Waverly Elementary

Introduction

Hello! My name is Jason Munley. I would like to take this opportunity to tell all of you a little about myself. I am the Elementary School Counselor at Clarks Summit Elementary and Waverly Elementary School. I began working in the Abington Heights School District in September of 2005 and have been very excited to be a part of this district.

I graduated from Tunkhannock High School in 1989. I received my Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 1993. In addition, I earned a Master of Science Degree in School Counseling from the University of Scranton in May of 2005. I am a certified Professional School Counselor for grades K through 12.

I live in Tunkhannock with my wife and three sons. My educational philosophy is that the needs of all students can and should be met through a team effort involving everyone in the child's life (parents/guardians, teachers, school counselors, principals, and everyone within the school community). We all touch the lives of these children in different ways and, together, we can be a positive influence on their educational experiences.

Contact Information/Schedule

Clarks Summit Elementary School (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) - Ph# 585-7306

Waverly Elementary School (Tuesdsay and Thursday) - Ph# 585-6306

Email Address - munleyj@ahsd.org

The "Don't Laugh at Me" Program

The “Don’t Laugh at Me” program is a school-wide, on-going effort to help enhance and nurture a respectful, peaceful, and safe school environment. Students, teachers, counselors, principals, and all staff are involved in making the program successful. At the core of the program is children’s emotional, social, and ethical development. The program is reinforced through several means such as the use of classroom guidance lessons, scheduled assemblies, a daily DLAM “tip of the day” provided via the morning announcements, reminders by teachers and other staff, and signs hung on the school walls containing messages that help reinforce the ideas of the program (“Compliments Are Cool”, “Start a Trend…Be a Friend”, “Bully-Free Zone”, and many more).

A priority of the DLAM program is creating a school without bullying. The program helps to raise awareness of bullying behaviors and provides children with the tools necessary to appropriately deal with bullying.

As mentioned, school-wide assemblies help to reinforce the program. This year, the music department has helped to develop chorus presentations with songs that send messages such as resolving conflicts peacefully, expressing oneself appropriately, respecting everyone, treating others as you would like to be treated, recognizing one’s own and others’ feelings, and proper manners.

Helpful Resources for Parents and Teachers

Grief and Loss

All Children Grieve
"A resource for teachers, parents, counselors and other caring adults." Classroom strategies, book lists, and a wealth of other resource for bereavement issues
http://allkidsgrieve.org/

Dougy Center
A resource brought from the National Center for Grieving Children and Families, "this site is an online resource for grieving children, teens, and the people who care about them."
http://www.dougy.org/

KidsHealth
This site provides good, to the point information about a wide range of child issues, from self-esteem to grieving to divorce to stress
http://kidshealth.org/

National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children
This site provides "schools, crisis teams, child and family counselors, private practitioners, hospice workers, nurses, doctors, bereavement counselors, and clergy with the training, consultation and trauma specific resource materials and programs needed to help children, adolescents and adults find relief from the terror of violent or non-violent trauma inducing incidents "
http://www.tlcinst.org/

Rainbows (bereavement group resource)
The RAINBOWS organization and its worldwide network of Registered Directors are committed to assisting families in grief.
http://www.rainbows.org

Talking With Kids About Tough Issues
This is the website for this national initiative by Children Now and the Kaiser Family Foundation to encourage parents to talk with their children earlier and more often about tough issues.
http://www.tlcinst.org/

Character Education and Social Skills

Can Do!
An ability focused web site dedicated to helping all people develop a "can-do" attitude and approach to life... no matter what the obstacles. Full of fun activities, inspiring stories, and useful resources!!
http://www.ucando.org

Caring Teachers
A website aimed at fostering caring in education.
http://www.caringteachers.com

Character Education Lessons
Contains lessons and ideas on topics that counselors and educators deal with every day.
http://www.goodcharacter.com/EStopics.html

Character Education Resource Guide
The Indiana DOE's Resource Guide, listed under featured web sites for character education, filled with grade by grade lesson plans This link requires ADOBE Acrobat reader.
http://doe.state.in.us/publications/pdf_citizenship/citizenguide.pdf

Do Something
Kindeness and Justice Challenge curriculum is found here, along with other social action opportunities
http://www.dosomething.org

Do To Learn
A great resource for teaching social skills. Contains an interactive, animated, web-based game on reading facial expressions.
http://www.dotolearn.com

Lifeskills for Kids
Contains free downloads of social skills lessons.
http://www.lifeskills4kids.com/

Meet Cool People
A website from HUD about cool people, places and things with an emphasis on citizenship and volunteerism. Career awareness interactive activity with community helpers on site called What's My Job?
http://www.hud.gov/kids/people.html

Your Problem Kid Problem Solver
A site rich with information on social skill development
http://www.youthchg.com/

