Michele+Elliot_Gower

Mimi Elliott-Gower § **What has been or do you anticipate will be of the greatest benefit to your students as a result of this course?** I think I will be able to ask and hear questions in a different way now. One of the family engagement goals is to help foster conversations at home; parents don't have to be at school in order to participate in school activities. Web sites and podcasts are going to be great ways to share information quickly with a lot of people. On a more individual note, it is often difficult to get an answer to a direct question but there are other ways to get information. Some of the tools we learned this week expand the "play therapy" that really works.

§ **Explain how you have grown as a teacher to ensure that your students reach their maximum potential.** I have to constantly challenge myself to think and act creatively. I have to challenge myself to start each day over again without forgetting that what happened yesterday will impact today on some level. I have learned how to listen more closely and hear the things that aren't always said out loud. I also am learning how to advocate for students and families and to go out on a limb and challenge if needed. I think my role at school is to reframe and explain what's happening in a different context. When I do all of that well, I do think I play an important role in helping students find a path(s) to reach their potential.

§ **How will you take your knowledge and disseminate to others in your school, your district, and outside of the district?** I job share with an amazing person. She's really pretty technologically saavy and I know will be interested in spending time creating our Counseling web page and finding ways to integrate other technolgy pieces in our classroom guidance lessons. I serve on the Leadership Team at our school and will definetley be talking about possibilities I can now imagine. I think modeling the use of new skills is paramount. I work pretty closely with Resource teachers and I think together we could put together some lessons etc that will inspire others. Also, I think that good communication is one of the biggest barriers at school. A referral comes in and after the first meeting it's hard to know what happened next--students are suspended, parent lose jobs, meds change---there are ways to keep everyone in the loop and I think that would not only have a positive impact on student lives but also greatly increase job satisfaction. I have also talked to the SW/Counselor people at Alps about working together to create a District Counseling link. It would be pretty great if every elementary school counselor developed one lesson we could all add to our playlist and if we shared website information. I'm not sure what I would do outside of the District. One thing I was thinking about was staying in touch with students who move from our school. For example, I have a small reading group of 8 girls and we meet once week at lunch to read. We finished two books this year. Two of our girls our moving--one to Korea and one to California. I wondered if we could make a podcast of the weekly reading that our out of town girls could follow next year.

§ **What is your plan to sustain the use of technology after the course is finished?** I have thought a lot about this question. For me, the tech skills are definetely use it or lose it. I'd like to meet with my counseling friends this summer to work on our sites. I'd also like to develop a discipline plan option for 2008-2009 that utilizes technology--a kind of new opportunity room. In keeping with the idea that it's silly to keep doing the same thing in the same way, I'd love to work with students on goal setting, examing behavior and having instructional options that might work better. I'll also talk to my principal about staff development opportunities.