the need for school counselors

So day one of grad school and I already love it. Its so different when the prof is talking about things you have a passion for. I feel like I was smiling ear to ear, with everything he was talking about. Im even excited about writing papers..which never happens. lol. There is a ton of reading too (3 classes= 3 textbooks) and unlike undergraduate im actually am reading them. One of the textbooks that really spoke to me was from my Intro to S.C. class.

 The chapter was all about how school counselor became what it is know and the struggles it had to overcome as a profession. I am very proud in becoming a school counselor and help becoming an agent of change of the education system.

S.C. has come so far but sadly it has so much to go. I looked at the State School Counseling Mandates and Legislation and I see some great improvements and some other things that made me shocked.  (http://www.schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors-members/careers-roles/state-school-counseling-mandates-and-legislation). Now, it looking at the information, it shows that school counselors are very valued at the high school level. (yes- 32 to only no-18) This doesn't surprise me because whenever I asked someone what does a school counselor do majority of people think college and career prep. Another great success is there is more mandated school counselor states then not mandated :-) The issue that really bothers me (I am going looking at either middle or elementary schools ) is the lack of importance for school counselors in elementary and middle school grades. This honestly is astonishing to be since these years are the where we learn about our identity, deal with peer pressure and bullying and well as so many other issues. Kids are having to deal with more grownup issues (abuse, divorce, death) at such young ages now a days. It seems parents(no offense) just see school counselors as the one to help get their kid into college, but they do and are needed in some many other areas. In order for kids to do well in the academic part of school, they cant be distracted by the many issues that kids deal with like peer pressure, how to be a friend, bullying, self image. These are things that School Counselors can focus on (teachers have enough to worry about let school counselors help lessen the load).


Maybe by the time I become a school counselor it will be mandated in my state :)

Today is finally the day... I start grad school

So I am still in shock that I  actually got in..because if you read in my past blogs, at first I didn't get in. I got the "regret to inform you" (you're not getting in letter). I was devastated but my dad pushed me to call and now Im actually in the class. I paid for my semester so I know its real but I still in shock that I actually got in.
Besides the shock, I haven't been in school for 2 years and I know grad school should be very different. I cant be around like minded minds, and be able to learn more about my passion.
So since I dont know what to expect..I wanted to write down some goals that I want to make sure I achieve.
Goals:
1) meet new people
2) really get to know my profs
3)have a study group
4) Have a good balance (work/play)
5) stay organized
6) do things that future Lauren will thank you for
7) write in the blog once a week (it could be about subbing, struggles, things learn/discussed)

I also thought before I start this Journey I want to just thank everyone who helped me reach my dreams

God- Thank you so much. I love being able to look back and seeing how everything happens for a reason. You have always been there and always will. Thank you

Parents- You guys are amazing parents. You always told me I could do anything that I set my heart to and you never put pressure on me to be someone I was not. I still to this day have an inner dialogue in my head about what you would always say to me "did you try your best" and then I would always say yes and you would say well thats all that matters. You guys never let me give up on my goal and I feel so blessed to have parents like you.

Boyfriend- When I was waiting to hear back and didnt get in you were so accepting. I was so upset and you stayed close and just let me be sad. I know you dont feel to comfortable with emotions but you stayed close and helped me see all the things I had going for me. You also are so excited for me to be in Grad school. I know there will be some days where im strugggling to keep going but you will give me that push that will help me reach my goals

Friends/Fam- Thank you for all the prayers and being there through everything :)

Ok,
well I classes start at 4:30 and tonight go till 9:00.. Wish me luck

cant wait to start..resources that are found

So 42 days till my program begins... and I cant wait for it to start. In the mean time I got my new desk set up and ordered some books that will help me get my head in the right mindset. I just looked at the textbooks I need for school and it turns out I already have one so I'm very excited about that. I am excited but nervous, I know it will be a different layout but I like to know what I am to expect in different situations. I know that there will prob be more discussions and presentations but thats about it.
These are the books I ordered..havent come in but I will write a review about them thanks for the recommendations from twitter #sccrowd #asca


There is awide variety of resources for students just starting the program. Like I mentioned twitter is not just for celbs( venting about how hard there life is..lol), there is actually alot of networking that is avaible. I think this networking is so important for this proffesion because you are most likely the only school counselor in that school. (unlike for teacherswho prob have 40 other teachers that are walking distance lol) I have asked a bunch of questions of tips and advice about starting up, and I was so shocked how much input I got back. Twitter also has chats that are avaible that you are able to write in as long as you put the hashtag of the group. I was part of the newbie chat and I found it very helpful. Its on thursdays at 7 #scNOTaluxury. Some other great groups @ASCAtweets, and @SCCrowd.

