DBS School Counseling Advisory Council 2014-15
Agenda/Minutes
9/29/14, 3:00-4:30
Agenda
- New/expanded interventions
- counselor updates
- committee feedback
- discussion
- Data review & planning
- Action steps
- Plan for next meeting
Present: Lori, Ann, Jen, Lois, Sara, Averill, Chelsea, April, Roberta, Joyce, Rick, Amy, Rebecca
Absent: Nikki (maternity leave)
Note: These agenda/minutes are in Drive under Early Childhood. Rebecca will put info into minutes ahead of time if available so we can be more efficient in our meetings. Please try to read agenda/minutes before the meeting. Please add to agenda or make comments if you are unable to attend meetings. Commenting with “comments” will send a notification to Rebecca. Adding info to body of minutes won’t notify anyone, so if you want Rebecca or Amy to know about anything right away, let one of them know that you added something.
1. New/expanded interventions
New counseling classroom curriculum and teaching model
Counselor updates:
●The Incredible Flexible You lessons are going well. Counselors like the curriculum. Rebecca and Hannah (intern) are teaching kindergarten in groups of 4-5 students. They have 8 groups/week. This week they will do Lesson 4: Body in the Group. Amy is teaching TIFY to 1st graders to half of each class at a time in counseling office. This week they are on Lesson 5: Whole Body Listening. K and 1 will both do bullying unit after TIFY, then Zones of Regulation unit.
●Info about TIFY concepts and lessons are in shared The Incredible Flexible You Curriculum folder in Drive.
Committee Feedback and Discussion
●What is working well?
○Love “The group plan” The kids really get this and it helps!
○helps a lot to have shared language
○kids are using the language - group plan, thinking bubble, body & brain in the group
○breaking up class into small groups helps
○giving them (and us) a format
○proactive
○good that they go out in small groups. couldn’t get done in the classroom
○Unless we take care of this, they’re not available to learn. We should stop worrying about the academics not getting done - we know what they need and we should give it to them.
●What are the challenges?
○drawback is that teachers aren’t there to see lesson and know who is getting it and who isn’t.
○Would it be better if we put them into leveled groups?
○would help if we all had copies of the books.
○Can the language/concepts be shared?
○everyone needs copies of the music
○related arts teachers need this language too.
○1 first grader and 1 kindergartner are not consistently ready to be part of the groups. Plan in place for 1st grader. Need a plan for kindergartner. Need to be more planful ahead of time to identify students who need to be taught these concepts in different setting.
Second Step
Counselor updates:
●One first grader and one kindergartner not successful in classroom and have to leave during Second Step. Plan: Wendy P is teaching 1st grader in OC. Sara or Rick will teach kindergartner. He is several lessons behind.
●Amy is running 1st grade group, pre-teaching Skills for Learning.
Feedback from committee:
●Going fine in classrooms. Having teaching partners from this group is helpful.
●Pre-teaching by counselors helps kids stay focused and have ideas to share during classroom lesson.
Small groups
Counselor updates:
●Social Skills groups (Mondays during Integrated Arts) - Amy is leading the 1st grade social skills group. Currently pre-teaching Second Step Skills for Learning lessons. It is helping those students be more successful during Second Step lesson in classroom. Rebecca is working 1:1 with a 1st grader at the 1st grade group time. He is not yet ready to be in the group.
●Rebecca is teaching one of the K class council groups at the K integrated arts time, so can’t do a kindergarten social skills group then. Not sure how to fit this into the counselors’ schedules.
No committee feedback or discussion
Behavior Plans/Supports
Counselor updates:
●Current system of using regular OC behavior plan for kindergartners is not working well. K needs more than 6 time slots on the OC behavior plan. Rebecca, Wendy P, and targeted team are exploring how to modify CICO for kindergartners.
Committee feedback & discussion:
●Can K students do check-out at 2:00 instead of 2:20, then return to class for dismissal?
●Don’t currently have a method for how to collect data if behavior plan is different from grades 1-5. Rebecca will explore this with VT PBIS.
