Earl Rudder Middle School

Principal: Dr. Mary Jewell

6558 Horn Blvd. San Antonio, Texas 78240

Website: https://nisd.net/rudder

Social media:

https://twitter.com/EarlRudderMS

https://twitter.com/RMSCounselors48

Enrollment: 1,002

504: 15%

Special Education: 14.37%

At-Risk: 61%

English Language Learners: 20.66%

Gifted/Talented: 6%

Economically Disadvantaged: 71.86%

Title 1 Campus

As the Rudder Middle School (RMS) counselors, we work with students individually, in small groups and in the classroom to support their academic, personal, social and emotional growth and needs. We work closely with faculty, staff and administrators to develop systematic support for our students and their families. This includes parent education and information nights, consultation and providing referrals to community based resources.

Photo: Counseling Office suite, grade reporting secretary, Donna Clower

As the Rudder Middle School counselors, we play an integral role in the development, implementation and management of the comprehensive school counseling program that serves the academic, career and social/emotional development needs of all students.

Contact Information: katrina.duval@nisd.net (210) 397-5025

Credentials: Master's in Counseling and Guidance; B.A. Liberal Studies

Professional Memberships: Texas School Counselor Association (TSCA), American School Counselor Association (ASCA), Texas Counseling Association (TCA), Northside Counseling Association (NCA)

Leadership positions/committees: Head Counselor, district counseling Design Team, Counseling Advisory Council, University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) Supervisor

Contact Information: michael.geraci@nisd.net (210) 397-5027

Credentials: Master's in Counseling and Guidance; B.A. Interdisciplinary Studies; A.A. in Education

Professional Memberships: Texas Alamo Regional Counseling Association (TARCA), Association of Texas Public Educators (ATPE)

Leadership positions/committees: AVID Counselor, Counseling Advisory Council

Contact Information: selina.vasquez@nisd.net (210) 397-5026

Credentials: Master's in Counseling and Guidance; B.A. Interdisciplinary Studies

Professional Memberships: TARCA, TCA, NCA

Leadership positions/committees: Technology committee, Counseling Advisory Council, Helping Others Achieve (HOA) Mentor, UTSA Supervisor

As Rudder Middle School counselors, we follow the Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs, 5th edition and ASCA. We plan and implement guidance lessons and school-wide activities to support student safety, engagement and connection within our campus community. An example of our leadership was Random Acts of Kindness Week and our collaboration with Student Council and the Pearls Club to develop relevant and meaningful campus-wide activities. We presented at a staff meeting detailing and advocating for our role on campus, by providing examples of how we implement counseling theory into practice with our students.

Our Rudder Middle School Counseling Advisory Council (CAC) met 5 times: August, October, January, March and May.

Members:

Dr. Mary Jewell (Principal)

Anna Kessler (Vice-Principal)

Adela Morado (Academic Dean)

Diana Mendoza (math teacher)

Katrina DuVal (Head counselor)

Michael Geraci (counselor)

Selina Vasquez (counselor)

Julio Sosa (After-school program)

Belinda Salge (Parent Liasion)

Jenna Laszakowits (staff member)

Rick Meuse (community member)

Lupita Ramirez (PTA President/Parent)

Jaylynn Guerra (student)

Use of Implementation Cycle:

At the beginning of the year, the CAC reviewed the needs assessment from the year prior and provided feedback to be used in designing the current year’s annual plan. For instance, we discussed the need to increase student engagement and improve overall behavior. The team designed campus-wide activities addressing the social/emotional needs connected to these concerns, such as, conflict resolution skills and interpersonal skills like kindness and respect. Campus-wide school spirit weeks with lunch-time activities such as Pinktober, Red Ribbon Week and Random Acts of Kindness Week were planned as a result. The CAC also discussed the importance of offering more parent education nights and opportunities for parents to work more closely with counselors, thus we decided to start the Coffee with the Counselors.

As counselors, our goal is to provide a high quality, comprehensive school counseling service to all students. In accordance with TEC 33.005, our program is guided by the Texas Model of Comprehensive School Counseling Programs, 5th edition. It is designed to help all students develop and enhance their academic, career, and personal/social strengths in order to become responsible and productive citizens. We are committed to recognizing individual uniqueness and maximizing the development of human potential in all our students. Through the skillful use of strategic, timely, and personal interventions, we customize educational experiences in order to enhance student capabilities, close achievement gaps among high and low performing groups and support positive student choices.

As the RMS counselors, we empower each student to achieve academic success, regulate and maintain positive social and emotional connections, and learn to become responsible and productive young citizens within their school and outside communities. We believe that each student deserves to feel safe and supported in order to maximize their potential and growth. We are committed to establishing a nurturing environment of acceptance and understanding in collaboration with staff, faculty, administration, parents and our surrounding community.

