Iduma Elementary

4400 Foster Lane Killeen, Tx 76549

254-336-2590

At Iduma Elementary, counselors work together to support the social, emotional and academic needs of students. We work with students individually, in small groups and in whole classes. Counselors work with administrators, teachers, parents and community resources to develop programs that fit the needs of our students and parents.

Our counselors work hard to implement all aspects of a Comprehensive School Counseling Program. Through collaboration with other stakeholders and involvement in activities throughout the school, our counselors lead many groups that make connections with our student population, families and community. Programs such as Coffee with the Counselors, Family Night, Canned Food drives and School Wide Art projects are lead by our counselors to incorporate parent involvement, giving back to our families and community, and anti-bullying. Our counselors' leadership and advocacy shows their love for our school, students, families and surrounding community.

The Iduma Elementary Counseling Advisory Council (CAC) meets 2 times each school year: October and February.

Administrators: Katy Bohannon, Nancy VanRiper-Howley, Melissa Jenkins

Counselors: Cristelita Fuertes, Megan Gilbert, Tiffany Jackson

Teachers: Eneida Saucedo, Michelle Kaaloa (Librarian), Ronett Alfaro, Jessica Frank, Vivian Staines, Jessica Lewis, Larae Ward, Sylvia Frank (Parent Liason)

Parents: Carol Sotelo Flores, Yeimari Santiago

Students: McKenzie Norman, Maddox Redfield

Community members: James Garza (Adopted School Unit)

At the February CAC meeting the committee met to go over data from the Campus Needs Assessment, disciplinary referrals, attendance and at-risk population. The committee discussed the data and gave feedback in order to design a plan that addresses our current needs.

Organizing: We began by organizing data into 4 categories: Needs Assessment, discipline referrals, attendance, and at-risk. Groups at the council meeting, worked together to analyze each set of data and come up things they learned, things they found interesting and questions they still had. The School Counselors facilitated discussion to honor the learning and answer questions for clarity. After discussing the data, the council determined a need for developing positive habits through implementing Daily Positive Affirmations.

Planning: The counselors met to look at the recommendations that the CAC gave regarding SMART goals. The recommendations were prioritized as well as categorized and determined that every day our students need to receive more positive affirmations to increase their positive habits.

Designing: The counselors organized a pre/post survey about positive habits and a school-wide affirmation to be read on the announcements daily.

Implementing: Counselors conducted classroom lessons on developing positive affirmations and how it affects positive habits. Teachers were asked to develop classroom affirmations that are repeated, practiced, and embraced daily.

Evaluating: The post survey was given to staff and students to determine if personal growth in positive habits was made. The counselors met again to look over the data and results. They determined that...

• The mission of the Killeen Independent School District Counseling Program is to advocate, support, collaborate and build relationships to empower all students to acquire academic, career, personal, and social competencies to make every student future-ready.

The Iduma Elementary Counseling Department will support every student in their social-emotional and academic journeys to become well-rounded, responsible stakeholders in their own well-being. We believe each student deserves a safe learning environment that is supported by teachers, parents, administrators and community members.

The Iduma Counseling department supports students in their social-emotional learning to support academic learning and personal growth. The counseling program promotes learning problem-solving skills, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, goal setting, self-regulation and coping skills. The counseling program uses Campus Needs Assessments, attendance reports, behavior reports, At-Risk reports and various academic testing reports to determine student needs. The utilization of the professional counseling practices, consultation with all stakeholders, collaboration with other counselors and guidance from other professionals, helps the counseling department be responsive to and address the individual needs of ALL students.

In order for the Iduma School Counseling Program to be fully implemented, the following criteria and resources are necessary.

• Time allocated for analyzing data tools associated with school counseling program services, planning and collaboration
• Counseling Yearly Calendar of scheduled events.
• Clearly defined school counselor roles and responsibilities.
• Iduma Elementary counseling practices adopted by all school personnel.
• Removal of all Non-School Counselor duties from daily schedule.
• Comprehensive Needs Assessment used on a regular basis to monitor the ongoing needs of students, parents and staff.
• Approved School Counseling budget
• Appropriate tools and supplies- books, pencils, crayons, paper, digital resources, etc.