Another resource that has been so helpful is pinterest. I have so many boards for school counselling and because its all organized I will be able to find it later when I actually need it. www.pinterest.com/laurenski7

I have an ipad so I have also found some apps that have been very useful. I  am on bloglovin which I can preview a bunch of blogs at once. This makes it very useful when your time is short and you dont have time looking up each blog that you follow.I am following:Elementary counselling blog, school counseling by heart and Books that heal. There is also twitter and blogger as apps which makes it very convient.

I got in!!!!!!!!!!

I know its been awhile since I was on here and I really want to make this a weekly blog that I can write about things I have learned, tips that I found and just be able to express my feelings on the journey to become a school counselor. 

I can't believe I actually got in! Its been a roller coaster of emotion these past months waiting to see if I was accepted into University of Dayton's School counselling program. I actually didn't get in at first, I was devastated. I didn't understand, because I had dedicated this year into getting into the program and if that wasn't enough I didn't know what more I could do. With a lot of coaxing I called the next day to ask what I was lacking, and why I didn't get into the program. The academic coordinator remembered me and said I was the first person who didn't get through. But he said he will make a few calls and see what he can do because he believed in me. After a month later, I got a call saying I actually got in. I was so shocked and I am still waiting to wake up from a great dream. The lesson I learned from this whole experience is never give up on your dreams. If you don't get the job or program that you had your heart on don't let that discourage you/  Take the extra effort to find out what you could do better next time. Never give up on your dream, I didnt get in the first year and I didn't let it discourage me, I used it as a challenge. Who knows maybe you will be lucky like me and by showing that persistence you will get into the program. 

This Fall 2014 I will start my program in School Counselling @ University of Dayton!!!

 

Subsitute Teaching... things i have picked up so far

So I wanted to wait till I felt I had more experience with being a subsitute teacher before I wrote a blog about it. I have subbed 12 times now and only been to the same district twice. I have subbed in elementary as well as middle school..every time I try to sub a high school for some reason we have a snow day ( I am thinking that it might be a sign that I shouldn't sub for high school but we will see. I have subbed for many different types of rooms: Emotionally disturbed, Special ed, as well as a school with only kids who have psychological disorders. Of course with my background, I thrive in the more psychological special needs classes. But I have definitively learned alot in all my classes.

What I learned in my elementary class is if kids have questions about if they can do something, ALWAYS respond with "what would your teacher say".. now of course this is directed towards the younger kids because the middle school kids might try to make up a bunch of things that the teacher supposedly lets you do. I learned this lesson the hard way in an 1st grade class that asked if they had to stand in ABC order. I was curious of the answer and before thinking I said no, you can stand where you want. Seriously, you would have thought I told them there was no Santa. Kids were screaming, crying climbing on walls..it was chaos. I finally got them back in their classroom but by that time we were behind 10 min, so the whole day I had to rush through everything just to stay on track. Another thing about kids they thrive in schedules. If they are used to doing reading first and you start with math be ready for the kids to go nuts. So basically just do exactly what the teacher would do and you will be in good shape.

 So I have worked in a middle school three times so far..and I def see the pros and cons of working with middle school students. One nice thing about middle school is you get new kids every period, so if you have a class of disruptive kids wait 45 min and you will get a whole new batch.. hopefully alil more respectful. The not so great part is they can be a bit mouthy and if you make yourself seem like you know what you are doing they will walk all over you. I have had kids leaving the classroom, acting like they are mentally retarded, talking back... you have to show them you are in-control and there will be consequences if they cant abide by your rules.I also make sure that I reward good and discipline bad. I make sure the students know that I will write down kids that did exta good.  I think the best advice I got was have the kids in a contest to see who is the best behaved at the end they get candy. I also found a great idea while looking on pinterest.. I am not sure what website it was from. Basically you get this letters and every time they get too loud you take away a letter if they loose all the letters they go to silence.

 

I think my favorite job was working with the kids with psychological special needs. The whole reason for this school is to get them equipped enough to be able to go back to normal schooling. I also loved the community within the school. Everyone worked together especially when there was a "code red". Ive experienced kids jumping on desks, rolling around on the floor, yelling at me. Usually these kids are able to cool themselves down before they get this intense with the chill out room.The room had a huge bean bag chair and a medicine ball. It was nice because it helped to teach them when how to self-regulate which is very important with working with these kids.

I feel I have learned so much in these few months.. I cant wait to see what new adventures awaits me :-)

2nd day of shadowing

The drive (to the elementary school) was was seventy-five minutes away but I'm so happy I decided to make that trip again. I feel I gained so much experience and learned more about what it takes to be a school counselor.

