The counseling team is devoted to the well-being of every single student. We are excited to foster growth academically, personally/emotionally and career related. We have committed to two curriculum for the school year. The lessons from each curriculum will reach every student in our district. Both curriculum are backed up by incredible research and we would like to share that with you.  

Second Step: Skills for Social and Academic Success
The Second Step program is designed to increase student success and decreasing problem behaviors by promoting social-emotional competence and self-regulation.  
Second Step has been shown to build school success by:

• Teaching empathy, managing emotions, and solving problems.
  

• Teaching the ability to self-regulate.
  

• Building students’ attention, working memory, and inhibitory control through Brain Builders (Executive function skills).
  

These abilities have shown to improve school success through self-regulation. Students with these abilities are better able to focus attention in the classroom, benefit from classroom instruction, develop successful/positive relationships with peers and adults and feel connected to their school. All lessons teach students the skills they need to be successful in school. The Second Step program is broken down into four units:

Skills for Learning
The development of self-regulation such as focusing attention, listening, using self-talk and being assertive are skills that are introduced in this program. Being able to integrate and apply these skills will lead to success in diverse classrooms. This unit is the foundation of the others and aspects of it have been woven in to other units.
Empathy
The program helps students develop the ability to have empathy for others, which provides the foundation for helpful and socially responsible behavior. Empathy is related to academic success and prepares students to manage their own strong emotions and solve interpersonal problems.
Emotion Management
This unit teaches students to recognize strong emotions and use calm-down strategies that have shown to be effective in increasing their ability to cope. This will decrease the likelihood of aggressive or other problem behaviors and increase problem solving skills.
Problem Solving
Students will build on what they know to calm down, then proceed with the four steps to problem solving steps
S: Say the problem
T: Think of solutions
E: Explore consequences
P: Pick the best solution

The Too Good for Violence curriculum has many positive objectives that have been shown to reduce the violence and substance abuse. This curriculum promotes a positive school climate and a peaceable classroom. Students will learn: conflict resolution, anger management, respect for self and others, and effective communication.

As a team, we are excited about our plan, hopeful for the future, and grateful to be apart of all of our students’ lives.