NewStart Goes to High School (With Fear and Loathing) by Steve Burgess "Our mission is to go where no one has gone before!" Captain James T Kirk "Make it so!" Captain Jean Luc Picard "I wish I was in Philadelphia!" W.C. Fields In September 1997, we at the John Howard Society of Sault Ste. Marie and District began doing something that I don't think has ever been done before. We began a pilot project to deliver a NewStart based Life Skills course (with a trained coach) at two local high schools. One in the first semester and then another (with a slightly different design) during the second semester of the 97/98 school year, at a different high school. Funded by The Trillium Foundation, the project has been in the works for about 18 months and it's aim is to develop a model, based on NewStart, that might eventually be included in the curriculum at the high school level. Twelve years ago we were one of the first local organizations to use the Newstart model and we've been running groups on a continuous basis since then. We have also been committed to prevention workshops in local schools and have completed over 1,000 of them in the last six years. In 1996 we decided to see if we could somehow combine our life skills expertise with our school experience and develop something new. A proposal was developed, funding was applied for, months of community meetings were held, course outlines were developed and here we are, up and running. It hasn't been all smooth sailing. Almost everyone involved at one time or another expressed concern that the project wouldn't work. Coaches were worried about things, the local Boards were worried about things and teachers were worried about things. Many of our meetings were stress filled as we tried to find compromises to the host of roadblocks that we encountered along the way (I could write a book on this!). Even I began to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew. As with most things however compromise won out and what we have at this point is a place to start. As of this writing, I am in week seven of the first course. This model has me in a learning exceptionality group for a total of 12 hours per week for 18 weeks. These students will receive two high school credits for successfully completing the course. They are learning disabled students, a few with behaviour/attitude problems and most working at the grade 4-6 level academically. The biggest challenge for me has been to understand how they learn, what works and what doesn't. As a result by about week four I was forced to throw out nearly everything I had prepared so I could learn from them. What I have learned is this: · hands on stuff works well, however the unstructured nature of it presents problems for some in terms of staying focused, · abstract processing of activities is a problem for some, · the unstructured feel of the circle is difficult for most in terms of staying focused, · a combination of coaching and teaching and knowing when to use what works well, · a combination of circle for some things and traditional rows for other things works well, · having the students write down their learning helps most to make sense out of the processing of activities, · humour works, · video works well as a learning tool, · weekly evaluations work well as do daily journals, · check in works well, · and as always, connecting on a personal level is essential. I am sticking very close to the Newstart curriculum with some additions from the YWCA of Toronto curriculum plus some other things I've picked up along the way. I am becoming more aware that some contact/involvement with parents may be useful in the future and some education with the other teachers at the school re what I am doing will be necessary. I'm living by my wits right now, as I suppose most coaches are doing, and it's exciting. Our first real test will be friends and family night which is coming up soon. We'll have families, some School Board people, kids, and other coaches in attendance. Wish us luck. I'll keep you posted.