7/17 North Shore Counseling Depart
Discovering Your Dreams
Greetings From The New Counseling Director
Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the crisp, cool evenings, the colorful leaves and the apples. Yet, what I love most of all is the beginning of a new school year. I enjoy the excitement of the first day of school, welcoming new families and the promise that each new school year holds. This year, I am especially excited to be joining the North Shore school community where educational excellence and student social/emotional growth are priorities.
I began my career 24 years ago in a small rural school district in upstate New York where most of my students were the first in their family to attend college. This experience solidified my belief that counselors need to be proactive when working with students and parents on the college admissions process. I couldn't sit back and wait for questions to be asked because my families did not even know what questions to ask.
I later moved to Rochester, New York where I was the Director of Student Services in the Greece School District. In this capacity, I had the opportunity to work with multiple disciplines on the creation of a school based mental health team to better address the social/emotional needs of our students. I also created a district Family Support Center designed to provide free counseling to our 12,000 students and their families.
Over the past seven years, I worked as the Supervisor of Counseling Services in Spotsylvania County, Virginia where I served 24,000 families in 30 buildings. While in Spotsylvania I worked with my counseling team to create a comprehensive K-12 college and career readiness program that received national acclaim. My team and I were asked by the American School Counseling Association to share our work through a national webinar. I also published an article in the American School Counselor magazine highlighting our work entitled “Crayons to College: A K-12 Approach to College and Career Readiness.”
I have been fortunate to serve on many state and national boards. I recently ended a three-year term as a national representative to the Guidance and Admissions Assembly (College Board) and am currently serving as a committee member on the National Association of College Admissions Counseling. I enjoy the field of school counseling and have served in other leadership roles including the White House Summit on School Counseling, the US Department of Education Healthy Students Promising Future Collaborative and I assisted the Virginia Department of Education with curriculum writing.
I am eager to bring my K-12 experience to the North Shore community and look forward to working with all of you. If you get an opportunity, please consider attending one of our upcoming workshops. The first one is September 26th where we will play the GPA game. I look forward to working with you and learning even more about this beautiful community.
Transitioning To Middle School
If you have a child entering middle school consider yourself lucky. Yes, middle school can be challenging and young adults change daily. However, it is also a time when your young adult will begin to develop independence and learn who they are and who they wish to become.
Middle schoolers tend to act as if their parents "don't know anything." As a parent, this is tough to hear and even though they won't admit it, our middle school youth need and still respect parental advice. Regardless of what your middle schooler may say, parents still have much wisdom to share and young adults are willing to listen.
When your student mentions they are struggling in a course teach them how to talk with the teacher in a respectful manner. Practice what they would say and how they would say it. Provide your student with the opportunity to address the problem first and monitor the situation to see if parental involvement is needed.
Self advocacy in a respectful manner is a critical skill for adults in both the workplace and college. When you teach your student to do this, you are providing them with a valuable life-long skill.
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Seeking North Shore Graduates
You have heard of “Where’s Waldo,” but where are the Vikings? The North Shore Counseling Department is interested in learning more about our former graduates. If you graduated from North Shore High School please let us know where you live and what career you are working in.
The task is a simple, but fun one. Please take a picture with the Viking logo. The picture can be of you with the mascot, or the mascot at your place of work or college campus. You can email your photo with the answers to a few questions to: counseling@northshoreschools.org. We will be posting all pictures on our counseling website.
The logo and questions are included as an attachment to this newsletter.
Help us spread the word!
About Us
North Shore School District
Email: binionl@northshoreschools.org
Website: www.northshore.k12.ny.us
Location: 450 Glen Cove Avenue, Glen Head, NY, United States
Phone: (516) 277-7030
Twitter: @NShoreCounselor