Overview
Welcome to the Counselor's Corner,
Mrs. Rita Garcia, Port Isabel Junior High Counselor
After 4 decades with Point Isabel ISD, I have the expertise and skills needed to feel confident in assisting with our students’ daily experiences and helping them learn coping strategies, decision-making skills, and character development that will prepare them for adulthood. Students will be able to use these coping skills throughout their daily lives. As adults, we need to guide them and prepare them so that they can have a mindset for their short term and long term goals as well. Developing a genuine, caring, trustworthy relationship with a student is a process. We need to enable our students to go through this transitional process, adolescence, with patience and perseverance. Together, parents and educators, we can make their journey a successful one. Making a positive impact on students is our daily goal.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
The Middle School Counselor is responsible for providing a comprehensive school counseling program that is preventative in design, developmental in implementation, and supports students in the areas of academic achievement, career and college planning, and personal and social development.
The Developmental Needs of Middle School Students
Middle School is an exciting but frustrating time for students. Transition is the keyword. Through middle school, physical and psychological changes abound. During their journey from childhood to adolescence, students are characterized by:
- Being very active, yet easily fatigued due to rapid physical growth
- Searching for their own unique identity, turning more toward peers rather than to parents for ideas and affirmation
- Being extremely sensitive to comments from others
- Relying heavily on friends to provide comfort, understanding, and approval
A Comprehensive Developmental Program
Internal changes, coupled with the challenges of the outside world, reinforce the goal of middle school counselors: to teach students skills to help them through this difficult stage of life and to use these skills on a daily basis. To accomplish this, middle school counselors provide and carry out a comprehensive counseling program that focuses on the uniqueness of students in three areas of development - academic, career and personal/social. Designed for all students, student competencies provide goals that are integrated throughout the entire school curriculum and environment. These goals are the engine that drives the program components including the guidance curriculum, individual planning, counseling, and program management.
School Counselors help children by . . .
- Promoting positive attitudes among students toward self, family, peers, and community.
- Provide resources that promote character educational values.
- Assisting students in learning how school performance relates to future opportunities.
- Developing and delivering classroom guidance lessons that teach skills such as healthy decision making, resolving conflicts, career planning, study skills and respecting others.
- Working collaboratively with students, parents, and teachers to identify and remove barriers to learning.
- Supporting students by teaching skills for achieving success.
- Helping students to recognize and make the best of their abilities.
- Counseling with students individually and in groups.
- Providing support during a personal crisis.
- Orienting new students.
- Assisting students to learn coping skills in dealing with issues and their current situations in dealing with friendships and self-acceptance.
- Provide resources for mental health issues and referrals for agencies.
- Provide academic resources for post-secondary educational career choices.