Counseling
Meet Mrs. Baag-Counselor
Greetings Pearson families! My name is Melissa Baag and I am the new school counselor. This will be the start of my 13th year at both Pearson and Garland ISD. As some of you may know, I taught Kindergarten at Pearson for the past 12 years before transitioning into a counselor. I graduated from UT Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Learning and Development. In addition, I have a master’s degree from Texas Woman’s University in Counseling and Development. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Jae for five years and we both enjoy traveling as well as serving in our church ministries.
As a school counselor, I am here to help each student with their academic, career, and social/emotional needs by meeting with them individually or in small groups. I will be working with teachers, administrators, and parents/guardians to help all students reach their fullest potential in school and beyond. Please feel free to contact me anytime if you would like for me to meet with your child or if you have any questions/concerns. I am very excited to serve as your school counselor this year and look forward to meeting you. It is my hope that this school year will be full of successful experiences for all students. 😊
Character Education
Mrs. Baag will be visiting all the classrooms during each grading cycle to teach a specific character trait. At the end of every grading cycle, two students in each class will be recognized at the awards assembly for demonstrating the specific character trait that was taught during the grading cycle. Listed below is the schedule.
| Grading Cycle | Character Trait |
|---|---|
| 1st | Respect |
| 2nd | Responsibility |
| 3rd | Caring |
| 4th | Trustworthiness |
| 5th | Citizenship |
| 6th | Fairness |
College & career readiness
We celebrated our district's College Day on September 18th. Teachers proudly displayed their college pennant in the hallways and talked to the students about the college that they adopted along with their personal experiences. In addition, students had the opportunity this year to see all the different colleges that our staff attended or support and they absolutely enjoyed it! We hope it will inspire and motivate them to do the same. In addition, we continue to celebrate higher education by wearing our college shirts every Monday. Students may wear a college shirt with jeans or standardized pants every Monday. Lastly, 5th grade students will have an opportunity in the spring semester to visit a college campus. More information will come home later in the spring semester.
Child Find
Child Find is a process designed to help identify, locate, and evaluate individuals from birth through 21 years of age with suspected disabilities who may need special education services. More information is also available through this link about Child Find. To begin the Child Find process, you may contact our Counselor, Melissa Baag, at (972) 463-7568 or email: mabaag@garlandisd.net.
Parent Workshops
Our district offers a variety of parent workshops throughout the year including parenting strategies, depression, and social media/cyber bullying to name a few. A parent workshop calendar is available here through this link.
Bullying and cybersafety
No student should be subjected to bullying or harassment that interferes with their ability to learn or their safety.
Visit the district website for more information and resources related to bullying and cybersafety.
Anonymous Alerts®
You can use the Anonymous Alerts® webform or mobile app to quickly, easily and anonymously report bullying, cyberbullying and other sensitive topics to school officials.
Anonymous Alerts® is monitored by GISD Security 24-hours daily and should only be used for serious and urgent matters. In the event of an emergency or life-threatening event, always call 911.
Download the app
To place a report from a mobile device, first download the free Anonymous Alerts® app from the Apple App Store or Google Play store. Then open the app and enter activation code garlandisd.