Just as we were getting back into the full swing of counseling for this school year, Hurricane Irma brought all of our plans to a halt. As a district, we all came together to support the needs of our students, families and staff. We cleaned, sheltered, and protected our families and when all was safe, opened our doors once again. We assessed needs, normalized feelings, offered hope, greeted everyone with a smile that brought reassurance, acquired and delivered much needed supplies, empathized, listened, supported students as well as staff, modeled compassion and gratitude, and ultimately did what we as counselors do best…helped. Now, as you look around your campus and see the perseverance, hope and togetherness, know that your work helped pave a path of recovery. Happy Counseling!

In response to Hurricane Irma, Wahneta School Counselor Sherryl White organized a National Red Cross relief truck to come to Wahneta Elementary. Sherryl, along with the red cross and volunteers, were able to distribute needed relief items to area families. The Red Cross brought water, food, personal items, & cleaning supplies. The community response was strong & the truck quickly ran out of supplies!

CODE Academy Counseling has a fifth grade “Lunch Bunch” group focusing on Relational Aggression among girls. The students meet once a week during lunch.

Topics covered include The Language of Peer Aggression, Role of the Bystander, Normative Beliefs, Friendship, Leadership, and Cyber bullying. The curriculum is available on the Polk County Schools Elementary Counseling site. Incidences of behavior conflicts among the girls dropped dramatically after the group began meeting.

Students at Southwest Elementary are benefiting from a proactive comprehensive guidance program thanks to school counselor, Laquita Johnson-Looney. At the beginning of the year, Mrs. Looney started her Ready to Learn lessons with the Kindergarten students. Not only does it give students the skills to become ready to learn, but "It's a great way to reinforce our CHAMP expectations as well as getting to know our Kg students". Students are also being exposed to the character traits needed to become responsible members of the community.

Over the summer, Mrs. Looney worked on a Student of the Month program using the Keys To Character Program. Each month, they introduce the Key to Character (September was Honesty) via the ITV program where she explains the key to character, what it looks like, and how to recognize it in others. This has been a great addition to their PBIS program as well. September was their first Student of the Month celebration and it was a BIG HIT!

Teachers nominated 1 student per class and the kids received:

• A shout out on morning news show
• Student of the Month certificate
• A goodie bag
• Their picture on school's website and FB page

Check out Southwest Elementary' s Key to Character video below!

Wendell Watson Elementary recently participated in a Feed America program to restock local food banks sponsored by the Cheesecake Factory. During the food drive, students ended up collecting 880 pounds of peanut butter! The winning classes that collected a minimum of 50lbs won a cheesecake party for their class. Brooke Burkholder, the School Counselor at Wendell Watson, also utilizes their "Watson Weekly" news show to incorporate lessons on social skills. Check out an example of Brooke Burkholder explaining how to be a good friend in the video below!

Scott Lake Elementary Schools is preparing for a whole school transformation this year. Scott Lake was awarded a grant to implement Franklin Covey’s Leader in Me program. The grant was awarded by the Panda Express company. The Leader in Me utilizes and integrates several leadership, social-emotional learning, quality, and educational models and processes from past and current thought leaders including The 4 Imperatives of Great Leaders and The 4 Disciplines of Execution. The process includes student participation in goal setting, data tracking, leadership roles, Student-Led Conferences, leadership environments, and Leadership Events. There are currently over 3000 schools in the Leader in Me process around the world! It is so exciting to provide this opportunity to our student here in Polk County!!

School Counselor, Tonya Cowan has taught the lesson “Accepting of Diversity” to 4th Graders. The students engaged in activities that taught them to see a positive side to differences, rather than negative ones; and that they actually have more similarities that not. They also learned that differences among groups exist and can and should be respected and enjoyed, rather than feared or judged. Our direct focus was on binding the students together opposed to concentrating on how they are different from one another. They thoroughly enjoyed the lesson!

Elementary school counselors are educators uniquely trained in child development, learning strategies, self-management and social skills, who understand and promote success for today’s diverse students. By implementing a comprehensive school counseling program they are able to balance direct services such as delivering counseling core curriculum, individual student planning, responsive services such as individual or small group counseling and crisis response; with indirect services such as collaboration and referrals.

Check out the video below to see how this school utilizes their counselor as a part of their MTSS program in school focusing on social emotional learning and behavior!

The Department of Education and the National PTA have created a great resource for parents that is broken down by month to help guide them through activities and advice for their children to be successful in school. You can access this information by clicking on the link below. This can be shared on your school website, in newsletters, or even printed and posted by month in your office!

SCHOOL SUCCESS RESOURCE

In a profession with high demands and an ongoing expectation to meet the needs of students and their families, faculty members and administration, school counselors can often feel emotionally and physically drained. Below are a few tips to prevent burn-out and recharge your batteries.

SELF-CARE AT WORK

Find a sounding board:

Designate someone you trust to be your sounding board when things get stressful. Confidentiality is essential, so if there's not someone on your campus you fully trust to keep confidences, choose someone off-campus who can be reached by phone. (If you vent with anyone about students or parents, honor confidentiality by not using names.) The ability to call someone and rant for five minutes at any time during the day is priceless.

Ask for support:

Along those same lines, remember to ask for help, support, and ideas from colleagues, supervisors, or mentors. School counselors can't know and do everything (though we feel like we're supposed to sometimes), so model for your students that asking for help is healthy and natural.

Take your lunch break:

Take enough time for a healthy lunch EVERY DAY. If you're feeling closed in, eat in the staff lunch room or whatever is provided for you so you can socialize. If you'd rather have some time alone, find a quiet place to eat. If you eat in your office, DON'T do work-related paperwork while you eat. Turn on some music, close the door, relax, and recharge.

Keep your work at school:

Build in time during the school day to do your paperwork and make needed phone calls. No matter how busy you are (and we do know how busy you are), you'll be far more effective in the big picture if you leave your work at work every day. The work will still be there tomorrow.

Stay out of Chronic Complaint Mode:

When you're with colleagues, leave or stay out of conversations that turn into chronic complaint sessions about students, parents, colleagues, or administration. Venting is one thing, and is a healthy part of self-care, but getting sucked into a whirlpool of negative conversation will sap your energy and not resolve a thing. The same goes for gossip. Direct, assertive conversation is more professional and more effective.

Take pro-active steps:

If you do need to have a conversation with your department head or administrator to speak up about something frustrating, make a list ahead of time of your frustrations, and for each one, make a specific request about what you'd like to be different, or suggest a solution if you have one. Your meeting will probably be much more productive, and you'll present yourself as pro-active instead of negative.

SELF-CARE ON YOUR TIME

Do what you love to do:

Make time regularly to do something you really love to do -- all the better if it's completely unrelated to school. This is your investment in you to build yourself up, instead of trying to give from an empty cup.

Find a healthy outlet:

Find outlets for your work-related (and other) frustrations and stresses. Go for walks or hikes, exercise, sing, dance, read, have conversations with people you love and trust, or whatever works for you. Try several outlets until you find the ones that work best for you.

REST:

Rest and sleep. Take some time to do nothing and enjoy it. This is a major investment in you, and it allows you to model the best kind of self-care in our fast-moving, overly busy, chaotic society -- DOWN TIME.