Counselor Weekly Update 3/28/25

• April 2 Team Meeting
• April 4 Course Verification to parents/guardians

Highlighting the ways we support our campus through the four components of the comprehensive guidance program through:

Classroom Guidance Lesson

Individual Planning

Responsive Services

System Support

We are playing basket ball (well kind of), students are following March Madness to choose their favorite coping skill. We are down to the final four now!

One of the best parts of our job is the opportunity to celebrate our students. This week we celebrated the 10 Taft students who ranked the highest based on their rank/gpa for our campus.

• Thank you to Ms. Esther Lim and a few of the orchestra students for providing our entertainment. They always sound fantastic!
• Thank you to Ms. Courtney Williams and a few of our culinary students for catering our event. The food was excellent and the students demonstrated outstanding professionalism.
• A special thank you to Ms. Jackie Dullnig (counseling secretary) and Ms. Elaine Torres ( College Career Military Advisor), their behind the scenes efforts make this event special every year.

• We would like to say thank you to our advisory council members for your salient contributions last week.

Thank you to our English 3 and World History teachers for sharing your time with us the last two weeks.

Our 11th grade students worked on identifying self-regulation skills. The goal was to evaluate how they manage their feelings and exploring different ways to manage feelings that will increase attainment of personal goals using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) techniques.

Our 10th grade students leaned to appreciate their uniqueness, develop self regulation skills, identify attitudes and behaviors that lead to successful learning using CBT and motivational interviewing techniques.

Many of our students are dealing with trauma, consequently it may be difficult for them to focus on your curriculum. Take a moment to be curious rather than reactive when a student acts out or withdraws. Talk with the student one on one to show them that you care and are concerned about their behavior. Begin to build rapport with the student. It's not always easy and it won't happen overnight but your persistence will benefit the student.

If a student makes a suicidal out cry please follow the protocol below. We have to take it seriously every single time, even if the student says they were just playing around.

1. It's best to walk the student to the counseling office but sometimes it is not possible.
2. If you cannot walk the student to the counseling office, please call the counselor assigned to the student or call our counseling secretary. DO NOT SEND AN EMAIL. DO NOT SEND A CHAT.
3. An administrator or counselor will come to your classroom if you are unable to walk the student to the counseling office.
4. Once the student is with a counselor, they will assess the student using a suicidal ideation screener. The student's responses will determine our next steps.

We as educators are human beings with real life traumas and challenging circumstances in our lives outside of work. Some of us are dealing with struggles in our mental health. Reaching out for help is a superpower not a weakness. NISD has a resource that may be beneficial to you called the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). EAP can be accessed by calling The Standard 1-888-293-6948 or visiting http://members.healthadvocate.com/.