Our goal is to keep parents informed about activities in the counseling department and provide valuable information on social and emotional development.

Please CLICK HERE for our December/January school counseling report, detailing the services we've provided during the months of December and January.

National School Counseling Week 2020, "School Counselors: Helping Build Better Humans," will be celebrated from Feb. 3-7, 2020, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by ASCA, highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. National School Counseling Week is always celebrated the first full week in February.

Please follow Mrs. Russell and Mrs. Kemper on Twitter @CemsCounselors for the National School Counseling Week Photo Challenge! Each day, we will be posting pictures with the ASCA theme of the day as well as sharing what activities and programs we do to support our students!

On February 14, we will host our newest 18 students for donuts, ice breaker games, and conversation around their needs and experiences since they arrived at CEMS. This program will continue once a month for the rest of the year.

During December, we focused on executive functioning in 6th and 7th and stress management in 8th grade. During January, both counselors were in classrooms helping 8th grade students with high school scheduling. This will continue in February.

We are in full swing with our 8th graders scheduling for high school. Mrs. Russell and Mrs. Kemper have been in classrooms helping students complete their schedules for high school. Schedules requests must be put into Infinite Campus in your child's Academic Plan. Directions for how to do this were given during our classroom visits. Please make sure you're discussing your child's choices for their high school classes. Below is a timeline of scheduling events:

February 12-13th - Parent meetings on student schedules at Cooper

You should have received a call about scheduling a meeting with a JAM teacher at Cooper to go over your child's Academic Plan (schedule requests). if you have not, please contact Cooper to set them up. Your child needs to have their schedule requests into Infinite Campus prior to this visit.

March 1st - Schedules complete in Academic Plan for students going to Boone County

Students going to Boone County High School need to have their Academic Plan completed in Infinite Campus by March 1st and their schedule sheets need to be turned to Mrs. Russell or Mrs. Kemper by February 26th.

Students going to Conner:

Conner will be coming to CEMS at the end of February/beginning of March to discuss their scheduling process. We will send out that information as soon as it's available!

For the month of January, our College Focus was Gateway and Northern Kentucky University! A bulletin board in the cafeteria is decorated with information on both colleges

Our January field trip was to the vocational school. Students who tested in the Realistic category of the Career Interest Survey at the end of the 2018-2019 school year were invited to attend. Students learned about the opportunities that they will have in high school to attend the Boone County Vocational Schools and the career areas of: Automotive, Diesel, Electrical, Health Sciences, Machine Tool, Metal Fabrication, and Welding. Below are some pictures of the trip!

A summary of next week's Second Step Social Emotional Learning Lesson for each grade is below:

6th Grade

This week’s lesson uses a fun and engaging activity to practice looking at different perspectives. Practicing the skills he or she has learned will help your child use them in real life.

FAMILY LESSON QUESTION

Tell your child about a time you learned something from thinking about another person’s perspective. Explain what you learned and how. Ask your child about some of the different perspectives he or she has encountered at school and talk about how recognizing them can be helpful.

7th Grade

This week’s lesson uses an engaging activity to practice exploring the possible issues that come from jumping to conclusions. Practicing the skills he or she has learned will help your child use them in real life.

Family Lesson Question

Ask your child about some of the problems that jumping to conclusions can cause and talk together about how to handle those problems.

8th Grade

This week’s lesson uses an engaging activity to practice exploring how making assumptions affects the decisions people make. Practicing the skills he or she has learned will help your child use them in real life.

Family Lesson Question

Ask your child about a time he or she made a decision based on an assumption. Talk together about how assumptions can affect decisions, both good and bad.

Also don't forget about the parent website! ParenTeenConnect.org, a free website for parents and their teens created by the makers of the Second Step Program, is a great resource for middle school families. It provides expert advice and practical tools for dealing with real parent-teen issues.

February 5th - Mid-term

February 11th - Mid-terms sent home

February 12th/13th - 8th grade Cooper High School scheduling parent meetings

February 17th - No School - President's Day

March 1st - Boone County High School scheduling deadline for 8th graders

In an effort to support the goal of creating a school-wide culture of reading, we will be sharing with you each month what we are reading!

Mrs. Russell -

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Mrs. Kemper -

Substance Use Counseling by Patricia Stevens and Robert L. Smith