Meet B.F. Day School Counselor: John Taylor
I am John Taylor and I am your school counselor. This will be my seventh year at BF Day! I describe the school counselor role as someone who is uniquely positioned to support three different sub group of stakeholders; students, parents and teachers. I am often times the glue that holds all three together, all in hopes of supporting students through their educational journey. This school year I am part time school counselor and part time PCP teacher. We at B.F. Day elementary believe that social emotional learning skills are at the heart of academic growth, thriving relationships, intentional decision making, and well-being. This priority can be seen in the opportunity I have to teach students weekly social emotional lessons in my “life skills” class. It has been proven that teaching students these “soft skills” (empathy, problem solving, coping strategies, growth mindset etc.) build the foundation for current and future successes. In years past I visited each classroom every week to teach social emotional lessons, this year I will have my own “space” to teach our kids skills to help them cope with this ever changing world. Similar to when students visit the P.E. or Art, students will receive instruction to support the development of their social and emotional skills. I will predominately be using Committee for Children’s Second Step social-emotional curriculum. I will also pull from various resources that are evidence based and work to support kids specific challenges related to remote learning. I look forward to supporting students and families this school year. In addition to doing whole class instruction I will continue to have small group discussions for our kids.
Virtual Coping Strategy (log in with at seattleschools.org account)