Kennesaw's Counseling Corner

April Announcements

Well here we are.  Can you believe it?  April already!  Your Kennesaw counseling team has been working hard with our small groups, doing classroom guidance lessons on our character word of "Personal Best", and hosting our Primrose Pre-K friends that will be joining us next school year.  Our character recognition for April will be Friday the 30th. Our word for next month and May is Perseverance.

We were so very proud of how hard ALL of our students worked during our CRCT testing!  Thank you parents and guardians for making sure that they were here at school on time and ready for the test!

We have a wonderful opportunity for our parents!  Our Success for All Team Parent Support Specialist is putting on a lunch and learn for any of our Kennesaw parents that would like to attend.  The lunch and learn will be in the media center at 11:30 on Thursday April 29th. We will be addressing the following topics:

*Parent-child relationships

* How to handle misbehavior

*establishing rules, routines and limit setting

*school readiness

*coping with stress and anger management

*positive discipline techniques

Please let your child's teacher know if you are interested in attending!  We hope to see you there!

January

Welcome Back and Happy New Year!  We hope you all had a wonderful and restful holiday.  Our hope is that you feel refreshed and renewed as we begin this new year of 2010.  Here is a quick overview of what will be happening in the Counseling Department...

ATTENDANCE

We have our 2nd nine weeks attendance recognition coming up this month.  These are the dates for each grade level: 

January 11 for Kindergarten

 January 12 for 1st grade

January 14 for 2nd grade 

 We will be recognizing all students who have had PERFECT attendance (0 absences and 0 tardies) or SUPERIOR attendance (0 absences and 3 or less tardies)  for the 2nd nine weeks period. This will be a time where these students get to participate in fun activities in the gym at the end of the day. 

CHARACTER EDUCATION

Our Character Education word for the month is No Put Downs:  To never use words, actions and/or body language that degrade, humiliate, or dishonor others.  All classes will have a guidance lesson on this topic.  Please also see the attached website for books you can read at home to further discuss No Put Downs  www.desertskyone.com/character/putdown.html

Character Education Recognition for students who have shown No Put Downs will be Friday, January 29, 2010.

ANGEL TREE

We want to thank everyone who took part in our Angel Tree Assistance Program .  With the help of our wonderful PTSA, Kennesaw Baptist Church, North Cobb High School and individual families, we were able to help brighten the holidays for many students in our school and community.

Tricks and Tips to Begin the New Year

• Get back on that Routine! (Normal bedtime schedule)
• Have child/children help get prepared for school the night before (bookbag, clothes, coats, snack etc.)
•  Have plans and plenty of time for a healthy breakfast whether eating at home or school.
• Spend a few minutes discussing your child's day.  Be sure to include something positive that happened.

With current sicknesses and weather changes, please encourage children to wash hands frequently and dress warmly. 

Happy Holidays from your Kennesaw counselors!  We have been busy working with our AMAZING PTSA to put together our Holiday Assistance program.  Our canned food drive was WONDERFUL and a huge success.  Thanks to everyone for their generous support and contributions of canned goods.

We are certain you have seen the beautiful Angel Tree in the front lobby. We have a few ornaments left so please take one and sign the form on the table near the tree and return the unwrapped item by Monday the 14^th.  You will be making a child and family’s entire holiday! This is one generous school community so thank you again to all of you that have already contributed canned food or taken an ornament.

Our Character word for December is Caring and we have been focusing our classroom guidance lessons around this character word.  We will celebrate our Character Kids for “Caring” on Thursday the 17^th.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Character Education:  Word of the Month:  JANUARY – NO PUT DOWNS

Attendance Recognition:  Tuesday January 12^th

Conference week: January 25^th – 29th

KENNESAW CHARACTER EDUCATION

Kennesaw Elementary's Administration, counselors, and staff are committed to developing students and citizens of good character!  We focus on a different "character word" each month. The last day of each month we celebrate by choosing one student from each classroom to be recognized as our "character Kid" These are students that have been showing our character word for the month.  These students get to wear a "Character Kid" visor on the day of our recognition and have their name put up on our Character wall in the cafeteria. They also meet with counselors and administrators and are  presented with a "Kennesaw Pride" pin, along with a coupon or prize. We also draw three student's names (one from each grade level) to be given an extra coupon or prize.

We also recognize one staff member that has exhibited our character trait for that month.  Staff members nominate their colleagues and the staff member chosen/picked is given a special prize.  We want to thank Cici's Pizza, DAC Kids, and Kennesaw First Baptist Church for their contibutions to our Character Education and teacher recognition program! Thank you all for your part and your support of this very important program.

October 2009

Happy Fall! 

We have so many wonderful activities going on in the Counseling Department this month.  Our lesson focus and Character Education  word for the month is Active Listening.  We will be seeing students in all classrooms to teach this lesson.  Our life skills program defines active listening as listening with the intention of understanding what the speaker intends to communicate.  Below are some tips to help you reinforce and teach your child about active listening.

Parenting Tips to help teach Active Listening

1.  If culturally appropriate, have your child make eye contact with you when speaking to them.

2.  Ask them to keep their body still.

3. Remind your child to think about what is being said.

4.  Teach them to respond back with a statement,  head nod or question so you know they understand.

We hope that you will help us by reviewing these important skills at home. 

October 5-9 is Public Safety Awareness Week.  Please help us honor our wonderful Kennesaw Police Department. 

