National School Counseling Week

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) has updated their promotional materials to make it easy for school counselors to promote their school counseling programs. Get resources at national-school-counseling-week If you are a member you should be aware that last week ASCA got great press for their annual School Counselor of the Year tribute in DC. This year Dr. Jill Biden addressed the group in person and Mrs. Michelle Obama addressed them via video.  They are both very supportive of the need for school counselors, especially in their work to encourage youth to enroll in postsecondary education. Unfortunately both of them share a personal school counselor story where their high school counselors told them not to go to college or apply to an Ivy League school. It serves as a powerful reminder that all words matter and we want to encourage young people to purse their dreams!

The Reach Higher initiative Mrs. Obama launched while First Lady helps raise awareness about the critical role of school counselors. Studies show that students who met with a school counselor to discuss financial aid or college were 3x more likely to attend college and nearly 7x more likely to apply for financial aid. Unfortunately 1 in 5 students national still do not have access to a school counselor. In Kentucky where I now live over 340 schools do not have a school counselor. The Kentucky School Counselor Association is working very hard to get a mandate for all schools to employ a certified school counselor who provides direct service to students according to the ASCA National Model.

Last week during the DC events ASCA released its research briefs that show that having a lower student to counselor ration (the goal is 1:250) really does make a difference. ASCA has also funded research which shows when schools implement a comprehensive school counseling program there are better outcomes for students.

I know there is frequently a misunderstanding that this is a recognition and appreciation week for school counselors. it is NOT! Rather it is the perfect time for school counselors to advocate for school counseling programs.  One of the best advocacy tools is this  SCInfographic.pdf that helps explain to stakeholders "Who Are School Counselors?" If you have not already done so, please provide your administrators and school board members with a copy of this great one page sheet.

All school counselors need to advocate at the local level if they are going to be given the opportunity to help students using the skills we all possess. Obviously with increasing rates of stress, anxiety, depression, and suicide students need us to be doing prevention and intervention. Beyond the local level all school counselors should join and participate in their states level school counseling association. I also encourage all school counselors to join ASCA - they have very active research and government relations roles to play in building better school counseling programs now and in the future. Professional membership in ASCA is $129 a year, all of us waste much more money each year than that. The more members the state SCAs and ASCA have the louder their voice to get the ratio of students to counselors to the goal of 1:250 with school counselors providing 80% of their time in indirect and direct services to students.

School Counselors: Providing Lessons for Life is a terrific theme. Please take time this week to inform your stakeholders about the role of the school counselor - don't assume they know. If you are allowed to take pictures and post on social meeting pictures of you teaching core curriculum in the classroom. Policy makers like to know that counselors really do teach social emotional lessons and address bullying. We all need to show people what we do!

Resource for Exploring Gender Identity

Kelly Stork, a clinical social worker, has written a new workbook for the valuable Instant Help Books series for Parents and Kids. Transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) children need validation and support on their journey toward self-discovery. Unfortunately, due to stigma and misinformation, these kids can be especially vulnerable to bullying, discrimination, and even mental health issues such as anxiety or depression. The good news is that there are steps parents and counselors can take to empower children as they explore, understand, and affirm their gender identity. This important workbook will guide both parents and children and is an important resource for counselors to have on hand for families to learn about gender.
Learn more about Instant Help Books from New Harbinger Publications newharbinger.com/instant-help When you register your book you get downloadable worksheets and access to instructional videos an audio files.

Happy #NSCW18

I hope you are advocating for school counseling this week. I am always grateful that ASCA really promotes our field so well, particularly using the School Counselor of the Year and this week to raise attention to what we do. We are working at the state and district level very hard to position ourselves to lower student to counselor ratios in the future. That requires lots of branding, marketing, and advocacy. Our state proposed legislation this month to mandate the 1:250 ratio for high school. It did not pass this year but we are still trying to get language in a budget amendment to add money for more school counselors. In order for our state SCA to be effective counselors must join. I think it is our professional obligation to join both our state SCA and ASCA. That is who lobbies for our positions. This year our district supervisor bought every counselor a shirt with our district logo and School Counseling in bold yellow letters underneath. I am wearing my "counseling gear" every day this week. We have signs with streamers and some teachers have kids make cards for us. We always schedule the School Counseling Advisory Council Meeting during this week and we give our members treats (we do not give something to all teachers). Our district and schools actively use social media and our web pages to promote school counseling this week. We are also having students from 3 of our elementary schools present a Second Step lesson (that we taught them) to our School Board. The Board Members remember student presentations much more than staff PowerPoints! If you have other good ideas, please leave a comment.

