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Social Emotional Learning in Academics

9/10/2019

SEL is not separate from academic core instruction. It is a part of the skills needed to access and succeed in college and career ready curriculum. I’m over on Confident Counselors today sharing an activity that I have done with teachers to explore integrating social emotional skills in academic instruction. It’s not something separate. It is a part of the whole.

You’ve presented to your staff on social emotional learning. You might have even adopted social emotional curriculum schoolwide or set aside a certain number of minutes per day/week that will incorporate SEL explicit instruction. Check, you’re done right? Nope.

Remember when we first started to have technology in schools (no, ok - I’m showing my age)? We felt certain that students would master the use of technology with 30-45 minute technology classes once per week. Over the years, it became apparent that 45 minutes per week was an insufficient amount of time to master any skill. Now everyone in the school incorporates technology as a part of their work with students.

This is where we need to get with social emotional learning. SEL is not separate from academic core instruction. It is a part of the skills needed to access and succeed in college and career ready curriculum. I’m over on Confident Counselors today sharing an activity that I have done with teachers to explore integrating social emotional skills in academic instruction. It’s not something separate. It is a part of the whole.

Need more? I have a post on the pedagogy of social emotional learning and a 3 hour professional development that I have done for whole staff meetings. Drop a note in the comments and tell me what you're up to for social emotional learning, I'd love to hear.

Progress Monitoring Goals with Students

9/3/2019

Progress monitoring is important for students because it keeps them motivated and helps them to see if they are getting closer to their goal. It’s important for counselors because it helps us to see if the work we are doing is helpful for students. If we can see that the student is not, in fact, closer to meeting their goal, then we know we need to change what we are doing to help them.

Think about a personal goal you have made. What did you do to keep your motivation up? Did you use an app... color in squares on a journal... graph data points? I imagine that any goal that you are successful in meeting, you found a way to chart your progress along the way. This is doubly important when working with students in individual or group counseling.

Progress monitoring is important for students because it keeps them motivated and helps them to see if they are getting closer to their goal. It’s important for counselors because it helps us to see if the work we are doing is helpful for students. If we can see that the student is not, in fact, closer to meeting their goal, then we know we need to change what we are doing to help them.

Progress monitoring can also be important information to share with parents and teachers. If the student is working on a non-confidential goal, like a behavior contract or homework completion. I can share that data with parents and teachers so that they can also work with the kiddo on meeting their goal.

Bar Chart Graph

Bar charts are an easy way to chart progress. In this goal sheet, I write the date under the column and then ask the student to color in where they are in meeting their goal. For some kids, they can do this intuitively. For others, they may need some help identifying what each of the self-rating numbers mean. We graph the goal until they can maintain an 8-10 over several check-ins. Sometimes I use this in individual counseling, using the Solution Focused Brief Counseling mood meter. Other times, I use this in group, particularly my academic achievement group, to graph progress toward their observable goal. I love the group conversation because it allows students to process and reflect with their peers. It’s so powerful.

Build It Up

Some students are dedicated to meeting their goal but struggle with getting there consistently. They might go up and down a lot and that can be discouraging. For these kiddos, I think it’s helpful to keep the mindset that every step is a step forward. For this, I use a bowl with beans/rocks/marbles. When we rate their goal on a scale of 1-10, they add that number of rocks to the bowl. Even on days where you’re a 1 or a 2, you haven’t given up and you’re still working toward your goal. I’m not big on rewards in counseling sessions so when they feel up the goal, we process how GREAT it feels and decide what to do next.

In the Moment

Some students get overwhelmed by processing their goals over time. For these students, I use a one-time visual to mark their goal progress. With the mood meter, I laminate the pages and we write on them with dry erase marker (tip: use magic eraser to remove). For the mood clip chart, it’s not as precise as the numerical mood meter, but has a good visual with feelings faces. Sometimes, I even have the student show me with play-doh or a quick doodle how they are doing on their goal. Then I ask them to describe in words what their doodle is expressing. If I need to chart progress over time, I can jot down what they write for my own use.

Whatever tool you use, progress monitoring goals with students is crucial for helping them to move toward their goals. If you’d like a free copy of my progress monitoring bar graph, you can grab that here. What are your tips?

Productivity Tools for School Counselors

8/20/2019

When racing from one thing to the next, how do you keep it together? I don’t mean mentally, though, maybe that too. I mean, literally, how do you know where you’re supposed to be, keep track of what you need to do, and organize or find notes from important meetings. You might laugh and say, “I don’t!” But you do, or you wouldn't be gainfully employed and adulting on a regular basis. Before I share some tips and strategies, I want you to think carefully about how you’re managing now and keep that in mind when you choose what to try next. What’s working for you now? Because no matter how shiny or beautiful my system is, it won’t work if you don’t use it.

