SMARTteam

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SMARTteam

• Students Managing Anger and Resolution Together
• Presented By Flora Craig

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What Is SMARTteam?

• SMARTteam is a multimedia, universal prevention
  program that helps students learn to resolve
  conflicts and manage anger through games,
  decision making aids, behavioral change
  strategies, interactive interviewing and other
  dynamic classroom activities. The skills are
  developed in four activities on each of two CDs.

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Resolving Conflicts

• Whats On Their Minds?
• Celebrity Interviews
• Teen Interviews
• Talking It Out

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Managing Anger

• Whats Anger
• Triggers Fuses
• Anger Busters
• Channel Surfin

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SMARTteam IS FOR EVERY STUDENT

• Anger Replacement Therapy-development of
  prosocial behaviors such as negotiating
  differences responding effectively to teasing,
  mistakes, rejection, or anger and helping
  others.
• Dispute resolution skills-teaching students
  negotiation and compromise to resolve conflicts.
• Perspective Taking-addressing students abilities
  to accurately identify other peoples feelings
  and recognize that they may be different from
  personal ones.

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SMARTteam Goals AND Objectives

• Knowledge about what triggers personal anger.
• Repertoire of nonviolent conflict resolution
  strategies.
• Confidence to use nonviolent strategies and to
  report such intentions.
• Acts of prosocial behavior and avoidance of
  involvement in violent incidents.

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Why Use SMARTteam?

• Helps teens recognize personal signals that may
  make them vulnerable to negative actions, and
  addresses these issues to improve self-esteem and
  confidence.
• Provides teens the skills to recognize troubling
  situations and determine an appropriate plan of
  action.

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Why Use SMARTteam?

• Encourages adolescents to take control of their
  lives and make informed and positive lifestyle
  decisions.
• Gives preventive information that many resources
  overlook.

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Motivational Appeal

• Allows students to make choices regarding their
  socio-emotional health, and to become highly
  engaged through interactive activities.
• Has a technological presentation that is current
  and attractive to students.
• Allows students to role model by consulting the
  advice and ideas given by real peer mediators
  and celebrities.

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Instructional Flexibility

• Provides an excellent forum for initiating
  discussion on the topics of resolving conflicts
  in a nonviolent way and managing anger to
  maintain self-esteem and avoid trouble.
• Integrates well with other commonly used conflict
  mediation and violence prevention curricula in
  schools.
• Can be easily adapted to a variety of classroom
  settings with different equipment configurations.

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Why Use The Computer?

• Gives life and action to a print based
  curriculum.
• Appeals to different senses than traditional
  materials.
• Provides an information source that is
  nonjudgmental.

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Why Use The Computer?

• Can be used independently by one student or by an
  entire class in a homeroom or lab.
• Encourages students to try new things, explore a
  topic, exchange important ideas with classmates,
  or search for further information.
• Is a single source of varied materials
  Tutorials, Games, Decision making aids,
  Behavioral change strategies, Interactive
  interviewing, Other types of activities that add
  a dynamic dimension to instruction.

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The Research Says Students Using SMARTteam

• Have increased knowledge, self-knowledge of how
  personal behavior might escalate a conflict,
  frequency of prosocial behavior, and intentions
  to use nonviolent strategies.
• Are less likely to report getting into trouble.
• Report decreased beliefs supportive of violent
  actions.

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Using SMARTteam Individually

• One way to use SMARTteam is to set it up at one
  central location (e.g., lab, media center, or
  resource room) in the school, and encourage
  students to come at their convenience or at an
  assigned time to use a program of their choice or
  to complete an assignment. This approach lets
  students seek the information they want and need
  confidentially without direct observation by
  teachers. Students usually enjoy this kind of
  unstructured time because they are directing
  their own efforts and feel in charge.

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Using SMARTteam With Groups

• SMARTteam can be used with a small or large group
  of students in a classroom as an integral part of
  a content lesson. For group use, most of the
  Resource activities are ready-to-go. The
  discussion aspect of each activity is key to
  learning the new skills, since students
  frequently take personal information from peers
  more seriously than information from adults.

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Using SMARTteam With One Computer

• Establishing large or small groups is dependent
  on the number of computers, type of equipment,
  and amount of time available. For example, if
  there is only one computer in the classroom, the
  class can be kept together as a whole while both
  introducing and working through an activity. An
  alternative approach, if more time is available,
  is to break into smaller groups after the initial
  large-group introduction. These separate groups
  take turns at the single computer to complete an
  assignment, and then report to the other groups
  for follow-up discussion.

