Social emotional learning is making a big move right now in education. For counselors, we're nodding our heads and (perhaps) whisper-shouting "I told you so." Hey, let's just appreciate that we were ahead of the game. Where I work, schools are being required to include social emotional learning components in their school improvement plans and several districts in my area are hiring social emotional learning central services staff. I'm thrilled that this whole child approach is getting the spotlight.

At the same time, there's a lot of pressure for counselors to do this right. We may be one of the only people in the building with deep knowledge of social emotional learning best practices. I use the analogy of technology in the classrooms. When we started getting more computers, smart boards, and then iPads (I'm old, don't remind me), the entire staff turned and looked at the technology teacher. Great, they thought, our students can learn technology from that person and I can keep on with my usual. Now, we wouldn't dream of only one person in the building teaching technology as a separate entity from core instruction. I think the same will happen with SEL. It's a heavy lift for counselors right now but eventually we can build the capacity of our whole staff to not just teach SEL but to incorporate social emotional learning into the curriculum as a whole. 

CASEL, the collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning, are the gurus on SEL right now. I look to them first when I am working on SEL. They look at SEL implementation in four parts:

• SEL lessons with explicit instruction: counselors teach these in their curriculum but teachers do too! When a teacher introduces a project based learning activity to students, they often go over expected behaviors and organizational strategies. That's explicit step-by-step instruction.
• Teaching practices that create positive conditions that support social and emotional development in students: students have to feel emotional and socially safe at school in order to learn social and emotional skills. Culturally responsive instruction is going to be a huge part of this. Schoolwide expectations and tier one practices like PBIS are in this tier as well.
• Integration of instruction and practice of SEL in the academic curriculum: This is more than teaching expected behaviors. This involves actually incorporating SEL competencies into instruction in a meaningful way.
• Policies and organizational structures: When we have policies and structures in place that support SEL as a clear priority for the school they are much more likely to happen.

CASEL has identified 5 core competencies for social emotional learning. They have a great handout that breaks down all of the competencies into skills. What I love about the skills highlighted by CASEL is their broad application. Students must actually have these skills in order to be successful in academics. This isn't fluff. It isn't something nice to "add on." 

I recently led a professional development for a full staff on social emotional learning. Social Emotional Learning is something that all educators can quickly understand and apply if they are given the opportunity to personally reflect and reflect on their classroom practices. After completing a culturally responsive classroom checklist and discussing the components of SEL, the teachers worked in cross grade level teams to complete a "cheat sheet" for each of the competencies. In this activity, the staff answered:

• What competencies/skills are listed under the core competency?
  
• Why it matters - why do students need to have this skills to be successful?
  
• Students will - a list of observable behaviors for students at each grade level.
  
• Teachers will - a list of observable strategies that teachers can implement. This is a great resource for ideas.

Overall it went really well and I think the staff walked away with new learning and reflection. If you'd like to snag the entire presentation and materials, you can find it here. 

How do you keep all your amazing comprehensive counseling plans together. I've always used the ASCA national model  because that's what my district uses and it is a requirement for our counselors. However, some people aren't there yet with the national model but still want to stay organized and share with their stake holders a plan for the year. If this is you - I've got a solution. I've created a set of digital organizers that will allow you to plan for and share your year with your administration, teachers, and parents. 

We've talked about program goals before and your school probably has some type of school improvement plan with goals. If you're not ready to create SMART goals based on school wide data, you can create a goal around data that you choose. For instance, your SMART goal could measure reduced anxiety for students around end of grade testing. Think about what your big ideas are for the year, and make a plan to get there. In my state, we have to write a professional development plan yearly for ourselves which include SMART goals. In this organizer, you can share your goals for the year with your stakeholders. At the bottom of the page, you can share a short descriptor of your class schedule and topics. 

Why It Matters:

• Your stakeholders know that you work with students on purpose and not just whoever might show up in your office. 
• Your stakeholders can quickly see that your work aligns with the work of the school as a whole. You are a valuable asset to learning.
• Your stakeholders can see what types of topics you will cover in your lessons so that they can ask follow up questions if needed. 

A scope and sequence document plans what will be taught and in what sequence. Ideally, you will also outline what data you will collect to ensure that the lessons are effective. By laying our your classroom lessons and small groups before the year starts, you will know that you have a series of lessons that make sense, are effective, and serve a purpose. No more rummaging through books the night before (or morning of) a new lesson. Yes, this does take a lot of work at first but in the end, you will really and truly thank yourself later. 

Why It Matters

• Your stakeholders will know that you make a plan for what your students will learn each year.
• Parents can see the amazing proactive support the counselor provides so that time with the counselor is no longer stigmatized.
• You know what you're going to do - no more rushing around last minute. 

Does your school seem to think you have a lot of extra time in your day? Do you rush around and feel like you got nothing done. You've heard me harp on using your calendar for productivity before so if you're a regular reader, this is nothing new. In this template, you can create multiple copies of the calendar page and use to display your calendar on your door so people know where to find you. Or you can actually write in your calendar (either digitally or paper/pencil) with all the details you need to keep it together. Finally, it's OK to use the calendar as a glimpse of time when you are meeting with your principal or other stakeholders to show them a "typical" week in your counseling program. Just try not to laugh too hard when you say typical. 