Where to Be

I strongly believe in calendars as a productivity tool. When we use calendars for productivity, we maximize our time and make sure we are spending our energy in the best possible way. People tend to fall into a paper calendar or digital calendar camp. I love the beauty of a paper planner but I need to be able to see my schedule wherever I am so I am firmly in the google calendar camp now. Whatever you do, don’t keep two calendars! This is a good way to make mistakes and it’s a lot of extra work for nothing.

What to Do

When I was in a school, I walked around with a small notebook. Each two page spread was one week. The right side was my to do list that I added to and crossed out along the way. The left side was where I jotted little notes to myself, phone numbers, or any other random piece of information. This system worked for me for years! My favorite principal ever walked around with a sticky note pad and turned the pages over as she went through her list. It worked for her. It doesn’t have to be pretty to work.

Now that I am in central office, I tend to spend more time near a computer either in meetings, between visiting schools, and at my desk. Now I’ve found the beauty of Trello. It works like post it notes on your computer. You can create boards of information, I even made itineraries for an upcoming trip! But for work, I have one to-do list board with a list for each day of the week and one overall running list. I then add cards to the list for my to-do items. When an item is done, I archive it and it’s no longer there. It helps me prioritize what must be done today and what can be done later in the week or even into next week. The picture above shows a week on Monday. I will sit down and drag the items from the to-do list on the far right over to the days of the week where I will actually complete the tasks. I can even set up future events with dates and reminders so I don't forget.

For my big plans for the year, I rely on the ASCA National Model. I created a digital organizer that helps you to create year-long planning documents that you can share with your stakeholders.

How to Remember

For note-taking, I use Evernote. It allows me to create digital notebooks that I add to with new information. For instance, when I attended #ASCA19, I had one notebook for the conference and then added the PDF versions of the presentation and my notes within that notebook. I also used evernote to keep notes and clip articles when writing our book. You can add a google chrome extension so that you can clip any article or website into your evernote notebooks. It’s very easy to type into the program at meetings and professional development. I can even search to find information I am looking for.

I’m also a paper/pencil person for note-taking. I find it much easier to remember something if I write it rather than type it (and research backs that up). In that case, I use a typical notebook. If it’s important enough, I can then take a photo with the evernote scanning app and add it into my evernote. Most of the time, I don’t find that I extensively look back at notes though so I’m not too careful about scanning and uploading.

I’ve recently scanned and stored most of my files and now only have a small desk-sized file drawer that’s not even full. When I was looking for something, I was much more likely to google it or look in my files than to pull out an old file folder that had who knows what in it. I haven’t missed a single thing but scanning can give you a sense of comfort knowing that you can always find it if you need it. You can see some of my filing strategies in this post about the end-of-the-year list.

And that’s it! You can make a system for where to be, what to do, and how to remember. You have to pick what works best for you! What are your productivity tips? Are you a paper or digital person?? I’d love to hear, let me know in the comments below!

Access to Rigor in Elementary School

8/13/2019

This type of gatekeeping happens all the time in schools. As school counselors, we have an ethical mandate to be keenly aware of the needs of our students and to be their advocate. What types of gatekeeping happen at your school? Are you and other leaders in the building looking out for under-representation of students of color in higher level learning opportunities?

In my work in central office, we spend a lot of time determining processes and procedures. One area of intense focus right now is access to rigor for students of color. This conversation typically happens in middle and high school as we determine how students access Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and honors courses. In my district, we’ve determined data criteria for honors and advanced courses to reduce the impact of teacher bias. We’ve increased our efforts in AP Credentialing to seek out students of color who have shown in their previous work that they can be successful in AP courses. Most importantly, we’re now working to ensure that students who are recommended or register for AP/Honors courses actually have them on their schedule and have any support they need to be successful. This is all great work. What do we do as school counselors at the elementary level?

Prepare: Rigor and Success in Elementary

To be recommended for AP/honors courses, students have to be successful in their previous coursework. In elementary, this usually means a high level III or level IV in standards based grading. Sometimes we spend so much time looking at students who are below grade level, we miss an opportunity to help students grow into challenging work and prepare for advanced courses. What does your school do to expand and support students who are high achievers? Do you disaggregate your data and identify students of color who are (or can be) high achievers? How do you ensure that these students are not overlooked for Academically Gifted programming or above grade level work?