The day wasn't as busy so it was last time, so I was able to ask a lot of questions. I was able to sit-in on classroom guidance for 3rd grade,1st and kindergarteners. I also viewed a small group for 2nd graders called hunter's amazing remote control (self control). 

The classroom guidance was very different from last time I sat-in(last time I shadowed I watched a classroom guidance for 5th graders). Even though this was the same lesson topic, (problem solving) she approached it in a different way. For the younger grades, (3rd, and 1st) she introduced the lesson by asking the kids if they wanted to become a problem solving star. Of course, they wanted to  and were very intrigued how they would become a star. Another thing that I noticed,is she gave a lot of examples with stories and asked a lot more questions. She also used pictures of an event like not sharing and had the kids think of ideas. She believes that even though they might not understand it completely, once they are older they will already have this as a foundation and can start to implement this in their daily life. It was interesting to watch how she modified the same lesson to successfully reach all the grade levels. For the kindergarteners this was above there understanding so she showed a video about the subject work first then play and printed out a coloring page that went along with the movie. 

I was very excited to see another small group. It was the last day of Hunter's remote, a self control small group that teach them tools for controlling one self. Each session they talk about one remote button and then at the end the kids can tape it to their desk and be able to apply that to the real world. 

This is what each button stood for:

• Channel Changer- filter out distractions
• Pause-stop, to think and relax to create a plan
• Fast Forward-look to at the repercussions of these actions will have in the future.
• Rewind- shifting focus from past failure to future gain
•  Slow motion- slow down when managing stress
• Coach- problem solving 
• Zapper- recognizing and rejecting negative thoughts/feelings
• Way to Go- using positive talk

 It was very interesting to see how the kids were understanding the concept and I was excited when I heard about the stories where the kids were apply it to their everyday lives.

 

 After the small group I had time to ask her questions about her job. She was very real with me, which I appreciated. Not getting into the program last year I was well aware of the challenging aspect of becoming a school counselor. She said that if I wanted to find a job, I would have to be ready to either move or work at a charter school. Another tip she gave me is always have candy and make it fun with the kids, making them look forward to your visits helps them wanting to come to you when they need help in the future. 

She also suggested maybe getting another masters in Clinical Mental health that way I will have more of a chance to get into the schools. 

I am thrilled I got this experience to shadow her and cant wait what amazing experiences are in my future.

1st day of shadowing

I finally was able to shadow a school counselor: Laura an elementary school counselor near Newark. Thank you so much Laura for allowing me the privileged to shadow you around for a few days.I now know that this is what I am supposed to do with the rest of my life.  I LOVED IT! I was able to sit in on 3 classroom guidance lessons for 5th graders and a friendship small group for 2nd graders.

The guidance lesson for the 5th graders was about Problem Solving: STAR method. S-stop, T-think (start thinking of solutions) A-act (pick a solution that will have the best outcome) R-review (decide if this was the right decision or if you need to go over the steps again and pick another solution.)They went over the steps and then played a interactive tic-tac-toe game where the teams had to go through the steps to deal with an everyday problem. I liked how she kept both groups focusing on the game by allowing steals (if the team who was answering didnt have the best answer). She also tried to end it where no one won so no one got upset. I really enjoyed this idea and hopefully will be able to use it in the future.

The friendship small group was really cool. I was so excited when I found out that the lesson she was teaching, I already had it on in one of my boards on Pinterest.

from: http://creativeelementaryschoolcounselor.blogspot.com/ )

She changed this activity a little by adding: what I do that bugs people, and a sheet for what to do when I do bother someone, or when someone bothers me. I really liked the addition and I the kids seemed to really enjoy it.

Here is some notes from my shadowing experience:

1. As a school counselor, you need to be flexible. Your plans will change and you have to be able to go with the flow. 
2. Work as a team: She had the kids contact their teachers or parents, if they had any issues. That way if she would of been busy.(like today) the teacher could try to talk to the student until Laura could get the chance to see her. 
3. A school counselors job needs to focus on these 3 components Academia, Career, emotional wellbeing. Trying to reach all those components for each small group or classroom guidance lesson that she does. For example: with the problem solving 5th grade classroom guidance lesson, she introduced me and asked the kids about shadowing and let them know its a great idea. 
4. School counselors DONT deal with the root cause. Instead of digging deep and figuring out why they are feeling this way, they give them ways to cope through it. Which I like a lot better, sounds like instead of diagnosing them and putting a stigma toward that label on the child, the school counselor is empowering the student. 
5. With small groups always have 1st session:be a get to know you and last session: wrap-up (finish everything that wasn't done yet.
6. I thought this was a really great way to figure out what skills you teach to classroom guidance versus small group

I didnt have much time to ask questions since it was pretty busy with all the guidance lessons but I'm coming back on Monday and we should have more time to answer my questions,and I will post the questions and answers on here