The Land Line

We made it through the first four days... What an incredible first week! I am so grateful for the warm welcome, the supportive community, and the professional colleagues that make Maplewood so special. Shout-out to 5th grade volunteers Xavier Garza Falcon & Lyric Barber for being our Morning Announcement Anchors on GoogleMeet during the first week of school! They are PROS!

I am NOT so grateful that my own child missed the first week of his Senior year due to illness & that my older son is far away again at college. Ugh. If it wasn't the best re-entry week for your family at home, I feel you. We can do this, together!

Ahead is our first FULL week of school. It's a "B" week for School Counselor lessons, so I get to visit with PreK/1/3 + Ms Becker's 2nd grade and Ms Curiel's 4th grade! Check out details of my schedule below. I'll also try to get started on "One Minute Meetings" with grades K-5 students. You can view the K-2 version HERE, and the 3-5 version HERE. It's really just a quick way for us to get to know students at the beginning of the school year, and see how they're feeling about themselves, school, and friends. It's a way for us to ask students directly about their coping skills and see if they would like to join a lunch group to make new friends.

Before AISD counselors can do those annual "One Minute Meetings" with students, we need expressed caregiver consent. You may have noticed some new questions about psychological exams, treatment, and 'general mental health supports,' when you completed your child's school registration in Enroll Austin, under the "Annual Forms" tab. Please take a look at the graphics below for more info. To be clear, I am only allowed to survey or check-in with students whose families who opted IN and answered "I consent" to certain questions. If you opt-OUT of 'school counseling' in the 'general mental health supports' section, this means your student(s) will need to stay in the front office during my routine counselor lessons in the classroom. I'll send a direct email confirming to families who did not consent or chose to opt out, and review this information at Back-to-School Night, as well. In the meantime, you are welcome to log in to the parent portal, click the "Enroll Austin" icon, and look over your selections under the 'annual forms' tab in the 'health forms' section, if you'd like to update them.

It's looking like we will have a TON of interest in GreenPeace Team this year among our 4th & 5th graders. Thank you to everyone who showed up for the "Grounds Workday" yesterday!! Please know how appreciated your time, energy, and dedication are to this campus! It's going to look SO GOOD!!

Have a great week, Peacemakers!

A: For the elementary level, it means you allow the School Counselor to do a '1 min mtg' or 'well-being questionnaire' with your child. The responses are ONLY viewable by the school counselor on a google form spreadsheet, and responses are NOT entered in to your child's cumulative record. They are mainly used for general planning and intervention supports. School counselors are NOT licensed psychologists and we do NOT have access to formal psychological exams. However, Texas law states that informal well-being questionnaires administered in a public school should be considered 'psychological exams,' which require written caregiver consent in advance.

Please complete our '26-'27 MAPLEWOOD CARES FORM if your family is on a tight budget and could use funds set aside to assist with learning. Only Mrs Land will view these responses and will reach out to ensure you know when/how funds will be applied throughout the year.

When it's not a high-risk or life versus death situation, it's ok to let kids make their own decisions! It's not always convenient, because so many times, there are hard schedules that demand the group leaves when an individual is not ready. Offer choices IN ADVANCE of a power struggle to put deposits in those bank accounts of control.

Avoiding adult:child power struggles boils down to wording questions so that kids practice critical thinking and feel like their decisions were their own idea. Jim Fay and Foster Cline, founders of "Parenting with Love & Logic", encourage this approach with lots of choices, followed by what they call 'enforceable statements'.

Start with questions like: "Will you be ready in 1 min or 2 min?" "Do you want to brush teeth or get dressed first?" "Do you want to ROLL out of bed or JUMP out of bed?" "Do you want to fill your water bottle from the sink, or the fridge?" If they try to add a third choice that doesn't work, say 'I love your creativity," then repeat the choices. If they say neither, say "I understand. It's hard to make choices sometimes, so I'll choose for you." There's lots of room for silliness and humor with the choices, so have fun with it!

cari.land@austinisd.org