Peace and Kindness

Acts of Kindness Foundation
Activities to help celebrate Kindness Week, now November 6-12, and World Kindness Day, Nov. 13
http://www.actsofkindness.org

Peace Corps
Lesson plans to foster a more peaceful and tolerant school climate can be found, among other great resources, at this site
http://www.peaceeducationintl.com

Positive Discipline
Positive Discipline Associates website with the mission to create peace in the world through peace in homes and classrooms. Great questions of the week and resource information.
http://www.positivediscipline.com/

Diversity Awareness

All Together Now
A 35 page "awesome and beautiful resource" guide of educational activities and resources on diversity for teachers of young children.
http://www.civilrights.org/diversity_works/education/index.html

ARTSEDGE: The National Arts and Education Information Network
Linking the arts and education through technology. This site has some great lesson plans that incorporate art and creativity across the curriculum. Some of the lessons also touch on diversity, multicultural awareness, and social skills.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/

SPLC: Teaching Tolerance
Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance project. SPLC has a free Teaching Tolerance curriculum package available to educators - check it out!
http://www.splc.org/teachingtolerance/tt-index.html

Walk In My Shoes
An elementary awareness program on aging from 4-H
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/wims/wimsproject.html

The World of Puppets
Learn about puppets from around the world. This site also includes a lesson plan for grades K-2 lesson that explores world cultures through their puppetry.
http://www.itdc.sbcss.k12.ca.us/curriculum/puppetry/index.html

DisABILITIES

All Kids Can
Developed by a 6th grade class and the Arc of Dallas, this site provides some ideas and inspiration for developing disability awareness projects and programs in schools. It was nice to visit this site and discover that it also celebrates the things we each CAN do, despite any obstacles we might face.
http://www.kidscan.org

Hello Friend
Bill Cosby's site, from the Ennis Foundation, in support of students who are differently abled with resources and tips for those kids, their parents and teachers
hello_friend.html

KidsHealth
Well written age appropriate information on many topics for children from self-esteem to grieving to divorce to stress
http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/index.html

Exceptionality

Brain Connection
BrainConnection.com is dedicated to providing accessible, high-quality information about how the brain works and how people learn.
http://www.brainconnection.com/

LD Online
Interactive guide to learning disabilities for parents, teachers and children suggested by G. Hahn
http://www.LDonline.org

ADDitude, "the Happy Healthy Lifestyle Magazine for People With ADD"
This is a wonderful, very positive site about ADD... includes an array of information regarding kids who have ADD, as well as adults who have ADD.
http://www.attitudemag.com

Dyslexia, The Gift
Explore the positive talents that give rise to dyslexia, and share knowledge about the best ways for dyslexic people to learn.
http://www.dyslexia.com

National Association for Gifted Children
http://www.nagc.org/index.htmlhttp://www.nagc.org/index.htmlhttp://www.nagc.org/index.html

Career Education

Kids and Careers
Games, Activities and an on-line manual for lessons on careers
http://www.bcit.tec.nj.us/childcareer/Default.htm

School to Work K-6 lesson plans
Lesson plans, unit goals, songs and coloring sheets
http://www.contractor.edu/lessonplans.html

Language Arts

CLWG: Children's Literature Web Guide.
Great source of information about children's books, publishers, and other resources.
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html

The North Star website
An inspiring, thought provoking site for all ages. The North Star web site is a great source of creativity, activities, and inspiration. Looking for very creative writing prompts for your students?
http://www.fablevision.com/northstar

The Read In!
The Read In Foundation is dedicated to fostering literacy throughout the world. Be sure to register your class for the annual Read In! event - an all day fest where students celebrate reading and literacy in their very own classrooms, along with some VERY well known children's book authors, and thousands of other students from around the world! Check out the details on the The Read In! website, and learn about many other cool Read In! activities and goodies that encourage literacy throughout the school year!
http://www.readin.org

Misc. Educational Resource Websites

FableVision
The FableVision website (parent of The North Star site) has fun, meaningful stories (some are even animated!) that can be read and enjoyed free online by people of all ages. On the FableVision site, there's also a cool interactive writing activity called "The Prune" that kids should check-out.
http://www.fablevision.com

Certificate Creator
An online site to design recognition certificates for your stakeholders
http://www.certificatecreator.com/

Education World
Weekly curriculum themes and activities, articles for administrators and teachers, great resource!
http://www.education-world.com

Edupuppy
Many resources for Preschool through Grade 2 lessons, themes, activities, etc.
http://www.edupuppy.com

Kids EQ
Home page of The Children's Emotional Literacy Project of which two ASCA partners - 6 seconds and Don't Laugh at Me- are a part.
http://www.kidseq.com/

KidsHealth
Well written age appropriate information on many topics for children from self-esteem to grieving to divorce to stress
http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/index.html

Kids Energy
An organization dedicated to improving education.
http://www.kidsenergy.org