Washington Middle School Counseling

Second semester started today after a longer-than-usual Winter Break. Students were happy to see their friends, and teachers were eager to pick up where they were interrupted. Passing out of new schedules went smoothly thanks to all the parent volunteers.

But amidst the start there are questions about what our school will look like next year, questions that won’t be answered until the School Board meeting this Thursday. Whatever comes of the meeting, the Counseling Department will be ready to field questions and help students (and parents) through the ups and downs of the rest of this school year. Stay tuned!

This last week of 2008 ended abruptly due to snow in our new winter wonderland of Seattle. Teachers and students will have to scramble on our return on the 5th of January to make up lost work and exams, and enter grades for the mid-quarter, while preparing for the end of first semester (!). The Counseling Department has been assisting the PTSA and the YMCA in the school’s annual holiday giving, but this too was cut short. So, the holidays will extend this year until January.

Also put on hold were ongoing work with peer mediation, classroom groups and presentations, one-on-one talks with students, academic and personal assistance with students and their parents, discussions about possible upcoming changes to our school via the School Board’s end-of-January vote on the Superintendent’s recommendations, and other details of our jobs. We are looking forward to picking up where we left off when we all return in 2009.

We wish you all a safe end to 2008 and a wonderful 2009!

Today all students in the lunch room had a simple task: after being handed a colored slip of paper at the door, they had to find 4 other students with four differently-colored slips. All 5 then had to make a linked chain with the slips and give the chain to a staff member, who gave them a treat. They then returned to the table, and, the idea went, had lunch and talked with the new people they had just met. This Mix It Up activity was the first of several WMS will put on this year as part of an effort to have students from different programs speak to, spend time with, and get to know each other. The slips of paper were in proportions corresponding to the 5 different educational programs at WMS: Accelerated Progress Program, Spectrum, Regular, English Language Learners, and Special Education. Student representatives on the Student Council, when told about Mix It Up day, said the number one way they wanted to mix it up was by program. Despite the enormous diversity in the student body at WMS, most students spend the majority of their time with students in their own program. The students are absolutely aware of this, and gave staff a clear message they would like to do something to overcome these artificial divisions when possible.

Mix It Up at Lunch Day is actually a nationwide activity started by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program. Over 10,000 schools…

Although most middle school parents focus on their student’s grades, their students spend an enormous amount of energy on social relationships, interactions, and dramas. This is often the most important part of a middle schooler’s life. Inevitably, conflicts arise, just like in the adult real world. These could be between relative strangers, close friends, or somewhere in between.

Washington Middle School has had a Peer Mediation Program for many years. Each fall, 7th and 8th graders who apply and are accepted are trained in the art of mediating conflicts. The trainings are done by the CRU institute, with the help of the WMS Counseling Department and the YMCA’s Yvette Tolson, Director of Youth Development at WMS. The training would not be possible with the financial support of the PTSA, to whom we owe many thanks.

This year, forty students received 12 hours of training. They participated in role plays as they learned a structured method for proceeding through the conflict resolution. Not only will these skills help them resolve conflicts brought to them by their peers through a referral process at the school, supervised by the counselors and Ms. Tolson, but they will also serve them well in their day-to-day lives.

The first quarter ended (auspiciously?) today. teachers will have until Wednesday the 12th to submit their grades. Report cards will be mailed out Friday, and parents should receive them before the parent-teachers conferences scheduled for Wednesday the 19th (3:00 to 5:00) and Thursday the 20th (5:30 to 7:30). These conferences are the only ones scheduled for the entire year, and they are possible thanks to the generosity of your PTSA. Even though sheer numbers limit each parent to about 5 minutes per teacher, we highly recommend you attend the conferences. You can meet all your student’s teachers (and vice versa), and get a picture of how they see your child. If you need more time for a particular subject, you can arrange a private meeting with the teacher later. All 3 grade-level counselors will also be present, and will be available to try to answer any questions you may have.

As members of Washington’s Coordinated School Health Team (CSHT), the Counseling Department worked with the Wellness Center, the Health and PE Departments, teachers, IA’s and the Custodial Department to put on this year’s Health Fair today in the gym. Over 900 students and their teachers participated over the course of the day. More than 25 local agencies staffed tables and interactive exhibits. Nutrition, drug prevention, BMI measurements, fitness, cyberbullying, Planned Parenthood, heart care, sexual assault and domestic violence prevention, mental health, safe riding, crisis lines, and many others gave the students more than enough to keep busy. Each student had a passport with information to dsicover. They turned them in at the end of their period, and prizes will be awarded later.

The CSHT will be holding another health fair in the Spring, this time for parents and families. We will publicize the date and time when we know it. Many thanks to all team members for the time and hard work that went into this very successful event!