The Counselor's Corner (Edition 2)
The MWES counselor's newsletter to keep you in the know!
A message from your counselors!
The counseling department is so excited to be working with you all for yet another school year. We take pride in serving all of our students, and look forward to a productive school year. We will do all we can to ensure our students have a positive experience, and we hope to be able to assist teachers in helping to make that happen.
The purpose of this newsletter is to communicate information that is going on with our department, share upcoming events and also perhaps provide some tips that may help to support teachers with their students. After all we are, "Better together!"
Sincerely,
Destiny Brown
Nicole Myers
Just a phone call away!
How we help students???
The school counselors help students in many ways:
- Individual counseling (check-ins can be arranged as well).
- Small groups (divorce, academic, attendance, social skills/friendship, grief, behavior or customize groups to meet needs). Let your grade level counselor know if a particular group is needed.
- Guidance lessons
- Conferences with teachers and/or parents to help support students.
- School initiatives throughout the year.
- Crisis intervention
Guidance Lessons: These are topics that your children have already learned this year during guidance lessons. Parents and guardians, we encourage you talk to your students and children about what they have learned during these lessons!
Kindergarten:
- Emotion identification, coping strategies, good vs. bad choices, bucket filling (treating others kindly and with respect), tattling vs. reporting, team building.
- Feelings identification, conflict resolution (I-messages: "I feel ____, when you_____), bucket filling (treating others kindly), team building, goal setting.
- Bullying prevention, goal setting, respecting opinions, conflict resolution, cooperation.
3rd Grade:
- Bullying prevention, respect, goal setting, conflict resolution, cooperation.
4th Grade:
- Bullying prevention, respect, goal setting, conflict resolution, cooperation.
5th Grade:
- Bullying prevention, conflict resolution, empathy awareness, diversity, goal setting.
Keeping you in the know! These are events that your counselors are involved in.
September 2018 - Pride assembly (This was a great success! Thank you to the specialists for your support).
September 2018 - Guidance lessons and small groups have begun! Mrs. Myers teaches grades KG, 1st and 5th. Ms. Brown teaches 2nd-4th grades. Contact your grade level counselor for information regarding small groups.
October 19th - Military club begins monthly meetings. Students can join year round. Please see Ms. Brown or Mrs. Kline for more information
October 2018 -Kind club begins monthly meetings. New students can join year round. Please see Mrs. Meadows and Mrs. Myers for more information.
October 2018 - Watch D.O.G.S (Dads of Great Students) begins. Please speak with Mrs. Myers and Mrs. Maxfield for more information.
October 2018 - MWES Backpack buddies starts up again. Please continue to let counselors know at any time if you have a student to recommend.
October 15th-21st - Red Ribbon week.
October 2018 - Impact Aid begins again. Keep an eye out for more information on this initiative from Ms. Brown
October 24th - Guidance advisory council meeting.
October 2018- Middle School Specialty Program talk was given to all 5th grade students.
October 2018 - Good Touch, Bad Touch Assembly was arranged by the school counselors to accommodate the Family Life Education curriculum.
November 2018 - PBIS 1st Quarter PRIDE Bash and 1st Pride Pop-Up Shop. The PRIDE Pop-Up shop will occur monthly and the PRIDE Bash will occur quarterly. The tentative dates for the PRIDE Bash are February 1st and April 4th, stay tuned for the 4th quarter bash date.
December 2018- 1st Quarter Honor Roll Assembly. The school counselors help facilitate honor roll assemblies. Keep an eye out for the dates of the upcoming Honor Roll assemblies.
December 2018 - Un-Trim-A-Tree, the school counselors helped make sure that approximately 50 children from the MWES community were provided with gifts for the holiday season!
January 2019 - Peer to Peer Mediation planning process has begun. The school counselors will be facilitating a peer to peer mediation program where PRIDE students will be selected to assist counselors in mediating student conflict situations. The purpose of this program is to empower students to become positive leaders and effective problem solvers.
March 2019 - Safe At Home Safe Alone for all 4th grade students. Keep a look out for more information on this event to come. Parents/guardians if you are interested in assisting with this half day event, please contact Ms. Brown.
April 2019 - Career Day/SOL Pep Rally tentative dates have been scheduled in April for these events. Stay tuned for more information to follow. Parents, guardians and family members, if you are interested in participating in our annual career day, please contact Ms. Brown or Mrs. Myers.
June 2019 - Puberty Lessons for 4th and 5th grade students will be completed at the end of the year as a requirement from the Family Life Education curriculum.
Monthly character trait - please encourage your students to practice the character traits listed below throughout the rest of the year!
January/February - Citizenship
March - Responsibility
April - Fairness
May/June - Trustworthiness
What is Bullying?
The Prince William County Public Schools "Code of Behavior" states, "Bullying means any aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate, or humiliate the victim; involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim; and is repeated over time or causes severe emotional trauma. "Bullying" also includes cyber bullying, which involves the transmission, receipt or display of electronic messages and/or images. Bullying does not include ordinary teasing, horseplay, argument, or peer conflict. For more information regarding the Prince William County Public Schools bullying regulation, please visit the PWCS website.
The school counselors are committed to ensuring MWES is a safe environment and a bully free zone. We teach all students at MWES that unkind behavior in a conflict situation is not tolerated or accepted and we are working to educate our students on the difference between conflict and bullying. Students are reinforced to inform a trusted adult (teacher, school counselor, parent, etc.) immediately if they believe they are a victim of bullying. This year, the school counselors have introduce the concept of the "3 H's" to help identify if a problem is a bullying situation.
What are the 3 H's?
1) Hurt - the aggressor is hurting the victim's feelings on purpose. For example, the aggressor will not stop calling the victim inappropriate names or doing gestures to hurt the victim's feelings even though they know it is upsetting the victim.
2) Harm - The aggressor is physically harming the victim's body on purpose to cause them physical pain.
3) Helpless - The victim feels helpless or unable to defend themselves from the aggressor. They might feel powerless in being able to stop the bullying behavior.
Students are reinforced to inform a trusted adult (teacher, school counselor, parent, etc.) immediately if they believe they are a victim of bullying.
Our contact info...
Mrs. Myers - myersnt@pwcs.edu
Website: https://williamses.pwcs.edu/class_pages/Specialists/counselor/meet_the_counselors/
Phone: 703-445-8376