1. COUNSELOR’S ROLE COUNSELING PROGRAMS What does the Elementary School Counselor do? Why do parents contact the School Counselor? How does a student see the School Counselor? In what situations/problems could an Elementary Counselor be of help? Second Step Steps to Respect Red Ribbon Week Share Norwood’s Challenge

2.  Helps create a safe school environment where children can learn.  Provides counseling with students individually and in groups.  Assists students in learning how school performance relates to future opportunities.  Supports students by teaching skills for achieving success.  Coordinates support and referrals to outside agencies.  Promotes positive attitudes among students toward self, family, peers and community.  Works with students on social issues and problems.  Helps design interventions to enhance student success.  Helps students learn about anger management, conflict resolution and mediation skills.  Assists parents, teachers and administrators in determining how to meet the needs of students.

3.  Concern over your child’s adjustment to school  Peer conflicts  Discussing the specific needs of your child  Early discussion of potential concerns  Family difficulties or concerns that may impact on your child’s functioning at school

4.  Student requests a pass from the teacher  Student requests a pass from the counselor  Counselor requests to see the student  Administrator requests the counselor see the student  Parent requests the counselor see the student  Teacher requests the counselor see the student  Friend requests the counselor see the student

5. With students… With parents…  “I’m nervous about asking my teacher questions.”  “My friends keep excluding me from sitting at the lunch table.”  “My mom and I argue about homework.”  I don’t feel like I’m part of the cool group.”  I worry about my work and I wonder if I will pass.”  “My son has difficulty getting off the school bus in the morning.”  “My daughter doesn’t seem to have friends and spends a great deal of time by herself.”  “There is a lot of family stress right now because of … so my daughter could really use someone to talk to.”

6. COUNSELOR CONNECTIONS LUNCH GROUPS  At Norwood the counselor works with individuals, groups and classes to help students acquire social and communicative skills, and to build the confidence and self- esteem necessary for productive interaction with teachers, peers and families. The counselor provides student with the skills they need to solve their problems, enhance their lives and help them learn to relax and cope when confronted with stress-producing situations. By providing education, prevention, early identification and intervention, school counselors can help all children achieve academic success.  Lunch bunch groups focusing on a variety of topics including but not limited to; Reducing anxiety, dealing with conflict, enhancing social skills, developing resiliency, groups for divorce (formerly banana splits), and when necessary we have had groups on children dealing with cancer in their family. Girls talk groups have focused on relational aggression issues specifically. Conflict is part of every student’s life but the groups focus is on cooperation and fostering assertive behaviors and cooperative relationships. Students have opportunities to learn and apply skills such as problem solving, developing empathy and handling conflict.

7. The main character in “Bright Beginnings” is Pumsy, a lovable young dragon with whom children share adventures and activities in class. Through stories, Pumsy learns about feelings of capability, of importance, anger control, coping with significant loss, and overcoming ungrounded fears. When students require further assistance in friendship making and reducing negative social contacts in certain years classroom guidance lessons begin with the kindergarten class using the Bright Beginnings curriculum.

8. This program uses group discussion, modeling, coaching, and practice to increase students' social competence, decision-making, self-regulation, and goal setting skills. There are three skill-building units:  Empathy: teaches children to recognize and identify their own emotions and those of others.  Impulse control and problem solving: helps children choose positive goals and evaluate consequences of their behavior in terms of safety, fairness, and impact on others.  Anger/emotion management: enables children to manage their emotional reactions so that they can make good decisions about their social responses.

9. The program is for students in grades 3 – 5. It contains lessons on friendship, social skills, and empathy. Students are trained to recognize bullying when it occurs, and are taught pro-social strategies to reduce bullying. The program is based on research demonstrating that teaching certain skills is an effective method of reducing bullying behavior.

10. Cyber bullying is also addressed now in 4 th grade due to incidents where students reported negative contacts and conversations on line in a variety of ways. Although not all 4 and 5 th grade students are yet using face book, texting or instant messaging, many are involved in online chat sessions via games or other avenues and will soon be entering an arena where it occurs. Understanding the dangers when you're holding a conversation online -- whether it's an email exchange or a response to a discussion group posting -- it's easy to misinterpret your correspondent's meaning. Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes. Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings. In cyberspace, we state this in an even more basic manner: Children need to understand that this is not like speaking this conversation, it a can be printed, stored, accessed, and it's frighteningly easy to forget that your correspondent is a person with feelings more or less like your own. When you communicate using technology, all you see is a screen. You don't have the opportunity to use facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice to communicate your meaning; words or see the other persons. Kids need to understand that when teasing crosses a line to harassment or bullying is the same in our discussion when we are using technology and miscommunications can more easily occur. Norwood started talking about cyber bullying over two years ago as we found out are students were more involved than we previously thought and needed additional support and education.

