Counseling Office

	Amy Buchman Elementary School Counselor Phone: 740.698.8831, ext.1 Fax: 740.698.2137 Email: abuchman@alexanderschools.org

Alexander School Counselors Mission Statement

The Alexander School Counselors will support students in the areas of Academic, Career, and Personal/Social Development so that they may become responsible members of a diverse community.

What is a School Counselor?

School Counselors are individuals who support and focus on the needs, interests, and issues related to the various stages of student growth.  The school counselor is a certified professional educator who assists students, teachers, families, and administrators.

What does a School Counselor do?

A School Counselor promotes educational success by supporting the development of academic skills, interpersonal skills, and self-understanding.  School counselors also educate students in decision making, problem solving, goal setting, self-esteem, and educational opportunities.

 

Services School Counselors Provide

Individual Counseling

Individual Counseling is personal and private interaction between a counselor and a student in which they work together on problems or topics of interest.  School Counselors establish trust and build a helping relationship during one or more sessions.  These face to face interactions with a counselor provide a student with the privacy in which to freely explore ideas, feelings and behaviors.  Counselors respect the privacy of information, however counselors are under obligation by law and ethical standards to report when a person's well being and welfare is in jeopardy.

Small Group Counseling

Group counseling involves a counselor working with two or more students.  Group discussion can be based on structured learning activities during which participants can share ideas, give and receive feedback, increase their awareness, gain new knowledge, learn positive behaviors, and practice skills.  These groups provide an opportunity for students to learn from each other.

Classroom Guidance

Classroom Guidance consists of organized objectives and activities that are facilitated by the School Counselor in the classroom.  Guidance curriculum gives attention to particular developmental issues and areas of concern voiced by students or in collaboration with teachers.

 

Test Taking Tips and Strategies

 

1. Think positive thoughts.
2.  Make a conscious effort to relax your neck, shoulders and upper back.
3. Don’t start writing immediately.  Look over the entire test to learn the number and kinds of questions.
4. Budget your time; allow yourself time after you have finished the test to check your answers.
5. Read all the directions twice.  Circle key words and be careful not to read more into questions than is actually there.
6. Deliberately ignore the pace of classmates and proceed with a steady pace.
7. Answer all questions.  Intelligently guess the answers to the questions you are unsure of and flag these questions and come back to them to recheck your answers.
8. Never change an answer unless it is clearly wrong.
9. “Flag” questions you are unsure of and come back to them later.
10. Your subconscious will continue to “work” on questions about which you are unsure.  Sometimes a question or answer will trigger recall for another answer.
11.   If you get “stuck”…

¨      Reread the question and break it down into small units.

¨      Search for the “cue” or “clue’ words and define them mentally.

¨      Carefully reread the answer choices (read the stem first and then each answer with it – the stem is the “question” above the answers)

¨      Brainstorm associated concepts and try to recall similar information.

¨      Put the question into your own words for better understanding, being very careful not to change the meaning.

¨      Draw a picture or diagram to really “see” it.

12. Check your answers.

¨      Are they readable?

¨      Do your answers, answer the questions asked?

¨      Are they in the correct answer spaces?

¨      Have they been transposed correctly from “workspace”?

¨      Have they been written well (if an essay)?

Big Brothers/Big Sisters

The Big Brother/Big Sister program is coming to a close after another fun-filled school year. Recently, the "bigs" have been walking the "littles" back to their classroom.

Ohio Achievement Testing (OAT)

Ohio Achievement Testing will take place April 21 through May 2. Grades 3-5 will be tested in a number of areas including: Math, Reading, and Writing. The Elementary has focused on a number of test-taking skills in hopes to increase OAT scores. Thus far, we are really excited to see such hardwork coming from our elementary students! Results will be in on June 16. Parents will have results mailed to them by the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.