Holiday Burnout

Holiday Burnout

With the holiday season approaching, we often find ourselves more scheduled than our usual busy lives.  Both parents and children have found this time to be fun and exciting as well as tiring and overwhelming.  Between holiday gatherings, family events, shopping, cooking, and decorating, we get wrapped up in the season and can neglect our own needs.  It is important to find time for self-care both for ourselves and for our children in order to recharge so we can truly enjoy this time of year.


For children, here are 3 suggestions on how to slow down while keeping in the holiday spirit:

1.  Enjoying a holiday movie together as a family or with friends
2.  Take part in family holiday traditions - with NO distractions - such as tree decorating, making latkes, and baking holiday cookies
3.  Attend community events associated with the holidays (Here is what is going on in your community!)

This article is a reminder for parents about the small things in daily life that they may do to keep from getting overly stressed, especially during the holiday season.

http://www.today.com/parents/15-keys-happiness-overwhelmed-overburdened-parents-t42201

Calendar of Events:

December 6th: Hanukkah begins

December 14th: Hanukkah ends
December 23rd: Last day before Winter break
December 24th: Christmas Eve
December 25th: Christmas Day
December 31st: New Years Eve

Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of Thanksgiving, we would like to use this month's blog to focus on what we are truly grateful for.  We hope that this month everyone is able to recognize the basic joys in life.

With that being said, sometimes there are struggles in life that prevent us from participating in these everyday tasks.  If your family has encountered a hardship such as unemployment, illness of a family member, or some other unusual circumstance, Holiday Assistance is available.  The Hamilton-Wenham Holiday Assistance Fund is a confidential program coordinated by a dedicated community volunteer and is supported by the generous donations of many community members. If your family meets the criteria and you would like to request assistance, please contact one of the school counselors to discuss this program and eligibility. Jessica Merritt, guidance counselor, can be reached at 978-468-0396 or Elizabeth Hortie, adjustment counselor, can be reached at 978-468-0366. Assistance will be in the form of gift cards for winter clothing and/or food or in some instances, gifts of essential clothing such as winter coats, hats, pajamas, socks, etc.  Requests for assistance should be made no later than November 6th. If you are interested in making a monetary donation to the program, you may also contact the counselors for details.

We would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving - and remember to take some time to enjoy the small things in life.

Calender of Events:

11/2/15: NO SCHOOL/Teacher Workshop Day
11/3/15: Auditions for MRMS musical (this year it is Shrek!)
11/6/15: 7th & 8th grade "Black and White" dance (6:30 to 8:30)
11/11/15: NO SCHOOL/Happy Veteran's Day
11/13/15: End of Quarter 1
11/16/15: Start of Quarter 2
11/20/15: 1st Quarter report cards sent home
11/25/15: Early release at 12:05; No lunch served
11/26/15: Happy Thanksgiving!
11/27/15: NO SCHOOL/Thanksgiving break

Happy Fall!

As we settle into the new year, we start to evaluate the learning style of our students. Many things impact their learning but personality is not usually the first thing that comes to mind. Research has become available about introversion and extroversion helping to shed light on the most effective strategies to help them access the curriculum. When parenting, it can be challenging to help your child if you are coming from a different viewpoint - think extrovert parent vs introvert child. Here a few articles addressing the education impact and the family impact to these personality differences. 

Happy Fall!

How Personality Type Affects Your Student’s Experience in the Classroom

Extrovert or Introvert: You and Your Child

When Schools Overlook Introverts

Calendar of Events:

• October 7th: Essex Technical High School presentation to 8th grade 
• October 12th: NO SCHOOL - Columbus Day
• October 31st: Happy Halloween!! 

Welcome back!

It's hard to believe that summer has already come and gone and we are now starting the 2015-2016 school year!

We wanted to use our first blog of the school year to introduce ourselves - for those of you who don't know us - and give you some great resources about surviving "back to school" time!

Counselors' Corner is a blog put together by Jessica Merritt, Guidance Counselor, and Elizabeth Hortie, Adjustment Counselor of Miles River Middle School.  We are the 2 counselors at the middle school who are here for the social, emotional, academic, and behavioral well-being of your children.

Please check out our page on the Miles River Middle School Homepage for more information: School Counselors

We write our blog once a month and it is usually posted on the Miles River Middle School homepage.  We offer lots of great resources, relevant articles, calendar of events, and other information.

