Classroom elves, Christmas Trees in the lobby, Polar Express viewings, Santa at dismissal, when does celebrating the holiday season move from fun to culturally insensitive? I knew of a school where Santa came every year to speak to the younger students. During instructional time. When the principal moved to end this tradition, she was asked if she wanted to be the person who "didn't like Santa." I love celebrations and I definitely think school should be FUN but I am committed to being culturally responsive in my work as a school counselor.

Teaching Tolerance states that "culturally responsive teaching recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning, enriching classroom experiences and keeping students engaged. How can we take this definition and apply it to our celebrations during the holiday season?

Walk around your building and take note of the decorations you see in the hallways, in classrooms, and especially in the lobby. Are holiday traditions other than Christmas included in a more than nominal way? A menorah in the corner of the classroom does not a decoration make. I once visited a school where the media center had set up beautiful vignettes of different holiday traditions including a Christmas scene with faux-fireplace and stockings and a table set for a Hanukkah meal. I've never seen anything like it and I was amazed at the care that the librarian had taken to make each display meaningful.  

All cultures celebrate the spirit of kindness and giving in some way. You don't need to focus on Christmas to appreciate these traits. Consider a food drive or acts of kindness day to celebrate. Likewise, traditions are founded in spending time with our loved ones - I am attending a school's "gift of reading" day this week where each class has special visitors from the community and district to read to them. I am choosing to read non-holiday books because I wasn't comfortable with my Christmas-only selection at home. But I am wearing my ugly sweater! The students will all be in the pajamas but I have to go back to Central Office ;)

Make it a point to learn about the traditions and holidays that your students celebrate. Ask questions about what those traditions mean to their families. Not all religions have a celebration in December so keep your questions open wide to year round traditions and holidays by asking "What is a tradition that you have in your family?" 

The holiday season is also an opportunity for your students to learn. Explore traditions, holidays, and cultural experiences of a wide variety of communities as you move through the month of December. All students are better for learning about others.

We also keep our questions open because not all children have the joy of Christmas, Hanukkah, or other traditions at home. For many children, their celebration days will be empty due to poverty, abuse, or family crises. I recently saw a classroom lesson where students wrote a letter to Santa with the quote about "those who believe will see presents under the tree." My heart breaks for those kids who either don't believe because that is not their family tradition or that do believe but won't have presents or a tree.

I strongly believe school should be fun. There are many ways to celebrate the festivity of the holiday season while learning and growing from the rich, diverse religious and cultural traditions that are represented in our communities. As school counselors, we are charged with making school a welcome and inviting place for all students to learn. How are you working to make your school welcoming to all this holiday season?

Recently, I was scrolling through social media and I saw a comment written by a school counselor friend that said "I can't tell you how many times I have been hit, kicked, scratched and bitten this year. Luckily, I haven't been spit or peed on." I read the comment and shook my head in sympathy and started to move on but realized that most of the general public would be shocked to find out that any school employee might be regularly hurt on the job by children. Often our youngest students are the least capable of handling the intense emotions that they experience not to mention trauma that may have triggered these emotions. That is why we have school counselors and that is why we are inspired to do this work every day.

But let's get real! It is no fun to go to work every day to be "hit, kicked, scratched and bitten." In fact, school counselors don't talk about it. No one in grad school told me that I might be physically assaulted at work. I remember a little girl that I worked with years ago who had many episodes of violent behavior per week. I would get in the car to go to work and my eyes would well up in tired tears thinking about what would happen once I arrived. It was hard. Really hard. Looking back, I know we did all the right things but this kiddo had some major needs that took a while to meet. So what to do when you are in the middle of this reality?

Knowing that you might have to work with children who are hurting themselves or others, it's important to be trained in some type of crisis intervention. Many districts in my area use CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention but there are other resources out there. If you are unsure what your district has to offer, check with your special education department because they may offer something similar to your low-incidence teachers. It's important to be trained how to work with students to keep them (and you!) safe. 

That doesn't mean ignoring the phone or running past the classroom with a screaming child ;) Instead, try to help the child to calm down before they reach a crisis point if possible. Sometimes this means working with your classroom teachers to identify warning signs that a child is close to crisis. Sometimes it means using some in-the-moment crisis diffusing counselor tricks. Personally, I like the "help now" section of the iChill App. 

