Embedded Files
SMART Goals by Component
SMART Goals by Component
Individual Planning: The counselor met with students who had previously failed STAAR and others recommended by classroom teachers to provide small group counseling sessions addressing study skills and test anxiety. Students reported less stress and more awareness of coping skills for use during testing after meeting with the counselor on self-reporting forms.
Guidance: The counselor trained all staff in the school-wide implementation of the Second Step Program. 100% of GRE students received the Second Steps SEL curriculum from homeroom/designated grade level teacher by May 2023. The counselor also provided monthly guidance lessons to all 17 self-contained classrooms to support student needs.
Responsive Services: The counselor set a goal to have reduced office referrals by 5% from students acting out or showing aggression to peers and teachers due to social-emotional struggles. Supports through Restorative Practices, Second Step classroom lessons, the GRE Counseling Library and monthly guidance lessons were resources for use.
System Support: The counselor set a goal to have at least 25 parents/ community members participating in Career Day as classroom speakers, either virtual or in person. With the creation of our GRE Counseling Library, a goal to have 100 books checked out over the course of the school year was set.
System Support Data
System Support Data
Each year, as part of GenTX Week, the GRE Counselor organizes a College and Career Awareness Week for the Garden Ridge students and staff. Themed dress-up days, college look book research projects, online learning programs for all grade levels, and guest speakers in classes provide opportunities for our GRE Gators to learn about post-secondary options and different career pathways. A goal was set to have 25 classroom presentations for the 2022 GRE Career Day, either in person or with a recorded video. We were able to exceed our goal and had 31 presentations throughout the day in our classrooms with a variety of careers from an oncologist to engineers to active military members to a dad who plays professional basketball overseas in China who joined a classroom via WebEx. It was an amazing day and a great way to include our GRE parents, extended family members, and community. To gather volunteers, Mrs. Mennsfield sent out a Google Form (linked here) via email to all GRE families beginning in early October and also shared on the school website. Volunteers were required to submit a background check and sign up via the district's Voly site for security and safety practices. Plans are already in place to exceed the goal for the upcoming school year.
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Mrs. Mennsfield, the GRE administration and teaching staff have been working diligently to implement school-wide supports for social-emotional learning. A change in administration occurred in the 2022-23 school year with a new Principal and Assistant Principal stepping into leadership at GRE. While there was a change in leadership, the focus on balancing behavioral needs with disciplinary action was still in place. We saw an actual increase in office referrals from the 2021-22 school year to 2022-23 year, but also saw an increase in the amount of referrals that our administrators, Mrs. Kenely and Ms. Malone, addressed using Restorative Practices instead of a punishment or removal from the classroom. Our discipline referral numbers also reflected a decrease in the number of students who received referrals, which is a huge gain and accomplished the goal set by our school counselor!
Our campus has continued to use daily Classroom Circles, Treatment Agreements, and Make it Right boxes, which are all part of Restorative Practices, in classrooms as ways of building classroom community and regulating behavior before it becomes an office referral as well. Recently, a survey was completed with our 4th and 5th grade students and 100% of the students surveyed reported knowing what the Treatment Agreement said in their homeroom class and where it was posted. These steps, along with Second Steps classroom curriculum being reinforced through our Classroom Circle time, have helped our GRE students to become better at self-regulation and be more self-aware. The discipline referral data and student report data regarding the Treatment Agreements is reflected in the charts below.
Highlighted Activities for Each Component
Highlighted Activities for Each Component
Individual Planning
Provided goal setting lessons with all Kinder-5th grade students and progress monitoring sessions with struggling students.
Served on campus Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Section 504 committees to provide behavior interventions and support.
Served on campus Gifted and Talented (GT) committee to review testing and recommend students for placement.
Coordinated and provided accelerated testing for advanced students and placement testing for students returning from homeschool or unaccredited school settings.
Organized a College and Career Week with guest speakers about professions, presentations for each classroom, and activities for each day to promote future learning.
Guidance
Provided 137 guidance lessons over the course of the year covering topics including: social/emotional wellness, coping skills, leadership, friendship, empathy, study skills, goal setting, college and career readiness, character education, healthy relationships, substance use prevention and suicide prevention.
Organized the Great Gators program which focuses on specific character education qualities each month and provides student recognition and parent involvement.
