Welcome Back Roadrunners!

I hope you all have had an exciting summer!  I am thrilled to continue working with your kiddos here at Lee Elementary as their school counselor.  It has been so nice to see so many familiar faces and meet many new ones at Friday's "Meet & Greet."

I will be doing lessons the first few weeks of school on getting to know the counselor, breaking the ice activities, the word “confidentiality” and also share with students the ways that they can notify me that they would like to visit.  It’s important to discuss with students things they may want to come talk to me about.

I work with every student individually, in small groups and in their classroom throughout the year.  As part of my effort to maintain consistent and clear lines of communication with parents, I will inform you if your child is repeatedly requesting to see me.  The goal is to meet with your child regularly at first and then slowly decrease services to an “as needed” basis or give you referral options.  My goal is to help your child be successful both academically and socially through scheduled counseling opportunities so please feel free to contact me with any background information you’d like to provide.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jsepp@austinisd.org or (512) 414-1782. I also have a website, http://mssepp.blogspot.com with very helpful information about classroom lessons, learning about myself, counseling services, counseling calendar, frequently asked questions, helpful tips & useful links, online safety, No Place for Hate, SEL program, college & career info, state testing and Austin ISD’s mission statement.  Also, you  can follow me on twitter @RRCounselor.  I am happy to work with you to make your child’s time at Lee successful!

Lee Olympics: A Social Story

On Friday, May 1st we had our annual Lee Olympics.  Students rotate through different events and earn ribbons for participation and athletic achievement.  Since this is an all-day event, many students that are new to Lee or prone to anxiety might have some worries about Lee Olympics.  To ease their nerves, I create social story books for them to know what they expect.  I only include events that I know will happen in order to set them up for success.  Here's a sample of one book I made for a new kindergartener:

Lee's Pathways to Success

To kickoff our month on careers and college, I created a staff bulletin board to highlight our unique pathways that brought us to Lee Elementary.  I collected high school and college information from each staff member to proudly display.  I included all of our staff members, including teachers, office staff, administration, special areas, nurses, custodians, and our childcare helpers.  I added graduation caps to everyone!

Here are some close ups:

6th Graders Encouraging our Newest Test Takers

Each time spring rolls around the topic of our standardized test, STAAR, begins to enter the conversations of our students at Lee Elementary.  Since we have some resident experts on the ins & outs of what the STAAR test is really like, I thought it would be a good idea for them to impart their knowledge onto our newest test takers: 3rd graders!  I typed up a list of all of our 3rd graders and then our 6th graders picked 2-3 to write an encouraging letter to.  They could write encouraging words, test taking tips, confidence boosters and any idea that they thought would help lower their anxiety about testing.  We had a great conversation about empathy and tried to remember back to when it was our first time taking the STAAR test or even how we feel now about it.  Once all of the letters were all written onto colorful bordered stationary, I put them into an "Special Delivery" envelope from the White House (also our nickname for the house beside our school that 6th grade is housed in) and delivered them to their homeroom teachers for students to receive before the test.

Grumpy Cat Visits Ms. Sepp

One of our 5th grade students came up with such a creative idea that I had to share!  We were talking about some of the other silly animal pictures with puns I have outside of my office and how it'd be fun to find one about Grumpy Cat seeing the counselor.

A few days later a large poster arrived in my office, created by the same 5th grader I had chatted with previously, and I was amazed by her creativity and initiative.  Check out what is now hanging outside my office:

Counselor Appreciation Week Feb 2-6

I have been so SPOILED this week!  I've felt extremely appreciated and I've loved receiving notes from staff members, homemade cards from students, books, posters, lunch, iced tea, candy, videos, songs, hugs, collages and so much much more!  I am so lucky to work with each and every one of you at Lee Elementary and I want to thank everyone for supporting me and trusting me with your kiddos.

Here are a few pics from the week:

Teamwork in 3rd Grade: Cup Stack

In third grade we've spent a lot of time on building positive relationships with each other.  We've noticed that the majority of conflict with these kiddos continues to happen outside at recess in less structured activities.  After our last lesson on being good sports, I decided we needed to strengthen our teamwork skills.  And what better way to do this than with the Cup Stack Challenge!

We began by clearly defining what we thought TEAMWORK is.  Then I broke the news that I was going to give them a very frustrating challenge today.  But, if they utilized the teamwork skills we just discussed - then they would find it less frustrating and be very successful.  They had 2 separate sculptures to build with 6 cups, 1 rubber band and 4 strings.  The only thing they could touch was their string.  If the cups rolled off the table, they went down to the ground as a group and used teamwork to get it back on the table.  If their elbow accidentally bumped cups already in formation, they had to pick that cup back up using only the manipulation of their groups strings.

After about 15 minutes most groups had created the first sculpture, and a couple groups were finishing their second design.  I left time for us to debrief on the experience since it is always an activity that brings up a wide range of emotions.  I ask them to rate their group on how well they worked together using the ideas we wrote at the beginning of the lesson.  I ask them what went well for their group.  I also ask them what didn't go well for their group.  We talk about different strategies and ways we an handle ourselves when things don't go the way we want them to.  Throughout the activity I walk around and facilitate positive communication, so I usually have a few examples to help springboard the discussion.