Optimism may be tough to come by right now, but you can encourage it. This short presentation gives you a quick and easy activity to provide the opportunity to develop both optimism and empathy. Try it and see what happens.

Adolescents go through some very extreme chnages.  For some, the transition seems smooth and for others, the transition is a little more rocky.  Here is some great inforrmation on what is going on developmentally with adolescents:
The Teenage Brain