NATURE OF THE HOMEROOM

The homeroom has been variously defined as a regular period, as a basic

organizational unit in the school, then also as a “home away from home”. Three
elements appear to be necessary: organization, regularity of meetings, and an
atmosphere of warmth and acceptance. Of these elements, the last is the most
stressed.
Indeed, the homeroom is first and foremost a home. It is then a place where
the warm and personal student-teacher relationship is provided, the formal
atmosphere of the classroom is replaced by the informal and intimate relationship
of the family, complete teacher responsibility gives way to student participation,
useful habits are developed and authority is supplemented by social pressure.
The homeroom is also an organization in which group ideals are fostered
and lived. Here teamwork is practiced and unification is accomplished. The
concepts of leadership and membership of individual roles and responsibility are
criticized where problems in a group exist, the homeroom provides opportunities
to thresh these out.
Finally, the homeroom must meet at least once a week to effectively
function as a group. Students appreciate and to a great measure expect
structuring; therefore, homeroom meetings should preferably be scheduled.
It has been said that homeroom is not a preparation for life. It is real-life
and vital and it is lived naturally in a most
 A. HOMEROOM GUIDANCE PROGRAM
The homeroom is an organizational segment of the school’s guidance
service, a logical time and place for deepening teacher-student relationships
and personalized developmental assistance. It is to set up an ideal, intimate, and
democratic relationship between students and teachers in which the curriculum,
extra class activities, and the general guidance program will be better
coordinated.

B. OBJECTIVES OF HOMEROOM GUIDANCE PROGRAM

 To develop a desirable teacher-student relationship.
 To guide the students in their personal, educational, social, recreational,
vocational, and physical aspects.
 To develop desirable ideas and habits of the citizenry.
 To provide opportunities for the students the discussion of announcements,
new policies, and the like.
 To make desirable contacts with the student's parents, teachers, and
significant others.
 To develop the skills in observing and analyzing to ascertain when an
accident is significant and, also to be sure that it will not be reported out of
context.
 To identify students with academic and emotional problems.

STRUCTURED LEARNING EXPERIENCE (SLE) ACTIVITIES

 Physical Development Activities
To have the students learn the value of working together as a team to
reach an objective. Moreover, physical development activities also enable
the students to participate in an activity where their listening skills are being
developed while participating in a group cooperation activity.

 Social Development Activities

To encourage the students to join in group activities and establish a
closer relationship with one another, and help them develop closeness, and
most importantly appreciate the value of friendship. In addition, these
activities enable the students to express feelings of appreciation in a
nonverbal way and provide them an opportunity to receive positive
reinforcements from classmates and be recognized for individual strengths.
  Self-Concept Development Activities
To provide students with an opportunity to talk about their feelings,
and be aware of their physique. In addition, it will also give them the
chance to learn to trust one another through mutual self-disclosure and risk-
taking and to explore the dynamics of building up their self-confidence.

 Cognitive Development Activities

To help students develop self-reliance through planning and working out
ideas, and to assist them in improving their satisfaction and confidence in their
ability to express one’s self. In addition, these activities will help the students
develop an awareness of their study habits.

 Career Development Activities

To assist students to match their skills, talents, hobbies, and strengths to
specific occupations, and to help the students gain awareness of the variety
of occupations available for them in the future.

 Miscellaneous Activities
This activity will enable the students to develop an awareness of their habits
and behavior and to develop resourcefulness and quick thinking. Moreover,
at the end of the activity, the students are expected to describe one’s family
with the use of a family picture.

C. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF TEACHERS IN HOMEROOM

The homeroom teacher is the most vital person in the guidance program.
While there is a definite need for guidance counselors in school, without the
active cooperation of the homeroom teachers, the guidance program could not
succeed for the homeroom teacher is directly and intimately involved in all the
guidance activities of the student. The counselor complements the work of the
teacher. Every teacher is not a counselor, but each teacher is an indispensable
member of the team of guidance staff. It is the teacher who is in daily contact
with the students. It is through these daily meetings extending over many years
that a teacher relates to the students. From these daily confrontations between
the teacher and students emerge cumulative record data from the teacher such
as school marks, anecdotal records, personality characteristics, and suggestions
regarding possible careers.
To develop harmony and teamwork in the implementation of the guidance
program, the following roles are expected of the homeroom teacher:
1. Educate the group/homeroom class on the main aims and objectives of
the homeroom plan.
2. Develop desirable personal relations with the members of the group.
3. Guide the members in all phases of their interests and activities.
4. Make desirable contacts with the student's parents, teachers, and
significant other.
5. Develop a properly functioning internal organization of the classroom-
assignment of duties and development of general policies.
6. Promote general activities. Campaigns, and drives, must be tempered
when they get out of hand.
7. See to it that time and effort used in the homeroom shall represent a good
educational investment.
8. Supervise handling of routine – bulletins, announcement records, cleaning,
etc.
9. Encourage wide participation in programs and activities.
10. Harmonize the group
11. Cooperate with the administrator, faculty, and counselors.
12. Help others understand homeroom and homeroom procedures.
13. Know and use the basic understandings of human behavior
14. Develop skills in observing and analyzing student behavior to ascertain
when an incident is significant and, also to be sure that it will not be
reported out of context.
15. Prepare anecdotal records to help the counselor assess the attitudes,
abilities, behavior, and interests of the students.
16. Conduct group guidance sessions, through which, some particular
problems may be solved.
17. Develop homeroom and activity materials.
18. Participate in in-service training in the further development and the
acquisition of new competencies useful in performing the guidance
activities.
19. Assist students who have academic and emotional problems.
20. Participate in case conferences.
 THE HOMEROOM ADVISER
The teacher as homeroom adviser functions essentially as a facilitator.
He/she is primarily concerned with the individual student’s personal growth not in
terms of specific skills and subject mastery, but rather in terms of mastery of self.
He/she, therefore, encourages them to confront such basic questions as Who am
I? Do others see me? How do I relate to them? What are my responsibilities? What
are my values?
The adviser needs to have empathy, and the ability to understand the
student’s reaction from his/her” insides”. Through attentive listening, the adviser
can gain awareness of the way the student perceives and interprets his
experience. The homeroom must be carried out in a non-judgmental and non-
threatening climate.
Trust, realness, acceptance, and empathy – are key attitudinal attributes in
any helping relationship. To the extent that the homeroom adviser has these,
he/she is likely to inspire mutual trust, realness, acceptance, and empathy among
his advisees. In this sense, he/she can truly be called a facilitator of human growth.
 3
Cards to Know You: A Mental
Health Activity

Objectives: At the end of the period, the students are expected to:

Engages groups and facilitates open communication and interaction

The question cards have been specifically designed to facilitate
communication and to help individual’s express difficult feelings

Period: Week 4
Suggested Total Time Allotment: 60 Minutes

1. CARDS TO KNOW YOU

Materials Needed:

 A standard 52-card deck

 Printable question cards
 Cut out question cards and stack them up

Instructions

1. Take turns picking the top card from the deck of cards
2. If you draw an even number, pick a card from the question card pile and
answer the question
3. If you draw an odd number, pick a card from the question card pile and
ask someone in your family or group to answer the question
4. If you draw an ace, ask someone in your family or group for a compliment
5. If you draw a Jack, Queen, or King offer someone in your family or group a
Compliment
2. GRATITUDE JARS
Materials Needed:
Glass Jar
Cut-out Paper

Instructions:

1. Ask the students to write down things that they are grateful for and place
them in the jar throughout the week.

This small, but powerful activity helps students to think positively, which is
great for developing their wellbeing.

3. UNDERCOVER KINDNESS
Give each student the name of another student in their class. Make sure
that they don't tell each other who they have been given! The aim of this activity
is to encourage the children to be kind to the person whose name they have
been given before the end of the week without being found out.