About the School Counseling Program

The school counseling program at A.J. Whittenberg is dedicated to helping every student succeed. School counselors focus our efforts in three areas:

Academics: Alongside their education in math and literacy, students need to learn skills to help them become better students. Learning strategies such as study skills, identifying goals, organization, and setting high personal standards will benefit them in school and at home, and they will carry this success with them into their future jobs.

Social-emotional development: Long-term studies have shown that meaningful relationships are among the most important factors in our health and well-being. Elementary school is the training ground for learning how to build positive relationships with peers and supervisors. Our social-emotional learning curriculum teaches social and self-management skills needed for lifelong success, such as self-control, perseverance, coping, and empathy.

Career preparation: Career preparation begins in elementary school! Our students take the first steps into career exploration by examining different career clusters and identifying personal interests. Students become familiar with diverse types of careers and link their current academic efforts with long-term career success.

School counselors teach regular classroom lessons, lead small groups of students who support each other in specific areas, meet individually with students who need one-on-one support, serve on collaborative teams to develop personalized plans for struggling students, and identify students who need extra services so that they do not slip through the cracks. All of these services are available to all of our students.

The school counseling program at A.J. Whittenberg is based on the American School Counselor Association National Model, which provides structure and organization for the many tasks completed by school counselors.