JYJ Safety Patrol

Mrs. Truax and I are very excited about our JYJ safety patrol members this year.  We have a great group of helpful, hard-working and dedicated students.  You'll see our great JYJ safety patrol in action throughout the school in their brand new JYJ safety patrol vests. As you drop off and pick up your children from carpool, we ask that you end all cell phone conversations to limit distractions.   We appreciate all the work that the JYJ safety patrol does to keep our students safe! 

Books for helping kids deal with anxiety

As back to school time approaches, many kids experience some anxiety about coming back, being with a new teacher, being in a new grade and all the pressures that may come along with it such as more work, tests and even EOG's.  Here are a few kid friendly and parent friendly books about helping your child deal with anxiety.  Just click on the name of the book and click which will take you to where you can order the book.  The Wake County Public Library also has the parent books listed available (the kid's books were not in the data base). 

Kid friendly books:
-Go Away Mr. Worrythoughts by Nicky Johnson
-The Bear Who Lost His Sleep by Jessica Lamb Sharpiro
-What to do when you Worry too Much by Dawn Huebner

Parent friendly books:
-Overcoming school anxiety: how to help your child deal with separation, tests, homework, bullies, math phobia, and other worries by Diane Peters Mayer

-Freeing your child from anxiety: powerful, practical strategies to overcome your child's fears, phobias and worries by Tamara E. Chansky

-The everything parent's guide to children with anxiety: professional advice to help your child feel confident, happy and secure by Ilyn Sandas and Christine Siegel

Presenting at WCPSS Counselor Kickoff

Julia Taylor & Andrea Burston presenting at WCPSS Counselor's Kickoff

Counselors from all WCPSS schools (elementary, middle and high) meet once a year for professional development.  This allows us time to share tips, resources and best practices.  This year, I had the opportunity to  co-present with Julia V. Taylor, a school counselor at Apex high school whom I've known for many years and consider and great friend.  We presented "Technology tools for a comprehensive school counseling program".  We both are extremely passionate about the use of technology in school counseling programs and want to make counselors Web 2.0 savvy.  Our session was amazing and our participants were wired to use the tips and tricks we shared to make their school counseling programs more technology friendly!

My New Space!

As I stated earlier, I've "moved up" literally!  My office is now located on the main floor.  Feel free to stop by and say hello!

Welcome our counselor intern

Give a warm JYJ welcome to Ms. Anna Decker, our counselor intern from NC State University.  Anna is a student in the school counseling graduate program.   She will be at JYJ for the full school year (10 hours a week during the fall semester and every day during the spring semester) and is very excited about working with our JYJ students, families and staff.  Please welcome aboard Anna!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone!  I hope that you had a restful, relaxing and wonderful summer.  I did all of the above and added traveling, reading my Nook books and tried my very best to say cool is this very hot weather.   The picture shown is from my annual trip to New Orleans for a music festival. As much as I love sunny days, this was an extreme day.  Heat indexes of 110 degrees.  I had to stop and sit in the shade just to take this picture!  After coming back to NC it felt like winter because it was so unbelievably hot there! 

I am very excited about this upcoming school year because:  A.) I'm at JYJ full-time this year!  So no more no back and forth between two schools.  B.) I've moved to an office on the main floor. This means that students, parents and staff will have easier access to me and of course that I'll have easier access to you.  I am so excited about being back at JYJ and look forward to an awesome school year.  Please feel free to check this blog and my JYJ counselor website regularly for updates and news.  Here's to a great 2011-2012 school year!