The Counselors’ Corner
 

Elise Edwards elise.edwards@austinisd.org 512-841-2400 ext. 55213	Linda Whatley lindawhatley@austinisd.org 512-841-2400 ext. 54655

 

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Our Mission

The mission of our school counselors is to implement a comprehensive developmental guidance and counseling program promoting student success through a focus on academic achievement, prevention and intervention activities, advocacy, social/emotional development, and career development. A comprehensive guidance program consists of classroom guidance, individual planning, responsive services, and systems support.

Our role is to help all students at Mills develop academic, career, personal and social abilities. We can be contacted to help students for a variety of reasons. These include assisting a student with transition to a new school, academic achievement concerns, crisis situations, and family transitions.

Below is a list of what ways we support our students:

• We coordinate the development of a comprehensive guidance plan.
• We teach classroom guidance lessons to all students.
• We counsel students individually and/or in small groups. 
• We assist students in crisis situations.
• We help identify student needs.
• We refer students and/or parents to services and agencies outside of the school. 
• We conduct conferences with parents.
• We link students with school and community resources through the campus Child Study Team and other agencies.
• We advise students on individual, school, college and career plans.

As counselors, it is our hope that each and every parent recognize the value of the poem. We teach students about character and strive for our students to advocate for themselves.

GOOD TIMBER

By: Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share or rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the strong trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

We feel honored and privileged to work with your children and you.