For the September 2015 blog, we wanted to focus our attention on back-to-school!  Below are a few articles we found that may help in the transition from summer to school:

5 Ways to Help Your Middle School Student Get and Stay Organized

Doctor Offers Back to School Health Tips

Top 15 Things Your Middle School Kid Wishes You Knew

As we get back into the swing of things, we are sure there will be questions or concerns along the way.  If you have any questions/concerns about your child's schoolwork, do not hesitate to email their teachers.  If you have any other questions/concerns, you can always reach out to the counselors or the administration.

Remember to check back each month for the latest Counselors' Corner blog!

Calendar of Events:

September 1, 2015: 6th Grade and New Students Open House (6:30pm to 8:00pm)
September 2, 2015: 6th Grade Orientation (for 6th grade students only!)
September 8, 2015: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR ALL STUDENTS!
September 11, 2015: Picture Day!
September 16, 2015: 6th Grade Families Ice Cream Social (5:30pm to 7:00pm)
September 28, 2015: Curriculum Night (6:30pm to 8:30pm)

Closing Out Another School Year

As the end of the school year is fast approaching and summer is right around the corner, we wanted to take this time to slow down a little bit and reflect back on a year of triumphs and tribulations, successes and failures, mistakes and lessons learned. 

We found a couple great articles to help you as parents cope with the last few weeks of school and make sure our kids finish on a positive note, and enter their summer vacation proud of their accomplishments and ready for the year ahead.

How to Help Children End the School Year Positively

End The School Year With A Bang

We also found a nice article to help you as teachers prepare your class for the year ahead, but also to celebrate the year you had together. 

Joyful Endings: The Last Few Weeks Of School

End of Year Calendar:

June 12th: 8th Grade Move Up Day
June 13th: 8th Grade Dinner Dance
June 17th: Last academic day for 8th graders!
June 18th: 8th Grade Field Trip
June 19th: 8th Grade Activities Day
June 22nd: Challenge Day
June 23rd: Filing Out Ceremony and Last day of school!

We have thoroughly enjoyed creating our very first Counselors' Corner blogs and hope to continue next year with more information and stories to help both teachers and parents alike.

Have a wonderful summer and we'll see you next year!

- Elizabeth Hortie, Adjustment Counselor
- Jessica Merritt, Guidance Counselor

The Mental Health of our Kids

As we talked about in last month's blog, Spring is often a time for awakening and refreshing. As a society, we think of spring cleaning and preparing for summer vacation and camp. For those struggling with depression, Spring can be the most difficult time of year. Sometimes the adolescents in our lives give us clues to their mental health, but we are not able to recognize what they might be telling us. The best way to understand them is to spend time with them; learn where their casual interests lie and what might be providing a negative influence. This article focuses on the signs our adolescents give us and how to re-focus our attention to their mental health needs. Click Here

Calendar of Upcoming Events:

• May 2nd: DramaFest - 20 of our talented students will be performing an original play! GOOD LUCK!
• May 7th: Olweus Class Meeting
• May 12th: MCAS Math Session 1 (all grades)
• May 13th: MCAS Math Session 2 (all grades)
• May 15th: 6th and 7th grade school dance hosted by the Student Council
• May 19th: MCAS Science and Technology Session 1 (8th grade only)
• May 20th: MCAS Science and Technology Session 2 (8th grade only)
• May 22nd: Memorial Day Assembly hosted by the Student Council
• May 25th: Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL
• May 27th: 5th grade Move Up Day and 5th grade Family Orientation Night 

Spring Cleaning

HAPPY SPRING!

As we begin the month of April, testing season is in full swing.  Students will be asked to have heightened focus not only during MCAS testing, but also for the rest of the school year.   With warmer weather approaching and longer daylight hours, it may be more difficult for them to complete out of school tasks.  It is this time of year when our 8th graders have one foot out the door to high school and when everyone is ready for a change, but we still have 10 weeks of school left, and we must teach our kids/students to continue learning and working hard.  In an effort to help declutter our lives, this short video offers suggestions on ways to clear your mind of negative thoughts in an effort to continue moving forward.