Provided lessons to all Kinder through 5th grade classes over bullying prevention and personal safety through the Second Step units.
Led guidance lessons for all students about self-regulation and coping skills using classroom Calm Down Spots and the school-wide Sensory Trails.
Responsive Services
Responded to students in crisis and provided services for outcries of child abuse, harm to self, and harm to others.
Facilitated weekly vists with Bosco, the therapy dog where students were able to read aloud to build self esteem and work on coping skills while petting the dog.
Coordinated the campus-based holiday assistance initiatives through Santa Cop and Angel Tree to benefit families in need at GRE.
Provided parent and staff training on coping skills, responding to emotions, and dealing with stress and anxiety.
Provided parent and staff training on campus-wide use of Calm Down Spots and Sensory Trails.
Conducted small groups on social skills, friendship, managing worries, leadership, self-esteem, relational aggression, and stress.
Organized campus-wide activities for Red Ribbon Week, Start with Hello Week, and Great Kindness Challenge Week.
Coordinated Watch DOGS program for positive adult male role models who assisted in the classrooms and on campus each Tuesday and Thursday of the school year.
Coordinated services with Meal Moms, Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and food service to provide snacks, clothing, and school supplies to students in need.
System Support
Facilitated school support initiatives for National School Counseling Week, advocating for the School Counseling profession with staff, parents, and community.
Attended MTSS, Section 504, GT, and Special Education meetings to support student needs on campus.
Facilitated multiple community service projects as sponsor for Student Council on a monthly basis to build school rapport and support student leadership.
Served as Zone Lead counselor for elementary campuses feeding into Flower Mound High school and assisted with providing information from district leaders and answering questions as needed.
Participated on campus Building Leadership Team (BLT) to help create the Campus Intervention Plan (CIP).
Parent and Community Collaboration
Parent and Community Collaboration
Our campus and neighborhood at GRE is a wonderful and stable place for students to learn and grow. We do, however, still have a great deal of families with needs. The GRE Counselor partners each year with the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) to provide weekend snack bags for students in need through the Food 4 Kids program and with the LovePacs organization for boxes of food for children in need for long school breaks. For the 2022-23 school year, we had between 15-20 GRE students who regularly needed assistance from the NTFB and LovePacs for food assistance when away from the free and reduced meals provided by the school for food security needs.
In addition, Mrs. Mennsfield partners with an amazing group of volunteer parents at GRE who call themselves the "Meal Moms." These parents sign up to donate large boxes of shelf-stable, individually packaged and allergy aware snacks each month so the counselor can bag up snacks for students in need to discreetly pick up from her office and keep in their lockers to access for daily classroom snack time. Photos are below of the snack bag system and about 20 students accessed the system each week of the 2022-23 school year. The GRE Meal Moms also donated money to an Angel Fund account in the cafeteria that the campus administration and counselor could access to clear accounts of students in need whose accounts fell into a negative balance and were in danger of being denied a hot meal. Each year, the Angel Fund receives enough donations to have at least $100 to cover student needs and the counselor and principal review negative student balances and call parents as needed before accessing the Angel Fund monies to clear an account. If additional funds are needed throughout the year, Mrs. Mennsfield reaches out to the Meal Moms to secure more donations.
Finally, the GRE Counselor and administrators partnered with Sent Church Flower Mound and Kids Kingdom Learning Center, which neighbor our campus, to do a back to school supply drive. The church and daycare held a month-long school supply and backpack drive at their site and at a local restaurant to collect needed items for GRE students to access for back to school time and to replenish needed supplies throughout the school year. We were blown away by the amount of items collected and have lockers full of supplies in the counseling room for students in need to access throughout the school year.
Student Snacks
Student Snacks
GRE students pick up their weekly snack bags here and sign out on the clipboard by initials and grade level for counselor to log.
Meal Moms Delivery
Meal Moms Delivery
Here is an example of the snacks delivered by our generous GRE Meal Moms! Each time a delivery is made, the GRE Counselor will bag up 5 individually packaged snacks per lunch sack for students to easily access and store in lockers.
Backpack and School Supply Drive
Backpack and School Supply Drive
The Sent Church and Kids Kingdom leaders with our GRE Counselor and Principal. We were amazed at the amount of backpacks and school supplies collected by this small church, daycare center, and a local restaurant for our students in need at GRE!
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