Counseling Connection

Happy New Year! I hope your family had a wonderful and stress-free winter break. I want to take a moment to share the middle of the year counseling report for our campus. The mid-year report shows how our students are doing emotionally. It is also helpful for making adjustments to the counseling program to meet current needs.

• The number of students I've seen individually has increased by 36% compared to the first semester of 2020. (Student requests and teacher referrals)
• The number of students seen for help with conflict resolution (difficulty solving problems with peers) has increased by 520% from last year.
• The issue most reported by students I've seen for personal/social reasons was anxiousness about being at school.

I am excited to start the spring semester! Please feel free to contact me regarding any concerns you may have about your student.

The Amy Parks Heath counseling program was selected as a 2021-2022 CREST Award winner by the Texas School Counseling Association! Schools receiving CREST awards have demonstrated a commitment to using the Texas Model to improve the achievement of students in academic, career, and personal-social domains. You can find the APHE CREST document HERE.

The Core Value for January is SELF CONTROL. Self-control is choosing to do what you should, even when you don't want to. This month we will be asking students to think about situations where they did and did not show self-control. Teachers have access to daily core value lessons they can use for class meetings and discussions. If you would like to reinforce at home what your student will be learning at school, download the January Family Newsletter for more ideas.

**Please note that while my goal is to teach classroom guidance lessons each month, I am also the Testing Coordinator for our campus. At times, spring testing will require the majority of my time making me less available for lessons and meetings with individual students.

Each month I teach classroom guidance lessons based on the content area guidelines in The Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. In the Texas Model, there are four content areas: interpersonal effectiveness, intrapersonal effectiveness, post-secondary planning, and personal health and safety.

January classroom lessons will cover the following content areas and student competencies from the Texas Model:

• Kindergarten: Setting goals and learning to do hard things. We will read the book: Jabari Jumps and learn about setting goals.

• First Grade: Good Sportsmanship. We will watch a Howard B. Wigglebottom video about good sportsmanship and play tic/tac/toe to practice being good winners and practice what to do when we don't win the game.

• Second Grade: Second graders will continue to learn friendship skills. This month we will read the book Can I Join Your Club? and discuss what it feels like to be excluded.

• Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade: These grade levels will be thinking about their best qualities and how they can use them. We will read the book One and students will name one way they "shine".

Small group counseling provides direct services to individual students and is part of an effective school counseling program. Small group topics are based on teacher feedback and data collected during student academic progress discussions.

Current small group counseling topics are Test Anxiety, Academic Success, and Friendship Skills.

Lunch groups provide another way for me to connect with students. Lunch groups are different from counseling groups because they are not topic or concern specific. I meet with students from different grade levels based on my schedule and grade level lunchtimes.

Leadership lunch groups are for students elected to serve on the Mariner Council. They meet monthly on the week before the student council meeting. We discuss grade-level concerns and ways they could help solve issues between peers.

Upcoming Leadership Lunches:

• 4th Grade: Wednesday, January 19th
• 5th Grade: Friday, January 21st
• 6th Grade: Thursday, January 20th

Students in grades 3-6 will take the MAP reading and math tests in January. Please have your student to school on time and well-rested so they can do their best. Each MAP test takes about two hours to complete. Parents will receive a score report showing student progress for each subject.

Monday, January 10

• 3rd-grade math
• 4th-grade reading

Tuesday, January 11

• 4th-grade math
• 6th-grade math (7th-grade math students will remain on campus)

Wednesday, January 12

• 3rd-grade reading
• 5th-grade reading

Thursday, January 13

• 5th-grade math
• 6th-grade reading

Parents can go to the Parent Toolkit website for more information on MAP testing and student progress reports.

If you are the parent of a sixth-grader, be sure to add these important dates to your calendar! Registration forms will come home after the trip to Cain on February 2nd. Forms will need to be completed, signed by a parent, and returned to the homeroom teacher by Friday, February 11th. Students will use the forms to enter their course choices on February 23rd. All students will need to know their Skyward login information.

• February 2nd: Sixth Grade trip to Cain Middle School **CANCELED
• February 9th: Parent Information Night
• February 23rd: Seventh-grade registration (at Amy Parks)

Many students struggle with stress and emotional situations. Sometimes parents are not sure how to help with mental health struggles. Contacting a mental health professional to discuss your concerns may be helpful. Rockwall ISD is proud to partner with Children's Health Virtual Care to provide access to a licensed behavioral health provider during the school day. This program is appropriate for help with managing anxiety, ADHD, poor coping skills, social skills, and depression. In cases where virtual counseling is not appropriate, the Children's program will assist parents in finding appropriate services.

*Parent permission required. Please contact Mrs. Holder if you have a student who might benefit from the tele-mental health service.

School Counselor

M.S.

Email: Kristin.Holder@RockwallISD.org
Website: https://www.rockwallisd.com/Page/3495
Phone: 972-772-4300
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amyparksheath/
Twitter: @APHECounselor