Building Resilient Students

This essential resource provides educators with proven and practical applications for building resiliency in even the most at-risk students.

 "At a time when student testing is at an all-time high, Kate Thomsen reminds us that as educators we are in the human potential business. This user-friendly book provides an overview of key educational trends, so teachers can easily incorporate the best of what works."
Rob Bocchino, Co-founder
Heart of Change; Change of Heart Associates
Author, Emotional Literacy

"Kate Thomsen's book is a must-read for every educator. She has synthesized the wisdom from educational megatrends of the past decades and shows us how to foster healthier, safer, and more resilient student by integrating these major learnings into what we already do. I love this book!"
Beverly Title, Co-founder
Teaching Peace
Hygiene, CO 

What makes one student overcome obstacles, while another cannot seem to cope? What makes one student rise above difficult circumstances, while another flounders? Identifying the attributes of the resilient student is the first step in building resiliency in all of your students. This resource provides busy teachers with practical, concrete applications and activities for reframing the actions of even the most at-risk students, changing the focus from problems to solutions, from deficits to strengths.

Building Resilient Students connects resiliency to five major educational megatrends—character education, multiple intelligences, emotional intelligence, service learning, and violence prevention—and gives educators proven strategies for incorporating the "resiliency attitude" intoeveryday classroom experiences.

Thomsen identifies a myriad of easy, yet innovative applications through six resiliency-building strategies:

• Care and support through meaningful relationships
• Opportunities to participate and contribute in meaningful ways
• High expectations, knowing that others believe they can be successful
• Pro-social bonding through positive connections with peers and adults
• Clear boundaries and expectations that are fair and consistent
• Life skills such as decision making, effective communication, and stress and conflict management

There are seeds of resiliency in all of us. We can nurture those seeds in all students, giving them the life skills they need to become competent, healthy adults.

Kate Thomsen is the Supervisor of Special Programs for Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), Syracuse, New York. She is also an Adjunct Instructor at Syracuse Univer­sity's Graduate School of Education and Counseling. As part of her responsibilities, she supervises the programs of 40 coun­ selors in a school-based drug and alcohol abuse prevention program. She frequently offers workshops on resiliency and related topics. Kate is cofounder and cochair of a local coali­tion, Prevention Partners for Youth Development, which works to integrate youth development principles, especially resiliency and asset development, into all youth services in Onondaga County. A secondary English teacher with a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Syracuse University and a CAS in Educational Administration from State University of New York at Oswego, she has spent her career working in both school and community agency settings. She draws on this experience to offer many ideas and examples for building resiliency in youth.