Counselor's Gazette Dec/Jan 2015
By Ms. Forte & Ms. Milano
Holidays @ Central
Angel Tree
LHS organized its Angel Tree for the 11th consecutive year, a gift donation campaign to provide a wonderful holiday experience to less fortunate children. Thank you LHS, Wellington, Bolin, Independence ES, teachers, staff and community members for your generosity!
Holiday Traditions Around the World
Find out about the history Christmas Customs & Traditions, how they are celebrated and what represent around the globe.
Weaving Technology Into Family Life Without Disconnecting from Each Other, Or, The Connected Connected Family; an Overview
These are the basics of how technology can work for your family rather than against it. Follow the links for more information about a specific topic.
1. Create a plan: Families should have an open conversation about what's acceptable and what's not. Part of that conversation should involve the creation of a technology plan. This plan should lay out some ground rules for when it's okay to be consumed with your phone and when it's not. What time do you want phones to be put away? What types of apps are acceptable? What happens when someone steps outside the plan? Talk about it.
2. Digital privacy doesn't really exist, even in your house: Anything your kids post to a website is now readily accessible. In addition, if your kids are spending time on apps that are connected to mass groups of people, they're readily accessible too. So, adopt a family rule that no one locks screens and make a habit of looking through all of your kids social media accounts from their phone at any time. Then, learn how to switch between accounts on apps like Twitter and Facebook so that you get to see the account you know about AND the account they're trying to hide from you.
3. Understand What's Out There: Technology isn't going anywhere and it's going to become more and more intertwined in our daily lives as time goes on. That's a good thing but it means that at this point, parents have a responsibility to understand both the good things that your kids can do with their phones as well as the bad. Parents need to know what apps to look out for but just as importantly, how their devices can be used to bring their families closer together.
4. Find ways to connect to your family through your phones: Families have a weird habit of connecting to everyone in their lives digitally, except each other. And Facebook doesn't count. Find a protected place where you and your family can communicate, send messages, make jokes, post pictures, and share moments in a private setting. There are tons of apps that will allow you to do this. My family uses Group Me. We know that whatever we post is only being shown to the family members in the group and we use it for personal moments that make us laugh that are frankly no one else's business.
5. Figure out how your phones can make family life easier: There are a multitude of apps designed to keep family schedules, shopping lists, special events, and notes all in one secure digital location. Most of these apps will also allow you to log in and see where everyone is. Find one that works and use it.
6. Have fun with each other and let technology be a part of it: Use your phones to laugh and play games with your kids. Sure, things like Words With Friends are nice but that's not really what I mean. When you're using technology for games, the best games are the ones where the technology disappears, like these. Here's a good litmus test.... when the game is over, if you were to tell someone else a story about what you did, would you talk about the technology? If so, you're doing it wrong. You should be talking about the people you played the game with. Games like the ones I've listed will leave you laughing at each other, not at the screen. Source: http://www.yourbestfamily.com/presentations.html
Briar hill Middle School & Santa's Visit to Central
Our Program & Mission
- School Guidance Curriculum: Students are taught skills related to the development of healthy personal characteristics, values, and attitudes deemed important for healthy productive living.
- Individual Student Planning includes activities to assist students and their parents or guardians in planning, monitoring, and managing the student’s learning as well as his or her personal, educational, and career goals.
- Responsive Services meet the immediate concerns and needs of students, usually with a prevention focus, e.g., programs for dropout prevention, student assistance teams, peer leadership, and drug and alcohol prevention.
- System Support focuses on family and community support and to school improvement and student achievement.
School Counselor Mission
The Mission of the Central Elementary School Counseling Program is to address the academic, personal, social and career development needs of all students. School Counselors are professional school advocates who help students maximize their educational potential, character development and academic achievement. In partnership with other educators, parents or guardians and the community, the goals of this program are to ensure that all students at Central experience a rich, diverse and nurturing learning environment so that they may function as lifelong learners and productive citizens.