Spring Cleaning for the Mind

Calendar of Events:

April 1st: MCAS ELA Reading Comprehension Session 2 (all grades)
April 2nd: MCAS ELA Long Composition (7th grade only)
April 3rd: Good Friday - NO SCHOOL
April 5th: HAPPY EASTER!
April 10th: End of Quarter 3
April 13th: Beginning of Quarter 4 (WOW!  Where did this year go?)
April 20 - 24: April Vacation Week

Gender Matters: How Boys and Girls Learn Differently

What a perfect image for the winter we have had!  Now, finally, there have been a few good "melting" days to get rid of all this snow...so.....Happy Spring (almost)!

We are a little late on our March blog post, but with all the snow days and vacation, it has been a little hectic just getting everything back on track!

This month we thought we would focus on gender differences with learning.  Research and studies have shown that there are significant differences in learning styles in regards to subject matter and overall processing of information between boys and girls.  Becoming more aware of these differences has helped to bring changes in teaching strategies and curriculum delivery to better serve all students equally.

Here are a couple articles we found addressing these challenges:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/01/29/382413365/girls-get-good-grades-but-still-need-help-as-for-boys-sos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/oecd-gender-differences-report_n_6801122.html

Calendar of Events:

Tuesday, March 31st - MCAS ELA Reasoning Session 1 (all grades)
Wednesday, April 1st - MCAS ELA Reasoning Session 2 (all grades)
Thursday, April 2nd - MCAS ELA Long Composition (7th grade only)

Kids and Sexting

This month our blog is all about sexting.  We are living in a digital age now where kids (and adults) are attached to their devices - iPads, tablets, smart phones, etc.

We found a couple really interesting articles on this topic and have included them below for your information.


Have you had the sext talk with your kids?

Why kids sext  **Warning: this article is lengthy, but very good**



Calendar of Events:

February 5th: Donglu students arrive from China
February 6th: 7th/8th grade School Dance hosted by the Student Council; report cards distributed
February 16th: President's Day!
February 16th - 20th: Vacation
February 24th: 8th graders meet with high school counselors and Principal
February 26th: Aspen class registration opens up for 8th graders

Happy New Year!

As we begin a new year, we would like to take some time to look back at the different opportunities we have had to expand our knowledge base.  We hope to be able to bring new thoughts and ideas to colleagues and parents in an effort to work collaboratively to address the needs of our students.  Here is a recap of the various conferences and other activities we have attended. We have included links to articles and other resources for your information.

“Wired Differently": The counseling staff of the middle school and high school attended this workshop in November. This training addressed the different needs of students who present at school with mental illness and behavioral disorders. Topics included Anxiety, Bipolar disorder, Oppositional Defiant disorder, and Asperger's Syndrome. We learned a variety of successful strategies for reaching these students along with assisting teachers and staff to deepen their understanding of how these disorders affect our students.

Dr. Ross Greene and Lives in the Balance

• The counseling staff of all three elementary schools and the middle school attended this conference in Portland, Maine on November 7^th

• Lives in the Balance is the non-profit organization founded by child psychologist Dr. Ross Greene, originator of the Collaborative Problem Solving approach.  Their mission is to advocate on behalf of behaviorally challenging kids and their parents, teachers, and other caregivers and to provide web-based resources on Dr. Greene's model -- now called Collaborative & Proactive Solutions -- as described in his books The Explosive Child and Lost at School

• There is a lot of great information on the Lives in the Balance website

• The keynote speaker, James Garbarino, provided insight and knowledge regarding children with behavioral challenges and new approaches to addressing them.  His book, Lost Boys, is another great resource.

Mindfulness

• For our 2nd Olweus class meeting, we talked with the students about stress and different ways to cope when they become overwhelmed.  We also had the entire school participate in a 5 minute guided meditation.  It proved to be a very rewarding experience for all involved and the Olweus committee received a lot of wonderful feedback from the faculty and students.

• Here is the link to the exercise we did as a school: 5 Minutes Off

• Moving forward, we want to look into the practice of mindfulness and possibly incorporating different stress-reducing strategies into our day to day lives here at Miles River.

• To give you some background, mindfulness is

‘a state of active, open attention on the present.When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience’ (as stated in Psychology Today)

• We have also found a great article about using mindfulness practice in schools: Click Here

• There are also many different websites with guided meditation audio downloads and an app called “5 Minute Relaxation” that can be downloaded on your iPad or iPhone.  We encourage you to try some of these activities with your children at home.
•  Inner Health Studio
• 5 Minute Relaxation App