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Using The Activity Resource

• The activities in this Resource expand on the
  ideas presented in the software. They encourage
  students to think about and explore personal and
  others responses, to contemplate different
  action plans for conflict situations, to gain
  perspective on others feelings, and to respond
  interactively to hypothetical situations.

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Organization

• The activities are ready-to-go classroom lessons
  that can be easily adapted to a group or an
  individual setting. Each activity includes an
  overview and tips for preparing, introducing, and
  carrying out the lesson.

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Age/Grade Level

• SMARTteam is generally targeted for use by teens
  in grades six through nine. Before using a
  computer program, however, it and any related
  print activity should be reviewed to ensure the
  content and interest level are appropriate. If
  any material is judged to be either too old or
  too young for the students, it may be easily
  adapted though increased teacher direction.

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Features

• Each activity is self-contained and provides a
  brief overview of the lesson.
• All activities are written for group use, but
  many can be easily adapted for individual work.

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Features

• Many questions are open-ended without right or
  wrong answers and are intended for class
  discussion. Exchanges with peers are frequently
  the important way students learn why certain
  responses can escalate or de-escalate a conflict
  situation.
• Role-playing is emphasized in several activities,
  since writing a script and then acting it out
  help reinforce the positive responses to
  conflict.

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Materials

• Materials include one of the SMARTteam CDs and
  Activity Resource with the Teacher Directions and
  student Portfolio for each activity.
• The Student Portfolio includes the Student
  Directions, questions, and answer spaces, so a
  record may be kept of responses.
• Each Portfolio is included in the Resource,
  following the Teacher Directions. It may be
  copied easily for distribution to the students.

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Time

• Most of the lessons are designed to be completed
  by students within 20-30 minutes. Introductions
  and follow-up discussions take additional time
  and need to be coordinated with the class
  schedule.
• To judge the total time needed for each lesson,
  also consider the equipment available and how the
  activity is being taught. For example, if you
  have only one computer and plan to introduce an
  activity to a large group-with follow-up
  small-group work-several class periods may be
  needed for everyone to have computer access.

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Resolving Conflicts

• Teens experience conflicts, which are a normal
  part of life, but sometimes they can escalate and
  become overwhelming. Learning how to recognize
  tensions and deal with them effectively can have
  an immensely positive impact on every aspect of a
  teens life. Good conflict resolution skills
  impact health and well-being for a lifetime.

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Resolving Conflicts

• The five activities on this CD focus on raising
  teens awareness of conflicts by emphasizing
  several aspects of interpersonal tensions.
  Thinking about whats on others minds during
  negative actions, realizing that other teens may
  all perceive the same action quite differently,
  learning certain language cues that ease
  tensions, improving communication, and paying
  attention to how role models problem solve are
  all key factors in successful management of
  conflict.

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Whats On Their Minds-Part A

• Students explore reasons for various teen actions
  and behaviors. They begin with a teacher-led
  discussion about specific incidents and the
  likely reasons for the conflicts to occur.
• They next play a game on the computer in groups
  in which they consider nine different situations,
  and select reasons that may have caused the
  conflicts. They compare their responses to those
  made by a group of 100 teens.

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Whats On Their Minds-Part B

• Students recall their discussions and responses
  to situations in Activity 1, and then, in groups,
  create three situations different from ones they
  have already discussed in which teens can easily
  find themselves. They each contribute a
  realistic response to each situation, and then
  share their situations and responses with the
  entire class.
• During the sharing activity, all class members
  can vote on the set of responses to choose the
  most realistic one and then a class profile can
  be created to compare, for example, with a
  profile in another class.

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Talking It Out-Part A

• Students focus on conflict resolution by learning
  how to talk it out. They learn about the
  characteristics of a good solution and steps to
  good communication. They also note some tips
  given by a teen panel.
• Based on this resolution information, students
  brainstorm additional ideas of their own
  regarding what they might tell a friend who is
  trying to successfully resolve a problem with a
  peer.
• As a wrap-up, students share their thoughts on
  how well they think these techniques for solving
  problems might work in real life.

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Talking It Out-Part B

• With partners or in small groups, students choose
  a topic as a basis for conflict they will attempt
  to solve. They answer questions about this
  conflict on the computer and agree to specific
  Ground Rules.
• They tell their side of the story, identify
  issues, make realistic and positive suggestions
  for how to solve the problem, and print out a
  contract agreeing on how to proceed.

