Parent Book Club
Workshop Series
"Professional development and learning content must be driven by the needs of students, counselors, and schools" |
Steering Committee
To value professional development is to promote a culture within a school that supports opportunities for growth and development. As part of my role as director, I routinely survey counselors for content and structures that will best meet their professional needs. Through a "steering committee", one school counselor from each school is charged with advising and acting as a speaker to promote the professional growth within their department. Through the use of PLC's, counselors can collaborate with teachers, and other related school personnel such as social workers, nurses or college advisors to support the growth and alignment of developing a positive school community. |
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PLC Agenda
Provided to all members in addition to the book, Growth Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. Members committed to the schedule and met once per week for approximately 10 weeks. PLC members earned 10 hours of Professional Development hours. |
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The Power of the Podcast
Hosting a monthly podcast allows for building unique connections with families and students. In my experience, hosting a podcast has improved the overall communication between the counseling department, the school community, and the families and students. We as a department offer increased reach and accessibility, providing parents with a platform to speak openly about student concerns, school-related issues, and/or upcoming events. Through a live or recorded podcast, information was disseminated, with an opportunity for parents, staff, or students to share comments or concerns. Through this approach we built connections, rapport, and offered a flexible way of communicating for working parents. Similar to that of a newsletter, a podcast offers clear line of communication, transparency, and accountability for those involved. It is a unique and direct approach to communicating, presenting, and fostering relationships with our vested families.
"Counselor Accents Podcast"
I encourage school counselors to subscribe to the free podcast, “Counselor Accents” which provides relevant, innovative, and creative ways to support our students and our staff within the school community. Through this podcast, presenters invite expert guests from the field of counseling to offer advice, support, and/or resources that are easily accessible. Counselors can obtain free training opportunities, state and national conference information, as well as relevant literature that is beneficial for the overall improvement of the district. As one of my approaches to building capacity within my department, I highly recommend this podcast and encourage my staff to use it as a model, for our own podcast.
Counselor Accents Podcast
counseloraccents.com/school_counseling_podcast/
Data in School CounslingComprehensive school counseling programs in the 21st century are data driven. Using data to drive decisions ensures that every student receives the benefit of a school counseling program that is preventative in design, developmental in nature, and comprehensive in scope. (Hatch 2022).
School generated data: Data automatically generated by the school such as reports regarding attendance and tardies, discipline, suspensions, report card grades, conduct grades, "at-risk" students, climate surveys, standardized test scores, GPA, changes in achievement levels, retention rates, drop out rates,etc. School generated data can be divided into 2 parts, achievement data and achievement-related data. Achievement data: Data that is used to measure the progress of students and the success of a school. It can impact school grades, funding, administrative and teacher/counselor employment. These are things like standardized test scores, graduation rates, ACT/SAT scores, drop-out rate, GPA, changes in achievement levels, retention rates, pass rates for HS exit exams, etc. Achievement-related data: The data elements that impact student achievement. When students attend school, behave, do HW and take rigorous classes they perform better in school which in turn will show improvement in achievement. Achievement related data are things such as discipline referrals, truancy, report card grades, conduct grades, "at -risk" students, and climate surveys. All of these are elements can be directly impacted by the services of the School Counselor. Achievement-related data is my starting point. This is the data we analyze for patterns, deficits and needs to help inform our program goals. Looking at school climate and culture surveys, google forms, frequency of student referrals, teacher referrals, and family outreach can provide a data story that can therefore help in determining Tier 2 interventions. School Counselor generated data: Data a School Counselor generates from pre and post tests or surveys for assessing student perceptions following lessons or groups. Also, parent, teacher, and student needs assessments for informing school counseling program goals. MTMDSS- Multi-tiered, Multi-dimensional Systems of Support
School Counselor Generated Data
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Certifications and Trainings
NHA Recognition Techniques
| nha-recognition-techniques.pdf.zmdownload |
Animal Assisted Interventions in the Classroom
| animal_assisted_interventions_in_the_classroom.pdf |