There are changes occurring in how Eckstein counselors do their job this year.  With the passage of House Bill 1670 which finally legally defines the school counselor role, counselors all over the state are working to align their programs with the National model of the American School Counselor Association, (ASCA).  Here at Eckstein, we take the ASCA standards very seriously and have embarked on the challenging task of defining our work with ‘best practices’ in the field.

One of the ways in which we strive towards ASCA’s comprehensive service model is to reach all students though classroom based instruction in counseling issues.  In second semester this is occurring through an excellent, research based program called LIFE SKILLS.  Life skills is a curriculum that we are piloting in all 7th grade social studies or language arts classrooms once a week for a 15 week run.  All three grade level counselors have joined Christine Talianis, our wonderful new Drug and Alcohol Intervention Specialist, in presenting this program that focuses on such topics as self-esteem, decision making, cigarettes, alcohol, drug abuse, media influences, violence, anxiety, anger, communication skills, and other social skills.  The lessons are lively and interactive and every student is given a workbook full of useful information and activities to keep for their own.  It is our intention that this program continue yearly and other curriculums will also be added at different grade levels.

Classroom instruction is just one of the services we are developing.  We will soon be launching a Counseling Department web page focused on a variety of areas such as our own school based services, community resources and opportunities, useful web links and parenting helps.  We liaison with the PTSA, the building leadership team and the Coalition Against Underage Drinking.  We are networking with other school counseling programs to learn about their programs and actively share our own innovative services such as the GAMEROOM and TEAM ECKSTEIN with others in the field.

The school counseling field is really ‘on the move’ in Washington state and it is an exciting time for Eckstein’s counseling program.

The last few years have brought changes with our Counseling Center.  The Counseling Center is separate from the administrator with whom we’re teamed at each grade level.  We wanted a place where we could better cooperate with all counselors, creating a homey, welcoming place where if one of us was unavailable, the others could help any student.

We are now ready for the next step.  Next year, each grade level counselor will move with the class of students up to the next grade.  Looping, as it is called, is already done with the administrators, and now counselors will have the advantage of already having worked with families and students.  This decision to move up with our kids was not done without thought and data collection.  We sent a survey out to all the students in the school asking if they’d like one counselor over the three years, a new counselor each year, or if they didn’t care one way or the other.  The majority of students who had a preference wanted one counselor.

There are some cautions of looping of course, that we will address with students.  What if for some reason your student doesn’t click with the counselor assigned, or if a girl or boy has an issue and only feels comfortable speaking with a same sex counselor?  For these issues, all Eckstein’s counselors are available for any student, regardless of grade level.  We feel excited about this change and hope that it will enable us to reach all our kids more effectively!

Another change in our Counseling Department is the implementation at 7th grade of Life Skills, a curriculum that promotes health and personal development.  Most of the classes are taught by our Intervention Specialist, Christine Talianis, but the counselors are also teaching.  The classes are one day a week, and are in one of the academic classes.  You may have already heard about these lessons through our Northeast Seattle Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking.  The grant for our coalition has paid for this curriculum.

That’s the New Year news, although it is February!

Happy New Year!

It happened on the 4th day of middle school. From my fourth period class, I went to the orchestra room to drop off my binder for my next class after lunch. “Oh boy, it’s time to eat lunch, I’m famished!” I went to my locker, opened my lock and grabbed my lunch. Grabbing my brown paper sack, I headed towards the lunchroom.

I met my friend Tim who was one of my best friends. We both tried to look for a seat in the lunchroom of Eckstein Middle School. It was hard to find a seat, either they were full or they were sticky. Running our hands on the table, we could feel the stickiness of the table that our hands were almost stuck to. “I don’t think we will be able to find a table that’s not sticky,” I thought in my head. We looked for a long time until we finally found a seat in the very far left corner of the lunchroom.

Just before I sunk my teeth into my delicious looking croissant sandwich, a boy that I recognized from my elementary school came to us and told us that the table we were sitting at was the detention table, not a lunch table. “That explains why there wasn’t anyone sitting at this table”. Now that there was nowhere to eat in the lunchroom, the only place we could eat our lunch was the game room. Since we never went to the game room before, we thought we would go there to eat our lunch.

We stood up and went out of the cafeteria door and headed towards the game room. We passed the garden as we were on our way to our destination. The game room was located in P-10 that was outside of the lunchroom it is easy to spot because; there are colorful flags around the edges of the room. It was a great place to eat. Tables were clean and there were lots of games to play!

There were over 20 kids playing games. There were checkers, UNO, battleship and plenty of other games. They even had ping-pong and table soccer, too. Both of us found a perfect spot to eat lunch! The game room was a perfect place to eat if you didn’t want to eat in the lunchroom. More importantly, there wasn’t a wrong table in the room.

-Written by a current 6th grade student

Ecko Article, March 30, 2007, written by Larry Christensen)

Eckstein has a unique place called the Gameroom

This semester the Eckstein Gameroom is celebrating its 5th Birthday!!

For those of you who don’t know, our Gameroom is a very unique place created by the Counseling Department to offer an alternative to the usual lunchtime options Eckstein’s students. We knew that not every student felt comfortable in the lunchroom, or liked to play basketball in the gym or spend their lunch break in the library. They wanted a place to relax with their friends and just have a great time.

Originally the Gameroom, located in room 125, only offered a small selection of table games with which to play. But, over the years, the number of participants and the program grew to embrace a much wider variety of activities and interests. We soon began offering group games for anyone interested and this proved to be very popular. Playing Bingo on Wednesdays has been a hit for years. Then, we started celebrating Fridays by giving every Gameroomer a FREE bag of freshly made popcorn. We then added another group game on Mondays, Team Pictionary, which is highly competitive and noisy. For students who need more active outlets we offer ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In addition, we recently purchased a tournament quality ping pong table and Foosball table which are heavily used daily.

Gameroom is a lively place characterized by a very positive camaraderie amongst the students who consider it to be their special lunchtime destination. They are friendly with each other, cooperate with the simple rules of the room and really pitch in to help set it up as well as clean it and transform in back into Ms Anex’s science classroom in time for 6th period to begin.

The counselors view this program as one more way that Eckstein Middle School demonstrates caring about all of our studen’ts social and emotional needs. Lunchtime in the Gameroom is a time that many kids look forward to, and the fun they have there makes school a positive, inviting and safe place to be. Maintaining this vital program has been the commitment of the Eckstein’s administration by supporting the needs of the ‘whole’ student, both in and out of the classroom. Additionally, both the PTSA and the ASB have made contributions to the program that total about 25% of its operating costs while the rest is made up by private contributions.

Recently Eckstein’s Gameroom has come to the attention of the District Prevention /Intervention Department as a unique program in Seattle Public Schools promoting a positive safe school environment. Yeah!

Happy 5th Birthday Gameroom and many more!!!