We work towards empowering students to become emotionally and socially equipped with the proper skill-set needed in order to tackle life's challenges. We strive to assist students to develop interpersonal and intrapersonal skills; healthy relationships; explore colleges and careers; and overall health and wellness. We gather and utilize data to drive the foundation of our work and the needs of our students on campus. We emphasize putting theory into practice through individual and small group counseling services. We utilize consultation and collaborative efforts in order to address the individual and developmental needs of our students.

In order for our counseling department to be effective and meaningful, the following conditions and resources are necessary:

• Counseling program calendar consisting of planned classroom and campus-wide activities for the year

• Needs assessments reflecting the current assessed needs of students, parents and staff

• Time allocated to gather and interpret the needs assessments data to develop program goals

• A school counseling department budget

• Tools and supplies: resource books, art supplies, manipulatives, etc.

• Removal of non-counseling duties

• Counselor roles and responsibilities clearly defined, communicated and supported

• Counseling protocol in accordance with TEC and NISD framework and guidelines

Our counseling program goals were developed from the results of the students and staff needs assessment. We believe that the development of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART) program goals are central to delivering a successful, student-centered program. In order to do so, feedback and reflection are essential in order for us to adjust and create these goals. The Texas Evaluation Model for Professional School Counselors (TEMPSC-II) and the Texas Model serve as the framework and guides the development of these goals. Additionally, our program curriculum is aligned with the four content areas: Intrapersonal Effectiveness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Post Secondary and Career Readiness, and Personal Health and Safety, as well as, the Texas delivery model of service components. Campus data was collected via the following ways:

• Student and Staff needs assessments
• Parent Input/survey
• Student Input
• Pre-Post Data
• Monthly Data - reflecting the Texas four counseling service components (response services, guidance, individual planning, supportive services)
• Daily Responsive Services (Northside-Time data tracking system and virtual distance learning logs)
• Consultation Data
• Communication Data and logs

We evaluate our comprehensive program by first developing a SMART goal for each of the four service delivery components from the Texas Model. Re-evaluation of these goals includes parent and Counseling Advisory Council feedback; campus/district needs assessments to determine the effectiveness of interventions and program implementation. We use a variety of outcome data such as, attendance, discipline and pre/post surveys as well, to assist us in the evaluation of our comprehensive program.

We utilized the data from our needs assessment to select topics and activities for our guidance lessons, small group and individual counseling sessions. As the year advanced, we measured the success of these topics and activities through pre/post assessments to continually improve our comprehensive school counseling program. We used this data and pre/post assessment results to present to our campus stakeholders during meetings (CAC meetings, leadership meetings, etc). We shared this information with staff and parents through our monthly Smore newsletters, Twitter and Coffee with the Counselor.

We found it interesting that both faculty and students identified, "understanding my abilities" as the number one area of focus needing to be addressed among students on campus. In order to help meet this need and further develop students' intrapersonal skills, the RMS counselors and interns held a parent meeting and two small counseling groups surrounding the 40 Developmental Assets. We also led a total of six small groups that were held between the months of October - February. An additional three more small groups would have been held had the district not transitioned to distance learning in March. It was through these small groups that we also addressed the need of "having positive relationships with parents, friends, or teachers" and " learning how to communicate well". One of the small groups resulted in the creation of an "unofficial" morning knitting club. This provided students an additional opportunity to not only learn a new hobby, but explore a side of their personality (creativity, patience, resiliency) through learning how to knit, while also practicing their social and communication skills. Additionally, counselors worked with students through guidance lessons and individual counseling by coaching students on the importance of knowing how to self-advocate with their teachers and other adults on campus.

Counselors took a deep look at the previous years guidance lessons and decided to redesign the lesson on "Responsible Choices" and Red Ribbon Week (RRW). It was noted from the year prior that the lesson needed to be more engaging, meaningful, relevant and collaborative. Therefore, we developed an interactive Nearpod lesson for RRW and a collaborative bullying escape room lesson. Both of these guidance lessons helped to address this need while focusing on the development of student interpersonal skills.

To address the area of "understanding how prejudices can be harmful" we decided to promote campus-wide activities during Inclusive Week. Our campus had never done anything to promote Inclusive Week before. We found this to be an essential component to add to our program, especially given the unique cultural and ethnic diversity on our campus. We collaborated with the Girl Scout Pearls who created posters and flyers to post around campus. Our art classes worked with our ALE students in creating a diversi-tree.

Lastly, 8th graders spent a lot of time "exploring choices after high school" by taking career interest surveys and visiting the Texas On-Course website. In the spring, all students participated in a guidance lesson entitled, "Roadmap to College". This lesson focused on the basic skills needed for success starting with good study habits and organization. We believe these are two essential skills that will help students throughout their educational middle and high school journey towards college and other post-high school educational options.

