Foundations of the Baldwin Middle School Counseling Program
The school counseling program at the Baldwin Middle School focuses on the core components of the State of Connecticut Comprehensive School Counseling Program. The core components of this program that are focused upon during middle school are:
Academic Development: This area includes acquiring skills, attitudes, and knowledge that contribute to effective learning in school; employing the strategies to achieve success in school; and understanding the relationship of academics to the world of work, and to life at home and in the community. Academic goals support the premise that all students should meet or exceed the local, state, and national goals.
Career Development: This ares guides the school counseling program to provide the foundation for the acquisition of skills, attitudes and knowledge that enable students to make a successful transition from school to the world of work and from job to job across the life span. Career development goals and competencies ensure that students develop career goals as a result of their participation in a comprehensive plan of career awareness, exploration and preparation activities.
Personal/ Social Development: These goals guide the school counseling program to provide the foundation for personal and social growth as students progress through school and into adulthood. Personal/social development contributes to academic and career success by helping students understand and respect themselves and others, acquire effective interpersonal skills, understand safety and survival skills and develop into contributing members of society.
The program components provide the methods by which the school counselor delivers the developmental content of the program. The method of delivery that are used at Baldwin Middle School are:
School Counseling Curriculum: This is the means by which school counselors promote the healthy development and growth of all students. The curriculum provides developmental and sequential lessons and activities in classroom and/or group settings, which address student development in academic, career and personal/social domains.
Individual Student Planning: This consists of activities that focus on assisting each student to develop, analyze and evaluate his or her education, career and personal goals and plans. Individual student planning addresses the same objectives for all students in a given grade, and results in a portfolio outlining career and educational pathways. Functions of the counselor in this component include individual advisement, placement and appraisal. The lessons and activities in the school counseling curriculum support individual student planning by teaching the necessary skills for self awareness, goal setting, decision making and career exploration.
Responsive Services: This consists of strategies and interventions that school counselors use to address student problems that prevent student success in academic, career and personal/social development. School counselors identify barriers to academic success and acknowledge the challenges that students face on a daily basis. They work with students to remove these barriers and challenges through individual and group counseling, consultation, crisis intervention as appropriate and referrals as needed.