CHRISTMAS FOR SALE

“CHRISTMAS FOR SALE”

What is the meaning of Christmas? When you scan a dictionary, Christmas is a festival or a celebration for the birth of Jesus Christ. But when you asked a couple or parents what it is, Christmas for them is giving love and spending more time with their family. But what is the real meaning of Christmas? What if it is for sale? We you search for the meaning of for sale it is transferring of ownership from one person to another person in return of money. Is Christmas for money?

As I am walking in the street, thinking about it, there was a child who catches my attention. The child was thin, walking with his muddy shoes and wearing his dirty shirts. I approach him and asked, “bata pwede magtanong?. The child looked so shock and a bit shy, but then I continue asking “Para sayo ano ang pasko?. I’ve waited a long time before I heard the child talked and said,“Pasko po? Yun po ung maraming pagkain tapos nagbibigayan tsaka po kapag may handa kame kasama yung mama,papa, at mga kapatid ko” then the child smile. Because of curiosity I asked the child “asan mama mo?”, and then the child point a direction and I saw a woman standing outside the chapel selling sampaguita. Because of the sympathy that I felt, I give the child money, even though it cost a little, I know in my heart that can help him in some way. Then the child run to his mother and give the money that I gave. But it’s not the money that really matter. Giving the child money is more on sharing the blessings that I have received, and share it to the one who really need it. Christmas for sale does not really mean we are going to sell our Christmas but instead it is sharing the blessings to those who really need it – not money in return but their smiles and laughs that will capture your heart and soul. It is more fulfilling and satisfying when you saw people looked so loved and contented in what they have because of you. It is not really the amount that you have given but instead the love and satisfaction that they give in return.

Christmas is not really about the money, the cost of something or even the gifts that you have give and received but it is all about giving love, time and effort. Sharing is one way one of thanks giving our Lord for the things that we have. Also, Christmas is more on sharing the blessings that we have received from God and imparting happiness to other people. It is the feeling of completeness when you know to yourself that you put a smile to someone’s life. So now, As a human and as a child of God, is your Christmas for sale? I hope yes! Let’s give love on Christmas day. Don’t forget it’s essence and be the one who will spread it.

***Done

PROBLEM CHECKLIST

 TEACHER’S REPORT FORM

TODAY’S DATE:

Month __ Date __ Year __

CHILD’S FULL NAME:

First                       Middle                 Last
____________________________________

CHILD’S GENDER              CHILD’S AGE             CHILD’S ETHNIC GROUP

  __Boy     __Girl                __________                 ___________________

CHILD’S BIRTHDAY:

Month ____ Date ____ Year ____ 

Please fill out this form to know your perspective on child’s behavior. Please fill this out completely and you are free to write additional comment beside the space provided.
Name and address of the School:___________________________________________ 

I. What kind of a facility is it?  (Please be specific, e.g., home day care, day care center, nursery school, preschool, school readinessclass, Early Childhood Special Education, Headstart, Kindergarten, etc.)

_________________________________________________________________
II. What is the average number of children in the class?  __________________

III. How many hours the child spend in the school per week? ______________

IV. For how many months have you known the child? ___________________

V.  How well do you know him/her?   

 __A.Not well   __B.Moderately well   __C.Very well

VI. Has he/she ever been referred for a special education program or special services?

          __I Don’t Know            __No           __Yes – what kind ?­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Below is a list of items that describe children. Circle the 1 if the item is somewhat or sometimes true of the child. If the item is not true of the child, circle the 0. Please answer all items as well as you can, even if some do not seem to apply to the child.

