Counselor's Corner

A Brand New Year

Hello my dear Students,

As I watched each one of you come through those doors last Monday, I was so overwhelmed at three things.  I want to tell you about each one of those things because I think you just need to know.

1.  The first thing that amazed me was how much you had grown in just 8 short weeks!  You are all so much taller!  You must have been eating your vegetables!!  I was amazed at how grown-up you seem.

2.  The second thing that made me swell with pride was how polite you were to each other.  You were glad to see old friends; and, you were excited to make new ones.  You were kind to the little ones, gently helping them to find their classrooms with your arms around them.  You said, "Good morning, Mrs. Halloran!" to me, and that made me feel so special.  There is something about J. H. House manners that stays with you your whole life and makes you a better person.  I was so glad to see it filling our halls!

3.  The third and most special thing I noticed about you was the light in your eyes.  You were excited to be here.  You were looking forward to another year, a new teacher, new friends, and so much to learn!  You were excited and I loved seeing you like that.  Always keep that special quality.  Always look for new things, and always be excited about learning. 

I look forward to coming to your classes and being with you.  That is my most favorite part of my job.  I wish it was the only part of my job! We will begin  our guidance classes the first week in September and I can't wait!!  I will be looking for your kind, excited faces.  Enjoy your year!  See you soon!

Love,

Mrs. Halloran

End of the Year

Wow!  I can't believe that there are only 2 days left of this year!  It seems like just yesterday that we were getting ready to come back to school!  I am going to have a very hard time this year, saying goodbye to the 5th graders.  You are a wonderful class.  I have known most of you since pre-K or Kindergarten and I have enjoyed watching you mature into the fine young men and women that you are.  I have so many mixed feelings.  I feel sadness at the thought of not seeing you on a daily basis.  However, I feel joy at what lies ahead of you.  You (and only YOU) are the one who decides how your life will be.  Each and every one of you has a wonderful opportunity ahead of you.  Make the most of it.  Study hard.  Keep your strong values.  And always, always remember that you are an important member of this universe and that no one else can make the contribution to our world that you can.  You each have a special purpose here and my wish is for you to achieve that purpose by continuing to make good choices.  Have a great summer and keep in touch.  Once I am your counselor ~ I am ALWAYS your counselor! 

The CRCT

I'm wondering how many of you are looking forward to the CRCT?  This is such a good opportunity to show off your skills and how much you have learned this year.  It is not anything to be nervous about, because at J. H. House we have the best teachers and students ever!  If you have done your work, come to school, payed attention, and listened, then you will not have any trouble at all.  There are some other things you can do to assure that you have the best result possible:

1. Get a good  night's sleep.  It is so important to be rested so your brain can be sharp.
2. Have a good breakfast that has a lot of protein and NOT MUCH SUGAR!  If you fill up on sugary things (pop tarts, sweetened cereal, donuts, etc.) you will be hungry during the testing.  A good breakfast would be eggs, bacon, whole wheat toast, orange juice.  Or you could have whole grain cereal & milk, orange juice or a piece of fruit. 
3. Relax!  You know this stuff! Tell yourself that you're going to do your best job ever.

Anybody have any thoughts on the testing?

More About Bullying

Wow!  So many of you have some strong feelings about bullying!  Some of you have had trouble with bullies and some of you have acted like bullies.  At some time in their lives, most people have hurt someone else, without meaning to, by acting like a bully.  But some people act that way all the time. Those people do not feel very good about themselves and try to feel better by beating up on someone smaller.

We are learning in our classes things to do if you are bothered by a bully.  First, tell the bully to stop.  You can say, "Quit that!  I don't like it!"  Or, "Will you stop bothering me, please!"  If that doesn't work, at least you have stood up for yourself and let the bully know that you can't be pushed around.  Next, get away from the bully, if you can or get help from an adult.

In some of our classes, we will be doing some role plays to practice what to do.  Good luck and remember ~ YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE SAFE AT ALL TIMES.

Bullying

Thank you all so much for your kind words about my Bell's Palsy.  Your comments were WONDERFUL!!  Thank you for making me feel so special.  You are all such beautiful children on the inside as well as the outside!  I think your inspirational comments made me get better all the faster!!

I will be coming back to classes during the month of February.  We will be talking about Bullying, which is something that bothers a lot of kids.  Some kids are bullies and some are victims.  Have you ever been bothered by a bully?  Have you ever been a bully?  Let me know your feelings about this.  I would love to hear about your experiences either with being a victim or a bully.