Advocate: Respond to Gatekeeping

When my district first began using data criteria for 6th grade honors math enrollment, I had a teacher who was not happy to use the criteria set for us. She said to me “aren’t we just setting them up for failure?” Here’s the thing, the students who met the data criteria were already performing above grade level and had scored very highly on our end of grade test for math. They were students who weren’t necessarily being “pushed” by taking an honors course. They were students who soundly "qualified" to be in an honors course. (PS - apologies if you read our book, this story is a repeat!) This type of gatekeeping happens all the time in schools. As school counselors, we have an ethical mandate to be keenly aware of the needs of our students and to be their advocate. What types of gatekeeping happen at your school? Are you and other leaders in the building looking out for under-representation of students of color in higher level learning opportunities?

Teach: Social Emotional Learning

Advanced coursework typically has one common denominator - students are expected to have a high level of independence, organization, and problem solving skills. Take a look at the SEL competencies, how many of these are necessary for doing well in rigorous classes? Almost all of them. By preparing our students with the social emotional learning skills they need in elementary school, we are helping them to be more successful in middle and high school.

Transition: Moving to the Secondary Level

Does your secondary level (middle/junior high) have honors classes? How do you recommend students for advanced coursework? Whatever system or process that you use, take a moment to dive into the data. Look at the percentage of white students and students of color are recommended for honors. Do they differ? Now look and see if the data behind those decisions aligns equitably. If student A has x data points and student B has x data points, do they get the same recommendation? How do you communicate student achievement to the next level? How can you ensure that the transition goes smoothly?

I’m definitely still in the problem solving, thinking stage of this issue. What are your thoughts regarding access to rigor in elementary? I would love to hear!

Interrupting Racism: White Silence

6/27/2019

As a white woman, I am particularly responsible for using my white privilege and my power as a school employee, to speak up and interrupt racism when I see it. It’s time for me to speak up more. To be a voice alongside. To be an active ally.

I am about to head to Boston for #ASCA19 and am preparing for my presentation with Alicia Oglesby (co-author), Ignite Change for Equity and Inclusion. As I prepare, I am particularly reflecting on the ethical mandate for school counselors to interrupt systems and lead the way for systemic change when it is the very system itself that is preventing students of color from accessing rigor and achieving.

As a white woman, I am particularly responsible for using my white privilege and my power as a school employee, to speak up and interrupt racism when I see it. I pulled heavily from the article on white silence from Robin DiAngelo, Nothing to Add: A Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussion. If you are a white person, I highly recommend that you read this article and then her book, White Fragility. In our presentation Saturday and in this post, I want to discuss the role of the school counselor specifically.

Have you ever not said something when you see or hear racism? I have. I strongly believe in equity and inclusion for all students but I know that I have chosen to let a comment slide by or to turn away when I see or hear something that makes me uncomfortable. I have to admit that to myself and to you if I am going to do better. DiAngelo states “when whites employ silence to maintain some degree of comfort, that silence functions (albeit seldom explicitly) as a means to regain white dominance.” Guess what? My comfort doesn’t mean more than yours. And it really doesn’t mean more than my students’.

If the cause of white silence is that keeping racial perspectives hidden protects us from being challenged. If we see race as “not something you bring up in polite society,” then what are the effects? DiAngelo shares these: leaving others to carry the weight of the discussion, no learning occurring, implying agreement with resistant participants, and invalidating the stories of others who do share. Let’s look particularly at this implicit agreement with resistant participants or racist comments/actions. I think this is even more important when we are a staff member who doesn’t speak up. Particularly in front of students. Let’s say that you overhear another adult make a comment about “those kids that ride that bus.” Students hear this comment and then see you say nothing. What message does that send to students? I would assume that you agree with the speaker or you didn’t think it was out of line. I always want my students to see me as their number one supporter, and I bet you do too. If speaking up is hard, or you want some great tips, check out Teaching Tolerance’s guide, Speak Up at School.

There are also times when white people shouldn’t speak up. DiAngelo gives these highlights: When you are intentionally trying not to speak first and most. When a person of color has spoken and you feel drawn to re-explain, clarify, or add to their point. When people of color are discussing the sensitive issue of internalized racial oppression. Because sometimes as a white woman, I have nothing of value to add to the conversation. I can stop talking and listen, showing my support by using my active listening skills, and hear the truth that another person is telling me.

It’s time for me, as a white woman, to speak up more. To be a voice alongside. To be an active ally. Because ally is a verb.

We hope to see you at our presentation on Saturday if you are going to be at #ASCA19. We will also have an informal lunch chat on Sunday in the exhibit hall. If you’re #notatASCA19 then you can check out our presentation here and read in more detail in our book.

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