MASCA
MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL COUNSELORS ASSOCIATION
VOL. 50, NO. 4
DECEMBER 2013
Happy Holidays from MASCA! CISCA: A Legacy Preserved By MARIE ANDERSON
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ASCA’s affiliate, Cape and Islands School Counseling Association, was fortunate to have a founder, Al Lawson, who was an ongoing mentor and active member until his death in August at the age of 88. Al instituted the first guidance program at the new Barnstable High School when it opened in 1957, when the profession of guidance counseling was in its infancy. Once he started his program, more counselors were hired under his leadership, and he was appointed guidance director. He founded the Big Brothers and Big Sisters BHS chapter along with the tradition of the first College Fair on the Cape. Al also saw the need to start professional collaboration by founding Cape and Islands Guidance Association in 1960. For thirty years, Al was also an alumnus interviewer for the Harvard Admissions Office. Most importantly, Al represented the qualities of a counselor that we all aspire to: genuine enthusiasm for his students and confidence in their ability to succeed. He was a beloved and sought-after counselor. He exemplified kindness, empathy, and warm-heartedness not only as an educator but also as a family man and a friend. As a CIGA retired member, Al was an engaged presence at hundreds of meetings, and he was an essential consultant as CISCA evolved with the profession. He embraced changes with enthusiasm. Since the association was founded by Al Lawson in 1960, many innovations have been made. Dale Fornoff and Lyndsay Kett, guidance directors at Dennis-Yarmouth and Mashpee High Schools, were catalysts for important changes last year that resulted in a 20% increase in meeting attendance. The changes included: • Development of a dynamic and in-
formative website for CISCA: www. thecisca.org. • Sponsorship of bi-annual professional development for school counselors at All-Cape Professional Days, featuring topics such as the Evaluation System, Integrating Career and College Readiness, Legal Issues for Counselors, and ACT Testing. Katie Gray of MASCA has been an important resource for these days. • Creation of annual stipend and revised job descriptions for four officers to encourage participation, commitment, and innovation. • Increase of historically low participation fees for colleges for All-Cape College Day to maintain a healthy CISCA budget. This fee is waived if the college sponsors a CISCA meeting. • Institution of summer professional development grants of $1000 for school counseling departments for those schools who submit approved proposals. • Use of Google DOCS response system for meeting attendance. • Rotation of meeting nights to avoid problems with scheduling for school districts. • Revision of important end-of-year meeting to include recognition of all school counseling administrative assistants as well as retirees and Counselor of the Year. • Encouragement of innovative presentations at meetings such as Counseling the “C” Student by Dean College. In addition to biannual professional development days, CISCA meets eight evenings throughout the year and sponsors a College Fair, with 200 colleges in attendance. Membership fees are $25.00. Retired members are not charged. Meetings are held at the Hyannis Golf Club, sponsored by colleges who host a dinner. I
Challenging the Twice-Exceptional Student By DONNA BROWN MASCA Executive Director
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ecently, I was looking for some information about gifted and talented elementary students when I came across a reference to “2e.” It rang a very vague bell, so I decided to find out more. The term 2e is educational shorthand for “twice-exceptional.” The Twice-Exceptional Newsletter (www.2enewsletter. com) describes it as follows: This term refers to the fact that this group of gifted children are exceptional both because of their strengths and because of their limitations. Coupled with high intelligence, these children also may have one or more learning disabilities, attention deficit, autism spectrum disorder, emotional or behavior problems, or other types of learning challenges. All of us have had the experience of working with a student who seems to be able to learn some material easily but struggles in other areas. We’ve also seen students perform musically, athletically, or artistically while being unable to read or compute. According to experts, these behaviors are typical of some students who are simultaneously gifted and learn(continued on page 6)