Rudder counselors follow the Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs, 5th edition.

Each year we evaluate our comprehensive counseling program to ensure that our time is spent accordingly:

Guidance 20%

Responsive Services 25%

Individual Planning 40%

System Support 15%

No later than November 15, 2019, Rudder counselors will develop and present a classroom guidance lesson to all 6th and 7th graders in their science class and 8th graders in their Communications Applications class on healthy relationships and bullying.

We presented 232 "in classroom" guidance lessons prior to distance learning. An additional 28 counseling guidance lessons were presented via grade level google counseling classrooms during distance learning.

Sample activities:

• Guidance lessons addressing social-emotional topics, such as, anxiety/worry/stress; college and career readiness; course planning and selection; bullying and healthy relationships; inter and intrapersonal skills; substance abuse; goal-setting; time management and study skills
• Guest Speaker Assembly on Cyber Security and Internet Safety
• Red Ribbon Week banner pledge and poster contest

The Rudder counselors will provide effective responsive services during the 2019-2020 school year individually, by conducting at least three small counseling groups during the fall semester based on student needs such as, self-esteem, anxiety, mood regulation and recommendations from the Counseling Advisory Council.

We completed 1,983 in-person responsive services. We also held a total of six small groups (before COVID) as a result of the students needs assessment. When the campus transitioned to distance learning after spring break, we completed approximately 191 individual responsive services to students in a virtual setting.

Sample activities:

• Student crisis responses
• Conflict resolution/peer mediation
• Individual counseling
• Parent/teacher conferences
• Community referrals
• Small group and sand tray therapy
• Staff training on drug paraphernalia and trends
• Staff training on Detecting Child Abuse in a Virtual Classroom
• Red Ribbon Week
• Random Acts of Kindness Week
• Inclusive Schools Week

By the the end of September 2019, the Rudder counselors will train all staff members on child abuse reporting, protocols, district procedures and current drug/vaping trends. 100% of staff will be able to name at least two forms of child abuse and the first step in the reporting process.

We held six parent workshops/education nights and presented three times to faculty and staff. We also facilitated 15 Tier 3 meetings and two Coffee with the Counselors. During distance learning counselors played a large role in working together with the administration and clerical staff on assisting with phone calls to families for food bank needs and/or technology needs. It was an all hands on deck effort.

Sample activities:

• Student data meetings- attendance and grade monitoring
• Advocating through Smore department newsletter and department Twitter
• Tier 3 conferences
• Parent Education Nights
• Guest Speakers on various topics such as cyber bullying and social media awareness
• Peer Mentor Program
• Coordination of holiday gifts for ESL/Refugee students
• Tea, Lite snacks and Coffee (TLC) for teachers
• Coffee with the Counselor
• Pinktober
• District Bullying Symposium
• ELF Louise - annual local charity donation drive

The Rudder counselors will meet with all students by the end of February 2020 in their 6th and 7th grade Science classes and 8th grade Communications Applications class, to address and support academic, personal, social and career development needs that are developmentally appropriate.

We completed 2,471 (individual) sessions in a group/classroom setting and 48 classroom setting sessions. We also conducted 2,163 one-on-one student sessions, in-person and virtually. We facilitated 1,265 in-person parent consultations.

Sample activities:

• Individual student meetings - course planning
• Small group for Tier 2 and 3 students
• Student Success Conferences
• Behavior and academic contracts
• Magnet school application process
• Course selection - high school planning and endorsements
• Summer School planning and registration
• Goal Setting with each student
• Parent/Teacher consultation for Tier 3 students

Like all campuses across the Northside district and across our state and nation, we found ourselves needing to think quickly about how we could adhere to our Year-At-A-Glance while staying connected with our students and continuing to deliver the four guidance service components. Our greatest fear was losing contact with our students and not being able to provide proper services when they needed them. We worked hard at quickly developing a Google Classroom for each grade level and pushing it out to all the students within our case loads. We used this platform as a way to send messages, connect and check-in with students. We also shared a Google form link (see below) that students could submit to let us know they needed to speak with us. We allowed for students to select the best way to connect with them: phone call, email, Google Hangouts Chat or via Zoom.

Students were reminded to take a moment and just breathe as they had to make a quick pivot as well into distance learning after spring break and would not be returning to campus. We posted videos like the one below and used self-assessments in our Google Classrooms as one of the ways to stay connected and check in on our students during at-home learning.

