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School Counseling in a Virtual Setting

8/19/2020

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The new school year is starting and many schools are beginning the year in online learning. As school counselors, this presents an unique challenge for how to proactively support students through a comprehensive school counseling program. By rethinking some of our basic best practices, I think we can successfully implement school counseling during remote learning. As I share suggestions today, make sure to keep your districts guidelines and policies in mind as you consider how you will shift and change your program this school year.

High Visibility

 (My very first principal told me that the reason he hired me was because I talked about visibility in my interview. If students and parents don't know who the school counselor is, they won't see you as a resource. I always signed up for breakfast duty because most of my kids ate breakfast in the cafeteria, I walk through the lunchroom during lunch, I go outside during recess to check on kids instead of calling them to my office, and I make sure to greet any parent that I see throughout the day. Being visible shows that you are a part of the school and not a person locked in their office waiting for the "bad" kids (note: there are no bad kids and if you disagree, let's talk). 

So how can we adjust this to the virtual setting?
  • Offer to read a book or stop in to morning meetings
  • Ask to be included in any videos or phone messages that go out to parents
  • Reach out to all parents by sending an email or asking teachers to include a message from you in their communication
  • Attend PLC meetings for grade levels or content areas
  • Call parents for students that you have worked closely with in the past just to check in
  • If feasible, send postcards or notes to students

Use Data to Connect

Collect as much data as possible on how Spring went for students. Use this data to determine students who might need additional help or support. Collect data on how participation is going this Fall. This is going to be your "I won't let this student fall through the cracks" list. We often have these lists as we start the year. I like to begin the year with a focus and this would be my focus for the beginning of 20-21.

When you reach out to parents do not talk about participation. This seems counter-intuitive, right? I heard about parents hanging up on the school in the spring, parents telling teachers and counselors they just couldn't do it and opting out. As we move forward with the 20-21 school year, that won't be as much of an option. We're no longer crisis teaching, we. have. to. make. this. work. The first step to building a team is building a relationship. Call and check in. Call and be a listening ear. And, please, don't just send an email. 

Be the Support

Every year, I have a few students that just need me to check on them. We're not really doing deep counseling work. We may not even have super specific goals that they are working on. But I notice that when I forget to check in, they start having a harder time. So I check in. I make sure they have that person that they know is watching out for them. 

How can we adjust this to the virtual setting?
  • If your students have email, use email as a simple check in tool
  • Ask parents if you can set up a 10-15 minute weekly check in (if this is allowed in your district)
  • Ask teachers if you can virtually stop by any small groups this student may be receiving in the classroom
  • Send a postcard or just call to say hello

Be Transparent

The best way to protect your time as a school counselor, is to be transparent about how you spend it. Keeping a calendar is a great place to start. Talking with your administrator, teachers, and parents about what you do on a daily basis is also important. If you have admin meetings or student support services team meetings, use that time to prepare talking points on your use of time data. Share the details that would matter to your stakeholders while protecting confidentiality. When we are in remote learning, it might be less obvious what the counselor is doing. To be values as a part of the team, we want to clearly show how we can be helpful.

Focus on Equity

Students don't learn in a vacuum, many of our students are carrying the weight of both a pandemic and racial injustice. These two intersect and overlap in ways that compound stressors for our students and families. This isn't the time to hold on equity work. Continue to interrupt racism as a school counselor, each and every day. 

Take Care of You

2020 has been the most stressful year of my professional life. I am sure that is true for many. Make sure to figure out what makes living in a pandemic a tiny bit more manageable and do it. Because sometimes it's too much. What keeps you going during stress?
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The new school year is starting and many schools are beginning the year in online learning. As school counselors, this presents an unique challenge for how to proactively support students through a comprehensive school counseling program. By rethinking some of our basic best practices, I think we can successfully implement school counseling during remote learning.
1 Comment

Supporting Mental Well Being

8/8/2020

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Mental well being is important for everyone. Just like everyone has physical health, everyone has mental health. As we live as a community in the midst of a pandemic and racial strife, we are facing mental well being obstacles that sometimes seem overwhelming. I think it's safe to say, 2020 is too much.

Oftentimes, teachers and other school staff come to school counselors to find out how to support student mental well being. I've recently discovered the WE Teachers hub that includes a module on mental well being. The module is BIG (the full PDF is 52 pages). Knowing that everyone is rather overwhelmed right now, I thought I would point out a few highlights. 

​Healthy Mental and Emotional Development by Age

In this tool, healthy mental and emotional development by age gives tips on typical struggles and growth that are a part of human development. We all know that mood swings might be normal for 10-12 year olds but that doesn't mean it's not hard. This module gives tips on how to support children through the very normal struggles of growing up. I think this section would be even better if they also included a few bullets on when to seek help.

Classroom Best Practices

The best practices for supporting mental well being in the classroom include tips for reframing our own mindsets as educators to avoid stigmatizing students or pre-determining that students are going to have a hard time. I appreciate this focus on how the adult enters the educator-student relationship impacts the outcome for the student. As counselors, we need to own this too. 

The best practices section continues to include ways to be supportive of students. There are also tips for working with students who may have mental health concerns like anxiety and ADHD. Seeking help from school counselors is mentioned throughout as a resource. I appreciate both the acknowledgement of what school counselors can do (and also the fact they don't say guidance counselor).

Teacher Well Being

More than ever, we need to be thinking about teacher's mental well being. This was already a hard job. A rewarding, meaningful, and amazing but super hard job. As our world has been flipped upside down, teachers (and counselors, and principals, and cafeteria staff, and custodians...) are being tasked with a way to do school that has never been done before. This is hard. We can't be the educators we want to be without taking care of ourselves and each other too. The guide includes self reflection questions that can be utilized by staff to consider the resiliency factors that support their stress management. I think this would be a great tool to use in staff meetings or PLCs. 

You've got a lot on your to-do list right now. This is a resource that you can use to support yourself and your staff as we move in to the 20-21 school year. 

This post is sponsored by WE Teachers. All opinions and 2020 bashing are my own. 
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Interrupting Racism in COVID-19

5/22/2020

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Hello my school counseling heroes. I know that you are all working hard right now to support your students, staff, and families during the COVID-19 crisis. Our work is always hard and now it's been made harder. One of my colleagues said "it's like our muse is gone." Couldn't agree more, without the kids, it's like the best parts of our jobs are whittled down to the notsofun parts. Hang in there, this too shall pass. 

My co-author, Alicia Oglesby, and I had the opportunity to host a #scchat with ASCA School Counselor of the Year extraordinaire Laura Ross. I feel like Laura was there from the beginning chatting with us and supporting our work. Thanks Laura!  We chatted all things interrupting racism when it comes to being a school counselor during school closures. 

So many people came to the chat and, let me tell you, y'all showed up. I could barely keep up. Here's the transcript, in case you want to take a look at some of the amazing thoughts of our school counselor colleagues. What kinds of things are you thinking through right now? My brain is currently spinning on return to school. Stay tuned for more thoughts!
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Social Emotional Learning in Academics

9/10/2019

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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.
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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.
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Access to Rigor in Elementary School

8/13/2019

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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!
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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?
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    Rebecca Atkins

    Welcome to my blog where I talk about all things school counselor and encourage others to Counselor Up!

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