Kennesaw's Counseling Corner

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!

    

    

   

   

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 Friday of each month we celebrate by choosing one student from each classroom to be recognized as our "character Kids" that have been showing our character word for the month.  These students meet with counselors and administrators and are  presented with a "Kennesaw Pride" pin and a CiCi's coupon for a free pizza. We also draw three student's names (one from each grade level) to be given and extra coupon or prize.

We have also begun recognizing 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 Kennesaw First Baptist Church and Barbeque Street restaurant for their contibutions to our teacher recognition program! Thank you all for your part and your support of this very important program.

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!

Mission and Beliefs

Mission

The mission of The Kennesaw Elementary School Counseling program is to address and remove barriers that impede student learning through a developmental, balanced, and comprehensive school counseling program.  Our students will have the lifeskills necessary to become respectful and responsible citizens of a splendidly multicultural society.  Our students will have the knowledge and skills to set academic, career, and social emotional goals, reach those goals and become lifelong learners.

We believe:

§    We believe that the comprehensive school counseling program assists in removing barriers to learning thus enhancing academic, social/emotional, and career development.  

§    We believe all students can learn at their own rate and based on their individual learning styles.

§    We believe that each student is unique and different.  Therefore, we feel that it is essential for counselors, teachers, and other staff members to use differentiated instruction, give extra time when appropriate, and use patience and reinforcement.

§    We believe that counselors are an important resource in identifying and implementing research based programs and strategies.

§    We believe that educational reform has to be a collaborative commitment among all school community stakeholders.

§    We believe that as school counselors we are EDUCATORS, professionals, and leaders in our schools and are therefore vital and essential to the education “reform” process.

§    We believe that it is imperative for us as professional school counselors to be involved and be a part of our school improvement, leadership, teams as well as members of professional counseling organizations.

Ms. Mohrmann

Welcome to my webpage!  Here is just a little about me.  This is my 5th year as a counselor at Kennesaw Elementary.  I have enjoyed being a part of this school and community.  I am currently working part-time so that I can have time at home with my two sweet little girls.

I completed my graduate schooling at The State University of West Georgia with a Master's of Education in Guidance and Counseling.  I have loved the many ways counselors are able to work with students, families, and the community.  We have a wonderful counseling team at Kennesaw Elementary and I am honored to be a part of this great school!

Announcements

We are working closely with our PTA on our holiday assistance drives.  We have just finished our Thanksgiving food drive and thank you so much to all of you that sent in cans of food. We now have our angel tree and some stockings up in the lobby.  Each ornament and stocking will have an item or items for you to purchase and bring up to the school for one of our families. We are also in classrooms doing guidance lessons and our current lesson goes along with our Character Education word for this month which is cooperation. Next, we will be starting a series of lessons on conflict resolution.  We hope you all have a wonderful, restful, and happy Thanksgiving!!!!!   

Mrs. Bickelhaupt

Welcome to Mrs. Bickelhaupt’s web page! Just a little bit about me: I live in Smyrna with my husband Jim. We have one 16 year old nephew in Birmingham and three precious nieces in Charlotte North Carolina. I enjoy running, yoga, reading, watching movies, traveling, but mostly spending time with my friends, family, and husband! I have been working in education for the past 12 years in various capacities. I taught Kindergarten for five years. Three of those years were in Gwinnett and two years were here in Cobb County. I graduated from West Georgia University with my masters in school counseling in the spring of 2006 and began as a counselor here at Kennesaw at the beginning of the 06-07 school year! I have LOVED being here at Kennesaw Elementary and am so impressed with the professionalism and dedication of the staff as well as the involvement and commitment of our parents. It truly makes me proud to be a part of this school community! Although, my favorite part of my work and this school community is the children! They bring a smile to my face every single day. The little ones are my passion and I fee so strongly that it is MY job to help them succeed and strive not only in school but in life. I am committed to helping provide our students the strongest academic, career, and personal/social foundation possible! Once again I am proud and humbled to be part of this wonderful and amazing school community!

Classroom Guidance

Kennesaw Counselors visit the classrooms for a 30-40 minute lesson that focuses on the areas of academics, social/emotional, and career development.  Guidance lessons for Kindergarten are once every three weeks and for First and Second grade every eight days as part of the specials rotation.  We align our curriculum with the Cobb County School Counseling standards, as well as, the American School Counselors Association (ASCA) standards.

Cobb School Counseling Curriculum

ASCA website

Kindergarten Essential Questions:

What are things I can do to be a good learner?

What is a family?

Why do we have rules?

What are feelings?

What are choices we make?

How can I keep safe?

First Grade Essential Questions:

Why is important to do my best in school?

Why is it important to choose a job I like?

Why do we need rules?

How are people alike and different from one another?

What happens when we make choices?

What can I do to get along better with others?

Second Grade Essential Questions:

What is a good listener?

What is a career?

How do rules help us?

What is self-respect?

How do I make good decisions?

Who is a stranger?

Ambassadors

   To assist in new student transition each second grade class selects a boy and girl as Kennesaw Ambassadors to welcome and be a first day friend for a new classmate.  Ambassadors are trained bi-quarterly, assist in student school tours, and welcome and greet visitors for special school events.  We are proud to have our helpful and responsible Ambassadors.