Carleston Elementary School Counseling SMART Goals

Guidance Curriculum:

The School Counselor will plan and teach monthly guidance lessons to every class from Pre-K through 4th grade with a focus on our monthly Character Strong Trait and use ChildBuilders Anti-Victimization curriculum that is aligned with our school and district mission for all students.

Responsive Services:

By the end of the school year the School Counselor will collaborate with administration, the intervention team, parents, behavior specialists, and the school psychologist to refer students in need of outside resources such as Angel Tree, long-term counseling, psychological or psychiatric treatment, and/or hospitalization as well as provide small groups for students based on collaboration with staff and parents through needs assessments. 

Individual Planning:

By the end of the school year the School Counselor will meet with the students who have a Daily Behavioral Report Card (DBRC), to provide social and emotional support and to teach self-regulation strategies. 

System Support:

The School Counselor will provide the staff with a monthly Character Strong focus at faculty meetings and daily planned Morning Meetings to help build a positive climate and strong community at Carleston. The School Counselor will provide daily morning announcements for the monthly character trait. As a result of these the staff will be able to build strong relationships with their students and have a deeper understanding of the monthly character focus.

Guidance Curriculum:

• Guidance lessons focusing on CharacterStrong, ChildBuilders curriculum, and specific class needs

• Is It Bullying? Bully Prevention

• Red Ribbon Week

• College and Career Week

• Zones of Regulation

• Cub Time Social Skills

• "Start With Hello" Week

• Random Acts of Kindness Month

• Kindness Campaign

• Kindness Spirit Week

• Cultural Awareness Months 

Responsive Services:

•  Individual sessions 4,543 (anger management, self-regulation, self-esteem, grief, anxiety, divorce)

• Small groups- 124 sessions (self-control, growth mindset, self-esteem, family changes, executive functioning, perfectionism, mindfulness, friendship, social skills, PBIS social skills)

• Thanksgiving Food Drive

• RISE Mentoring Program

• Angel Tree Campus Coordinator 

• School Supplies 

• Community in Schools Collaboration for Clothing 

• McKinney Vento Campus Case Management 

• Youth and Family Services Referrals 

• Community Health Choice Referrals

• Swap Shop

• Screen, Monitor, and provide follow up support for students at risk of suicide

• Refer students to Backpack Buddy Program

• Morning Meetings

Individual Planning:

• Zones of Regulation for students on DBRC

• Transition Meetings with all 4th Grade Students

• Behavior Goal Setting with Students 

• Academic goal Setting with Students 

• MTSS Student Plans

• Parent Meetings for Attendance

• Boss Up Jr.  Speaker for 3rd and 4th Graders 

• Crisis Support

• Coffee with the Counselor

System Support:

• Monthly Character Strong Focus for Faculty Meetings 

• CharacterStrong Morning Meetings created for Classrooms

• Parent Conferences

• National School Counseling Week Advocacy

• PTA Member

• Trauma Informed Training for Staff

• Character Strong Trainings 

• RISE Mentor Campus Facilitator 

• Cub Patrol

• MTSS Committee Member

• Child abuse awareness/reporting

• Organize middle school presentation for 4th Graders

• Senior Walk

• Appreciation Event for Parents and Community

• Cub Time Social Skills

Goal: The School Counselor will plan and teach monthly guidance lessons to every class from Pre-K through 4th grade with a focus on our monthly Character Strong Trait and use ChildBuilders Anti-Victimization curriculum that is aligned with our school and district mission for all students.

Highlights: Guidance lessons were delivered to all students from Pre-Kinder through fourth grade at Carleston Elementary. The monthly Character Strong Lessons gave access to every student meaningful lessons on the monthly character trait. The purpose of Character Strong is to focus on social emotional learning and character development. Character Strong provides lessons and activities to help improve school safety and culture and making implementing social emotional learning and character education a manageable, effective practice.  The goal of Character Strong is to build connection and relationships. 10 classroom lessons were given during the year on the monthly character traits including; Respect, Responsibility, Gratitude, Empathy, Perseverance, Honesty, Cooperation, Courage, and creativity. Prior to the lessons only 22% of the students on the student survey understood what it meant to have and build strong character. After the last lesson 95% of the students were easily able to identify each character trait and demonstrate what it meant to have and build strong character.  Guidance lessons using the Child Builder's Stand Strong Stay Safe Curriculum was also used to build assertiveness skills by standing tall with a firm stance, making eye contact, and speaking in a respectful clear firm voice to communicate needs. Assertive skills, helped students stay safe in many kinds of situations, whether the problem be bullying, risky behavior, physical abuse or neglect. Being assertive taught students that every student has the right to be treated with respect as well as taking action that will keep them safe and/or get help when they need it. All students were also taught breathing exercises to calm themselves. This shows them how to be assertive in a respectful way when someone is doing or saying something they do not like or feel disrespected. The assertive phrase "Stop, I don't like that!" was part of these lessons. Four guidance lessons were completed for these students to learn how to utilize this assertive behavior. Prior to the lessons, only 10% of students were able to demonstrate this skill. By lesson four, 90% of students were able to easily demonstrate the assertive behavior and utilize calming strategies such as breathing skills and using their voice to speak up when they felt disrespected.

