Amy Parks Heath Elementary School

Principal Lindy Lewis

Website: https://www.rockwallisd.com/Domain/15
Location: 330 Laurence Dr, Rockwall, TX, USA
Phone: 972-772-4300
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amyparksheath
Twitter: @amyparkselem

At Amy Parks-Heath Elementary (APHE), the counselor provides classroom guidance lessons, works with students in small groups, and meets with students individually to support social-emotional development and academic achievement. The counselor collaborates with campus staff and campus administrators to coordinate programs that positively impact the campus and local community. Elementary counselors in Rockwall ISD are managed by the Student Services department.

Mrs. Holder is a member of the APHE Campus Leadership Team that oversees the implementation of campus programming helping to foster a sense of school community and support the Rockwall ISD Better Together mindset. An example of her leadership was the implementation of a campus-wide virtual College & Career week. With visitors not being allowed on campus and most parents working from home due to COVID restrictions, Mrs. Holder worked with teachers and community members to provide live guest speakers using Zoom.

Mrs. Holder's leadership provided a connection between school and home and provided a way for community members to share their careers with students.

At Amy Parks-Heath Elementary, the counseling advisory council is called the Social Emotional Learning Team (S.E.L. Team). The S.E.L. Team met in August, October, and February.

For the 2020-2021 school year, district COVID restrictions prevented non-employees from entering the building. This restriction also prevented non-employee community members from attending advisory meetings.

Team Members:

Lindy Lewis: Parent & Principal

Erin Shaw: Parent & Second Grade Teacher

Sarah Groh: Kindergarten Teacher

Elizabeth Jacobbe: Fourth Grade Teacher

Shelly Bennett: Sixth Grade Teacher

Shelby Gove: Fifth Grade Teacher

During the first meeting of the year, the S.E.L. Team reviewed data from the Campus Counseling Needs Assessment. The team discussed feedback from the counseling needs assessment and goals for the upcoming school year. One example of working within the planning cycle was when the team discussed ways we could increase the number of teachers using the Core Values character curriculum for class lessons. Teachers on the S.E.L. Team noted that they had to go several places to access different elements of the program. Character video links were in a Google folder and discussion prompts in another Google folder which meant teachers were spending too much time locating what they needed. We decided that putting everything in one place would make the lessons easier to access, encouraging more teachers to use the curriculum. To implement these recommendations, the counselor designed a yearly character calendar with links to the core value videos, lessons, graphics, and parent newsletters. The S.E.L. presented the Character Calendar to teachers during in-service. The team decided to collect useage data through the end of the year counseling needs assessment to evaluate the success of the new system.

The mission of Rockwall ISD Professional School Counselors is to empower all stakeholders to be BETTER TOGETHER by facilitating interpersonal and emotional growth, college and career readiness, and academic success for all students.

Definition: The Rockwall ISD Professional School Counselor at Amy Parks-Heath Elementary, will empower all stakeholders to be "Better Together" by facilitating the interpersonal and emotional growth, college and career readiness, and academic success for all students. We believe that a more civil community is a safer and more productive community, that every person has a unique story and purpose that is most effective when used to support others, and that our collective whole is stronger than anything that seeks to marginalize or tear apart our community.

Rationale: The Amy Parks-Heath Counseling program partners with campus administration and staff to create an environment where every student can be supported, learn, and succeed. The counseling program helps prepare students to think critically and problem-solve independently, develop strong emotional and social intelligence, engage in a personalized learning plan, and develop the resiliency needed to navigate educational challenges. The counselor uses a variety of assessments and surveys to gather data that assists in developing a program that addresses the specific needs of the campus. The counseling program promotes student social-emotional and academic development by providing classroom lessons, individual and group counseling, and collaboration that presents students with a multi-tiered system of support to meet their individual needs.

Assumptions: For the Amy Parks-Heath Elementary Comprehensive School Counseling Program to be successfully implemented and effective, the following conditions and allocation of resources are crucial:

• The development of a Rockwall ISD School Counselor Operational Guide that clearly defines the role of the Professional School Counselor.
• Rockwall ISD provides professional development opportunities for all district Professional School Counselors.
• School administrators understand and support the priorities and demands of the school counseling program and make decisions based on this understanding.
• All staff members participate in campus-wide school counseling program activities that promote the social-emotional development of students.
• Use of a time-data collection system to reflect the amount of time designated to each system of delivery component.
• Time allotted for the campus counselor to train staff on supporting the social-emotional needs of students in the classroom.
• The School Counseling Office is positioned so that it is accessible to students.
• Provision of an adequate school counseling budget and basic necessary materials.
• Campus needs survey is used to guide the development of the Comprehensive School Counseling Program.
• All students, parents, and staff have equal access to the counseling program.

A variety of data from administrators, teachers, and students was collected by the counselor and used to develop goals for the Amy Parks-Heath Elementary counseling program. The Campus Counseling Needs Assessment and the Campus Improvement Plan both provided feedback regarding which student competencies to address, and the systems of delivery that would be most beneficial. Student performance data from I-Station, M-Star, and district curriculum-based assessments were used to guide student achievement goals. Campus discipline records showing the number of discipline referrals, reasons for these referrals, and recurrence rates for students being referred were used to guide grade-level classroom lesson goals for the counseling program.

The process for evaluating the effectiveness of the counseling program at Amy Parks-Heath Elementary involved collecting and reviewing data from multiple resources. The counselor's use of time data is important in evaluating the balance of the counseling program. Teachers and staff provided evaluation data through the Counseling Campus Needs Assessment, which was vital for determining whether program goals were successfully met. Other sources of evaluation data included student surveys collected before and after classroom guidance lessons and perception data collected from remote students who attended (Zoom) lunch groups. Student discipline reports were accessed to research behavior trends on campus and to examine whether the counseling program had a positive impact on student behavior.