My Face

Hi Boys and Girls!

I am really impressed with all your blogging!  You are making some really good comments that show your good thinking! 

I noticed some of you have wished me well about my face problem.  Thank you very much  Also, some of you do not understand it, so I thought I would compose a post about it.  I have done a lot of research on it!  It is called Bell's Palsy and  it happens when a nerve in your face (called the 7th cranial facial nerve) gets infected with a virus which is like the chicken pox virus.  It causes the facial muscles to become paralyzed because the nerve is sick and can't pass them along.  Don't worry, you can't catch it from anyone.  It mainly affects people who are between 20 and 40 years old.  The good news is that it won't last.  WHEW!!  It will take 3 to 6 months to be completely gone, though.  Meanwhile, I am supposed to get lots of rest and not worry too much.

People have asked me how I got it.  One night, I realized that I couldn't close my left eye and I knew something was wrong.  I went to the doctor and he told me what it was.  I had to have a CT scan of my head to make sure that there was nothing else wrong.  A CT scan is like a very sophisticated X-ray.  They were able to see inside my head and tell me exactly what was wrong.  They even said I had a brain!!  :-)

Many of you have seen that I can't smile.  That is what bothers me the most about having Bell's Palsy.  One student even said to me, "Mrs. Halloran, it looks like you don't like us any more!"  That breaks my heart because I love you all!  You will just have to believe that even though my smile is not as big as it was before, I do love you just the same.  I may not be smiling at you with my face, but I am smiling at you from the inside with my heart!

More About Feelings

I really liked what you students had to say about feelings.  It looks like many of you worry just like I used to!  I liked what Gianna said when she said that it helped to talk to her friend.  Talking about unpleasant feelings is the best way to feel better.  I guess when you share them, then it's kind of like letting someone help you carry them ~ they are not so heavy!

Another feeling that many of you have is anger.  In 4th grade, we have been talking about ways to deal with anger.  We have talked about deep breathing, counting backwards slowly, thinking nice thoughts, and doing some appropriate self-talk.  In 5th grade, we have been talking about giving "I Messages."  I Messages are when you tell someone how you are feeling by saying for example, "John, I felt mad when  you borrowed my bicycle and return it with a flat tire, because now I have to fix it before I can ride it.  I think you should return things in the same condition they were in when you borrowed them."

With an I Message, you say:

1. The person's name
2. How you feel
3. Why
4. What you want to happen.

It's not magic ~ it doesn't make the problem go completely away, but you sure feel better because you are in control and you have let the person know just how you feel.

Do any of you have any other ways that you handle anger?  Remember, they have to be appropriate ~ you can't hurt people and you can't hurt things in dealing with anger.

Feelings

Wow, Students!  Did you ever inspire me!!  Thanks so much for all your wonderful messages.  You are right ~ blogging is really fun and not nearly so scary as I thought!

This month in our classes we have been discussing feelings.  I've been thinking a lot about this subject and am wondering if you have any feelings that cause you problems.  When I was a child, I used to worry a lot.  That feeling brought me a lot of sadness.  I used to worry that I might get really sick or that my parents would get a divorce.  I also used to worry a lot about our country and war.  My mother used to tell me that most of the time the things you worry about never come  true.  Guess what?  She was right!!!  If I had spent more time doing fun things and less time worrying that something bad was going to happen, I would have been happier. 

Do you have feelings that get in your way of being happy?

Responsibility of Blogging

OKay, Students...They tell me you will be reading my blogs and that scares me just a little. You may wonder why blogging is scarry.to me...Well, when I know that what I write goes out to anyone who wants to read it, it makes me very aware of the responsibility of good writing. I want to always be sure to use correct spelling (sometimes very hard for me :-) and grammar. I also want to be sure to choose topics that will be of interest to others, and I feel a great responsibility in keeping up with the fun task of blogging. I wonder, do any of you have these same fears?

Getting Started

Well, I am sitting here after hours, dreading driving home in the remnants of Jeanne, and decided that I'd much rather post to my weblog. This is something that I'm looking forward to and hope to be able to post often. As we were reading various posts in various sites, I was intrigued by the number of contacts that my instructor has made all over the country. That is a facinating part of this and I look forward to communicating with other bloggers. As a matter of fact, I believe I could spend hours that I do not have perusing the other weblogs out there. This may get to be a serious problem!