October 26-30 is Red Ribbon Week.  The Counselors will be helping PTA with the Food Drive.  Please click on the PTSA link below to see what other daily activities will be going on this week.

www.kennesawptsa.org

October 27th-Attendance Recognition for the 1st nine weeks.  Students with 0 Absences and 0 tardies will be recognized for their Perfect Attendance.  Students with 0 Absences and 1-3 tardies will be recognized for their Superior Attendance.  The Counseling Team, our School Social worker, and officers from the Kennesaw Police Department will all be there to help us recognize these students.

October 30th-Character Education Recognition for students who have displayed the character word of Active Listening.

Small Group Results Data and Counseling Goals

KENNESAW ELEMENTARY COUNSELING PROGRAM GOALS FOR 2008-2009

A.   85% of first grade students that failed the reading portion of the CRCT in 07-08 will pass the reading portion of the test in 08-09 through small intentional academic groups.

 

RESULTS

 

12 out of 15 (or 80%) first grade students that failed the reading portion of the CRCT in Spring-08 passed the reading portion of the test in Spring 09.

 

The scores for these students increased an average of 16 points.

The greatest increase in reading score for an individual student was 59 points.

 

 The average score for these students in Spring - 08 was 795 and increased to an average of 808 for Spring -09.

 

 

88% of special education students participating passed the test. (9/15)

Two other students participating were in the referral process for special education. Of those students 50% (one of two) passed.

 

 

83% of ESOL students participating passed.  

 

 

KENNESAW ELEMENTARY COUNSELING PROGRAM GOALS FOR 2009-2010

A.   80% of first grade students that failed the math portion of the CRCT in 08-09 will pass the math portion of the test in 09-10 through small intentional academic groups.

B. Counselors will collaborate with teachers of students who         failed the math portion of the CRCT to gather math data and other student information in order to plan more focused and      individualized small math groups.

Welcome Back 2009-2010

ALL ABOARD! Welcome to another wonderful and exciting school year!  We are really looking forward to seeing some old familiar faces and to meeting our new Kennesaw students and families.  The 2009-2010 school year promises to be an amazing adventure with much excitement along this educational journey.

            Your Kennesaw counselors (Delane Bickelhaupt – Kindergarten, Amy Mohrmann – First Grade, and Patricia Kernan – Second Grade) can’t wait to begin this school year. We are eager to start working with all of you to foster academic, social/emotional, and career development in all of our students. Some of our plans to help us reach this goal are:

*Classroom Guidance Lessons

*Character Education

*Small Groups

*See students individually as needed

*Support for students through RTI process

*Family Support

 

Please feel free to contact us at 678-594-8175 if you have any ideas, suggestions, questions, or concerns. We are so happy to be back and ready to hop on the train to Engineering Excellence. J

December 2008

During the month of December our Character Education word is Caring.  We hope to show our caring spirit by helping those less fortunate.  Our wonderful PTA has worked very hard with the Counseling Department to put together our Angel Tree and Holiday Assistance Program.  If you are interested in helping to brighten a child's/family's holiday, please come take an ornament off the Angel Tree located in the front lobby. 

We are also asking for your support of  our fundraiser/hat day on Tuesday December 16th to benefit the South Cobb High School Marching band and their trip to Washington DC!  They have been selected to represent Georgia in the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Parade. 
We can't let this opportunity pass by for the students of South Cobb High School's Marching Band. So, please help them by participating and donating on Tuesday! Thank you for your suuport!  

We had a fun, and very successful Red Ribbon Week.  It was wonderful to see all the kids wearing their ribbons, dressing up, and participating. We would like to thank ALL of you that sent in and donated canned foods during our Red Ribbon week canned food drive!  All of the cans collected will go to making a local families hoidays much much better! Thank you to our amazing PTA for organizing a wonderful week!

We have loved being in classrooms doing our guidance lessons and are focusing on our social emotional domain standards.

We have also been in classrooms recognizing our students that have had Perfect and Superior attendance for the first grading period.  We are looking forward to enahancing and hopefully working with the Kennesaw Police Department to help us with these special recognitions.

About Ms. Kernan

     Welcome Kennesaw students!  Our counseling department is so excited about our upcoming school year 2008-2009!  We are so looking forward to seeing our students from last year and thrilled about our newcomers. 

      Let me tell you a few things about myself.  I have a wonderful husband with two beautiful grown daughters.  In addition, I have a delightful grandson who will be entering middle school this year.  Also, I am eagerly awaiting the birth of my new granddaughter in November.  For fun I like to relax at our lake house, camp, bowl, read for pleasure, and write children's stories. 

      Besides having been a classroom teacher for years in Cobb County, I am now entering my 18th year as a school counselor.  With work experience in high school, middle, and elementary, I am actually beginning my 28th year in public education.  I love being a college student as well.  My Educational Specialist degree is from West Georgia, and I completed my School Leadership program at Kennesaw State University. 

     As a Kennesaw counselor we are quite active in the classrooms during our regular guidance lessons; we facilitate small counseling groups when the need arises; and we see students individually.  Throughout the school year we are available to assist students, parents, and staff with school success.  We will have a great year!  See you soon!

    

    

   

   

December

During the month of December our Character Education word is Caring.  We hope to show our caring spirit by helping those less fortunate.  Our wonderful PTA has worked very hard with the Counseling Department to put together our Angel Tree and Holiday Assistance Program.  If you are interested in helping to brighten a child's/family's holiday, please come take an ornament off the Angel Tree located in the front lobby.  Thank you for your support!