Communications Academy Counselor Helps Students Achieve
bear newscast, bell elementary global communications academy, communications, counselor, education, sarah jane walker,
Sarah Jane Walker talks a mile a minute‚ which is a good thing. The counselor at Bell Elementary Global Communications Academy has few minutes to spare in her day.
“I have my hand in a million pots‚ and that makes every day challenging and exciting‚” she says with boundless enthusiasm.
Walker is surely a source of inspiration for students and faculty at the K-5 magnet school that focuses on broadcast journalism‚ foreign language and technology.
She helps supervise the Bear Newscast‚ a fifth-grade project broadcast live every morning for the entire school. The students prepare the daily script‚ which includes an anchor and other reporters typical of grown-up TV newscasts.
“The thing I like most is that for the kids that participate‚ it’s such an esteem booster‚” Walker says. “The students recognize them‚ they become role models. They’re on the news! They’re on TV!”
Esteem and character building are huge priorities for counselor Walker. She makes regular rounds to classrooms‚ bringing along eight or 10 of her 70 puppets. Each has a different personality‚ like the loudmouth toucan or the snail who lacks self-confidence.
“In counseling‚ puppets are very therapeutic‚” she explains. “When I pull out a puppet‚ the children are more open because it’s not threatening. We use real life experiences to see how we need to react and respond to other people.”
By now it is apparent that Walker adores her job and the 450 kids she serves.
“I love that my job is all about children‚ all about meeting their needs in a different way than the classroom teacher can sometimes‚ taking care of the social and emotional issues‚” she says. “The goal is to be a better student‚ to help them be the best student they can be academically.”
Story by Catherine Darnell
Photo by Antony Boshier
