Benold Middle School Counseling Program Goals
Benold Middle School Counseling Program Goals
Embedded Files
Benold Middle School's comprehensive school counseling program aims to empower students to succeed not only on an academic level, but also succeed in their future career and personal life. One of the primary roles of a professional school counselor is to foster the healthy development of every student in each of these three domains regardless of race, gender, age, and degree of disability. This occurs through evidence-based intervention methods implemented in classroom guidance activities, small group counseling, and individual responsive counseling to teach essential skills.
Our focus for the 2022-2023 school year is to enhance relationship building skills and cultivate student-teacher and student-student connections that create authentic learning experiences and establish a campus culture of self reflection, acceptance, and safety for all Benold Middle School students and staff.
Benold's GISD PGP Document.pdfIndividual Planning Goal:
The Benold School Counseling Team will visit with each student to begin the process of their Personal Graduation Plan (PGP) by the end of their 8th grade year as measured by documentation in Skyward.
Guidance Goal:
The Benold School Counseling Team will support student Inter- and Intrapersonal development through guidance lessons throughout the year which directly teach self- reflection, acceptance, and safety as measured by pre- post-surveys.
Responsive Services Goal:
The Benold School Counseling Team will utilize resources such as The Nest, Care Solace, School-Based Therapy, and an internal student counseling request form to help students and families throughout the year as measured by internal sign-in/sign-out and referral trackers.
System Support Goal:
The Benold Counseling Team provides campus-wide support to teachers through weekly MTSS meetings and monthly Health & Wellness meetings as tracked through meeting minutes and calendar invites.
Highlighted Activity for Each Service Component
Individual Planning
College, Career, Military, or Workforce planning
One-to-one minute meetings with 8th grade students about Personal Graduation Plans (PGPs)
New student registration
Course advisement
ARD & 504 meetings as needed to participate in decision making
Student goal setting
Guidance
Classroom guidance instruction
Counselor Connection and Suicide Prevention lesson
#BetheChange (Kindness Rocks and Empathy vs. Sympathy)
Mindfulness
Career Exploration
Empowerment
Restorative Circles/Small Groups
Transition planning for all students
Future Readiness planning site (supports students in the creation of their Personal Graduation Plan)
5th grade visits
Student focused assemblies (Career Day/Fair, Ice Cream Social, Eagle Camp, etc.)
Student leadership, service learning activities (Hope Squad, PALs, NJHS, etc.)
Classroom guidance lessons as requested by teachers
Classroom guidance lessons developed from teacher feedback
Responsive Services
Individual counseling (student check-ins)
Crisis Intervention Response (completion of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, grief counseling, and other appropriate support planning)
Peer mediation/Restorative Circles
Student behavior conferences
Relationship concerns or conflict (peer or family)
Suicide and self-harm prevention
Mood Meter Check-ins
System Support
5th Grade Parent Night
Community or parent only presentations (PTA meetings, Happy Hour with the Principal, etc.)
Parent/Teacher consultations
Staff trainings
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) meetings collaboration and consultation with teachers
School Based Therapist (SBT) and LSSP collaboration and consultation
Campus activities support (Suicide Prevention Month activities, Health & Wellness Week, Fun Run/Health Fair, Blood Drive, etc.)
At-risk PEIMS coding
Gifted & Talented testing
Campus PLC & staff meetings
Benold Middle School Counseling Team meeting (weekly CSCP planning)
Crisis response planning & support
Mental health referrals/referrals for community resources
Mentors and PALs coordination
High school counselor visit coordination
Student survey coordination
Data analysis (Student Experiences Survey, Mood Meter, Classroom guidance pre/posttests, etc.)
Committee meetings (SBDM, Health & Wellness Advisory Team, PTA, etc.)
District / professional development trainings
Individual Planning Activity: Future Readiness Passport
Individual Planning Activity: Future Readiness Passport
Students in 8th grade begin the process to develop their four year personal graduation plan. To help students connect their interests with high school pathways, students used the Future Readiness Passport graphic organizer to explore the different visual display boards depicting the 4 main Endorsement Pathways. Students were required to visit each display board and write down a possible career within that category, as well as the classes they would need to take in high school to graduate with that Endorsement. While students worked through their Passport, the Benold Middle School Counseling team held small group minute meetings to discuss core academic class options, Language Other Than English options, and the other graduation requirements.
After the lesson, the Passports were collected and used in additional individual minute meeting course selection planning and conversations.
We conducted pre/post-surveys to determine the effectiveness of this particular activity and created the infographic below with the results. We then shared this infographic with parents and faculty members.
Transition to the High School.pdfParent Collaboration
Parent Collaboration
The Benold Middle School Counseling team closely collaborates with our parents through the Health & Wellness Advisory Design Team and PTA to grow our school counseling program and ensure we are meeting the needs of our community. In the 2021-2022 school year, we collaborated with the both groups to create wellness rooms for our staff and a calming room for our students. Collectively we determined that students needed a safe space to practice the self-regulating coping skills and strategies the Benold Middle School Counseling team taught the students, especially during times of high negative emotions (when the students are in the No Brain). Parents donated time and money, and assisted the Health & Wellness Advisory Design Team in creating the calming room we call The Nest because we are the Benold Eagles. Students have a variety of sensory tools, coloring pages, and breathing strategy posters while sitting comfortably on bean bag chairs. There is soft lighting, a sound machine, and an essential oil diffuser in the room. The room was actually such a success during its first year that we have since moved to an even larger room, and added additional seating (soft rocking chairs and a couch), as well as a yoga center.
After the initial success of The Nest, the Health & Wellness Advisory Design Team and the PTA wanted to put together a similar style room for the faculty and staff at Benold Middle School. The Staff Wellness Room is a quiet space with comfortable seating for faculty members to use whenever feeling overwhelmed or in need of a space away from their classrooms to reset.
Additionally, parents helped plan and put on the Fall Fun Run and Health Fair, host a Blood Drive, generate student Mood Meters, provide feedback on topics for the Benold Middle School Counseling team to present during PTA meetings, and provided feedback about the needs of students which lead to the #BEempowered: Respect, Trust, and Healthy Coping Strategies (see Section V).
Finally, parents have access to our #BEcauseyoumatter Benold Middle School Counseling Connection Parent Resource site the provides various information and resources to help parents navigate through the middle school parent year and to make informed decisions about their child's social/emotional, academic, and future success.
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