Sharing DATA to Show Results

I loved seeing school counselors promoting their programs last week and really liked those wise counselors who used NSCW week as an opportunity to share results with stakeholders. They inspired me to do my first DATA report of the year on the two emotion regulation groups I wrapped up last week. Actually analyzing the pre-post surveys validated my belief that I would meet the goal and gave me plenty of ideas for how I can improve these groups next year. I use the DATA report from the third edition of "Making DATA Work" which aligns with the third edition of "The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs". "Making DATA Work" complements the ASCA National Model by providing step-by-step implementation strategies, skill-building activities, examples and resources to help school counselors develop program goals, collect and analyze data and share their findings with key stakeholders. I publish these reports in a variety of ways including sharing it with district supervisors, the school counseling program  advisory council, and hopefully our school board liaison. My stakeholders know about the school counseling program but I need to announce the impact in a way that non-counselors understand!

College/Career Readiness #NSCW17

ASCA wanted school counselors to promote college and career readiness today, the last day of National School Counseling Week. I don't ask my students what they want to be when they grow up (today's sign) because many will do jobs that do not currently exist. We promote the exploration of the 16 career clusters and talk about all postsecondary options. Staff and students are encouraged to wear college gear the first Friday of each month that students are in school. Staff is proud to show off their favorite college(s). I am in the picture with our library staff and their beautiful bulletin board!

I love being a school counselor #NSCW17

We got a harsh reminder if why it is so important for us to inform stakeholders about our programs. After our Counseling Supervisor gave our school board the annual update on the counseling program and suggested adding a career specialist at each middle school and more elementary counselors, a board member responded that the money is not in the budget for additional staff. It was suggested that teachers could do academic advising and she mentioned a school that does not have a counselor as a model. At our monthly meeting this week there was a lot of venting about the board comments. We concluded that we need to be more proactive in informing stakeholders about all the components of our program and especially the need for mental health support. This morning I tweeted this picture to my school board not because I love having my picture taken but because I want every student to have good access to school counseling. I am wearing my "iHelp" t-shirt that is the logo we use to brand our program.

Reading opinions from students and staff about our role

I enjoy reading the comments counselor's received on the ASCA "I love my school counselor because" today on Twitter from their students and staff. Some even created videos of these signs. I love getting feedback from my students. I told the first grader who wrote me this note that I was keeping her sign in my smile file. I have kept a smile file for over 20 years. At the end of the year I usually reread the many cards and notes I have received and keep just a few. These notes raise the level of dopamine in my brain and make me feel appreciated and happy! I encourage all counselors to save some of the pictures and notes you get to reread on those difficult days when the job can seem overwhelming.

School Not Guidance Counselor

I really appreciate the hard work of ASCA and the state branches advocating and supporting school counseling programs based on the ASCA National Model.I encourage you all to purchase the t-shirt and mugs sporting this logo which brands us as school counselors.catalog

Three years ago the Virginia School Counselors were successful in lobbying the Department of Education to change the language at the state level from guidance counselors to school counselors. That was an important step because now our state certification reads "School Counselor PreK-12."

At the local level it is important we continue to let stakeholders know we are School Counselors who lead comprehensive programs and do so much more than the academic "guidance" of the past. It is small things like the signs on our office doors that read "Guidance Office" when they should say "School Counseling Office" or "School Counselor." It educating our teachers that we deliver the School Counseling Core Curriculum preparing our students for the future not the vocational guidance of the past century.

Celebrating the Support Staff Give to School Counseling Program

My staff know I love tea, therefore, I don't think anyone will be too surprised that I am providing tea to promote school counseling and thank them for their collaboration. I also completed the Certificate of Appreciation provided by ASCA NSCW/2017certificate Normally I give the certificate and a gift to all the members of our School Counseling Advisory Council but our meeting was last week so this year I am going to display one certificate for the whole staff next to my tea station in the Teachers' Lounge. 

