By KENNEDY TOLBERT / Community Columnist

Angela Madison of Wilsonville plays a huge role as a mentor to students each day.
The role of the school counselor in Shelby County is essential for each child’s educational growth and development.

“First and foremost, I feel very blessed to be a counselor for Shelby County Schools,” she said.

Madison has worked as a counselor in four exceptional schools, she said — Creek View Elementary, Wilsonville Elementary, Valley Elementary and this year, Vincent Elementary School.

“No two days are ever alike, and we never really know what might come across our desk or which hat we’ll need to pull from our shelf at any given time,” Madison said she describes her job as very rewarding and never monotonous” she said.

This year, the focus has been reaching goals while creating a nurturing learning environment that is free of bullying. Each grade has time with her while they perform hands-on activities to reiterate these concepts by writing “Personal Goal Plans” for the year.

Madison also uses play therapy a lot in her lessons, making learning more fun and interesting to the students. It includes things like music, games, puppets and art.

Madison also has several small counseling groups and is in the process of formulating more for the second half of the school year. Here, students have the chance to meet once a week and discuss things like difficult family situations, making friends, divorce, grief, behavior concerns and social skills.

The children benefit by learning coping skills and having support from peers. Madison also addresses homeless and at-risk students during individual counseling for responsive services as well, and involves outside referrals as they are needed.

Along with that, Madison also plays a huge role in testing, faculty training, parent workshops, presentations and leadership committees for the school. She is the testing coordinator and does all the training, distributing, collecting and security management for the state-mandated testing.

“Testing is a major responsibility and one I take very seriously,” she said.
Madison is also a part of the Problem Solving Team.

She offers recommendations for improvements on students who have academic and behavioral problems.

Kennedy Tolbert, the community columnist for Wilsonville, can be reached at kennedytolbert@bellsouth.net.