Peer Support
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Wolf Pack
During the 2015-2016 school year, my building decided to create a peer support program. We called it Wolf Pack, since we are the Hiawatha Timberwolves AND because the purpose of the program is to teach students the value of working as a team, supporting one another, and never leaving someone behind.
Once all students who signed up were put into packs, we had our first meetings as individual grade levels. We did this without the target students so that everyone could learn about their student and ask questions without getting uncomfortable. Every other meeting included the target students. Prior to the first meeting, I interviewed the target student and made a video that helped introduce them to their pack. I also got information from their teachers to help explain their strengths and struggles. At this meeting, the students signed up for when they would like to support their student (i.e. lunch, recess, a specific subject). I took the sign-up and typed the names to make a clean copy that could be displayed outside my office and in each of their classrooms.
Each month we met to review how things were going and to create a special project to celebrate our pack. Typically, the target student got to keep the project after we displayed it next to their classroom.
At the end of the year, we had a celebration as a pack. The target student picked the special treat and the theme. We also watched a video we made - I interviewed the target student and every pack member, then edited the video together to highlight everyone's favorite parts of Wolf Pack. A burned a DVD for the target student.
During the 2016-2017 school year, we added an additional grade level (5th). In the future, we hope to do some form of Wolf Pack K-6.
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