Dear Sprague families,
I
hope all of you and your families enjoyed a healthy and happy holiday season
and that the new year brings you much joy. As we begin the new year, I want to
ensure that my role as school psychologist is understood by families, so that
we can continue to work together to support all aspects of your children’s
development. As Sprague’s school psychologist, it is my goal to know and be available to every student and parent at Sprague. Together with teachers and parents, I work to support our school culture and HEART values, to enhance friendships, social adaptability, and problem solving, to increase self-esteem and motivation, and to support the general well being of all of our students. Towards these ends, I engage in a wide range of activities throughout the school day. You are likely to see me walking at a rapid pace through the halls, with or without groups of children, heading for a classroom or meeting. So that you have a better idea of where I am heading and what I may be doing once I get there, please consider the following aspects of my role at Sprague: • Working with whole classes on interpersonal dynamics, personal safety, bullying prevention, or other issues related to mental health • Working with small groups of children to support their social and emotional development • Meeting with an individual student to help him/her work through a challenging moment • Meeting with individual teachers to monitor student progress and to strategize about ways to better meet students’ social and emotional needs • Meeting with individual parents in regard to their child's development or interpersonal relationships • Helping children mediate a conflict or process a poor choice, using a difficult moment as a teaching opportunity • Running drop in lunch groups for older students • Evaluating students for learning disabilities • Working with Dr. Goodwin to oversee the social and emotional wellbeing of the entire Sprague community My work both in and out of the classrooms involves numerous conversations with students about any number of topics. Please be assured that your child’s teacher or I will inform you if I will be seeing your child on multiple occasions or if there is a particular concern. However, if a conversation occurs as part of the general support I provide all students, or a child opts to attend lunch group, you will most likely not be informed. If you have any concerns about this, please feel free to contact me. I am always available to meet with
parents to discuss thoughts or concerns about children’s development and
behavior, both in and out of school. In addition, when there are major changes
at home, such as separation, divorce, births, illnesses, or deaths, it is often
helpful for me to know so that I can work with the teacher to help monitor the
child and assess whether greater support is needed. To those of you I have had the pleasure of knowing over my 9 years at Sprague, I thank you. To those that I have not yet had the opportunity to know, I hope you introduce yourselves to me and help me connect you to your children. I encourage you to join my new wikispace: https://wolkoffwiki.wikispaces.com and to look out for my soon to come website (more on this shortly). I hope you will feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns, regarding your child or the Sprague community as a whole. I can be contacted at ext. 575 or elana_wolkoff@wellesley.k12.ma.us.
With best wishes for the new year,
Elana Wolkoff, Ph.D. Sprague School Psychologist
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