Advisory Program Practices: The First Few Meetings

 Email Article  

Tweet  

  

  

  

 delicious  

  

Blogger: Denise Wolk

Building community is one of the critical first steps to creating an advisory program with high trust. Establishing trust between advisor and advisees, and among advisee peers is important, and using a variety of “getting to know you” and community building exercises can help. Creating a supportive advisory community allows the advisor and group to offer encouragement and support during hard times, engaging in civil dialog on controversial subjects, having honest exchanges about current challenges or future endeavors, and providing a safety net for individual students.

I am offering some suggestions to build community that can begin with the first few meetings of a new advisory program, or to kick off a new school year with an existing group. 

Be sure to include:

•    Introductory activities so that all students feel welcome and begin to know each other, starting with names and building slowly to sharing interests and experiences.

•    Talking points about advisory to help advisors explain to students what the purpose of an advisory program is, why it is important to participate, how often it will meet, what the advisor’s role is, and other basic information.

•    Opportunities for the advisory group to shape its own culture – identifying group agreements, reflecting on how the group is going so far, its norms, the helpful and not-so-helpful habits that are beginning to develop. This is one of the first things I do with new groups, and it helps to build a respectful community right off the bat.

•    Gathering student contact data and schedule information via a profile sheet or data card including cell or e-mail contacts for students and parents, as well as phonetic spelling for difficult names.

•    Introductory versions of the regular rituals and routines that will be incorporated into advisory (see the post on rituals and routines for advisory).

•    Opportunities for students to lead, organize, and share ownership of the group – gather information about each other’s birthdays, organize a snack calendar, get student input on crucial topics to discuss, etc. For groups that have been meeting for multiple years, allowing students structured opportunities to lead gatherings or even full advisory sessions offers chances for leadership and growth of advisees as well as being a lot of fun.

•    For students who are new to the school, use activities that increase awareness about key school locations, people, services, rules, etc., and that decrease anxiety about where to sit in the cafeteria, what to expect at homecoming, or how to handle other new high school moments.