COUNSELING
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CITIZENSHIP
ECE
Meet KUPA!
Kupa (derived from the Hawaiian for “citizen”) is the BEAR who considers herself a citizen of the world. A philosopher and poet, she believes that we are all part of the same family and must do our share to help each other.
During the first quarter, students have been exploring within their class our value of the month, Citizenship. Their teacher has approached it with different recreational activities such as: class discussion and small videos related to the topic. They've also met Kupa, our symbol of this value. In the resource below you will find valuable information on how to reinforce this value at home.
Extra Resources: ★
Helping Your Child Become a Responsible Citizen
ELEM
Let's learn about empathy! Empathy is the ability to identify with what others feel or think, to share their feelings and emotions. It is an extremely important attribute to encourage in our children because it is a healthy way to interact with other people, since it allows us to establish constructive and enriching relationships. Children are born with the ability to be empathic, but it is necessary to reinforce it throughout their lives. Learning empathy is, in certain aspects, like learning a language or a sport. It requires practice and guidance. Regularly considering other people's perspective and circumstances helps make empathy a natural reection and, through trial and error, helps children improve attunement with the feelings and perspectives of others.
How to develop it? We have to help them name their emotions, express what happens to them and in this way they will gradually learn to be empathic. They will learn not only to identify emotions in themselves but also in others and to be understanding. Therefore, they will gain important social skills to interact and communicate with their friends, classmates, teachers, siblings and parents. Children learn by our example. If we as adults pay attention to the things that happen to them and let them see that we care, they will do the same.
Counseling Tip: ● ● ●
Empathize with your child and model empathy for others. Make caring for others a priority and set high ethical expectations. Provide opportunities for your children to practice empathy.
More resources on empathy in the following links: ★
The Value of Empathy
gloria.delopez@interamericano.edu.gt estefania.coma@interamericano.edu.gt
MS
Celebrating Our Amazing Citizens of the Month
Our Middle School community has been working on our pillar of the month discussing how citizenship encompasses different aspects of our daily life that can help make our school a better place. To practice this value students need to ask themselves questions like: ● Do your share to make your school and community better? ● Do you vote? ● Do you get involved in community affairs? ● Are you a good neighbor? ● Do you obey laws and rules? ● Are you respectful towards authority? ● Do you protect the environment? ● Do you volunteer? The following students have been recognized by their teachers and were given a merit for being good citizens in their day to day.
GRADE 6 “It takes a lot of courage to ask the entire Middle School student body for a vote. She has a lot of enthusiasm and great ideas that should be shared”
Matilda Abou Ltaif
Gabriel Alonzo
Camila Garza
GRADE 6 “He helped me to pick up after our big lunch on Tuesday. Even after all of the other students left, he stayed to clean up others messes”
Sebastián Herrera
Harris Mansilla
Sebastián Torres
GRADE 7 “After lunch, he was cleaning up after himself and after others too. No one had to ask him to do it, he demonstrated true integrity and citizenship, way to go!”
Santiago Cuellar
Alejandro Fión
Sofía Herrera
GRADE 7 “She volunteer to help during class in a very respectful and cheerful way. Keep it up!”
Gabriel Novielli
Daniel Radi
Carmela Rivera
GRADE 8 “Set a fantastic example during House activity and was a really positive role model”
Raúl Morales
Nicolle Morataya
Juan Miguel Muñoz
GRADE 8 “Helped his class with art activities and volunteered to be class monitor�
Sophia Salas
Fernando Anckermann
Katya Oliveros
Hugo Mazariegos
Eddy Jaber
Remember: Popcorn is prepared In the same pot, in the same heat, in the same oil, but the kernels do not pop all at the same time. Don’t compare your child to other children, his/her turn to pop is coming.
brigitte.chinchilla@interamericano.edu.gt
HS
CITIZENSHIP As part of the values program, the students participated in a guided discussion to identify all the aspects included in Citizenship: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
To cherish and care about their country of origin. To respect the country they live in, as well as its culture and customs. To be a good neighbour. To have a positive role in all the communities we belong to, including the school. To protect the environment. To obey rules and laws. To keep themselves informed and to raise their own opinions in regard to current politics, respecting other people’s opinions.