●Idea: individual plans with student-created thinkables/unthinkables.Will need to come up with data collection plan. Rebecca and Lori will pilot this for one of her students.
2. Data review & planning:
Update (April)
●SWIS data:
●Kindergarten: A small number of students (4) account for the majority of the SSF’s reported in the highest “problem behavior” categories (minor disruption and minor contact). Two of these students have a behavior plan/targeted services in place, the other 2 do not.
●First Grade: A small number of students (5) account for the majority of SSF’s reported in the highest “problem behavior” categories (minor defiance and major defiance), with 1 student significantly higher than the other 4. 1 of these 5 students has a behavior plan/targeted services in place, 1 is about to start TCCE and the other 3 have no bsp’s or targeted services.
Committee Feedback & Discussion:
●Need for figuring out what the plan is for coming back into the classroom after having to leave for being defiant.
●Trying to manage escalation is a challenge.
●Problem Behavior Questionnaire could be used to get ideas about motivation.
●What is the difference between kids who can persevere when it is really hard and those who get frustrated and can’t work - fear of mistakes, need a break, need control, sensory overload?
3. Action Steps:
●TIFY:
○continue to discuss lesson topics, language, & how lesson concepts are generalizing during weekly grade level/counselor team meetings.
○Amy will share TIFY info with Jim.
○Lori needs music from TIFY lessons. Anyone else? Rebecca will get it for her.
○Rebecca and Amy will share TIFY concepts & language with Related Arts teachers.
○Rebecca will share K group materials with Sara when student is unable to come to group
○Review effectiveness of TIFY at next meeting.
●Second Step:
○Rebecca will confirm who is going to teach SS to kindergartner 1:1 & get info about which lesson to start with to Rick or Sara.
●Behavior:
○Rebecca will “review hands and body to self” in K groups.
○Rebecca and the K teachers will discuss the next steps for the 4 students with majority of SSFs at next team meeting. Teachers should refer to targeted team for supports if needed.
○Amy and April will further explore SSFs for defiance to see if group or individual interventions/supports would be most appropriate.
○Amy will help 1st grade teachers complete Problem Behavior Questionnaires to determine motivation that is resulting in defiance.
○Amy and 1st grade teachers will discuss the next steps for 1st graders with majority of SSFs. Teachers should refer to targeted team for supports if needed.
○Amy will prioritize groups and individual supports with Nikki’s class while she is out on maternity leave.
○Amy and 1st grade team will discuss with Rick the need to come up with plans for re-entry into classroom after having left for being defiant.
○New check-out procedure for Kindergartners: will go to the OC 2:00-2:15 then back to classroom for dismissal. Rebecca will check with Wendy P about this and she will notify teachers when it can start. Targeted team & K teachers will review this after 2 weeks. Rebecca will report back at our next meeting.
○Rebecca will check with VTPBIS about how to modify OC behavior plan for K in a way that works for teachers/students and also allow us to collect data in SWIS.
○Rebecca and Lori will pilot thinkables/unthinkables behavior plan with one student in K. If it works well, this idea can be used with other students.
●Unanswered questions:
○How/when will we provide targeted social skills groups to kindergartners? Difficulty fitting into counselors’ schedules.
○Would putting kindergartners into leveled groups for class council groups be possible? Helpful? Is someone available to co-facilitate if a group totally comprised of kids who struggle most with behaviors is created?
○What prevention strategies can we use to reduce defiance in 1st grade?
4. Next meeting: November 17, 3:00 in Lois’ room
Agenda planning:
●How did TIFY work? Do we want to use it again next year? Should we consider using it in PreK?
●Feedback about Zones of Regulation lessons and classroom tools
●Targeted social skills groups for kindergartners
●Modifications to OC behavior plan for kindergartners & data collection system
●Thinkables/unthinkables behavior plans
●Prevention & responses for defiance
●Start list for ideas for what we want to keep/modify/add next year so we don’t forget