfully navigating some of the more difficult moments.

Many of our activities focus on developing students’ communication skills. We believe that children should learn to be their own advocates in their relationships with peers, parents, and teachers. In our classes, we explore various ways that students can listen and speak respectfully so that they can make their own voices heard and hear what others are saying as well.

We also explore how students can make good behavioral choices, in school, off campus, and online. We address issues of drug and alcohol use, smoking, and physical intimacy. With all of these topics, we aim to provide students with information so that they can make intelligent decisions that will keep them safe and in control.

Nuts and Bolts
Students meet once each week for Life Skills classes. They meet with their homeroom teacher, who moderates the activity. Occasionally we divide students within a grade level by gender, so girls and boys can address specific issues.

We also bring in outside experts to enhance our program. This year, we have invited Miles to Go, a drug education organization, to conduct a three-week workshop with eighth-graders. Later this spring, Lauren Roselle from the Esteem organization will be conducting a week-long girls’ self-defense workshop.

Curriculum
Some of our Life Skills curriculum springs from the day-to-day needs of the student body. More often, however, we follow a curriculum that we have designed to be age-appropriate for each grade level. Some of the major topics addressed in each grade are listed below.

6th grade: independence, organization and study skills, popularity and peer relations, personal goals and self-esteem, managing stress

7th grade: social groups and cliques, nutrition and body image, human anatomy and reproduction

8th grade: social groups and cliques, gender issues, drug and alcohol education, decision-making and the media, reproduction and sex education, making good choices after leaving The Willows