Mrs.Cunningham’s 2012-2013 Guidance Schedule:
Monday-Lindsey-AM Westwood-PM
Tuesday and Thursday-Lindsey All Day
Wednesday and Friday-Westwood All Day
A Brief Biography:
My name is Meg Cunningham and this is my fifth year working at West Geauga Schools. I am looking forward to serving students at both Lindsey and Westwood Elementary School this year!! Prior to working for West Geauga, I worked as a counselor in several school districts and agencies for over 14 years. I am a licensed school counselor as well as a licensed professional clinical counselor. I have always enjoyed working with children and their families and am proud to be a member of the Lindsey and Westwood teams. I am also a proud wife and mother of three children.
I know the 2012-2013 school year will be both a busy and exciting year! I will continue to run small groups, meet individually with students, and teach classroom guidance. Please feel free to drop by or call me if I can ever be of assistance. You can reach me through the central school office at Lindsey at (440) 729-5980 or at Westwood at (440) 729-5990. I hope you and your child/children have a very happy and successful school year!
Guidance Services:
Mrs. Cunningham is available to speak with any student who needs some help or is having any type of social, emotional or educational concern.
Mrs. Cunningham also provides guidance and education in the classroom with the emphasis on students learning important social skills that they will use to improve and further enhance their academic, career and personal/social development. Each grade focuses on different topics and includes developing friendships, expressing feelings, self-esteem, respect for self and others, decision making, problem solving and dealing with bullying.
Guidance Update!
Hello everyone! It has been a very busy and exciting year at Lindsey and Westwood Elementary thus far! I can’t express enough how much I enjoy working with our wonderful students, supportive families and awesome staff at West G! I thought I would summarize what we have been talking about in guidance for Kindergarten through Fifth grade as I am sure students may have been taking home guidance activities or maybe asking for your feedback for classroom discussions.
Following our initial topics of self-esteem, diversity and respect for all others, we have also addressed bullying issues as October was National Bullying Prevention Month. Every year, I address what bullying is, the different types of bullying, what we can do when we are being bullied and what we can do to prevent bullying-with discussions and activities geared toward the appropriate grade and developmental level of our students. In Kindergarten, our theme is how to make and keep friends-we have learned about how special we all are and how special our friends are as well. Recently , we read how Billy the Bull lost his friends when he became Billy Bully but then won them back when he learned how to share and be kind and caring again! In First Grade, we are learning about our feelings and how they affect our behaviors. Students have learned the importance of sharing our feelings, now just when we are happy and proud, but when we are sad, angry and scared and how we can feel better and turn to others for help. In Second Grade, our theme is respect for self and others-we have already discussed what the golden rule means, the importance of manners and respect both at school and home, as well as what can we do when others are not kind or bully others. In Third Grade, our theme is problem solving and all students gave their input of various problem situations we will cover this year regarding problems at school, home, with bullying, friends, academics, etc. Students will also do role plays regarding bullying situations as they learn and master all the problem-solving steps. In Fourth Grade, we first discuss the 6 Pillars of Character- Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Fairness and Citizenship and how they relate to our theme of conflict resolution. We then discuss and have role-plays regarding the different types of bullying- verbal, physical, property, exclusion and cyber bullying. We review the types of bullying in Fifth Grade as well as part of our decision making theme when we review the school and district rules regarding bullying and how our older students in our elementary schools can be a role model to our younger students! Grades 3-5 also have the opportunity to enter the Bullying Prevention Poster contest if they choose to participate- Look to Westwood and Lindsey newsletter to announce not just the winners but all who participated-all posters will also be proudly displayed around Lindsey and Westwood!
Have a wonderful week!
Meg Cunningham, Guidance Counselor