Breaking Through: Making the Connection
Format
Individual Presentation
First Presenter's Institution
Cherokee County Career and Technology Center
Second Presenter's Institution
NA
Third Presenter's Institution
NA
Fourth Presenter's Institution
NA
Fifth Presenter's Institution
NA
Location
Harborside East & West
Strand #1
Social & Emotional Skills
Strand #2
Mental & Physical Health
Relevance
I desire to share my experience and knowledge of breaking through with students through earning trust and meeting their emotional needs. Our program has been very successful with this. Making the connection is the first step to turning a life around. Once trust is earned, students can be guided to better social and emotional skills, physical health choices and academic performance.
Brief Program Description
An 8th grade drop-out...fast forward 3 years and she is a National Robotics competitor. The turning factor? Connection! Curriculum and standards are necessary and important, but earning a student's trust is how we break through. Join me as I share my experiences and HOW I make these connections.
Summary
I desire to share my strategies and experiences of making the human connection...earning student's trust in order to turn their lives around. I have the utmost respect for experts on curriculum, but making the human connection is what so many are missing. I will do trust earning games and activities I use in my actual classroom. I will send home a copy of my powerpoint, along with links and materials that I use on a daily basis for things such as soft skills and character education.
Evidence
Two of my former students, both graduated have agreed to do a short video clip to be used in the presentation. One came to me as an 8th grade drop out with a drug problem. She graduated last year with honors and went on to compete in a National Robotics Championship. The other student came to me with so much anxiety about being around other students that she would not board the bus to go to her home school for lunch. She ended up being my teacher's aide, and is now one of the county librarians and runs the children's program. I don't think anything speaks louder than our students.
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Alexandrea Garrett-Helms has been teaching for ten years. She graduated from Huntingdon College with a B.A. in English and Art, earned her J.D. from Birmingham School of Law, and is a certified grant writer. She has been in her position as the Career Quest teacher for the Cherokee County School System for 4 years. Career Quest is an At-Risk Alternative Education program that graduates 10-15 students per year.
Presentation Year
2017
Start Date
3-7-2017 4:00 PM
End Date
3-7-2017 5:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Eubanks, Alexandrea G., "Breaking Through: Making the Connection" (2017). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 67.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2017/2017/67
Breaking Through: Making the Connection
Harborside East & West
An 8th grade drop-out...fast forward 3 years and she is a National Robotics competitor. The turning factor? Connection! Curriculum and standards are necessary and important, but earning a student's trust is how we break through. Join me as I share my experiences and HOW I make these connections.
