School Counseling: The Happenings

Parents and Guardians,

If you're new to our school community, I hope you feel welcomed into a building where we all embody and hold up our vision: Every Child, Every Day. Your students are being taught by excellent teachers and are held accountable to learning high-quality academic and social/emotional standards. I look forward to both continuing my work with students and staff this year and as always to meeting all of our new students; knowing everybody's name as well as something about them that makes them a unique student at Michael Anderson Elementary is a yearly goal of mine.
This year marks my 6th year working as the School Counselor at MAE and my 7th year in Medical Lake School District. To give you a brief idea of the work I do, last year I advised our growing Associated Student Body, oversaw our monthly PACE awards and celebrations, worked with our School Psychologist and CIS Site Coordinator to run 24 weeks of small group interventions and delivered a full 9-month schedule of standards-based Social/Emotional classroom lessons to students at every grade level, on top of the daily student, teacher and parent conversations and collaborations.
This newsletter has taken a few seasons off so I hope to have it firmly back on my calendar in the Fall and again in the Spring. The intent is to build a school-family partnership by sharing with you what I am working on with students, where my focus is and any additional SEL resources I come across in my professional development for you to have for use with your student(s). Thank you for taking your time to join me in this "Fresh Start, Restart!"

-Seth Sammons, School Counselor

Our SEL Standards are condensed from the Washington State K-12 SEL Standards. These three elementary standards guide a lot of the work that I do with students at MAE:

1) Students will be able to identify their own emotions and empathize with the emotions of others.

2) Students will be able to manage their own emotions and behaviors to make safe and constructive choices with and around others.

3) Students will be able to show a Growth Mindset while also positively engaging in their classroom and school community.

Lessons for every grade level have been posted to the School Counseling website. I would strongly encourage you to follow along with your students' learning and to share with them your own SEL growth over the years as an encouragement for their young journey. Every year of lessons builds on the content of the previous year while still standing alone as important skills, strategies and knowledge for all students to learn.

Partners Advancing Character Education (PACE) is a community organization partnering with schools and more to promote good character through a list of monthly character traits. Staff regularly discuss these traits with students and every month we celebrate a student in each class with a certificate, PACE bracelet, yard sign and special lunch with parents/guardians.

Our next PACE lunch will take place on Friday, November 3rd to celebrate students who have demonstrated Responsibility with their teachers, their classmates and themselves!

Base Buddies exists as a support group for K-5 students with parents on long-term deployment or TDY. Students work and play together in addition to having structured time to discuss with each other any feelings about their parent's absence. The group is currently being scheduled to continue after school and more information will be sent out to families soon. Please reach out to Jordan Mello if you have questions at 509-565-3638 or jmello@mlsd.org.

Our T.U.M.S. Committee (Teachers Understanding Military Students) was formed back in 2018 with a focus of finding ways to connect our military kids with each other and with MAE for whatever amount of time they spend at Fairchild, AFB. Many of us understand the challenge that military families face in attempting to call somewhere ‘home.’ Connected Through Vines was one of the kick-off projects and it was going really well until Covid-19 forced staff and students out of the building. This year, we are planning to bring this project back into focus with the help of our Associated Student Body!

Currently, there are vines stenciled around many of the school hallways that have remained dormant for several years. As families plan to leave MAE moving forward due to a permanent change of station, our ASB student leaders will reach out with the request for a picture to keep here at our school so that we can create new leaves to hang on the walls, filling the vines. We want students to know and to be able to see that even after they have moved on to a new school they remain connected to us here at Michael Anderson Elementary.

On The Move

The official MCEC (Military Child Education Coalition) magazine returned this past summer after a brief hiatus to mark the 25th anniversary of their Global Training Summit. I was able to attend the previous year's summit in Washington D.C. focused on Social/Emotional Learning, participating in sessions and trainings with hundreds of other military-connected individuals. It was a fantastic experience and I am thankful for Medical Lake's vision of supporting military families every day.

Here are a couple highlights from this summer issue that I found insightful:

• "Top Ten Social Skills Students Need to Navigate Life Challenges" found on pages 8-10 is a great resource if you're wondering what skills to focus on teaching your students throughout the school year. #10 stood out to me in particular: "Just Serve." What opportunities do we give students to serve each other, their families and those outside of the school and home settings?
• "5 Ways to #StandByTeens in Support of Teen Mental Health" found on pages 12-13 focuses on "strategies to help young people thrive...in both good and challenging times" when it comes to mental health, particularly those taught in the home.

Follow the link to download the current issue or read through any of their past issues: https://www.militarychild.org/news/issues.

Please reach out via email or phone if you have any questions or concerns regarding your student(s) or the counseling program at MAE. I am available during the hours of 8:15am - 3:45pm, Monday through Friday, and will return your email or call as soon as I can. Thanks!

Email: ssammons@mlsd.org
Website: anderson.mlsd.org
Phone: 509-565-3606