Working as teams they reflected on the topic to identify the symbols that represent it, and they created flags to illustrate Citizenship.
WE ARE GLOBAL CITIZENS! Global Citizenship is a social perspective that looks for a more equitative and sustainable world, and implies a compromise with respecting and valuing diversity, defending the environment, as well as the respect for human rights.
apelaez@interamericano.edu.gt
HOW CAN THE GLOBAL WARMING TOPIC CAN BE AFFECTING OUR TEENAGERS? Our adolescents are growing immerse in the constant awareness raising campaigns that highlight the disastrous consequences of global warming for the environment. There is no denying this is a global reality, and the sensibilization campaigns have the -positive- goal of promoting eco-friendly habits. However, as school counselors, we have noticed that a growing number of teenagers are being negatively affected for the fatalist messages that are included in most of such campaigns, that can make them feel that it is too late to save the environment and that the world can be doomed. We recommend that you talk to your children to inquiry what is their perspective in regard to this important topic, maintaining an active- listening attitude and validating their feelings and thoughts without imposing your own. As closure to your conversation, you can plan as a family ecological actions you can implement at home. It’s important to establish realistic goals taking into consideration the logistics implied in the actions you choose to adopt. Here are some ideas that may be easy to implement to support the environment.
(Available at www.naturalbeachliving.com, September 2019). (Available at: www.urbannaturale.com; September 2019).
apelaez@interamericano.edu.gt
IMMINENT RISKS OF ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES/ VAPES Electronic cigarettes are popular among young adults and adolescents, due to several factors such as the false sense of security of the misleading publicity that mentions none to very few secondary effects, the modern and stylish designs, the extensive variety of “flavors” and ingredients such as marihuana, peer pressure, the status related, the adrenaline of breaking rules, among others. Although legally in Guatemala these products should not be sold to minors, the reality is that teenagers have been able to get a hold of them, and since their smell is sweet or citric, it is easily be mistaken for the smell of lotions and splashes, which makes it difficult to detect when someone was recently “vaping”. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has issued an article which contains relevant information for parents, as well as a handout with tips on how to talk to your children about e-cigarettes. We invite you to read them carefully, since parental action and prevention is key to preserve the health of teenagers and young adults. If you wish to receive more information about this topic, please communicate with the High School Counselor.
apelaez@interamericano.edu.gt
COLLEGE PLACEMENT
September Highlights Students have had great opportunities to learn about different careers during the following activities: University visits: ● ● ● ● ● ●
Baylor- Waco University, Texas Monterrey Technological Institute- Mexico Anáhuac University Rollins College- Winter Park, Florida Lehigh University- Pennsylvania University of Chicago- Chicago
European University Fair Workshops: ● ●
"Applying to the United Kingdom" "How to live in Europe successfully"
Vocational Activity Professionals from different careers (computer science, business, economics) shared a dynamic activity with our students in grades nine through twelve on each of their careers. In one of the individual activities, students had the opportunity to build a robot.
kgonzalez@interamericano.edu.gt
12 things that college parents need to know
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
The student needs to learn how to solve problems on their own. Do not text your child hourly or even daily. Use the webpage on your child’s university, as a means of getting basic information. Encourage them to join clubs and professional societies. Treat college like a job with a 40+ hour work week. If the student needs academic accommodations of any kind, make sure they are registered. Encourage the student to engage with their professors. Tell them to get help. Tell them to schedule their downtime. Be open. Hold them accountable. Normalize failure.
Source: CIS Latin America Institute on International Admission & Guidance Conference.
Upcoming Events Grade 9th: ●
Webinar about careers
Grade 10th ●
PSAT test: October 16th 2019
Grade 11th ●
Vocational Test: October 16th (Optional)
Grade 12th ● ●
Vocational Test: October 16th (optional) TOEFL Test: October 12th/ October 26th (optional)
Test: SAT Test: October 5th kgonzalez@interamericano.edu.gt