RPS COUNSELING
PROGRAM
A school counseling program is an articulated, sequential kindergarten-through-grade 12 program that is comprehensive in scope, preventative in design, developmental in nature, driven by data, and integral to the school district’s curricula and instructional program. The lessons are designed to reach all students and are taught in the classroom regularly. We use the Zones of Regulation and Second Step Curricula as well as the DESSA screener to identify students needing additional SEL interventions.
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ELEMENTARY LESSONS
I have Social-Emotional-Career oriented guidance lessons scheduled every week for 25 minutes. This means that all students, K-5, will experience Guidance during their weekly scheduled time. I encourage and invite all teachers to attend Guidance lessons, so they can reinforce what the School Counselor has taught.
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SECONDARY LESSONS
Secondary lessons in the Middle school are held twice a week in the classroom setting for 20-45 minutes. High School lessons are currently implemented through individual sessions scheduled between the counselor and students as well as through monthly advisory periods. If a needed topic is not covered in advisory, I will continue to schedule a time to conduct classroom guidance and individual counseling sessions with grades 7-12 based on referrals and student needs. Advisory Lessons can include the following
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Organization and Goal Setting
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Drug Awareness - October
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Bullying
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Healthy Relationships (Dating Violence)
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Internet Safety
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Suicide Prevention
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Colleges and Careers
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Mental Health Advocacy
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SMALL GROUP COUNSELING
The purpose of small group counseling is to complement and enhance students' learning by improving their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. Small group counseling provides a safe setting where children, along with their peers, can increase their self-awareness and improve their cooperation and communication skills. The children can learn from each other.
Ultimately the goal of small group counseling is to prevent future problems by teaching children new skills. Every child can benefit from participation in a small group. Students can be invited to join a group by parent request, teacher or counselor suggestion, or by the students themselves.
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Groups typically consist of 4 - 8 students struggling with similar situations. They are scheduled for a specified number of sessions, focus on a single topic, follow a pre-established agenda, and membership is closed. You will be notified by a letter sent home, if we believe your child would benefit from a small group and you have the option of declining the service for your child.
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Some previous small groups I have held include Worry Warriors, Emotional & Anger Regulation, Positive Female Friendships, & Self-Esteem.
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ABOUT ME
I was born and raised in Central Nebraska. Currently, I reside in Greeley Nebraska with my family who includes my fiance (Travis), daughter (Charlee), and our Doberman Pinscher. I graduated high school in 2009 from Cedar Rapids High School. I was a member of Student Council, FFA, One-Act, Junior-Senior Class Play, softball, basketball as well as the track and field team. After high school, I graduated from Wayne State College in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Human Service Counseling.
I started my Master's Degree at University of Nebraska - Kearney in the Graduate Clinical Mental Health Counseling program during the spring of 2015 with the goal of becoming a children's play therapist. I transferred to the Secondary School Counseling program in 2016 after the Nebraska Department of Education approved for school counselors to be certified without a teaching certificate. I graduated in spring 2017, with my Masters of Science in Education Degree in School Counseling. I was inducted into the University of Nebraska Kearney national honor society for graduate students, as the 2017 Chi Sigma Iota secretary, for recognition of scholastic and professional excellence.
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During my graduate studies, I worked at UNK as a Graduate Assistant in the College of Education building. Along with my brief experience in the collegiate education field, I have many years of experience with the mental health and social work fields as a Child and Family Services and a Foster Care Specialist with Boys Town. In these roles, I worked with and advocated for abused and neglected children, foster parents, court/legal systems, and families.
I have found working with children to be an extremely educational and rewarding experience. In the wake of the world we live in today, I am ready to make a difference; I want to inspire children to aim for their goals and help them meet or exceed their potential. I passionately want to make a difference in the live's of our future generation and teach children the social and emotional skills they need to be successful. While working as the K-12 Grades School Counselor at Riverside, I also maintain a professional membership with American School Counselor Association (ASCA).
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In my current position I have helped with the implementation of a K-12 social and emotional program through the use of curriculum (Second Step & Zones of Regulation) and developing HS advisory periods. Through this program, our students are learning social and emotional skills both in the classroom and during their weekly SEL classes with myself. I also helped with the implementation of the DESSA social and emotional screener, which is given three times a school year. The DESSA helps us track data and make decisions about our SEL program effectiveness each year. Students whom are flagged on this screener are placed in SEL intervention groups with myself. I meet with these students twice a week for 4-6 weeks and create lessons based on the needs of the students and their DESSA scores. Not only does the DESSA help us target interventions for small groups but it can help us narrow down specific SEL lessons for targeted classroom wide instruction.
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In addition I applied for, and received, a grant to help us purchase regulation tools for each elementary classroom based off of recommendations from the Zones of Regulation Curriculum. Students will be first taught how to properly use the regulation tools as a tool, rather than a toy, to help with emotional regulation during elementary SEL lessons with myself. Following this instruction the regulation tool kit will be provided to the classroom for the teacher's "Calm Corner/Zen Zone." The goal of these spaces is for students to always have a safe space to go, within their classroom, to get back to their Green (Learning) zone through the use of self regulation tools. I look forward to tracking the data to see if student office referrals are able to decrease.