Meet Mrs. Hoback

Welcome back to school to my returning Wildcats and if you are new to Wheeler, I'm so glad you are here!  My name is Shasta Hoback and I am your school counselor along with Andrew Mendoza. For the first time ever, we have two full time counselors at school and we couldn't be more excited about it!

 A little about me, I have thirteen years of teaching experience and have had the honor of serving students as a counselor for six years.  If you didn't know, I taught fifth grade at Wheeler for almost a decade.  I left briefly to pursue my career as a counselor but was absolutely thrilled to come back home.  My heart never truly left and I know this is exactly where I am supposed to be.  I was born and raised in Kentucky.  I attended school in Bullitt County but spent many of my adult years living and working in Jefferson County.  I am married to my high school sweetheart, Kevin.  We have four beautiful children, two boys, two girls and an absolutely amazing niece!  We have two precious dogs, one Labradane and one purebred Great Dane..they completely run the show so our house is busy!  We LOVE going to the lake and spending time together as a family. We spend many weekends in the summer at Nolin Lake.  In my free time I also LOVE to read and am known to get completely lost in a book.  This summer we took two vacations to the beach, one to Mexico and one to Destin. We spent our days playing in the sand and jumping in the waves.   My family and I love doing anything that involves water and we love being outside!

 Our counseling team works with students in a variety of ways.  Mr. Mendoza and I will be providing targeted whole group social and emotional instruction to every single student in the building once a month.  We will both use the needs of our students to create small groups targeting skills at each grade level. We both will  see students on an individual basis but this work is typically very short term, four to six weeks.  We will use a variety of methods and will always focus on building a relationship with your child and providing them the skills they need to be successful.    Together we will work on topics such as self-esteem, emotion regulation, restorative practices through mediation,  conflict resolution, mindfulness, study skills, testing anxiety, and so much more.  We also collaborate with school staff, families, our FRYSC, our mental health counselor, and community partners to best meet the needs of our students.  Please take a peek around to learn more about our Comprehensive School Counseling Program and resources that are available for you and your family. 

Our entire school community uses the Leader In Me philosophy which focuses on putting student leadership at the center of classroom learning.  Students use these life skills every single day.  By changing our mindset, our students will grow into self confident learners and leaders.  You can find many more resources in this google site that can be used to cultivate this learning at home, too.  We also use Character Strong curriculum as well.  This focuses on social and emotional skills such as responsibility, honesty, and perseverance.