Counseling Corner

Can you believe we’re already approaching the end of our first grading period?

The school year is flying by! As we reach this first milestone, it’s a great time to pause,

check in, and celebrate how far our Coyotes have come.

As always, your Connally Counselors are here to support our students

academically, socially, emotionally, and with future planning.

💙🐺Buckle up, Coyotes—we’re just getting started! 💙🐺

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, a time to remind our Coyote Pack that kindness and respect matter every day. Small acts of kindness can make a big difference in creating a school community where everyone feels welcomed, valued, and safe.

🐺💙Be an UPstander and not a BYstander - make a difference!🐺💙

To strengthen our school community, we are proud to kick off HOPE Squad this month!

Hope Squad is a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program designed to build a culture of connection and support. Hope Squad members are students nominated by their peers as trustworthy, empathetic listeners. While Hope Squad members are not counselors, they are trained to:

• Recognize the warning signs of suicide and mental distress.

• Provide a safe, non-judgmental shoulder to lean on.

• Connect peers directly to school counselors and trusted adults for professional support.

By combining active peer outreach with professional school support, HOPE Squad ensures no student ever has to walk through a dark time alone.

School Counselors will present the HOPE Squad Program to students on the following dates:

6th grade Students - September 23rd and 28th

7th grade Students - September 28th and 30th

8th grade Students - October 5th and 6th

This year's theme highlights that choosing to live drug-free is an act of leadership and courage and that everyday decisions can positively influence peers, families, and communities.

💙BLUE UP! - World Day of Bullying Prevention

📍School-Wide

⌚All Day

🔗Flyer

Wear BLUE today to show your support for Bullying Prevention, kindness, and respect!

🐺 Stop by the Counselor Pop-Up!
✍️ Visit our Coyote Ambassadors and sign the Decision of Respect!

When you sign, you’re saying:

💙 I will treat others with respect.
💙 I will respect people’s boundaries.
💙 I will include others.
💙 I will stand up for a kinder Coyote Pack.

🎶6th Grade Dance

📍Connally Cafeteria

⌚4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Get ready to dance, laugh, and have some fun with your Coyote Pack! 🎟️ DON'T MISS OUT!

🎵 Music • 🎉 Fun • 📸 Memories • 🐺 Coyote Spirit

Come hang out with your friends, show off your best dance moves, and celebrate making it through your first part of middle school!

☕Counselor Cafecito

📍Connally MS

⌚8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.

🔗Flyer

8th Grade Parents - Join us for the beginning preparations for high school. Learn the steps to help your student plan a seamless start to their high school journey. It is essential to be involved in this process to ensure your child is on the right track to graduation.

👣Out of Darkness Walk

📍Nelson Wolff Stadium

⌚9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Join us for a free event as NISD partners with HOPE Squad and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention! We’d love to see our Connally community there! If you’re able to attend, please wear a Connally shirt or, if you are a HOPE Squad Ambassador, your HOPE Squad shirt.

🎃Trunk-or-Treat

📍Connally MS

⌚5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

🔗Flyer

Join us for Trunk or Treat and check out some seriously creative trunks, grab some treats, hang out with friends, and enjoy the season! 🍬🎃

👻 COSTUMES? Absolutely! (school appropriate)
🍬 TREATS? Of course!
🎃 FUN? 100%!

🐺🎃 Come for the treats. Stay for the fun. 🎃🐺

The Connally Counseling Department is committed to fostering a community of lifelong learners.

In collaboration with parents, teachers, administrators, and the broader community, our school counselors support students in achieving growth across all areas - academic, personal, social, and emotional.

The Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs is an integral part of each student's total educational program. It is developmental and systematic in nature and vital to the achievement in education for all students. Comprehensive school counseling programs organize resources to meet the priority needs of all students through four delivery service components:

Guidance Curriculum, Individual Planning, Responsive Services, and System Support.

Throughout the school year, counselors focus on delivering the guidance curriculum with the purpose to help all students develop transferable skills relative to their educational, career, personal, and social and emotional development.

The four strategic curricular content areas are Intrapersonal Effectiveness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Post-Secondary Planning and Career Readiness, and Personal Health and Safety.

Topics for delivery may include helping students develop a positive self-concept, effective conflict resolution skills, motivation to succeed in personal endeavors, and the demonstration of resiliency and coping skills.

The purpose of individual planning is to guide all students as they learn to plan, monitor, and manage their own goals. Efforts are consistently made to meet with students individually or in groups using a variety of resources to assist students in developing and implementing personalized plans.

Various considerations are made during the individual planning process to ensure inclusivity of all students regarding multi-cultural consideration, special populations, multiple intelligences, and academic implications with regards to specialized circumstances and/or services.

The purpose of responsive services is to support all students in their time of need and intervene on behalf of those whose immediate circumstances or concerns interfere with their daily functioning.

All students are provided equitable access to school counseling services with the purpose of providing preventative or remedial services for the development of foundational skills.

At times, these services may elevate to crisis services that could involve specific protocols that include district policies and procedures as well as state law.

The purpose of system support is to identify and coordinate resources and activities on campus and in the community that indirectly benefit students.

System support, the foundation of the school counseling program assists with identifying the various needs of the students and campus through consultation with school staff and interpretation of data.

In collaboration with parents, teachers, administrators, and the community, Counselors are able to advocate for student needs and plan and implement programs that benefit all students throughout the school year.