Ms. Gee's Counseling Corner

This week was rather refreshing for me. Despite the anticipation of the new schedule and students beginning to phase in soon, I felt rather refreshed this week as I was able to see many students. I began my beginning of the year check in's, started with my fifth grade leadership students and collaborated with colleagues as we work to best serve students in the coming weeks.

There are a lot of unknowns as we approach this next phase of school and learning, but one thing I am certain of, is that we will seek to serve our students in the best way that we know how and will work as a team to see the success of all students at Bryker Woods.

I will continue to be working with fifth graders on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12:00-12:30 in a leadership capacity. This is completely optional. During our time together students will have the opportunity to help with morning announcements, No Place for Hate school-wide projects, and other school initiatives that would benefit the Bryker Woods community.

There will be flexibility in our schedule so if your child can only attend one or two days out of the week that is fine. I would love to have them join whenever they are available. I know our schedules are tight.

Students can access my zoom link through the counselor button linked on their homeroom's home page or through the link below.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/2365528041?pwd=M21oOHVWZVpYMml1ZmE3SmE0Y0N1Zz09

Meeting ID: 236 552 8041

Passcode: Kindness

This week, classes will be focusing on working with students through the anticipated change that is bound to take place in Week 5. Please be sure to have your students join in live after announcements, for morning meeting, as it is so important to work through these changes as a class/grade level community.

And as always, I am happy to work with students who may need a little more time to process all that will take place with this change. You can access a parent request form on the Bryker Woods Counseling blend page or e-mail me at kathryn.gee@austinisd.org.

This school year, we have a Bryker Woods Counseling Blend Page. Each homeroom teacher should have a link for it on their personal home pages.

What you can find there...

• Zoom link for office hours and lunch bunches
• Community resources (Agencies offering group/individual counseling in the community)
• Weekly newsletters
• Asynchronous lessons K-5th
• Student request forms
• Parent/Teacher request forms
• Student resources (Peace room and SEL Library)

Please feel free to look at this page and play around with the different tools

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be meeting with every student to do a general check-in with them. We know that during this time of navigating a global pandemic, that everyone is operating on some level of trauma. The goal of this check-in is to simple understand from the students perspective how they are feeling/functioning at a social, emotional, and academic level.

The check-in will be completed during students asynchronous time so they will not be missing any direct teaching. I will start with our fifth grade students and will work down by grade level. I will communicate with your students teachers to conduct a sign-up to meet with every child.

This coming week I will finish up with 5th grade students and will begin meeting with fourth grade. I hope to have both 4th and 5th grade completed by the end of the next week.

Email: Kathryn.gee@austinisd.org
Website: https://brykerwoods.austinschools.org/
Phone: 512-414-7198