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