NSCW Theme 2017

National School Counseling Week 2017, "School Counseling: Helping Students Realize Their Potential," will be celebrated from Feb. 6-10, 2017, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by ASCA, highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. Each year ASCA picks a theme for the week. It fits well with our Mission Statement, "The Nottingham School Counseling Program is dedicated to helping all students establish their unique academic, career, and social emotional goals so they can reach their maximum potentials." 

Spread the Word: NSCW

It is almost National School Counseling Week (NSCW) and I hope all school counselors will use this as an opportunity to promote their counseling programs. Branding and marketing create engagement with stakeholders. These 2 slides are from a presentation my part-time counselor and I did a few years ago for the Virginia School Counselor Association Annual Conference. The entire PowerPoint is available at www.livebinders When you think of your marketing plan for NSCW consider your particular stakeholders and community. Our district counseling supervisor presented to our school board a few nights ago and our superintendent and a board member were invited to make opening remarks at our all day inservice yesterday. My principal recognized NSCW at our staff meeting this past Thursday. I will be tweeting out every day this week and sending my tweets to the feed followed by our school board members and senior staff. I have the flyer I shared last week hanging in key locations in my school because we are predominantly a walking school so parents are in the building daily. I also will be a walking advertisement this w eek wearing all my counseling logo gear! I will use the free tools from ASCA schoolcounselor.org/ I am advocating for a better raitio elementary counselors so we need to let our stakeholders know we work with ALL students. I hope all school counselors take advantage of NSCW to brand and market school counseling.

NSCW Flyer

I will be putting copies of this flyer all around my school next week to inform stakeholders about school counseling. The flyer is simply the ASCA download NSCW/HappyNSCW.pdf and QR Codes that provide information about our district's program, the link to my school counseling web page, and my school counseling blog. I have a paper flyer that describes my program but it only gets updated once a year and our school is trying to be more green. I am hoping this will encourage stakeholders to actually read my web page and blog since it is a lot of work. nottingham.apsva.us/counseling/

NSCW15 Appreciation

Yes the letter from the superintendent, emails from principal and AP, and teachers' comments about school counseling week make me feel appreciated but it is the kids' cards that make me smile!

NSCW15 Sign

Celebrate National School Counseling Week

Promoting the School Counseling Program

"Celebrate School Counseling" a 100 picture slide show with captions I put together using this iPAD app has been running on a continuous loop this week on our school's in-house TV show.  The slide show is 5 minutes long.  Fotovidia has a feature to add music but we did not want to play any copyrighted music and we had trouble loading the copyright free music we had access to so this year it is pictures only.  Since our PTA gave the counselors the IPAD mini a few months ago we wanted to show we are using it in a variety of ways, including promoting the school counseling program during National School Counseling Week.  I go the idea from themiddleschoolcounselor.com

Happy School Counseling Week!

Our new February bulletin board designed by our part-time counselor and perfectly executed by our wonderful parent volunteer.  The goodies all have strategies for friendship like "share" and the kisses tags loner wones like "make eye contact."

Public Relations

I don't like to have my picture taken; however, pictures are a great public relations tool.  We use actual pictures to help tell the story of what we do with various stakeholders. I try to avoid pictures with children's faces and last names for obvious reasons.  I had a teacher take this picture of my because I am making a slide show for School Counseling Week.  I store all my pictures in Dropbox.  I download some of them to the iPAD mini I use for our program.  Pictures can be added to flyers, posters, pamphlets, electronic flyers, web page, etc.  I typically save my pictures for 2 years, then update them.

Highlight National School Counseling Week On Annual Calendar

It's time to be developing our Annual School Counseling Program Calendar.  Don't forget to include National School Counseling Week.  The 2014 theme is "School Counseling: Building Magical Futures." NSCW will be celebrated from Feb. 3-7, 2014, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of professional school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by ASCA, highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. National School Counseling Week is always celebrated the first full week in February. If you need ideas go to the ASCA website for free materials to download or order materials.

We always schedule one of our Advisory Council meetings either right before or during NSCW.  It gives us an opportunity to celebrate with the supporters of our program.  We always give each member a small gift at this meeting to thank them for the work they do on behalf of school counseling.

What ideas have worked at your school?