My name is Nathan Schelble and I am the school counselor at Drake Elementary School. This is my fourth year at North Tonawanda City Schools and previous to working at NT, I have had the opportunity to work in Western NY public and charter schools, and international schools in 3 different Asian countries.  

I am excited to utilize my counseling experience, demonstrate my passion for helping others, and share my international perspective with the Drake community.  While interacting with and helping to support  Drake Elementary School students, families, and faculty, I am constantly reminded what makes this school so amazing!  There continues to be a caring, positive and motivated atmosphere at Drake which is impressive and unique. 
 
The concepts and knowledge the students gained from the RULER Approach, over the last few years, will continually be reinforced this year.  RULER stands for: Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating Emotions successfully.  The RULER Approach will help our students, staff and parents build our own emotional intelligence.  This is so exciting because as students learn helpful strategies to understand, express, and regulate their emotions their academic and social confidence will likely also improve.  Healthy emotional intelligence in our students will mean increased self-awareness and positive peer relationships throughout the grade levels. Similarly, within the classroom, it will help students’ emotions be recognized and validated not just by other students but by the teacher as well.  Please see The RULER Approach link, to the left, for more information. 

This school year I will be visiting each classroom bi-monthly to teach lessons on character traits.  The Drake students contribute much to these lessons by their inquisitive, engaging, and enthusiastic love for learning.  The character traits which will be promoted and taught include: kindness, respect, doing one's best, and honesty.  Parents and caregivers can look forward to seeing worksheets, students will bring home, relating to these important character traits.  The hope is that engaging conversations, around the dinner table, can take place which will greatly help reinforce positive character and good choices. 

       

 I look forward to all the positive initiatives within our school and district this year and I am excited to be part of the Drake Way!