Classroom Guidance Curriculum

The Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs provides an outline for guidance curriculum that "assist(s) all students in developing the knowledge and skills they need to enhance their educational, career, personal and social development." Within the guidance curriculum scope, there are four content domains:

Interpersonal Effectiveness
Intrapersonal Effectiveness
Postsecondary Education and Career Readiness
Personal Health and Safety

Below is the lesson plan that focuses on Interpersonal Effectiveness and Intraperesonal Effectiveness content domains. We have also provided artifacts (i.e. slides presentation, an infographic containing student generated coping strategies, and pre/posttest data analysis) developed from the lesson.

Interpersonal Effectiveness and Intrapersonal Effectiveness:

#BEempowered: Respect, Trust, and Healthy Coping Strategies

#BEempowered

#BEempowered: Respect, Trust, and Healthy Coping Strategies

During the spring semester, a situation occurred off campus in which several students were allegedly involved. The learning environment on campus became distressed as students were trying to process through their emotions and false information that was being passed around. As a result, this lesson was designed to revisit and address the different levels and types of emotions that were causing students to be in the "no brain." Through this lesson, students were encouraged to respect their peer's ability to handle big situations, find trust in at least one adult (on and off campus), and apply healthy coping strategies when they are feeling overwhelmed. See the lesson plan below.

Healthy Coping Strategies

Earlier in the school year, students brainstormed and suggested different coping strategies they can apply when they are feeling certain emotions that put them in the red or blue on the mood meter. The Benold Middle School Counselor team took all suggestions and generated an infographic displaying their suggestions. The infographic was posted in their Google Classroom, as well as on the #BEcauseyoumatter Benold Middle School Counseling Connection site for students to access whenever needed. We reviewed these strategies during the #BEempowered lesson.

Pre/Posttest Data Analysis

We conducted the #BEempowered: Power, Responsibility, and Healthy Decision-Making lesson with 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. Before the lesson, we had students complete a presurvey to determine how much knowledge they had (or could remember) regarding understanding the Mood Meter, "yes" vs "no brain," naming a healthy coping strategies to get from the "no brain" to the "yes brain," and identifying at least one trusted adult on campus they could go to should they need assistance prior to the lesson. After the lesson, we had students complete a post survey to assess the knowledge attained (if any). This infographic provides a summary of our data analysis per grade level. We provided this infographic to faculty members, parents, and community members.

#BEempowered: Respect, Trust, and Healthy Coping Strategies Lesson Plan

Benold Lesson Plan-CREST

Parent and Teacher Support

The Benold Middle School Counseling team is just one part of the schoolwide community made up of many different stakeholders including faculty, staff, students, parents, and other residents Georgetown. Benold Middle School Comprehensive School Counseling Program includes collaborating, planning, implementing, and evaluating with stakeholders through the Health & Wellness Advisory Design Team, Benld Middle School PTA, or through individual feedback gathered from each group.

Effective classroom guidance curriculum, and an overall effective Comprehensive School Counseling Program, that covers all four domains requires the engagement of teachers. During MTSS meetings, School Counselors ask teachers for feedback on the issues they are noticing their students are enduring. This helps shape the next month's classroom guidance lesson. Teacher feedback is also welcome after lessons are implemented. The lesson above was generated through dialogue with our teachers about how to best support the students process and better cope with what was happening. Teachers specifically appreciated the lesson and noted that students were less distracted afterwards.

Additionally, teachers provide feedback on classroom guidance lessons (planning, implementing, and evaluating) through the Health & Wellness Advisory Design Team, and the weekly campus newsletter with updates from the different campus teams called What's Up Benold. Teachers also have access to the Benold Middle School Counseling Connection website that not only contains the presentation (if available), but also the infographic of the analyzed data gather from pre/posttests. Finally, we provide professional development opportunities during school year based on relevant mental health topics to better equip our teachers to address student need. During the 21-22 school year, we presented on the Powers of Expectations, Executive Functions, Trauma-Informed Practices, and Social/Emotional Learning.

In addition to parent feedback through the various teams/committees, parents are also provided with announcements, resources, and updates from the School Counselors through a weekly newsletter called the Benold Bulletin. After every classroom guidance lesson, the School Counselors include information about the classroom guidance lesson, access to the presentation, and the pre/posttest infographic. Parents are always encouraged to view the school counseling website for additional information/resources, as well as reach out to the school counselors with specific questions.

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