0 = Not True (as far as you know) 1 = Somewhat or Sometimes True 2 = Very True or Often True­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

1  2  3     1. Acts too young for age

1  2  3     2. Afraid to try new things

1  2  3     3. Avoids looking others in the eye

1  2  3     4. Chews on things that aren’t edible

1  2  3     5. Clings to adults or too dependent

1  2  3     6. Constantly seeks help

1  2  3     7. Apathetic or unmotivated

1  2  3     8. Cries a lot

1  2  3     9. Demands must be met immediately

1  2  3     10. Destroys his/her own things

1  2  3     11. Destroys property belonging to others

1  2  3     12. Daydreams or gets lost in his/her thoughts

1  2  3     13. Disobedient

1  2  3     14. Disturbed by any change in routine

1  2  3     15. Can’t stand waiting; wants everything now

1  2  3     16. Cruelty, bullying, or meanness to others

1  2  3     17. Doesn’t answer when people talk to him/her

1  2  3     18. Doesn’t get along with other children

1  2  3     19. Doesn’t know how to have fun; acts like alittle adult 

1  2  3     20. Disturbs other children

1  2  3     21. Easily frustrated

1  2  3     22. Easily jealous

1  2  3     23. Feelings are easily hurt

1  2  3     24. Gets hurt a lot, accident-prone

1  2  3     25. Gets in many fights

1  2  3     26. Gets into everything

1  2  3     27. Gets too upset when separated from parents

1  2  3     28. Hit and kick his classmate

1  2  3     29. Eats or drinks things that are not food—do notinclude sweets (describe):______________________________________________

1  2  3     30. Fears certain animals, situations, or placesother than daycare or school

(describe):______________________________________________

Fill out this following question.

·          Does the child have any illness or disability (either physical or mental)?

__No      __Yes—Please describe:

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

·          What concerns you most about the child?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

·          Please describe the best things about the child:

     __________________________________________________________________

     __________________________________________________________________

     __________________________________________________________________

COMMON PROBLEMS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

*COMMON PROBLEMS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD


Early child development can be seriously compromised by social, regulatory and emotional impairments. Indeed, young 
children are capable of deep and lasting sadness, grief, and disorganization in response to trauma, loss, and early 
personal rejection.

The preschool years are vital in laying the foundation for emotional development and for future social and cognitive 
learning. Paying attention to mental health needs in these formative and dynamic years is critically important, and new 
research sheds light to how to do this well.

Mental health, like physical health, is an essential part of a person’s identity. Like physical health, mental health moves 
back and forth along a continuum throughout life, beginning during prenatal development.  Sometimes mental health 
problems stem from environmental stressors and sometimes they stem from biological factors. For every child, a 
complex interaction of these two factors exists, combined with the individual process of personality development. 
“Children affect their environment at the same time that their environments are affecting them.” Environmental factors 
are the factors people have the most control over, and therefore more information is available about how to tip 
environmental factors in a positive direction for healthy emotional development.
Environmental Influences
For infants, toddler and preschoolers, the influences of their parents, extended family, child care staff, and others with 
whom they have regular contact profoundly impact their emotional, cognitive, and social development. Attentive care-
givers learn to watch for the cues babies give to signal their physical needs.  However, an infants’s emotional or mental 
the infant’s attempts to obtain attention, comfort and support. Reading the emotional cues of the child and responding 
in an attentive, caring manner is as important as meeting physical needs.
Genetic Influences
Human development is shaped by a continuous interaction between biology and experience. Every child is born with 
powerful inborn tendencies, and these tendencies can work both for and against a child. When a child is born with a 
genetically predisposed tendency toward mental health problems, the environment becomes critically important to 
support and guide the child in a positive, healthy direction. This
adds stress to the already difficult job of parenting.
Recent Research on Behavior

•        Culture strongly influences human development and child rearing beliefs.

Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about parenting are what shape the way that parents and care-givers interact with their 
children.

•        The pervasive stigma about  mental health problems continues to contribute to the lack of prevention, early 
identification and adequate services for all children, especially the very young.

•        Young children who display severe behavioral and emotional problems have a 50% greater chance of continuing 
to struggle with mental health problems into adolescence and even adulthood.

•        Assets, or protective factors, include good prenatal care, a healthy birth, a secure attachment to a primary care-
giver, high quality care and education, love, nurturing and freedom from violence. Challenges, or risk factors, include 
maltreatment, social isolation, prenatal exposure to alcohol, drugs or other harmful chemicals, poverty, discrimination, 
and poor mental health in parents. Our job as adults is to find ways to “maximize the positive and minimize the 
negative.”

