Second Step:   Student Success Through Prevention

This year the middle school has adopted the Second Step Program to enhance how we cover the social and emotional development of our students.  This is a program by Committee for Children and paid for by a grant through Teller County Build a Generation.  Committee for Children is a nonprofit organization in Seattle, WA whose mission is to foster the social and emotional development, safety, and well-being of children through education and advocacy.  Committee for Children programs focus on the essential skills of empathy, impulse control, anger management, problem solving, personal safety and emergent literacy.

There are five main themes are interwoven throughout the lessons at each grade level:

1--Empathy and Communication

                2--Bullying Prevention

                3--Emotion Management

                4--Problem-solving, Decision-making and Goal-setting

                5--Substance Abuse Prevention

By the Winter break each homeroom should have covered all the topics related to the Empathy and Communication section and the Bullying Prevention, sixth and eighth grades have also covered the Emotion Management section.  Once we return from Winter Break, eighth grade will be working with the Problem solving, Decision making and Goal setting which will tie in with discussions around High School registration and Career Exploration.   Sixth and seventh grades will be working with the Problem solving sections.

Although the themes are the same; the materials and the methods to present the material are different depending on the grade level. There will be a scope and sequence for each grade level with the objectives and state standards that are covered available on the middle school website by early next year. We will try and keep you up-to-date with what the students are covering at each grade so that you can help them and use the same language at home as they are getting at school.  There are “home” assignments that are related to the topics that students should be bringing home for family discussion. If you have any questions or would like to see the materials for the home assignments, contact your child’s homeroom teacher.