 Goal: By the end of the school year the School Counselor will collaborate with administration, the intervention team, parents, behavior specialists, and the school psychologist to refer students in need of outside resources such as Angel Tree, long-term counseling, psychological or psychiatric treatment, and/or hospitalization as well as small groups for social skills for students based on collaboration with staff and parents through needs assessments. 

Highlight: During the fall semester, the School Counselor began identifying students who were in extreme need, in some cases they were considered homeless because they were living in hotels, very beaten down trailers or because they were living with family or friends because of a financial need. These students' families were then contacted to adopt them for the Christmas holidays through our Angel Tree Program. Out of the 750 children in our school 107 families were adopted as well as their siblings. Each family who agreed to accept this help completed a wish list for each child in the household using an online form. Once sponsored the wrapped gifts were delivered to the campus where the School Counselor sorted them all out by child. These gifts included shoes, clothing, small toys, sports equipment, and books. A local church then also contacted me to sponsor those who did not make it onto the Angel Tree list and an additional 5 families were included. Each family was able to receive 4 gifts for each child in the family, we had a few families that we provided the entire holiday meal for as well as a box of food during the time away from school-provided meals.

The Powered Up Tier 2 Character Strong curriculum was used for students referred to small group that needed additional support based on need. This curriculum was supplemented with additional coping skills for students who exhibit anxiety. All students showed a decrease in symptoms ranging from 40% decrease up to 75% decrease in symptoms. All reported feeling more capable of processing their feelings after the end of the sessions and having skills to manage their feelings.

Goal: By the end of the school year the School Counselor will meet with the students who have a Daily Behavioral Report Card (DBRC) each week to provide social and emotional support and to teach self-regulation strategies.

Highlight:  Once students have been identified as needing the DBRC Tier 2 behavior support through MTSS our Multi Tiered System of Support, formally known as RTI or Response to Intervention I begin meeting with them in addition to their check-in check-out mentor. Throughout the year we build their toolkit of coping skills for regulating their emotions. These students are given the opportunity to practice these coping skills and strategies in a safe space. As a result of working with these students using the Zones of Regulation and regularly practicing how to manage our big emotions they are better equipped with the coping skills and strategies needed to support their academic, emotional, and social growth. Out of the 10 students who are on a DBRC and in this group 8 of them did not have any coping strategies for regulating their emotions. Evidence from the post survey shows that 10 out 10 now have at least 2 tools they use regularly when in difficult situations and can regulate back to the green zone. 

Examples of the DBRC Behavior Data trends.

Examples of the Zones of Regulation and Coping Skills used during groups.

Goal: The School Counselor will provide the staff with a monthly Character Strong focus at faculty meetings and daily planned Morning Meetings to help build a positive climate and strong community at Carleston. The School Counselor will provide daily morning announcements for the monthly character trait. As a result of these the staff will be able to build strong relationships with their students and have a deeper understanding of the monthly character focus.

Highlight: Through collaboration with other counselors in Pearland ISD I was able to create daily Morning Meetings for teachers to utilize each day with their class to help build a positive class community. This intentional time helps the teacher build relationships with their students and have a time where students feel heard. The Morning Meetings are sent to the staff each month and are designed around the monthly Character Strong character trait. In addition to creating and sending these out, I modeled how to use them and what it looks like during a faculty meeting. I have also gone into many classrooms throughout the school year to deliver the morning meeting so the teacher feels comfortable and has a better understanding of how to implement this into their daily routine. The administration supported this initiative by building in the 10 minutes into every schedule. After receiving feedback from teachers and students it was reported that both teachers and students felt a stronger since of community where they knew more about their classmates and felt more connected. Teachers also reported that they implemented the morning meetings because it was created for them and easy to access and use on a daily basis. 

Carleston Elementary believes parent involvement and engagement go hand-in-hand with student success. Our goal is for parents and families feel welcome, supported, and loved. Carleston Elementary strives to build relationships with our families and community through constant communication, family events, and collaboration. 

Family events throughout the year:

• Popsicles with Principals

• Coffee with the Counselor

• Meet the Teacher

• Veterans Day Breakfast

• Grandparent's Day Lunch

• Grandparent's Game Day

• Thanksgiving Picnics

• Breakfast with Santa 

• Sno Much Fun Family Night

• Curriculum Nights 

• Music Programs 

• Watch D.O.G.S.

• Spelling Bee

• Field Day

• Carnival

• Food Drive

• Appreciation Breakfast 

Rise Mentoring in PISD

RISE Mentoring is a school-based program in which committed, caring adults from the community help students rise above obstacles and succeed in school and life.

Reach – To gain the trust of young people, you have to be willing to reach them by knowing their world. 

Inspire – As a mentor, you need to be a role model for kids.

Support – Be committed to the cause. Be present and show up. Your mentee needs to know you are unconditionally there for him or her.

Empower – Help kids see more, want more and be more than they ever thought was possible.