Unless you have been completely off social media (the modern day living under a rock), you have probably heard about the show “Thirteen Reasons Why.” The show depicts a boy (Clay) listening to a series of tapes made by his love interest (Hannah) before she dies by suicide. Because I spend more time in the car than on the couch (sadly), I listened to the audiobook and have watched a few of the episodes on Netflix. For the purposes of this post, I am not going to delve into if this show should have been made or the book written. It’s here, so what do we do about it?

1. Book review for adults: This is one of those YA books that could have been written for adults. There is a nuance to the story that I think adults will appreciate. It was interesting to see the story told from Hannah and Clay’s perspectives. As an adult, you can see the many errors in thinking that are so much a part of adolescence.
2. Book review for teenagers: Typically, I gear most of my work towards the elementary school age. I don’t think this show or book would ever be appropriate for any young child. In addition to suicide, there are drugs, drinking, sexual acts, and rape depicted. I’m on the fence about whether this book and show is appropriate for teens. If a teen you know is watching or reading, I recommend that you watch or read along with them so that you can help them to process what they are watching.
3. Cyberbullying: One of the main reasons that Hannah is struggling at her new school is cyberbullying. Innocuous interactions turn into rumors and scandal without any substance behind them. In one of the opening scenes of the show, you see Hannah’s love interest show his friends a slightly compromising picture of her (though taken in an innocent way). They immediately grab his phone and text the photo and a lie about it to the whole school despite his protests. This would be a cool clip to show in a lesson about cyberbullying and appropriate internet use.
4. Peer Pressure: In this story, you can see both active peer pressure and peer pressure that takes place because of a lack of action. In one scene, a boy is inappropriately touching a girl despite her protests and the other student in the hot tub gets out and leaves the girl alone.
5. Rape Culture: As an adult reading this book, I noticed the pervasiveness of rape culture. Hannah is often the recipient of touches, glances, and words that are unwanted. While she protests those actions, no one else does and I worry that the message gets lost in the messenger.
   
   
6. Suicide: Guess what? Suicide is not the greatest revenge to take against people who have wronged you. Even if you make 13 tapes about how awful they were. All the people who wronged Hannah listened to the tapes and they seem to take them to heart. This aspect of the book and show got it wrong.
   
   
7. Doing the Right Thing: Supportive adults watching with their teen have many opportunities to point out the right thing that could have been done. There are many points where a character makes a choice that leads the story down a negative path.
8. Empathy: I had a lot of empathy for Clay while reading and watching. As an adult, I had a lot of empathy for many of the other (outwardly meaner) characters. I remember making similar dumb mistakes when I was a teenager. Teens will likely see the characters in a more good guy/bad guy perspective.
9. Hannah: While reading the book, I was kind of annoyed by Hannah. This is probably not how she’s “supposed” to come off but it’s the truth. She seemed, well, needy. In the show, she comes off as much cooler before her downward spiral. I’m torn on whether this is a good thing. Teenage me would have wanted to be Hannah and you see how that turns out.
10. Clay: It’s hard for me to talk about Clay without giving the plot away. Let me just say that he is not a nuanced character. He’s a one-sided coin for sure. As an adult reading, I worry about the psychological pressure these tapes have on him.
11. The Counselor: Hannah tells you early on that if the previous “guidance” (blech) counselor had still been there that the story might have turned out differently. I think the counselor plays a larger role in the show that I haven’t finished yet but in the book, I feel for the guy. Hannah comes into his office (by the way, he also teaches English so he’s a part time school counselor) when he’s having a bad day. He doesn’t handle it well. But, I ask you, does your blood run cold knowing that you’ve had off days too? Mine sure did.
12. The Ending: No spoilers! But it’s redeeming. But not for Hannah.
13. Author’s Notes: If you read the book, read the author’s interview at the end about what he is going for here. If you watch the show, watch this clip on the role of suicide and mental health in the creation of the show.

This is the year when you are going to create ASCA National Model Plans. It may be nearing the end of the current year but start thinking now about how you want to implement action plans for the upcoming school year. 

As we all know, to achieve a goal, you must start with an end in mind. Imagine taking a hike without a map. As you are walking through the woods, you start picking up interesting things that you see. Finally, you get tired and stop. You’re not where you wanted to be and you have all this stuff you don’t know what to do with and is too much to carry. That’s how counseling without a plan can end up! You don’t achieve the goals that you wanted to and you have picked up random data points all along the way with no real plan. What a frustrating feeling!

When creating action plans, we are writing our map for the major work that we plan to do each year. To see more about setting program goals, check out the Program Goal video. The action plans are designed to include details about how you will reach your program goals through core curriculum, group, and targeted closing the gap plans. Lastly, we are making a plan for the data that you will collect so that you end the year with the data you really want to see and haven’t wasted a lot of effort on collecting data that doesn’t inform your work.

