The 2022-23 school year is already off to a great start. I am so excited to be back at Barksdale as one of your school counselors. Before becoming a counselor, I taught in various roles for 20 years including 2nd grade, special education, ESL, bilingual and 3rd grade. I love spending time with my family, gardening and reading. My husband and I enjoy hiking in the mountains, although we do not get to do that as often as we'd like! I have two grown children, Jacob and Jessie who both went through the Plano school system. All three of us graduated from Plano Senior High School. I truly believe in the importance of each student's social and emotional well being and am here to support them in their academic achievement as well. I am looking forward to a great year!

I have the privilege of teaching every student in our school through guidance lessons. I see every class twice monthly. Some of the topics include understanding our feelings, coping strategies, conflict resolution, goal setting, friendship, empathy, college and career readiness and much more. I always tell the students that their feelings are ok. It is the reactions to their feelings that might not be ok.

Guidance lessons in September will focus on understanding and identifying our feelings. It is imperative that students can not only understand their feelings, but can also put a name to those feelings.

I will be using Zones of Regulation to help students understand their feeling. Zones of Regulation help students understand their range of feelings through a color system. If you want to learn more about Zones of Regulation, click on the link below.

https://www.zonesofregulation.com/learn-more-about-the-zones.html

Books about feeling:

Today I feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis

Keeping It Cool by Melissa Boyd

When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really, Angry by Molly Bang

The Feelings Book By Todd Parr

The Way I Feel by Janan Cain

The Rabbit Listened by Cory Doerrfeld

We are in need of items for our ticket store. If you have gently used or new items that your child no longer plays with, please consider donating it to our ticket store. You can drop it off at the office. Please label it ticket items. The front office will make sure I get it. Of course we don’t want to take anything that is meaningful to your child because they may see it in the trophy case as an item to buy with tickets. We always appreciate your help!

Please click HERE if you would like to request a visit with the counselor.

The Parent Eduction Engagement Program is committed to engaging families through a

partnership for educational excellence. They offer a variety of services to aid parents including, parenting workshops, one on one parenting classes, adult ESL classes, a parent resource library, and other services.

Click HERE to find out more about more about what they offer. Click HERE to see the flyer in Spanish.