The use of clinical mental health diagnosis is often avoided to prevent labeling children at a young age. However, the 
importance of identifying problems when they do exist cannot be overemphasized, and often a diagnosis is needed to 
obtain payment for services. The terms “emotional or behavioral” problems or disorders are typically used to 
acknowledge the existence of a problem that needs addressing, without clinically labeling the child.
Challenging Behavior
Many young children, including children with disabilities, engage in behavior that is labeled by adults as “challenging”. 
Sometimes, the behavior is short-term and decreases with age and use of appropriate guidance strategies. Additionally, 
what is “challenging” to one person may not be to another. It is critical for professionals to be aware of, and sensitive 
to how families, cultural groups and communities define appropriate and inappropriate behavior in young children. It is 
important to understand what behaviors are typically associated with a particular age group. For example, adults need to 
understand that young children engage in behaviors that older children do not, such as throwing toys or sitting for only 
short periods of time. With guidance and instruction most children will learn appropriate behavior.

Some children’s challenging behaviors are not effectively addressed by adult vigilance and use of appropriate guidance. 
For these children, the behaviors may result in injury to themselves or others, cause damage to physical environment, 
interfere with the acquisition of new skills, and or socially isolate the child. It is clear that inappropriate behaviors such 
as these seldom resolve themselves without systematic intervention.
Prevent the Defiant Behavior
Children may well engage in challenging behavior that quite often can be eliminated by a change in adult behavior. It is 
possible that the child is reacting to adult behaviors such as lack of attention or unrealistic expectations. By changing 
adult behavior, we may prevent a child’s need to engage in challenging behavior. Prevention is the best form of 
intervention. It is time and cost efficient, and appears to be a major avenue by which to eliminate, not merely reduce, 
the incidence of behaviors.

Prevention means that the important adults in the child’s life have to look at their behavior in the classroom, home or 
community setting the might be maintaining the child’s challenging behaviors. For example, are toddlers expected to sit 
through a 30-minute circle time? Is a child getting a cookie when he screams? Effective prevention strategies that have 
been applied to the inappropriate behaviors of young children had included systematic efforts to teach parents to use 
child behavior management skills and efforts to teach alternative, appropriate behaviors that are coordinated between 
programs and home.
Possible Causes of Behavioral Disorders
Family members and professionals should work together to identify the behaviors, assess it in the settings where it 
occurs, and design interventions that are realistic to implement. Often, families are blamed for a child’s problem 
behavior. In a n extensive review concerning families of preschool children with conduct problems, confirmed that 
certain parental/family factors including depression, substance abuse, aggression, antisocial behavior, intense marital 
conflict, insularity, and ineffective parenting skills appear related to the presence of behavior problems for some 
children.

However, a growing body of evidence was cited in which other factors such as child 
physiological/neurological/neuropsychological attributes, communication, child social problem solving skills 
deficiencies, and school setting characteristics also appear directly related to the presence or absence of challenging 
behavior in children.

While the family may or may not have contributed directly to the creation of the behavior disorder, family members are 
almost always significantly affected by the behavior. Families of children with serious behavioral problems reported the 
presence of major stressors in their lives two to four times more frequently than did families with typically developing 
children. Family members are likely to receive unsolicited advice with every tantrum, outburst and misbehavior. 
Activities that other families seem to enjoy as a mater of course are unattainable or are in constant jeopardy. Isolation 
becomes a fact of life.
Intervention for Children with Behavioral Problems
Many families of children with challenging behaviors have astounding stories to tell regarding their journeys through this 
landscape of conflicting diagnoses, bickering professionals, and expensive mistakes. There are some children whose 
problematic behavior is controlled most immediately by physiological factors. There are some individuals who might 
benefit from appropriate pharmacological treatment in order to respond to complementary environmental, curricular, or 
behavioral interventions.

Finally, families need partners within the working relationship involving families and early intervention professionals it is 
not simply a matter of whether family needs are met, but rather the manner in which needs are met that is likely to be 
both enabling and empowering. Parents of children with challenging behavior are often frustrated with the child, other 
family members, and themselves. The understanding and support of professionals can have a profound and positive 
impact. They need effective tools to use, appropriate resources for support, and assurance that they and their child are 
accepted.

