Counseling
In our community, we will:
- Work to be safe
- Inspire Kindness
- Show Respect
- Embrace Responsibility
We are now in year five of our school wide positive behavior system (PBIS). We are continuing to focus on Who’s Wise Words of kindness, respect, responsibility and safety at school. You may notice Who’s Wise Words posters around the school and may have heard your children talking about “positive pellets”. Positive pellets are distributed by staff in the building when we notice students following one or more of Who’s Wise Words by showing kindness, respect, responsibility, and safety.
Over the summer I was fortunate to join a team from Marion Cross that attended the BEST Institute in Killington to continue building our multi tiered system of supports (MTSS) at MCS. Our focus this summer was on implementing restorative practices within our MTSS framework. A restorative approach involves principle-based processes and practices that can be applied to help things go right as well as respond when things go wrong.
Counselor's Corner
Welcome to another exciting week in Ms. Keel's Class Counsel! We’ve been busy learning and growing together, and I can’t wait to share all the wonderful things happening in our classrooms. Let’s dive right in!
Last week:
- In Miss Anderson's Kindergarten class, our young learners enjoyed the book Listening with Brain and Body and practiced the calming technique of Elephant Breathing. Meanwhile, Mrs. Freeman's class wrapped up Thinking with Your Eyes and practiced Snake Breathing.
- In First Grade, Mrs. Trombley’s and Mrs. Rinehimer's students explored the important role of bystanders in bullying situations, while Mr. McLaughlin's class focused on how to refuse bullying using a strong, respectful voice.
- In Second Grade, students practiced bystander scenarios, discussing what they would say or do if they witnessed bullying. Miss Rachael's Third Grade class learned about the power of bystanders and how they can help stop bullying.
- In Mr. Janerico's Third Grade class, students role-played refusing bullying and enjoyed the book Tough from the Weird! Dare! Tough! series.
- Fifth Graders listened to the impactful story Bully by Patricia Polacco, and our Sixth Graders began setting progress markers for their long-term goals.
Next week:
- Miss Anderson's Kindergarteners will kick off their bullying prevention lessons, while Mrs. Freeman's class will hear the story Body in the Group. Both classes will also try out a new breathing technique to help calm their nervous systems.
- In First Grade, students will continue their bullying prevention unit, and in Second Grade, we’ll start wrapping things up.
- Third Graders will keep learning about bullying prevention and finish the Weird! Dare! Tough! series.
- Fifth Graders who complete their bullying prevention lessons will transition to the Child Protection unit. For more information on upcoming safety lessons, here’s a link to the personal safety letter (below) about the upcoming unit. I will also send paper copies of the letter home with your students.
- Finally, our Sixth Graders will continue monitoring their goals and setting progress markers.
Things to remember As we move forward, please remind your children to practice the breathing techniques we’ve learned to help manage their emotions. Encourage them to share what they’ve learned about bullying prevention with you at home!
Until next time! Thank you for your continued support and involvement in our classroom community! Together, we are making a difference in our students' lives. Let’s keep the momentum going and have another fantastic week ahead!
Warm regards,
Ms. Keel
Personal Safety Letter
Dear MCS Family,
Act 1 in Vermont requires schools to teach children how to recognize sexual abuse and what to do about it if it occurs. Since I am already using the Committee for Children’s Second Step program and Bullying Prevention program schoolwide, I will be using their Child Protection unit to meet the state requirement, along with having WISE join me to teach prevention lessons. For more information on WISE’s programming you can either click on this link: WISE or go to https://wiseuv.org/, look for Preventing Abuse and click on Youth Prevention Program and explore their curriculum topics.
The Child Protection unit covers three types of skills:
- Personal Safety- Students will learn important safety rules, such as safety with guns, sharp tools, and fire, and when riding on wheels or in cars. They will also learn ways to help them decide if something is safe or not.
- Touching Safety-Students will learn about safe, unsafe, and unwanted touches, and rules about touching private body parts. They’ll also learn to say no to unsafe or unwanted touches, and to tell an adult if someone breaks rules about touching private body parts. This curriculum highlights using correct anatomical names for private parts, which we will name in two of the lessons. Research has proven that using the correct terms is essential in disclosure of abuse.
- With the use of correct anatomical names, the topic of gender has come up in the past. When this happens, we’ll discuss gender identity in a way that is suitable for their age group.
- Assertiveness-These lessons will also give students a chance to practice asking an adult for help, telling an adult about an unsafe situation, and being assertive to get out of unsafe situations.
You can check out this program and other Second Step programs by the Committee for Children at SecondStep.org
If you have any questions about this curriculum or if you would like home link worksheets sent home before or after each lesson please email me.
Thank you,
Alisha Keel
MCS School Counselor