Individual Planning:

By February 2021, the school counselor will meet with sixth-grade students to assist in completing a middle school academic plan sheet and identifying educational opportunities available in middle school.

Guidance:

By April 2021, 80% of fifth-grade students (remote and in-person) will be able to name two coping strategies to use when feeling anxious or stressed before taking a test.

Responsive Services:

During the 2020-2021 school year the number of campus-wide discipline referrals for aggressive behavior will be reduced by 50%.

System Support:

During the 2020-2021 school year, 85% of teachers will use the Core Values character curriculum for weekly lessons and class meetings. Results will be improved teacher-student relationships and fewer classroom behavior incidents.

Individual Planning

• Individual emotional check-in meetings with all fifth-grade and sixth-grade students.
• Assisted sixth-grade students in completing their course selections for seventh grade.
• Attended 58 Student Support Meetings.
• Provided individual counseling for Tier 2 & 3 students.

Guidance

• Coordinated 4 violence prevention presentations for sixth grade.
• Coordinated a school-wide College & Career Week with 14 guest speakers (Zoom).
• Taught 115 classroom lessons which included conflict resolution skills, characteristics of healthy friendships, self-regulation, and coping skills.
• Provided digital lessons for remote students in Canvas.
• Organized the Core Values curriculum into a campus-wide Character Calendar.

Responsive Services

• Coordinated a campus-wide food drive for the local food bank.
• Provided staff training on social-emotional skills and student accommodations.
• Provided push-in support for students in need of social skills instruction.
• Responded to 15 student crisis situations.
• Held weekly Zoom small-group meetings for students learning remotely.

System Support

• Student Council Sponsor.
• Coordinated the broadcast team and live morning announcements.
• Coordinated 3 Chick-fil-a drive-through spirit nights.
• Coordinated state testing for the campus.

Three digital lessons were provided for fifth graders learning in person and remotely. The lessons helped students identify three different types of anxiety and coping strategies they could use for each. The pre-lesson survey showed that 39% of fifth-graders sometimes felt anxious before testing, and 45% always felt anxious before taking a test. Only 10% of the fifth graders surveyed could name a way to cope with their anxiousness before working through the lessons. Two weeks after the lessons, the remote and in-person fifth-grade students took a post-lesson survey. This survey showed that 100% of fifth-graders who worked through the lessons could name two coping strategies to use when they felt anxious.

The APHE Counselor partnered with the local food pantry, Helping Hands, for a November food drive. Due to Covid restrictions, food was collected and held in each classroom instead of the usual front hallway. Student Council members had the extra step of collecting the food from each classroom before placing it in bags, and loading it into the cars of parent volunteers.

The Amy-Parks Heath comprehensive counseling program is structured to provide intentional activities and lessons that promote student development in the four content areas of post-secondary education and career readiness, interpersonal effectiveness, intrapersonal effectiveness, and personal health and safety. Promoting student development in these areas is a campus-wide effort that includes teachers, campus leadership, and parents. This section will highlight how our campus worked to reduce the number of aggressive behavior office referrals by promoting growth in the content area of interpersonal effectiveness.

Process data from the Campus Improvement Plan (CIP) and perception data from the counseling needs assessment were used in creating the goal to reduce the number of aggressive behavior discipline referrals. One part of reaching that goal was to increase the number of teachers using the Core Values curriculum for character lessons each week. These lessons would provide students with opportunities to practice more effective communication skills and conflict resolution strategies. Teachers were reluctant to use the Core Values curriculum because the material was scattered in different Google Drive folders that were hard for many teachers to locate and put together. To solve this issue, Mrs. Holder created a monthly calendar with links to all the components of the Core Values curriculum. Having the video links, lesson prompts, and graphics on one page helped teachers access the curriculum quickly each morning. At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, 88% of campus teachers reported using the Core Values curriculum for weekly classroom lessons.

Counselor classroom lessons also focused on improving student interpersonal skills. One lesson example used the book The Cool Bean and focused on positive friendship qualities. Students in lower grades made a booklet listing ways they could be good friends in different areas of the building (playground, cafeteria, hallway). Older students worked in partners and created acrostic poems for the word c-o-o-l that listed positive friendship qualities.

A digital version of the friendship lesson was uploaded to Canvas for remote learners and students in quarantine. Survey data was collected from in-person learners after the lesson.

Partnering with parents and stakeholders is an important part of the counseling program at Amy Parks-Heath Elementary. Promoting emotional growth and personal skills development must be a shared responsibility between school and home. Stakeholders can support the individual planning and guidance curriculum components at home and school by reviewing lesson talking points, participating in campus events, and being intentional in promoting social-emotional skills. For responsive services and system support, stakeholders are most supportive when they clearly understand the role of the counselor and how the counseling program impacts student achievement. Keeping and sharing results data helps foster this understanding.

The core value focus is publicized in the Counseling Connection Newsletter that goes home each month. Parents also receive a note after each guidance lesson that includes talking points for discussions they can have with students at home. All stakeholders have access to campus information through the campus newsletter and the campus website. Parents and stakeholders are involved in all aspects of the counseling program implementation cycle for campus events such as the food drive, Career Day, and guest presentations.

M.S.

School Counselor

Amy Parks-Heath Elementary

Email: Kristin.Holder@RockwallISD.org
Website: https://www.rockwallisd.com/site/Default.aspx?PageID=3495
Phone: 972-772-4300
Twitter: @APHECounselor