This will be my 6th year as a School Counselor and my first year in Tuscaloosa City Schools. I am very excited to join Southview Elementary and can’t wait to begin working with all the students!
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL COUNSELOR?
School Counselors (formerly called "guidance counselors") are advocates, professionally-trained counselors, and educators. School Counselors work with teachers, administrators, and others in a school to facilitate social, emotional, academic, and college/career development with students. A school counselor is trained to recognize the needs of groups and individual students within a school, and to develop targeted interventions to meet those needs. School counselors teach classroom lessons, lead small groups, and work with students one-on-one when needed. The key to an effective school counselor is building rapport and trust with students so that students feel comfortable reaching out in the midst of difficult situations that interrupt that students' ability to learn, focus, and/or get along with others.
HALT
The administration, faculty, and staff at Southview Elementary School are dedicated to a “zero” tolerance for bullying behavior. This does not mean that it does not happen, but it does mean that we work hard to address these issues quickly and effectively when we become aware of them. We have implemented a system-wide anti-bullying program entitled HALT. Harassment Awareness Learning Together.
We encourage you to help in this endeavor to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment for your child at school by reporting incidents of bullying behavior to us as well as talking to your child about bullying behavior. If we all work together, we can stop it. We have to teach our kids that fighting is not the answer.