Awesome Elementary School
Principal: Eleanor White
AWESOME ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Email: hwilmington@awesome.com
Website: www.awesomeES.com
Location: 1234 School Avenue, Hometown, TX
Phone: 867-5309
Facebook: facebook.com/awesomeES
Twitter: @AWESOMEES
Section I: ROLE OF SCHOOL COUNSELOR
2018 CREST Award Winner
Henrietta Wilmington, Professional School Counselor
Master's in Education, LPC
Texas School Counselor Association member
Texas Counseling Association member
District Leadership Team
About Our School!
- Enrollment: 564 students
- 504: 10%
- Special Education: 7%
- At-Risk: 47%
- English Language Learner: 5%
- Gifted/Talented: 5%
- Economically Disadvantaged: 49%
- McKinney-Vento: 3%
Leadership & Advocacy
Section II: PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION CYCLE
Counseling Advisory Council
The Awesome Elementary Counseling Advisory Council (CAC) meets 4 times each school year: September, November, February, April.
Mark Lopez: Assistant Principal; Jennifer Smith: 2nd grade teacher;
Anne Jones: 4th grade teacher; Sara Martin: Kinder teacher
Rebecca Baney: Art teacher; John Patterson: Parent/Community member
Use of Implementation Cycle:
At the last meeting of the year, the CAC reviewed the needs assessment and gave feedback to be used in designing the following year’s annual plan. For instance, we discussed the finding for a need to improve kindergarten transition and emotional regulation. Our kindergarten teacher representative helped us think through the lesson to maximize the intervention and collect the data.
Awesome Elementary School yearly program plan
Section III: FOUNDATIONAL COMPONENTS
Best ISD Mission Statement
The BISD counselors are a diverse group of service oriented professionals who believe in connecting our students, parents, schools and community with tools and resources for academic, social, and emotional success. BISD Counselors champion the core beliefs of BISD through a focus on:
Individualized success
Academic achievement and planning for the future
Social connections
Respect and responsibility
Emotional well-being and personal growth
Definition, Rationale and Assumptions
Definition: The Best ISD Counseling Department will empower each student to achieve academic success, attain emotional/social well-being, and become productive, responsible citizens through a comprehensive program. We believe each student deserves a safe and supportive environment. We commit to laying this foundation through partnerships with students, parents, staff, and the community.
Rationale: The Best ISD Counseling Department empowers students to be emotionally and socially prepared to maximize academic success. The counseling program prepares students with competencies that address problem solving, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, and personal health and safety. Counseling professionals use a variety of data-gathering practices to determine student needs. The school counseling program utilizes professional practices of counseling, collaboration, consultation, and guidance to address students’ individual and developmental needs.
Assumptions: For the Best ISD Comprehensive School Counseling Program to be fully and effectively implemented, the following conditions and resources are necessary.
■ Use of a data/time analysis tool for PSC’s to capture time allocated to direct school counseling services, planning, collaboration and non-counseling related activities.
■ Counseling program calendar of planned activities
■ Clarity - The development of a counseling department handbook reflected of policies and procedures expected at all campuses across the district.
■ PSC roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and supported - Alignment of school counselor responsibilities with professional roles
■ PSC counseling protocol is articulated and adopted (including a BISD school counseling framework)
■ Removal of Test Coordination responsibilities and other administrative/clerical duties
■ Comprehensive Needs Assessment – The development and use of a standard PK-12 Guidance Curriculum reflecting the assessed needs of students, parents, and staff
■ Appropriate staffing
■ School counseling specific budget
■ Tools and Supplies – Props > books, puppets, crayons, construction paper, etc
Developing Program Goals
Evaluating Our Program
Section IV: FOUR SERVICE DELIVERY COMPONENTS
SMART Goals by Delivery Components
Individual Planning: The school counselor will meet individually with all 5th grade students to support and address student academic, personal, social, and career needs that are developmentally appropriate students transitioning from 5th to 6th grade.
Guidance: No later than March 27, 2019, the school counselor will develop provide a guidance lesson to all 5th grade classrooms describing the middle school course selection process.
Responsive Services: Provide effective responsive service through at least two small groups on emergent needs such as grief, mood disorders or responding to divorce.
System Support: By the beginning of the school year (August, 2018), the school counselor will train all professional staff members(through a larger group presentation) on child protective reporting protocols and procedures. As a result of the training, 100% of the staff will be able to name at least 2 forms of neglect/abuse.
Activity by Service Component
Individual Planning
Goal setting with each student
2102 Individual Student Meetings
Individual student transition planning meetings for 5th graders
Small group for tier 2 and 3 students
Guidance
85 guidance lessons, addressing college and career readiness, character education, healthy relationships, substance use prevention and suicide prevention
Poster campaign for suicide prevention
Guest speaker from Poison Control
Space Camp for kindergarten
“Careers on the Move” event
Responsive Services
42 student crisis responses (MHCRT)
Angel Tree Coordinator/Holiday Food Drive
Staff training and parent brown bag on depression
Small group on mood disorders
System Support
Staff Wellness Week
Student Data Meetings
Sponsor student leadership team
Coordinate the Watch DOGS (Dads of Great Students) activities
Guidance Curriculum Highlight!
Three guidance lessons were completed for Kindergarten students to help them identify their strong feelings and name at least one strategy to cope. Prior to the lesson, only 20% of students could identify more than two feelings. 10% could name a strategy to cope. Two weeks after the lesson, 95% of students could name two or more feelings and 60% could name at least one coping strategy. Teachers also reported that more students were independently managing frustration.
Parent Collaboration Highlight!
The counselor worked with the Watch DOGS group (parents) to conduct the Angel Tree and Holiday Food Drive. We collected for 27 angels (from our homeless and economically disadvantaged students) and collected 560 cans for our local food pantry.