It's that time of the year again. The eighth graders are working on their four year plans today! We have completed our Kuder surveys and our first assignment on our dream jobs, so hopefully everyone is ready to roll.
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I have the pleasure of teaching a class called "Career Explorations" each day to a group of eighth graders. Since the start of the second nine weeks we have gone to more of a project based classroom and the students are responsible for researching and creating projects in conjunction with certain aspects of career exploration.
We have been very lucky to have access to a set of the high school Chromebooks and the students have become very familiar with Google Classroom over the last few weeks. As we begin the final four weeks of our class, the students are preparing presentations to create a career fair for grades 3-6 to learn about different career options. Our projects have allowed our eighth graders to work on presentation skills, as well as skills needed to problem solve and work together. Overall the students have been very happy with learning how to use Google Classroom and creating their assignments in a nontraditional way. In the elementary classrooms we are focusing on our thankful project and our test results from state testing. I'm asking all of our elementary students to donate either a pack of crayons or a coloring book to Project Fresh Start. We have been challenged to bring in 100 boxes of crayons and 100 coloring books. Regardless of how much we have, one of the skills that we are trying to instill is for students to try to give something, whether it be time or something small.
October was such a busy month in the guidance world!! So many topics, so little time. The overall theme for the month of October is Safety in the elementary world. In the guidance world and school world, October focuses on a variety of topics:
We had a great month of guidance and I was able to see the majority of the classes with little interruption. We left on the note of being able to tell our friends and strangers "no" . I have discovered over my many years it is often hard for students to learn how to say no and what to do once they have. Students came home with a handout to review with their parents about safe and unsafe activities, I hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween. Hello All!!!!
This month I was able to visit the classrooms for the first time! We had an awesome time getting started and getting to know each other. Students came home with a handout at the end of the lesson explaining what the counselor did and how to go about seeing the counselor at school. The students really enjoyed meeting Mrs. Potato head and learning how she helps in the school. WELCOME BACK!!! I hope you had a wonderful and safe summer. I'm so glad that you are here at Verbena and I can't wait for us to get this year started!!
As many of you know Verbena has undergone several staff changes over the summer and we are very, very excited about our bright year ahead. Like several faculty members I am new to the Verbena community and I can't wait to start getting to know your children and you!!!! Below are a few photos from the first day of school. February has been a busy month. Eighth grade students at CMS have been working on their four year plans using Kuder Navigator. We have been able to visit with all of the classes and the students to help complete a career plan for each student that we feel will be a great jump start. Students completed career interest inventories that allowed them to look at some different career options for after high school. EXPLORER results are also in and we have been able to review preliminary results with the students. Several classroom teachers are reviewing the materials with the students so that they can have a better understanding of what they missed and how they can improve. Miss Katie Jones came to visit the sixth grade classes at CMS as well to talk about bullying and bully prevention. We were able to wrap up ARMT conferences with sixth and eighth grade students and we will begin working with seventh grade students. At IHS K-2 focused on feelings and understanding how to describe their feelings. We read My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss and created and described our own feelings. Grades 3-6 lesson focused on empathy and the "Wrinkled Hearts" poem. We talked about how words could stay with us no matter what. Students completed the lesson by creating a heart that had some positive comments about one of their peers in it. The students really enjoyed our lessons this month. A new year a new schedule. . . . I will be at IHS on MWF and CMS on TR this semester. We began the year off with Miss Katie Jones visiting the K-6 students at IHS. Katie is with the Family Sunshine Center and she came out to do a presentation on bullying and school safety. Mr. Doug Howard from the Attorney Generals office visited with the sixth grade class about cyber safety and cyber bullying. There are many resources available for parents if you have any questions. We had another fabulous month between the two schools. We focused on being Thankful and what it means to be Thankful.
Eighth grade students were able to tour the LeCroy Tech Center. It was a wonderful learning experience for everyone. |
AuthorMy name is Kelli Muncher. I a wife, mother, and school counselor. My children keep me grounded and running everyday, and when I say children I mean my two girls plus the 300 or so I try to serve during the week. Archives
February 2016
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