There's a reason that institutions like the Army and Red Cross debrief after an event. People need to talk about what they've been through and support one another. In addition, debriefing allows you to talk about what went well and what didn't. After my assistant principal and I spent around 3 hours with a student helping him to de-escalate and calm down, we went out separate ways to finish our day. The next morning, I went by her office and asked if we could talk about our work with this student. We had a great conversation where we talked about what worked and what didn't. We were able to be honest with one another and share some ideas for our future work together. We became a well oiled machine when working with a student in crisis. Our calm helped our students to feel safe with us and helped us to be better in the next crisis. 

Debriefing happens with people who were there in the crisis or who may be there next time. It's also important to communicate with your colleagues about what you can handle and where you are emotionally and physically. Your administrators need to be made aware that a child has been violent so that they can assess staffing as appropriate. Of course, there are times when your own needs may not be met. Communicate that as well. Often we, as counselors, are the least likely to advocate for our own work. I speak to counselors all the time who, through lack of communication, have painted themselves in a corner where they are no longer productive for themselves or their students.

I'm starting to get to the point where I roll my eyes when I hear the phrase "self care." That said, it really is important. When you've spent your day physically protecting yourself and a child, it's important to think about what will fill your (now empty) bucket. Sitting on the couch watching mindless TV, exercise, or a mini shopping spree might work for you. Or not. Pick what would make you smile - or at least not grimace. After one particularly crazy morning with my student who had me tearing up in the mornings, I walked up to my principal and said "I'm done. I'm going home. I just can't." He looked at me and said "Seems like you've worked a full day to me." Yeah, he's a good guy.


So, what are your tips for handling that thing we don't talk about? What's your favorite self-care release?

Schools spend hours of professional learning time on pedagogy, the theory and practice of teaching. Typically, this time is spent on best practices for teaching academic standards. However, as adults we can see that success in the world around us is grounded in skills like time management, work habits, help-seeking behaviors, or metacognitive strategies. How can we support the learning of noncognitive skills in students through the PLC framework used widely in education? Recently, I have been working with a team in my district to dig deeper into noncognitive factors and how we support students in social emotional learning. I am extremely proud of this work. ​

Professional learning communities are groups of educators that work together to not only to ensure good teaching is taking place but that students are learning. The PLC is founded in four questions:

1. ​What do we want students to learn?
2. How will we know they are learning?
3. How will we respond when they don't learn?
4. How will we respond if they already know it?

What if we extended the PLC concept to move beyond academic standards to encompass noncognitive skills? This goes beyond behavior management and office discipline referrals to real social emotional learning. As school counselors we are in a unique position to lead this work. 

The first core question of the PLC is "what do we want students to learn?" Often we see noncognitive skills as separate from core academic learning. However, all learning requires noncognitive skills. Instead of thinking of social emotional learning as separate, let's ask ourselves which noncognitive skills are embedded in a unit or lesson. For instance, if a class is working on creating math video tutorials, which skills will they need to be successful? The ASCA mindsets and behaviors are a great place to look for skills necessary to successfully complete this work.

Right now, behavior, specifically office discipline referrals are the most frequent indicator that students are not learning the noncognitive skills needed to be successful. However, by the time an office referral happens, the time for learning has passed. Looking at the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors, we see observable behaviors that could be assessed. In the PLC, we can look at the noncognitve skills we planned for students to use and learn and then determine if they effectively learned this skill. In our math tutorial example, we would make a plan to see that students were able to:

• Demonstrate creativity,
• Apply media and technology skills,
• Demonstrate ability to manage transitions and ability to adapt to changing situations,
• Use effective oral and written communication skills and listening skills,
• Use effective collaboration and cooperation skills,
• Use leadership and teamwork skills to work effectively in diverse teams.

Here is the key, the moment of change for all the work that school counselors do. Right now, when students lack noncognitve skills we typically wait for them to fail and then proceed to an intervention to "fix them." What if, instead, we were talking about students and their social emotional learning along the way, using the skills that we had defined as embedded in the academic lessons being taught. If students needed additional support in learning these skills, the intervention could be put in place before the lack of noncognitive skills caused them to be sent to the office, lack friends, or fail a grade. 