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Talking It Out-Part C

• With partners or in small groups, students review
  the contracts they developed in activity 4 if
  desired, they may make appropriate changes to
  them.
• Then students prepare a dialogue and skit in
  which they act out the conflict for other class
  members. They include how the trouble started,
  and then work through resolution steps with a
  peer mediator reminding them of the rules and
  steps to take. The solutions have to be
  realistic and positive.

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Talking It Out-Part C

• As an alternate plan, students might develop a
  conflict different from the one described in
  Activity 4. They would identify ways to solve
  this new problem and prepare a skit to act out
  their ideas. When brainstorming solutions, they
  would choose one that would obviously Not work,
  based on the information learned in Activity 4.
  Then they would see whether other class members
  could identify what is wrong with their conflict
  resolution.

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Goals and Objectives

• Recognize that others actions and behaviors in a
  particular situation may be perceived quite
  differently by different teens.
• Examine the reasons for others various actions
  and behaviors in different situations.
• Recognize that sometimes conflict situations are
  not what they appear to be when they occur that
  further communication often dispels the original
  angry and hurt feelings on both sides.

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Goals and Objectives

• Learn the specific Ground Rules for good
  solutions and their related characteristics.
• Brainstorm resolutions to conflicts they have
  personally identified compare their solutions to
  those of their classmates and analyze solutions
  for their positive, negative, and realistic
  aspects.
• Role play situations and solutions they have
  created.

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Managing Anger

• Learning to express anger in a constructive way
  is a key factor to an individuals general
  well-being and happiness. Letting anger build
  and keeping negative feelings inside can lead to
  stress, depression, and unsuccessful social
  relationships.

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Managing Anger

• Some of the techniques for positive expression of
  anger involve diffusing and re-channeling
  feelings, talking about them with a friend,
  developing a plan of action and coping strategies
  for tense situations, better understanding
  personal sensitivities, and confronting the
  perpetrator or problem with an open mind and
  flexible approach.

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Managing Anger

• These techniques form the basis for the Managing
  Anger activities on the CD and in the
  Resourceteens are helped to identify and
  practice strategies for reducing and managing
  their negative feelings. Students learn about
  the emotion of anger, itself, about personal
  triggers and fuses, how to analyze conflict
  situations and choose appropriate responses and
  resulting consequences, and to focus on tips for
  coping with anger. These skills are key to
  acquiring and maintaining a healthy self-esteem
  and sense of wellness.

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Triggers Fuses

• Students learn the basics about positive anger
  management. They learn about others Triggers
  and Fuses and try to identify personal ones, as
  well. To further enhance understanding of angry
  feelings, students rank a list of trigger
  situations according to which ones are the
  hardest and easiest to manage.

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Anger Busters-Part A

• Students focus on managing anger in a positive
  way. They learn about Teen Panel Tips and
  strategies for dealing with negative emotions,
  and choose specific Anger Busters for confronting
  angry people or situations. In groups or
  independently, students discuss their responses
  to the Tips and Busters, and then think about
  what personal strategy might work best.

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Anger Busters-Part B

• Students work in groups and focus on managing
  anger in a positive way by identifying an angry
  situation and creating one appropriate response
  and several inappropriate ones. They prepare a
  skit, asking class members to choose the right
  response and discuss why the others are negative
  or likely not to diffuse a situation.

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Channel Surfin-Part A

• Students work independently or in groups and
  focus on managing anger in a positive way by
  identifying both appropriate and inappropriate
  responses to angry situations and learning the
  respective consequences.
• As students gain experience with the programs
  focus, they create their own responses and
  consequences, analyzing the very different
  results that negative responses bring versus what
  positive responses produce.

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Channel Surfin-Part B

• Students work in groups and view additional
  channels in the program, Channel Surfin. They
  also create their own situations, responses, and
  consequences and present them to the class the
  focus is on understanding and predicting
  appropriate results based on negative and
  positive responses to anger.

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Goals and Objectives

• Identify strategies for dealing with negative
  emotions and learn about specific Anger busters
  for confronting angry people or situations.
• Think about personal triggers and fuses and which
  management strategies might work best to address
  those issues.

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Goals and Objectives

• Role-play an angry situation with one appropriate
  response and several inappropriate ones, and then
  challenge class members to choose the positive
  answer and discuss why the others are negative or
  ineffective.
• Identify appropriate responses to angry
  situations and explore the respective
  consequences.
• Create their own responses and consequences
  regarding angry situations, and then analyze the
  very different results that negative responses
  bring versus what positive responses produce.