Iduma's counselors used the Campus Needs Assessment, Campus Improvement Plan, Discipline data and Attendance data to conduct a review of how the data is related to student achievement and behavior. The Counseling Advisory Committee reviewed the data and gave suggestions on strategies that could be implemented for student success. Counselors met to develop campus SMART goals based on the suggestions from committee members and the campus data. After careful review, four SMART goals were developed to address barriers to student achievement and behavior. Counselors will use these SMART goals to drive the social-emotional learning on campus.

In order to evaluate Iduma's School Counseling program, counselors use a variety of tools. Counselors will continuously reevaluate the SMART goals set forth by the counseling program. Reevaluation will come in the form of feedback through the Counseling Advisory Committee, a review of the Campus Needs Assessment and surveying the effectiveness of interventions implemented. We will use discipline and attendance data coupled with pretest/post test data to further seek the effectiveness of those interventions.

Individual Planning: Throughout the school year, counselors will work one-on-one with students who struggle to self-regulate, by developing a mental health plan with the student, which will decrease emotional outbursts to once a week.

Guidance Curriculum: During the 4th 9 Weeks, staff and students will be given a pre & post survey to determine the development of positive habits through implementing positive affirmations in their daily school environment.

Responsive Services: During the Fall semester, counselors will develop focus groups to reduce the incidents involving peer conflict from 45% to 30%, therefore reducing the number of office referrals written for aggression, fighting and other serious offenses.

System Support: During the school year, the number of office referrals, written by teachers, will decrease by 25%, after they attend professional development on topics such as bullying, self-regulation and building relationships by counselors.

Individual Planning

• Goal setting with each student
• Meetings with 5th grade students to make decisions about classes for middle school
• Develop Mental Health Plans with individuals and groups
• Coordinate College and Career fair
• Grade level orientations
• Pre K and Kindergarten Round-up

Guidance

• Guidance lessons
• Focused small groups
• Focused individual counseling
• Focus groups
• Lunch bunch based on student needs
• Military student lunches
• New student Meet-ups

Responsive Services

• Small group on mood disorders
• Golden Spatula Award as incentive to promote positive behavior
• TCHATT referrals for counseling services needed
• Lunch bunch based on student needs
• Crisis intervention/prevention
• MTSS/SSp behavior interventions

System Support

• Staff Wellness Week
• Staff development throughout the school year
• Site Based Decision Making and Campus Conduct Committee involvement
• Counseling Advisory Committee
• Community resource outreach
• Consultation and Collaboration with teachers and administrators
• Data Analysis

A guidance lesson was completed for 4th grade students to identify healthy habits through positive affirmations. Prior to the lesson, 50 students could identify healthy self-regulation habits, 45 students said they sometimes self-regulate and 4 said they never self-regulate. Also, prior to the lesson 66 students could identify healthy friendship boundaries they exhibit on a daily basis, 27 could sometimes and 6 said they never exhibit healthy friendship boundaries. One month after the lesson and implementation of school wide positive affirmations, students were surveyed again. It was found that the number of students who never self-regulated went down to 2. Students who never had healthy boundaries went down from 6 to 5. Teachers reported that students were making connections to their personal affirmations and an increase in more positive peer interactions in the classroom.

Counselors worked with parents, families and school staff to conduct the Food For Families Food Drive. We collected over 1,000 food items to contribute to our school's food pantry and the Food For Families local food drive.

Counselors held their monthly Coffee with the Counselors parent meeting and invited parents of military children to come and discuss ways to help their children be successful at school. Community resource representatives were invited to share their programs and services available to military families.

Iduma's school counseling program uses the Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs as a guide in planning and implementing activities that develop students' educational, career, personal and social development. The Texas Model uses four components:

• Interpersonal Effectiveness

• Intrapersonal Effectiveness

• Personal Health and Safety

• Postsecondary Education and Career Readiness

The following is an example of a lesson and activity that addresses the four components, and shows how we worked with stakeholders to ensure a well-rounded school counseling program.

