Hello and thank you for visiting Round Top Elementary's School Counseling blog!!
Richland School District 2 takes bullying and harassment behaviors seriously. There is a district policy addressing bullying to include how your student can report this behavior. This month is bullying prevention month and students are participating in classroom guidance lessons on bullying and harassment. We do want students to understand proper use of the term “bullying” in everyday language. For example, as part of this lesson your student is learning the difference between Mean, Rude and Bullying, as well as the importance of honoring personal space. They are also learning that bullying involves an imbalance of power (e.g. older, bigger), it is on purpose, it involves the same student(s) over and over, it is one-sided (one student is doing it to another who does not return the same behavior) and that it continues even after the victim has asked them to stop. Please engage in frequent conversations with your student about bullying, proper use of the term and things they can do to prevent bullying or help other victims.
Did you know that building a sense of belonging is a great way to decrease incidents of bullying in a school environment? At the end of September we participated in the "Start With Hello" week. This was born out of the tragedy that occurred at Sandy Hook elementary and was created by the parents of students victimized during this act of school violence. What this 'looked like' at Round Top Elementary was that each day during WING TV students were encouraged to think about how they could make everyone feel included. They were given daily challenges such as "wave and say good morning to three people with whom you rarely speak", "tell one person you are glad they are here at school today and why" and "invite someone who looks lonely to play with you or join your group during recess". The Friday of this week was our first club day. As the students were meeting new people in their clubs, they were challenged to "learn three things about someone you do not know and share". The students embraced these challenges and did a great job!
At Round Top Elementary the school counselor sponsors our wonderful student Safety Patrol. Each month I like to highlight a leader who has embraced their role as an officer and as a result has been nominated as the Safety Patrol Officer of the Month. Our most recent awardee is Alana McCuin. She has pursued other leadership opportunities this year but was nominated at the end of the 17-18 school year. Congratulation to Alana for a job well done!
5th grade Leadership Block is also well under way. The students seem to be really enjoying their time mentoring to younger students. I'm including a picture of a 5th grade student showing a pre-k student how to navigate educational websites using a chrome book. There are LEADERS everywhere at RTE!