Counselor's Corner

  When Giovanni was in second grade, he had Trudy Koenigsdorf (“Mrs. K”) for math. He loved math and he loved Mrs. K (He still loves math and Mrs. K). I went to his math conference that year and it was a very positive experience. He was doing well. Mrs. K’s suggestion was that Giovanni work on skip counting by 5s because that seemed challenging for him. I called my aunt, who was watching the boys that day while I worked, to relay Mrs. K’s feedback and mentioned the skip counting. When I arrived to pick them up that afternoon, my aunt asked Giovanni to come into the living room and “Show Mommy how you count to 100 by fives.” Within seconds, Giovanni had counted from 0 to 100 by 5s without an error. I complimented his facility with the task and asked him why Mrs. K thought he didn’t know how to count by 5s. His answer was immediate: “I don’t write the days we’ve been in school.” Parent digging initiated. Their daily warm-up exercise was writing a hashmark for each day they had been i

Dear Dr. Ayres,   I recently read a friend’s post on Facebook during which he made hurtful comments that felt insensitive and narrow-minded. I am struggling with whether or not to respond and how to move forward knowing that someone I care about has such mean-spirited thoughts. Help! Shocked on Social Media Dear Shocked on Social Media: I taught fourth graders yesterday about the “self-advocating alligators” that block our path when we need to stand up for ourselves or our feelings. After we differentiated helpful vs. not helpful self-advocating strategies, the time came to apply them to the scenario of “Jason,” a fourth-grader who was struggling to learn fractions. One of the students raised her hand. “Yes, Emily?” [Not her real name] “Jason needs to tell his teacher that this is hard and he doesn’t understand so she helps him.” “Oh, Emily, you make such a good point! Here’s what I want us to do. I want us to take that wonderful idea and put it over here until we’re read

Almost two years ago, the boys came to work with me one day. One of them immediately noticed the superhero figure with the long, grown-up words on my bulletin board. “That’s from our school!” The other one chimed in that he, too, had seen it. Between the two of them, within seconds, they were able to rattle off multiple places they had seen this piece of paper on their school campus. I asked them if they knew what the words were and what they meant. They shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. The superhero figure is an eye-catching graphic and a visual representation of our school’s core values, or the traits we hope to see in current Rawson Saunders students and the school’s graduates. In front of the superhero, the following words are written: S elf-Advocating U ndaunted P roactive E ver-Evolving R eflective H ard-Working E mpathetic R esilient O pen-Minded I nquisitive C ommunity-Conscious This figure has inspired me since the first time I saw it. Countless times I have won

  “It’s 7:00! Time to get up! First day of school! Clothes are on your bed.” I heard feet thud against the floor and the door open.   “Can I wear jammie bottoms if I wear a t-shirt on top?” No. “Why?”   “It’s the first day. Always dress nicely on the first day. It matters.” [I make absolutely no guarantees what either one will wear from the waist down on day two.]   Shortly thereafter, we took the obligatory, first-day-of-school photo in front of the tree in our yard. They wore “shirts with buttons” and “shorts made from a hard cloth with a zipper” and I compromised on their request to remain barefoot. As I write this, Angel and Giovanni are tucked into advisory and fifth grade has officially begun. For all three of us.   I find myself returning to the memory of a previous first day of school, the year we began Rawson Saunders. They were in second grade and I walked them onto campus that morning. One of the teachers greeted them, told them where to leave their backpacks, and we