• Counsel children individually
• Conduct small group counseling sessions – topics may include, but are not limited to, friendship, anxiety, divorce, and grief
• Consult with parents, teachers, and administrators
• Coordinate 504 plans
• Coordinate School Wide Testing
• Schedule and run support meetings with parents, teachers and other support staff to address students’ needs.
• Coordinate Special Events for students as well as parent education sessions
• Teach guidance curriculum which includes three basic areas:
  • Academic Development – Students focus on how to succeed in school
  • Career Development – Students focus on their own skills and interests
  • Personal and Social Development – Students focus on getting along with others, setting goals, and safety issues

I strongly emphasize and incorporate character education as I touch on the above mentioned areas. Here is a breakdown of the specific targets under each of those main headings:

• Academic Development – Students focus on how to be their most successful in school.
• Personal and Social Development – Students focus on identifying their strengths and weaknesses, getting along with others, setting goals, and safety issues.
• Career Development – Students focus on their own skills and interests.

Within each of these areas, the following topics are covered as applicable:

Goal Setting
Organization
Study Skills
Positive Self Talk and Self Concept
Responsibility
Decision Making
Time Management
Ownership & Accountability
Good Manners
Feelings
Healthy Communication
Conflict Resolution
Prioritizing
Self-Exploration
Safety
Anxiety
Problem Identification
Specific v. General

I have always loved our Character Words of the Month. These are such core words that I believe can empower each student in such a positive way if they own them for themselves. I have developed what I call Crockett M&Ms. M & M stand for Motion and Meaning. I use pieces of American Sign Language (hence the motions) to go along with the words I use to define each character word to help the students grasp the meaning of each word. I can always find a way to connect the Character word of the month to the skill set that I am focusing on in the classroom.

September – Respect
October – Responsibility
November – Perseverance
December – Caring
January – Courage
February – Citizenship
March – Trustworthiness
April – Cooperation
May – Fairness

Each student deserves to feel safe and supported while at school.  Crockett Elementary’s goal is to provide an environment where students believe there are adults who care and are ready to assist when needed.  Bullying – intentional, repeated and specific hurtful behaviors targeted toward one or more victims – obstructs a student feeling safe, loved and accepted. Key factors to distinguish bullying from other forms of mean/negative behavior are that it is unprovoked and the physical or psychological intimidation occurs over and over again creating a pattern of harassment or abuse.

Neither bullying nor mean behaviors are acceptable. We want to be as proactive as possible to lessen their occurrence. One way we address undesirable behaviors is to teach appropriate social skills through intentional lessons with students in the classroom. All students participate at scheduled times with our school counselors who teach lessons on positive, healthy communication, positive character traits, conflict resolution and address the specific topic of bullying. The goal is to promote positive peer relationships and interactions all around, to bring awareness to bullying, to educate students on its definition, to teach signs to look for and strategies for what to do when it occurs. Though bullying has a definite distinction from other types of mean or negative interactions between students, our goal is to eliminate all the negative behavior we can and consistently encourage and reinforce kindness and respect for all. We want to educate and empower students with tools to help them navigate hard situations and make sure they know they have adults at school who will listen to them and create an environment where they feel comfortable reporting things when necessary.

We also schedule community organizations to come and address whole grade levels on the topics of bullying and choosing kindness. Kids on the Block is one such organization that has a wonderful reputation in the community for performing entertaining puppet shows that deliver powerful messages which align with our standards for teaching positive social/emotional growth. In addition, we are super thankful for the support of our Brentwood Police department to teach our 4th graders the D.A.R.E. curriculum, which talks about educating oneself on important facts about drugs and alcohol, but, also includes essential life-skills information on good decision making and bullying behavior.

Consequences for a student who commits an act of harassment or bullying shall be unique to the individual incident and will vary in method and severity according to the nature of the behavior, the developmental age of the student, and the student’s history of problem behaviors.

Actions taken shall be designed to:

• Protect the victim of the act
• Correct the problem behavior
• Prevent another occurrence of the behavior
• Help the student understand how the other person feels

If a student needs help resolving a conflict or if a student thinks that he/she is being bullied, he/she needs to communicate with his/her teacher, our guidance counselors, or administration.

I am super excited about this year, getting to reconnect with our Crockett family and meeting new families! I approach this position from a parent’s perspective as much as a counselor’s perspective. I encourage parents to come and speak with me about any issue that might be affecting their child at school. It is my pleasure to serve you!

Many factors affect a child’s learning process. Please contact me if you have concerns regarding your child’s progress whether it is academic, behavioral, social, or emotional. Some specific areas include:

• Family changes (divorce, separation, moving, death in the family)
• Home stress
• Classroom behavior
• Peer relations
• Responsibility and accountability
• Emotional well-being

Please feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance. The best way to reach me is via email.

Jennifer Randolph 
Counselor