Professionals and families must carefully evaluate a child’s behavior. The focus must be on promoting positive behavior 
and preventing challenging behaviors. In the appropriate identification of challenging behaviors, consideration must be 
taken of cultural and community beliefs. Developmentally appropriate expectations, and an examination of one’s own 
belief about behavior. When intervention is needed, such services must be developmentally, individually and culturally 
appropriate. They should be comprehensive, individualized, positive, multi disciplinary and consider families as integral 
to all decisions related to the planning and impalements of the strategies and services.


**done.

ELEMENTARY GUIDANCE COUNCIL


Counselors' Role in the SchoolsWe are excited about the Elementary Guidance Program offered at Seneca Valley School District. It is a program that will benefit our students as they grow and develop. The purpose of the program is to address the developmental needs of all students, as well as, provide additional support to students with specific needs.
As school counselors, we accomplish these goals through providing classroom guidance activities, educational support groups, a new student "Buddy" program, building-wide enrichment programs, and individual student support. Elementary counselors are also members of teams that assist students with various academic, emotional, social/behavioral needs.
In order to create a supportive environment to enable student success, we also collaborate with parents and faculty. Consulting with you, the parents and guardians, concerning any special issues affecting your child's educational, emotional, and/or social growth and development is one of our primary goals. We encourage you to contact us with any questions and/or concerns. 

CONFLICT MEDIATION PROCESS

Elementary and Middle School students are encouraged to resolve conflicts utilizing the mediation process, which is outlined below. Students may ask a teacher or their guidance counselor to facilitate the process for them. Parents may also refer their children to mediation by contacting their child's homeroom teacher or the guidance counselor.

Conflict mediation is a process that has been adopted throughout the Seneca Valley School District. Though the same process is used throughout the school district, it is adapted to meet the needs of students of all ages. The mission statement below describes the district's philosophy regarding conflict mediation.

 

Seneca Valley "Peace" Mission:

Seneca Valley School District accepts the reality that conflict is natural, and many times, inevitable in relationships between people, including friends. The Seneca Valley K-12 Conflict Mediation "PEACE" Curriculum demonstrates to administrators, teachers, students, and to the Seneca Valley community that there are ways to deal with conflict other than passivity or aggression. The goals of the Conflict Mediation "PEACE" Curriculum are to develop conflict resolution skills, to increase understanding and appreciation of others' viewpoints and individual and cultural differences, and to empower all youth to play a significant role in creating a more peaceful world.

 

Conflict Mediation "PEACE" Process:

Step 1 P: Pause and take time to cool off if needed; introduce mediation process

Step 2 E: Explore the problem by talking and listening to each other

Step 3 A: Ask questions and understand each other's needs

Step 4 C: Consider solutions that you can agree upon

Step 5 E: Establish a plan

The following rules are used to guide the mediation process. These rules help ensure that each person involved in the mediation will be heard, understood and repected. When conflict mediation is successful both students walk away with the assurrance that the conflict has been resolved. Furthermore, students will have gained addition skills and strategies to solve conflicts in future.

 

Conflict Mediation Rules:

1. Treat others with respect

2. Speak kindly (No blaming, name calling, put-downs)

3. Tell the truth (We are not here to blame or punish but to solve the problem)

4. Listen without interrupting

5. Work together to solve the problem

6. Keep talks confidential

The Peace Pledge is read in third and fourth grade and the students sign the following:

THE PEACE PLEDGE:

I pledge to do my part to make my school and community a safe and pleasant place by being respectful to others. I will set the example of a caring person by thinking about other people's feelings. I will not use words or actions that hurt others. I will not tease others or use put-downs. I will stand up for what is right and encourage others not to tease or use put-downs. I pledge to be part of the solution to help create a peaceful community.

In fifth and sixth grade, students are given the opportunity to read together and sign individually The Peace Pledge:

THE PEACE PLEDGE:

• I will pledge to be part of the solution
• I will eliminate taunting from my own behavior
• I will encourage others to do the same
• I will do my part to make my community a safe place by being more sensitive to others
• I will set an example of a caring individual
• I will eliminate profanity towards others from my language
• I will not let my words or actions hurt others
• And if others won't become part of the solution, I will

 DONE ***