11.  Norwood O Ambassadors Program inspires young children to become active, compassionate and knowledgeable global citizens. The program is a joint project of Oprah’s Angel Network and Kids Can Free the Children and was initiated at Norwood in the 2008. We are looking to motivate and educate our students to become active global citizens who will create real change in their communities and the world. This program is a precursor to the program in our Northport High School and both Norwood Avenue Elementary School and Northport High School has been selected to represent this initiative program among hundreds who applied throughout North America. Students will learn about the leadership role they can take to be the change-makers who will make a tangible difference for their peers in their communities and in the developing world.O Ambassadors Oprah’s Angel NetworkKids Can Free the Children  Research has shown that children who are involved with clubs which provide service to others, and are action based, are less likely to be involved with drugs, have higher grade point averages, and less likely to be involved in negative peer interactions such as bullying. We are going to explore these ideas with games, earn certificates and recognition for projects, and learning about other cultures through fun activities! This club will be weekly after school for one hour and we are looking to have families involved with the club so parents will have opportunities to be volunteers and participants.

12. The Elementary SHARE program is for 4 th and 5 th grade students who are natural helpers. Students are selected for this program by their peers because they demonstrate empathy and compassion and they readily accept people with different opinions and values. Students are considered "natural helpers" because friends come to them for help and they also reach out to friends who may need help. "Help" can mean anything from talking with people about everyday problems such as difficulties with a friend to referring a student with a serious problem to an adult. This peer helping program is based on a national program called “Natural Helpers” and is used to further develop your child’s leadership and communication skills. Goals of the Natural Helpers Program are to teach:  Effective ways to help their friends  Positive ways of taking good care of themselves  Ways to contribute to a safe and supportive school environment Participating students 20 to 25 students are trained each year

13.  Mentor Programs at Norwood: The newest addition has been developed through a grant where we selected high school students whom we feel are motivated, attentive, and energetic enough to work with a select few elementary students who need a positive influence in their lives. The high school students selected for this program help our younger students learn to feel good about themselves, and will be acting as a positive role model. Research has shown that mentoring programs have had the ability to help children learn how to relate to all different kinds of people, can help strengthen communication skills, as well as steer children on a more positive path and learn to make more positive decisions. Mentoring programs have the ability to not only have a positive impact on the mentee, but also the mentor. While helping younger students feel good about themselves, it can in turn help have a positive effect on the high school student’s mentors as well empowering them in a positive way. We have an ongoing adult mentor program that has been in place for many years and is still thriving here at Norwood.. A mentor is a caring adult volunteer who is willing to spend time helping our students succeed in school.

14. The Fifth grade participates in the Too Good for Drugs Program and Red Ribbon Week which is part of a national drug prevention and education program. We conduct many activities throughout the year that emphasize good decision making and healthy lifestyle choices. These activities include classroom lessons on each grade level on peer pressure, self-esteem, compassion and social sensitivity. Please visit our moodle page on Too Good for Drugs for more information about this program here at Norwood. We have had various programs including red ribbon week which included class lessons and student club involvement toward developing positives influences here at Norwood and encouraging “Good Choices”. The previous year we had a dream, Norwood’s Challenge which tapped into Rachel’s Challenge district wide as well as developing the concepts of having a goal and direction toward a more caring and kinder school environment, we used author Susan V. Bosak book, Dream a Tale of Wonder, Wisdom, and Wishes, we presented to the students, thinking and acting on what dreams they have for their school. Each grade level had a slightly different program and activity with the book and each student will creating wishes and dreams for the school which were placed in the hallway outside of the guidance office along with a bulletin board utilizing pictures and ideas from the book. The ideas were everyone is unique and has a contribution to make. Also a focus on goal setting and attainment was reinforced. The 5 th graders focus was to create a footprint that represents his/her legacy at Norwood. What would he/she like others to remember him/her for? The footprints were then be added to the bulletin board heading out towards the front of the building to represent the 5th graders moving on to the middle school and graduating. This year’s focus was “Bucket Filling” and the power of one person to make a difference.

15. Each elementary school in the district has developed their own version of Rachel’s Challenge, a character education program created by the parents of a teen killed during the violence at Columbine High School. Rachel was an extraordinary teenager who advocated kindness and compassion. The main themes of the Bellerose Challenge are:  Look for the Best in Others  Use Kind Words  Make Good Choices  Set Positive Goals  Start a Chain Reaction of Kindness These themes are interwoven into activities throughout the school year.