Overcoming The Odds Connect With Kids Case Study

Overcoming the Odds - Connect With Kids

View the following videos and complete the two worksheets on D2L: The Seven Resiliencies and Overcoming the Odds - Connect with kids. Drop into the drop box. You will have today and tomorrow after presentations

http://www.connectwithkids.com/newarkpublicschools/vidpages/vid_odds.html

After viewing the 5 segments on resilience answer the following questions.

1. Define resilience.

To be able to bounce back after a time of difficulties, to be able to quickly emotionally recover from a time of darkness. It is the ability to be able to overcome times of difficulty and to be able to persevere and know that it will getter. Resilience is the ability to know that times have gotten better because

you, yourself have managed to bounce back from whatever happened.
2. What challenges did the kids in the video face? How did they overcome the challenges? How does this make them resilient? (All Segments)
The kids in the videos faced problems such as peer pressure from growing up places notorious for drugs and gangs, filled with violence and danger to these kids. They had to overcome these challenges and they had to figure out what to do in order to leave this life behind. This makes them resilient because they worked past and bounced back from the danger or drugs and gangs that they had grown up with.
3. What skills should a person learn to become more resilient? ( All Segments)
A person should remember that you can never give up and that it will get better, these kinds of mantras can help you get through everything.

To the point that if you work hard enough you can overcome the odds. Every person has a key to success with resilience, having someone believe in them and having the mindset that even if they fail they will persevere and push through in order to achieve their goal.

4. How is Melanie’s story a good illustration of resiliency? (Part 2)

In the part of town where Melanie lives, she's witnessed more crime and more gruesomeness than most adults have, and only at the age of fourteen. Shes has been living with her grandmother for over a year because her parents left her and she had nowhere to go. Using her resilience, Melanie has overcome this hard situation and is trying and succeeding to live a better life, and to make a better life for her family.

5. Do you believe that “every child can succeed … against all odds?” Explain your answer. (Part 3)

I believe this statement because even though Heather is blind and disabled and despite the fact that all the odds are against her, she persevered and continued trying. And eventually she managed to do things such as rock climbing, jump roping and other things. She worked against all odds and she excelled in every single subject and she excelled in pursuing her

dreams.
6. Discuss the Robert Louis Stevenson quote: “Life is not so much a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” What does it mean to you? How does it relate to resilience? (Part
This quote shows that even though a person could be rich, even though it might seem like they’re perfect, like they have it all, that it doesn't mean that they will succeed in life.

That it doesn't mean that this person who is seemingly holder of all the good cards, will succeed and do what they want to do in life and what they want to excel in. this is because they might not be resilient. Resilience comes naturally to children, it should kick in and be the thing that makes children get and try again until they succeed. But they can lose resilience by not trying, but thinking that they're not good enough, or that they won't get to be what they want to because they're not deserving of it. And playing the poor hand well means that even if you are in the worst situation and even if your feeling that you'll never make it, that being able to keep your resilience high and constant will help you achieve your goals. As persevering and remembering that anything is possible is what keeps some kids learning and achieving, even if these students are poor, or disabled or discriminated against.

7. What are the three “Ps” that make it hard to be resilient? (Part 5

The three Ps are Permanent, which indicated that the problem cannot be solved and won't be solved, Persuasive, telling yourself that the problems are everywhere and are taking over your life, and Personal, making yourself believe that all these problems are somehow your fault and that you caused

everything.

Student Self-Reflection Questions:

1. The video speaks of the three Ps that make it hard to be resilient.
Permanent means the problems can’t be solved.
Pervasive means the problems are everywhere in your life.
Personal means you feel as if it’s all your fault. How have you overcome any of the three Ps in your life?
Permanent:
I feel that the one test I got a bad mark on is everywhere and it's causing so much pressure as I feel that this test is everywhere and anywhere. I feel as if this one test determines the rest of my school career even though it was only one small test. And that it can't be solved and that it'll affect my future permanently.
Persuasive: I have persuaded myself that this one test is everywhere and it will mess up my final mark for every class. That it will ruin my school career and that I messed up one times too many.
Personal: I feel that the mark is one hundred percent my fault and that if I learned to study properly I would have gotten a better grade and that i wouldn't have had to obsessed over it constantly.

2. What resilient people do you admire? Describe how you think they have overcome adversity.
I admire my mother as a resilient person as she has overcome some of the most challenging things in the world. As a child she grew up poor and she could have let that stop her but she didn't. Instead she picked herself up and got a job at fifteen to make money for university, and eventually she made it and now she lives comfortably and very successfully with four degrees. She overcame adversity by showing everyone that she could do it and that she could become successful and, lo and behold, she became successful and happy.
3. What is one area in your life where you show, or want to show, resiliency? What obstacles lie in your path? How will you need to be resilient?
The only obstacles I have are passing finals and making sure I give myself a bright future. Not only to make me happy but to make my parents happy and proud. In order to be resilient i have to remember that i want to be happy and that I want to be successful. Not anyone else, but me, that I want a bright future for myself, a future where I can give my parents happiness and for them to be eternally proud of their daughter for becoming successful and happy in life.