Reflections in Counseling During COVID

HSI NEWSLETTER SPRING 2021

I’m Mena Lam, the School Counselor at Woodside Elementary School District. This is my 3rd year at Woodside and as challenging as it has been, it is still very fulfilling.

This year, everyone had to be creative to teach in new ways and build relationships with our students. As the school counselor, I tried to adapt new ways that could be helpful to both students and staff.

My role looked very different from being in person to being online. We started the year with distance learning. I still had my individual check-ins with students and co-taught advisory with our Upper School Music Teacher. But thinking about this year, I felt we needed to do more for mental health support I began creating weekly mindfulness videos called Mindful Moments with Ms. Lam. These videos had brief introductions about the week, a different mindfulness technique each week explanations about each technique and sometimes a guest appearance from my dog.

As the year has gone on, there have been other opportunities for me to engage with other grades and classrooms. There was also an opportunity for me to help debrief feelings for a class that was exposed to COVID over Zoom. I used a Padlet, to help students write down how they felt and identify how others are also feeling similarly. In another grade, we made calming glitter jars in preparation for testing week and any time they want to relax.