Counselor's Corner 2020-21
Mrs. Edge- Guidance Counselor
Red Ribbon Week!
Sign Gypsies-Argyle - Julia Blachowicz
Thank you PTA!
THR Christmas Light Installations
Red Ribbon Week Fun!
Real Life Heroes Make Healthy Choices- Thank you to these real life heroes that gave us these messages for our announcements.
Red Ribbon Week Coloring Contest!
Your drawings on Real Life Heroes Make Healthy Choices will be featured in the yearbook!
Your work was beautiful.
Guidance Classes the First Nine Weeks
Remember, the school counselor visits with ALL students in the building every three weeks in Guidance Classes. As the counselor, I am one of the many people at AWE that will be a friend and advocate for you student. Guidance is my very favorite part of this job because I get to spend time with every one of our students. Don't be worried if your child tells you that they spent time with the school counselor. I get to know all of them.
So far this year, I have had all students in three lessons. The first one was introductions, getting to know each other activities, and learning about the role of the school counselor. The second lesson was "Our School is a Warm Fuzzy School"! (Did you hear about Warm Fuzzies? : ). The third lesson is about making healthy choices for our bodies and Red Ribbon Week discussions.
Our next lessons will be about conflict resolution, anti bullying, the difference between small and big problems, and Kelso's Choices.
Please call me if you ever have any questions about our Guidance classes or the curriculum that I use. 940-246-4007 x7010
Kelso's Choices in November!
I wanted to let you know that we will be studying conflict resolution during the month of November in all grades. My goal is to teach students several positive ways to deal with minor disagreements with other students. The program that I will be using is called Kelso’s Choice. This curriculum features a frog puppet named Kelso who teaches students to differentiate between small problems that they can solve and those that are potentially dangerous and serious. When children face a “small” problem, we are going to ask that they try one of the choices from Kelso's Wheel of problem solving.
In the case of “BIG” problems (serious or frightening), we talk about what to do in order to get help from a trusted adult nearby. By using this plan, I believe that our students will develop effective problem-solving skills that they can use again and again.
If would like to learn more about Kelso’s Choice or any other guidance curriculum, please contact me.
Dr. Charles Fay, who is one of the founders of the Love and Logic Institute, recorded a YouTube video with basic parent tips for Helping Children Cope With Crisis. Take a look at this 5 minute video.
Avoid Crying "Bully" by the Love and Logic Institute
In the end, there really was a problem and he didn't get the help he needed.
With so much emphasis on bullying these days, do we run the same risk? Is that word overused?
If kids learn to take slight offenses too seriously or rely on authority figures to solve every small conflict, could that make things worse?
Of course, adults should step in when there is a real danger, but there's another important piece:
Teaching kids to be more resilient and less enticing targets.
We encourage parents and teachers to EMPOWER kids- NOT to overreact to teasing and less harmful interactions that often occur in peer relationships. Otherwise, like the boy who cried "Wolf", real bullying may not get noticed and kids may not get help when they actually need it.
Adults should get involved when there is real harm or the threat of real harm. But all kids will encounter some mean people or interactions in life and will benefit from learning to handle it while they're young.
Role playing responses can help kids handle name-calling and teasing:
Some kids put their hand in their pockets, smile, and say, "Hmmmm, I hadn't noticed that before. Thanks for letting me know."
Some kids make sure they are near adults when mean kids are around.
Prepared kids make less viable targets.
Let's all do our part, from modeling kindness, modeling conflict resolution, to providing good supervision and intervention when kids need help, to teaching kids how to get along and handle the small stuff.
Find more solutions to help kids learn how to deal with the issues of teasing and bulluing in Sally Ogden's book, "Words Will Never Hurt Me".