Hint- the answer isn't to make them take care of the other kids. Let's face it, typically our students with robust noncognitive skills are tasked with helping others around them. While this works in small doses, it can be frustrating for both students. What if students who had developed noncogntive skills were given more choices and independence in their learning. If they were able to self manage, were self aware with social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making then the classroom is open to them to explore in depth and create their own learning. Thinking back to the video tutorial example, this might mean that students with robust noncognitive skills were able to create tutorials independently or to learn a video editing software not originally introduced to the entire class. It's both a reward (increased freedom) and a chance to expand their skillset. 

School counselors aren't in the classroom daily to implement many of these ideas but we play a large role in collaborating and consulting with teachers, interventionists, and administration. One of the simple strategies that I have used is to align my lessons with noncognitive skills that support the academic content currently happening in the classroom. For isntance, I taught a lesson on cooperation while my first grade classes were learning about job sharing. If I were to do it again, I would take it one step further and have the first graders create a cooperation rubric for job sharing in the classroom. If you're interested in learning more, ASCA has a great page of resources on Using Noncognitive Skills to Improve Student Success. How do you support noncognitive skill development in your school?

I am excited to welcome Thomas Broderick, a Northern Californian freelance writer and consultant in the education field who occasionally blogs for Teach.com to talk about creating a professional learning network using twitter. This is even more meaningful to me as I have been blowing up my twitter account with the amazing things I have learned at #ASCA17. 

There are many ways to become an amazing school counselor. Some people spend a few years in the classroom before making the transition, while others jump right in after college or grad school. No matter how you arrive in the field, you should follow the sage advice of the nation’s best school counselors. But how do you find them?

At first glance, the social network Twitter may seem a world away from counseling. In fact, the opposite is the case. America’s best counselors regularly use Twitter to reach out to others in their profession. For aspiring school counselors, there is no better way to get insider information about counseling best practices than straight from the horse’s mouth.  
 
In this article we’ll explore some of Twitter’s most influential counselors, and how you can use Twitter to expand your personal learning network (PLN). That said, let’s get started!

If you’ve never used Twitter, set up a professional profile that includes where you work and a link to your school’s website. If you already have a personal Twitter account, go ahead and set up a second professional account. It’s free!

When setting up a professional account, go ahead and follow every teacher/administrator at your school who uses Twitter. If they follow you back (and they should), they will be able to see the counseling best practices you retweet from the nation’s best school counselors. You can also use your professional account to share the amazing work you do in your building. 
 
It’s now time to FOLLOW INFLUENCIAL COUNSELORS!

​Terri Tchorzynski
Twitter Handle: @ttchorzynski
 
In January 2017, First Lady Michelle Obama awarded Terri the school counselor of the year award. Her Twitter feed is full of solid advice for counselors both new and seasoned. Her retweets come from a variety of professional counseling organizations you may want to follow, as well.
 
Chris Belser
Twitter Handle: @CBelser_PSC
 
A nationally board-certified school counselor, Chris has spent the last six years researching counseling best practices. His Twitter feed is full of links to research studies and articles that can help counselors connect to students of all ages.
 
Matthew J. Beck
Twitter Handle: @mattjbeck
 
Matthew is an excellent resource for school counselors who work with LGBT students. His Twitter feed and website are full of personal examples from which all education professionals can gain valuable wisdom.

After you follow a few counselors, you are likely to discover a treasure trove of informational Twitter profiles to follow, as well. But your PLN is only just beginning. As you retweet only the best material, consider reaching out to the counselors you follow. Ask them questions. Bounce ideas off their heads. You’d be surprised about how many people on Twitter actually answer the questions their followers ask them.
 
Establishing these relationships can greatly benefit the work you do with students and teachers. ​Twitter is a valuable tool for school counselors. It connects the nation’s counselors together, allowing the best to teach the rest. Using Twitter in this way, passionate counselors new on the job can achieve long-term professional success.  ​

Thanks Thomas and Teach.com for sharing some great ideas about using Twitter! Make sure you use #scchat in your posts so that you can connect with other amazing school counselors. Not sure what a hashtag is? I gotcha. Here are a few of my favorite peeps that I work alongside with on Confident Counselors all in one beautiful twitter list for you. 

Ahem, also, make sure you follow me :)

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!