6th Grade

Every quarter I visit all my students in one of the core classes for about 20 minutes. I talk about topics or information I think will be helpful to them for the upcoming quarter, and i answer any questions they might have at that time. For the first quarter of 6th grade, I focused on what is “middle” about middle school school, and what the role of a school counselor is.

The students were quick to see that middle school isn’t just between elementary and high school, but also is “middle age” (their term) of their youth. I talked about them moving from the boys and girls of elementary school to the young men and women of high school.

I broke them into groups to brainstorm what a school counselor does. they focused on helping students with problems, and some were able to describe those problems in more detail. I did have to explain that scheduling is not a counseling duty, but merely us helping out administration, that we were not “cops,” that we had a lot of information to offer in addition to problem-solving, and that our main task is helping to clear away anything which gets in the way of the three goals that I have for each of them: challenge themselves academically and learn to learn well, become educated and skilled socially, especially with those different from you, and have fun: you’re still young, and life should not be all work and hardship.