I hope bringing my SPT perspective into my work in schools will shift how I approach the interventions I’m asked to provide. As a counselor who was never a teacher, I feel uncomfortable when I’m asked to observe teachers and offer advice on how to work with a particular student or a class as a whole. I feel like I couldn’t possibly offer them any suggestions that they wouldn’t already know, since I don’t have a teaching background. But focusing on being an external regulator first, and making connecting with the teacher a priority and making sure he/she feels understood, seen, and supported for their hard work feels like something that comes more naturally to me. Also, I like the idea of helping teachers understand that kids’ behavior has much more to do with the kids’ nervous systems and environmental factors impacting it than their teaching.

I am hoping that as we move through the course that we discuss tangible ways that we can advise teachers on how to honor their students experiences/feelings while still teaching their content. I’m hoping to learn some classroom wide as well as individual student strategies to help teachers with this.

The “you are the intervention” reality, is unsettling for me at this point, and I’m hoping this class will help me feel more confident in my role as the intervention.