In response to COVID, we sent out a survey to our students about worry and stress. Teachers reported that students were experiencing high levels of feeling overwhelmed, worried and stressed with distance learning. This was impacting student connectivity, participation and ultimately, their grades. Our department immediately implemented a few things:

1. We shared some self-care techniques and tools for both teachers and students.
2. We shared with teachers a few simple techniques for reducing stress and creating a sense of calm that they could use with their students such as, 5-finger breathing.
3. We posted these tools in our grade level google classrooms and shared in our Smore newsletter for parents.
4. We then conducted a student survey. We wanted a way to gather and gauge data based on this topic. We were looking to answer the following questions:

• What specifically are students worrying and stressing about at this time?
• Do they know what stress looks like in themselves? Can they identify their own physical or emotional reactions to stress?
• Can they identify effective coping skills to use when they are feeling this way?

Lastly, we reached out directly to students individually in a multitude of ways based on the responses to the survey. In doing so, our goal was to individually connect with those students who needed our immediate intervention. In those cases, we spoke with parents and let teachers know we were in contact with those students. We used a school-wide data tracking form and shared it with our grade level teams, so everyone would be on the same page regarding those students.

From the initial Worry survey, we learned that most of our 6th grade students could recognize when they were feeling stressed, worried and overwhelmed. However, they did not know what to do and approximately only 10% could identify a coping skill to help them relax and feel a greater sense of calm. Additionally, the survey confirmed that the majority of students (almost half) were mostly worried about their academics during distance learning. Impressing others was a close second, typical for this developmental age group. A notable percentage were also generally worried about the future in general.

We presented several different techniques, like the "Bring it Down" breathing video above. We also brainstormed different coping skills and tools students could use to reduce stress, worry, anxiety and the general feeling of being overwhelmed. After four weeks we had the 6th graders complete another survey. This time our focus was to measure if the number of students who could identify at least one coping skill had increased. We saw an impressive 89.2% increase in the number of students who could name at least one coping skill; all students were able to name at least one coping skill that worked for them.

We partnered with The Bexar County Elf Louise Christmas Project, our students, staff and PTA on collecting unwrapped gifts for our Rudder socio/economically disadvantaged community. We collected over 120 gifts! In addition, we started our first ever Coffee with the Counselors. Our goal was to identify parental needs and address general questions and concerns. This data was then used to develop activities and topics for future coffee events. At the first coffee, parents learned about the 40 Developmental Assets and briefly discussed social media and drug and alcohol trends. While this activity was worthwhile, the CAC recognizes the needs for us to continue parental involvement this year. We also need to consider scheduling events at different times of the day. With virtual learning, we should also consider a virtual option for parents to connect, like a video or Zoom Coffee with the Counselor meeting.

Our Rudder Counseling Department adheres to the Northside ISD Guidance and Counseling four general curricular content areas, which include intrapersonal effectiveness, interpersonal effectiveness, post-secondary planning & career readiness, and personal health and safety. When designing our guidance lessons and Year-At-A-Glance calendar, we were mindful to ensure that our lessons would cover one of these content areas every time.

At the beginning of each school year, our campus tries hard to foster a learning environment across the campus that is welcoming and collaborative where all students feel safe and accepted. In order to help with this campus need we wanted to present guidance lessons that would help foster positive relationships. Teaching students how to handle peer issues and relate to others, especially when in conflict, is always a needed and necessary skill particularly with this age group.

After our first CAC meeting, it became apparent that we not only needed to make our guidance lessons more engaging but that we also needed to really emphasize interpersonal effectiveness skills, especially with the current 7th graders. Our Vice Principal stated at our CAC meeting that there were numerous discipline referrals the year before from students having general peer conflicts and that many seemed to claim "bullying" situations. She stated that students did not seem to understand the difference between a peer conflict versus an actual bullying situation. Based on this feedback and the number of discipline referrals and responsive services totals from the year prior, I presented the following lesson to help address these concerns.

There were a total of six puzzles for the students to complete and it took the entire 55-minute class period! Every student in every class was engaged and eager to be the first team to "escape." This was an especially great activity because it incorporated different skill levels within. For example, one puzzle was all pictures, this was especially helpful for the beginning English Language Learners in the class.

After the guidance lesson, a post-assessment revealed that students:

• enjoyed the interactive delivery of the lesson

• they understood the difference between a bystander and an upstander

• they understood the difference between a peer conflict (one-time situation) vs. a bullying situation

• they could identify the five different types of bullying behavior

• they could identify two trusted adults on campus

We work with many stakeholders that include parents/family members, general community members, business partners, faculty and staff members, students and other district team members. We consult and collaborate with campus stakeholders to plan, implement, manage, and evaluate student services that are delivered through our counseling department. Campus and counseling department surveys are a valuable tool that help us address counseling content areas in collaboration with our stakeholders. Consistent and open communication among all of us is also essential in this work.

We share data results with campus stakeholders to address program effectiveness and engagement. We use resources like our Smore newsletters, social media platforms, our campus website and campus events and presentations to communicate with stakeholders our program goals, needs and advocacy for our program.