Counseling Lessons - Nottingham

Lessons: The school counselors provide lessons to each of the classrooms throughout the year. The lessons’ sequence is the same for all grade levels, but the specific content taught is unique to each grade. Below is a description of some of the key concepts within each topic. In addition, activity sheets are included here for optional reinforcement of the concepts at home. Occasionally, as time is available, other topics are added to the lesson scope. Much of the curriculum arises from the Second Step program created by the Committee for Children.https://www.secondstep.org/

Skills for Learning
1. In the lower grades these concepts include focusing eyes on the speaker, not talking while someone is speaking, sitting with hands to one’s self and using self talk to focus the mind.
2. For the upper grades, skills for learning are addressed through goal setting. They set personal goals through the framework of W-O-O-P. Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan. This is based on the work of Gabriele Oettingen, who as found that students and adults who identify a Wish, then visualize the positive Outcome, perceive the Obstacles to the wish, and then make a Plan to address those obstacles, have a significantly higher success rate in achieving goals than students who use other methods. To learn more see: https://characterlab.org/activities/woop-for-classrooms/

Bullying Prevention
1. All students K-5 are taught the four elements of bullying – M-O-O-O.. Bullying behavior is
  1. Mean
  2. On Purpose
  3. Over and Over (repeated, not isolated)
  4. One Sided (one student is doing it to another, with the targeted student doing nothing mean back).
2. Students also learn the three Rs for bully prevention: Recognize it (be able to correctly define it) Refuse it (stand up to the bully in an assertive way) and Report it (if the size of the problem is big, it should be reported to a trusted adult).

Child Protection Unit
1. Students in grades 1-5 are taught how to stay safe with their private body parts. They learn that no one should ever look at or touch their private body parts unless it is a parent (upper grades only) or health care provider keeping them healthy. Likewise, they should never touch or ask to look at another’s private body parts. Students also learn that if someone breaks the rule, it should be reported to an adult, and if they are not believed, they should keep reporting to others until they are believed. They also learn that they should not ever keep a broken touching rule secret.
2. Kindergartners and first graders are taught to recognize unsafe situations and to always ask first before entering into something that might not be safe.

Empathy
1. Nottingham uses a school-wide CARES framework for behavior regulation. Cooperation, Assertiveness, Responsibility, Empathy and Self-Control. The counseling program’s lessons focus on assertiveness (distinguishing between passive, assertive and aggressive communication and understanding why assertiveness is more effective than the other two) and using empathy to understand how someone else is feeling. Empathy involves looking at another person for cues in their face and body to assess the feelings, taking their perspective in your mind, then acting on the empathy in a way that shows compassion.
2. The empathy lessons also tie into our efforts mid-year to focus on kindness toward others in school and home. We celebrate Random Acts of Kindness week at the end of January and lessons that address kindness and compassion.

Emotional Regulation
1. Regulating strong emotions (sadness, anxiety, anger, fear) is an important part of human development. Students learn to recognize the physical changes in the body that occur when they feel a strong emotion, and learn the role of the brain in causing those physical changes. The amygdala is our emotional center and serves as our security guard. It sounds the alarm when there is a perceived threat and gets the body ready for fight, flight or freeze. The prefrontal cortex at the front of our brain is our control center and can be used to calm the amygdala and provide thoughtful, rational solutions.
2. Calmer emotions occur when we Stop, Name Our Feeling and take steps to Calm Down. Using an internal Stop signal (e.g. “cool it, chill, hold on, don’t do it, wait, stop”) puts the brakes on the amygdala’s desire to react quickly. Naming the feeling allows recognition that improves calming strategies. Three calming strategies that are emphasized are slow deep breathing, slow counting (e.g. count to 10, count from 20 backwards) and replacing negative talk with positive self talk.
3. Mr. Jones has created the attached document for further explanation and other suggestions.
4. Freeing Your Child from Anxiety by Tamar Chansky is a helpful book for parents.

Peer Conflict Resolution
1. The curriculum throughout the school teaches the STEP approach to resolving peer conflicts.
  1. Say the Problem – express it in a neutral way without blaming anyone
  2. Think of Solutions – identify multiple possible options for resolution
  3. Explore Consequences – consider the positive and negative of each idea
  4. Pick the Best Solution – sometimes the first plan does not work, so be prepared to fall back to the next one.

Career Exploration
1. Each grade level explores different sets of careers. Students are also encouraged to identify their strengths and consider their interests in order to explore what careers would be a good match

Other Topics
1. Fifth graders receive a lesson focused on mental health awareness and also learn refusal skills to resist peer pressure, particularly as it relates to substance abuse.