The closing the gap action plan looks at a targeted group of students who show a gap in their academic, attendance, or behavior data. These gaps are identified by disaggregating data for specific categories. You may use a larger program goal like increasing graduation rates and drill down to a discrepancy between subgroups or you may write your program goal with a targeted group in mind. Data can be disaggregated several ways: by subgroup (race, ethnicity, gender, grade) or by category (specified number of absences, early check out, office referrals for a specific offense).
Once you have identified the program goal and targeted group of students, it is time to design your implementation plan. Interventions should be evidence based, grounded in research, driven by the mindsets and behaviors, and fall within the work of school counselors. Interventions may include a variety of activities like parent contacts, individual student planning, small group counseling, and data monitoring. They also may include systemic changes like changing the way honors courses are recommended or increasing teacher’s professional development in trauma informed schools.
Once you have an idea of your plan, you can create a Closing the Gap Action Plan. Begin by writing the target group and the data to identify students at the top of the plan.

1. Activities: write a list of activities that you plan to implement
2. ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors: you will select about 1-2 mindset and behavior standards that most directly link to your goal.
3. A brief description of curriculum and materials that you plan to use. You want the reader to be able to understand what you will be doing without going into too much detail.
4. The start and end date
5. Process data: the projected number of targeted students
6. Perception data: how you will determine the attitudes, knowledge and skills obtained by the targeted students? You will most likely use a pre/post test tool for students but could also use teacher and parent surveys.
7. Outcome data: The outcome data should be spelled out in your program goal or how you targeted students. For instance, if you targeted students for attendance, you would be looking at attendance as the outcome goal. ​​

Ready to make a plan and {actually} stick to it this year? Be in charge of your schedule instead of the other way around. I've created a video describing how to take control of your day and make a plan you can stick with. Ever wonder how to design your lessons and groups at the beginning of the year? Here are my 5 easy steps! I've included the transcript here but if you'd like to see the video and download the supplemental materials for FREE, check them out.
 
We will learn how to

1. Take control of your schedule by planning.
2. Set big priorities using tiered instruction and intervention
3. Determine what’s manageable in a week to think about the year
4. Create a group plan
5. Make a calendar to share with your staff

 
Sometimes it can be overwhelming to start a new program. Where do you begin? How do you determine what your weekly schedule will look like much less the whole year! If you find you are spending most of your time running from one thing to another without a plan set for the day, it’s time to take control of your schedule.
 
Think about your big priorities first. As with all productivity tips, you gotta think about what’s most important to you. Once you decide your big ideas, you’ll know what has to make it on your schedule. For me, I like to use the 3 tier intervention model as my framework. My big focus is on core, classroom lessons with all students.

Classroom lessons can be the trickiest to schedule anyway, so it’s a great place to start. To begin, think about how many lessons that you could teach per week and still manage the other responsibilities of your job. Let’s say that ten 30-minute lessons is reasonable for you. If you have 20 classrooms in your building, you could teach each class every other week. If you have 40 classrooms in your building, you could teach about once per month. Share this schedule with teachers and let them know the plan. Will you be on a set rotation, will they be signing up, or will you push-in during part of their day? I liked to create a color-coded calendar letting teachers know when I would be teaching their grade level.
 
The second tier in my 3 tier intervention model includes small group counseling. I need to know how many groups I can feasibly run in a year so I can prioritize the needs of my students. Just like we did with classroom lessons, think about how many groups you could run in a week. Once you really get groups going and have lesson plans you can rely on, it’s easy to run a lot of groups. To get started, one group per day is typically pretty manageable. Think about what your data say, what are the needs of your students, and how often will you meet. What kind of time commitment can you make to groups.

I like to start my group in waves: fall groups, winter groups, and spring groups. Having three sections of groups helps me to wrap my head around how many groups I will be able to run this year and keeps me focused on getting them started. All the groups start at the same time and then end when the group material is done. This allows me to be really systematic about starting. When I am scheduling my groups, the first thing I have to figure out is the when. That’s the hardest part of a group!
 
Unfortunately, for me, in the last few years, I have had to run my groups during lunch because I could not take students out of academic time. While engaging lessons can be challenging when the students are eating, it does make the scheduling easier! If I know I am going to pull third grade groups from 11:30-12:00 on Mondays, then I know I should not schedule any classroom lessons at that time.
 
Let’s recap:
First – Decide how many classes you’re going to teach
Second – make a plan for how many groups you’re going to run and when you would like them to start.
 
Now it’s time to really start working on that calendar. Check out the supplemental documents included with this video to see how I use a combination of a set schedule (for groups, classes, and meetings) and a flexible schedule (for consultations, individual sessions, and responsive services). Just because a counselor’s job naturally entails unexpected occurrences, doesn’t mean we can’t make a plan for productivity.

And that's it! How do you plan for your year?