TEKS: 3rd Grade 19 TAC 115.15

(3) Mental health and wellness--social and emotional health. The student identifies and applies strategies to develop socio-emotional health, self-regulation, and healthy relationships. The student is expected to:(B) describe strategies for assessing thoughts and applying calming and self-management practices; (4) Mental health and wellness--developing a healthy self-concept. The student develops the capacity for self-assessment and evaluation, goal setting, and decision making in order to develop a healthy self-concept. The student is expected to:

(B) describe the importance of seeking guidance from a parent or another trusted adult

(5) Mental health and wellness--identifying and managing mental health and wellness concerns. The student will develop and use appropriate skills to identify and manage conditions related to mental health and wellness. The student is expected to: (D) describe and practice healthy behaviors that reduce stress

4th Grade 19 TAC 115.16

(3) Mental health and wellness--social and emotional health. The student identifies and applies strategies to develop socio-emotional health, self-regulation, and healthy relationships. The student is expected to: (A) analyze how thoughts and emotions influence behaviors; (5) Mental health and wellness--identifying and managing mental health and wellness concerns. The student develops and uses appropriate skills to identify and manage conditions related to mental health and wellness. The student is expected to: (E) identify ways to express and manage overwhelming emotions without harming oneself, others, or property such as calming strategies or talking to a parent or another trusted adult.

5th Grade 19 TAC 115.17

(3) Mental health and wellness--social and emotional health. The student identifies and applies strategies to develop socio-emotional health, self-regulation, and healthy relationships. The student is expected to:(A) analyze how thoughts and emotions influence behaviors; (B) practice and apply strategies for calming and self-management; (6) Mental health and wellness--identifying and managing mental health and wellness concerns. The student develops and uses appropriate skills to identify and manage conditions related to mental health and wellness. The student is expected to:(A) compare and contrast healthy and unhealthy methods for managing concerns related to long-term health conditions for self and others; (F) discuss healthy alternatives to harming oneself, others, or property and the importance of telling a parent or another trusted adult when someone is struggling to manage overwhelming emotions or lacks support.

American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Standards:

ACSA Mindset Standard

M 1. Belief in development of whole self, including a healthy balance of mental, social/emotional and physical well-being

ASCA Behavior Standard B-SMS 7. Effective coping skills

ASCA National Standards for Students

PS:B1.4 Develop effective coping skills for dealing with problems PS:B1.5 Demonstrate when, where and how to seek help for solving problems and making decisions

PS:C1.7 Apply effective problem-solving and decision-making skills to make safe and healthy choices PS:C1.10 Learn techniques for managing stress and conflict PS:C1.11 Learn coping skills for managing life events

Materials (include activity sheets and/ or supporting resources)

Chart paper

Writing instrument of choice

Computer and projector

This lesson supports the development of skills in the following academic content areas.

Academic Content Area(s)

Communication Arts

Social Studies

ELAR

Science

Mathematics

X

Health/Physical Education

Character Traits Addressed:

X

Respect

Caring

Integrity

X

Responsibility

Good Citizenship

Courage

Gratitude

Fairness

Honesty

We used data from our Healthy Habits survey to inspire our Mental Health Plan Unit. This will include a 4 week plan of classroom guidance, developing individual student goals, school wide extension projects and long term follow-up.

As students worked through their Mental Health Plan, they created a journal to document their personal goals, growth and findings.

Mental Health

Lesson #1

3RD - 5th Grade

Lesson Measurable Learning Objectives:

Lesson Preparation

Procedures

The total school counseling program involves people from every aspect of a students' life. School Counselors meet with stakeholders to collaborate, plan, monitor and assess the services delivered through the school counseling program. School counseling standards are delivered through classroom guidance lessons, small groups and individually based on student need. Teachers reinforce and extend these standards through restorative practices, including circle meetings, relate breaks and sparks. Resources that can help parents and families are shared through the school's website, social media page, meetings with parents and flyers that go home in backpacks. Counselors use collaboration with campus administrators to advocate for curriculum and programs to help the school grow in its social emotional learning, by explaining how each delivery component (guidance curriculum, individual planning, responsive services, system support) is essential to the school counseling program being effective. School Counselors work with stakeholders to share data results and discuss possible ways of making the program better. Stakeholders give perspective to the data so that results can be informative and prompt change if needed.