Home Base, as its name indicates, is a time set aside each day to allow our students to establish and maintain a sense of small-group community and to strengthen student-adult relationships. Home Base also provides students with the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of life and their role in it. It is a time of friendship, support and learning. Through discussion, role playing, and other activities, each grade level concentrates on gaining self-awareness and interpersonal communication and conflict resolution skills. Each grade level also emphasizes specific areas such as relationship skills, stress reduction skills, goal setting, decision making, and healthy risk-taking. See the links to the left for a more detailed description of the content by grade level.

Homebase Specifics:

• Each Home Base is made up of up to 14 students in the same grade level who meet with an assigned advisor throughout the year.
• Home Base period takes place five days a week from 8:00 - 8:20.
• Students in each Home Base meet together in a circle format to discuss topics relevant to their lives and to practice active listening skills.
• In addition, activities are planned to actively involve students in getting to know themselves and each other better, building good character, connecting with others, serving their community and managing their own behavior.

Grade 6 Homebase Program

TBA

Grade 7 Homebase Program

Middle school is an exciting time for students. It can also be a demanding time as they enter adolescence and experience many physical and psychological changes. Among other developmental tasks they will work on are the following:

• Organizing knowledge and concepts into problem-solving strategies
• Recognizing one’s own identification with stereotypes
• Gaining a sense of independence/self-concept
• Planning to meet long-term deadlines
• Moving out of ego-centrism toward concern for others and the world at large
• Developing a sense of morality and values

As adults, it is helpful to understand that adolescents are often easily tired because of their rapid physical growth. They can be extremely sensitive to the comments of others, especially their peers. They have a strong need for friends to provide comfort, understanding and approval. Therefore, the Home Base Program is designed to help students with these areas of need and development.

Team Building

The first few weeks in Home Base are used to build a relationship among the Home Base members. It is also used to set goals for the coming year. These goals may include educational, career, health, leisure, personal growth or relationship goals. The Home Bases will also look at breaking the goals down into achievable steps and developing the personal qualities needed to reach these goals.

Knowing Yourself

These lessons focus on identifying our own feelings and those of others. It is helpful in teaching acceptance of feelings. The emphasis is on the choices we make and in picking up non-verbal cues from others which will help in relationship-building, conflict management and empathy. See lesson on Positive Self-Talk.

Building Self-Esteem

These lessons focus on determining what our self-concept is, how well we see ourselves, the difference between self-concept and self-esteem and things to admire about ourselves and others. We will also focus on self-talk and how it can help us and hurt us in building self-esteem and reaching our goals. Finally, we look at the role of feedback and criticism in improving ourselves and reaching our goals. This leads us on to communication and how good communication helps us to connect with others. See Powerpoint@ presentation on Responding to Feedback.

Connecting to Others

We will work at developing appropriate questioning strategies, good listening skills, generosity and compassion.

Managing Ourselves

These lessons include Defense Mechanisms, conflict management practice, recognition of the impact of perception, peer pressure and refusal skills. See the Controlling Impulsivity Lesson. You might also want to look at Life Laws, according to Jay McGraw, son of Dr. Phil McGraw.

Grade 8 Homebase Program

Transitions

Learning to interact and communicate with others while enjoying life and school.

Philosophy

8th grade students find themselves in transition from one level to another educationally, physically, emotionally and socially. These students live in a demanding and ever-shrinking, culturally diverse world where they need to be able to interact, communicate, and perform effectively and confidently. Through non-threatening challenges and initiatives, students will expand their comfort zone while they continue to grow as respectful, productive citizens equipped with healthy coping and interaction skills. 

Group Progression:

COOPERATION---> TRUST---> PROBLEM SOLVING---> CHALLENGE

(Groups will move through this sequence at varying speeds.)

Teacher’s Role Progression:

LEADER---> GUIDE---> MENTOR---> CONSULTANT

Areas of Focus:

Main resource: The Caring Classroom by Laurie S. Frank