Why It Matters:

• Repeat after me: You are not a pin ball to be bounced around the school at everyone's demand. You have a plan. You have a calendar. You will achieve what you set out to do this year. 

Now that you've created these gorgeous plans for your school counseling program - how will you share it? 

• Post as a PDF on your counseling website
• Print and place in a portfolio in your front office
• Share with your principal and staff
• Post on a bulletin board
• Include a link in the PTA newsletter

You can download a copy  of my example document. This has every single page so if you want to recreate the tables and pages, please do! To get your very own editable plan, head over to Teachers Pay Teachers. 

How do you stay organized for the year? I would *love* to hear your tips. Please comment or send me an email. 

Best laid plans, right? Sometimes being a school counselor feels like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Your brain is full of ideas and ways that you can support your students but the many demands on your time, extra duties, and never ending fires to put out can leave you feeling like you're not even sure where you spent your energy. What if I told you that there exists something that can help with that? Something you've heard of before but may have dismissed as "too much?" I believe that the  ASCA National Model is the real problem solver for school counselors. That's why I'm so excited to speak at NCSCA's Summer Academy about taking a realistic approach to the National Model.

Here's some of the problems we will be solving: 

• No one gets what I do!
• So. Many. Extra. Duties. 
• I spend so much time planning.
• Things just sneak up on me.
• I plan to _______ but then...
• Too many fires!
• The school does not see the counselor as integral to the work of the school.
• I run around all day.
• I try to respond to all the deamands.
• Everyone thinks I have so much availability.
• I end the year wondering if I did anything well.
• I have a walkie talkie.

​Sound familiar?!?! Can I get a high five?

Guess what? Instead of these being these being the reasons your can't do the ASCA National Model - these are the problems that you can solve with the model. I know! This is some good stuff.  So here are the goods: My presentation AND the super,amazing, awesome handouts I created to support your work. And guess what? We never even say the word template. 

​So what's your plan for problem solving? I gotta say, I think this is gonna be your year :)

School counselors work with all students and provide a variety of services. As more schools are aligning their efforts to the MTSS (multi-tiered system of support) model, it's important for counselors to be able to share how their work aligns with the school's system of support. 

In Tier 1, or core instruction, counselors support social emotional learning and academic skills via the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors. Tier 1 instructional practices include explicit instruction to 100% of student, across all settings. Instructional practices may be adjusted to reteach and differentiate based on student need. Of course, school counselors are not the only personnel to support core instruction. Discuss the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors with school staff and determine the areas of need for all students. Once areas of need are determined, the counselor can consult with administration and grade level teams to develop a plan for implementation.

Providing direct instruction of social emotional and academic skills is crucial for students to be successful both in school and post-graduation. We can't expect behavior and academic skills that have not been taught. Likewise, it isn't feasible for the school counselor to teach all of the social emotional and academic skills needed. An effective school counseling curriculum supports classroom learning of skills that are included in the instruction provided by the classroom teacher. Schoolwide initiatives like PBIS also fall into this tier because they provide the structure and expectations for all students. An effective core  allows 80% of students to be on target. 

In Tier 2, a second layer of strategic intervention is added. Students still receive core instruction but need additional support to be successful. Just like a math teacher will implement strategies to support students struggling to understand math concepts, students who struggle with social emotional learning or academic skills benefit from extra support.

The key word here is strategic. As a school, how do you know a student needs more support with behavior? Do you wait until they come to the office with a discipline referral? How can you use data to intervene earlier? Discussion in Professional Learning Communities within your building may be a great place to start. These discussions may show patterns of student behavior. PLCs typically dig deeper into available data as well and can serve as a jumping off point for counselors. 

As counselors, you are already doing Tier 2 work but may find that increasing your strategic focus may help. In my last school, I worked with students who had a high number of absences, students who needed to improve their academic skills, and students who showed anxiety about middle school. I chose these strategic interventions because I looked at the data and knew what was needed.

For counselors, Tier 2 can encompass work for a group of students that takes place individually. For instance, a behavior contract or Check-in/Check-out is a tier 2 intervention chosen for a group of students. Sometimes individual counseling can be a Tier 2 intervention, depending on the duration and intensity of the counseling. Meeting with a student 1-2 times about a friendship problem doesn't rise to the level of intensity that would be needed in a Tier 3 intervention.

Tier 3 interventions are intended for 1-5% of your student population. These kids are your super high flyers. Without additional supports, they can derail an entire classroom or grade level. Kids with Tier 3 support for behavior need a lot of help and most likely should be referred to an outside therapist. That doesn't mean there aren't Tier 3 interventions that counselors can put in place at the school! Tier 3 interventions are intensive, evidence-based instruction maximizing intensity, frequency, and duration. Interventions are progress monitored daily. Examples of Tier 3 interventions for counselors include FBA/BIP, suicide prevention, threat assessment, or collaboration and consultation with wrap around services for a child. 

So what instructional practices and interventions do you provide? How do they fit into the tiered model? I'd love for you to share!

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. ​​