School Counselor / Welcome

The Counseling Program

Welcome back everyone! My name is Mr. Pecoraro and I am excited to be back again as a part of the Emerick Elementary team. I am the full time counselor here and it is going to be a great year. I have many different and fun activities planned to help the students of this school learn and grow. There will also be new programs implemented this year to further the great job the teachers are already doing to help your children be good students, citizens, but most of all, good people.

I will be basing my lessons around the 6 Pillars of Character: Caring, Citizenship, Fairness, Trustworthiness, Respect, and Responsibility. Each month will focus on a new trait (Pillar). While these traits are ingrained in all aspects of the learning enviornment, I want to focus on them specifically, so the students have a better idea of how they look in and out of the school atmosphere.

Classroom Lessons

First, let me start off with classroom guidance lessons. I come into the classroom once, every other week for 30 minutes. The lessons I teach range from subjects like the job of the counselor, understanding our own emotions, and being a good friend, to more serious topics such as bullying, making good decisions, and loss or family change. Furthermore, depending on the time of year, topics will vary. These varying topics include test taking strategy, transition to middle school, making new friends, learning about careers, etc.

counselor

One-on-One

Not only do I meet with the entire classroom of students, but often I will meet with students one-on-one. Students can come on their own and sign up to see me, or they are recomended to see me by their teacher or parents. Parents please contact me if you would like to set up an appointment to discuss your child. I tell the students that I am here to help them in what ever they need and the same goes for parents. Sometimes, with parental permission, I can set up a short-term weekly appointment with students to check in and see if there is an ongoing issue we need to look at.

While many think that I am here to only help with problems, I want you to know my door is always open if they also want to talk about the good things going on as well as the issues in their life.

Groups

Also going on throughout the year will be different student groups. These groups will be determined by the reccomendations of teachers, myself, principal, student self reccomnedation, and parents. Most groups will be made up of 4-6 students and will be short-term. Groups, however will be running most of the year (starting in early fall) and so when one group stops and the student want to continue, they can be placed in another group.

Different groups might include: Death and grieving, transition, new to school, social awareness, friends, self-esteem, bullying, etc.

Last Modified on August 24, 2012