The past two weeks I had the opportunity to visit all of the grade classrooms to introduce myself and present on what school counselors' job responsibilities are. The students were all very welcoming and friendly! I appreciated their questions and interest in school counseling. I also want to thank all the teachers who allowed me to come into their classrooms and take over their teaching time. Here is the presentation that I presented to each of the classes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qvcfInTfhWeXk8Tiij_MPJxhg5wS8YpxuTYjDV6TRws. Before the presentation I gave the students a pre-test and then after gave them a post-test. I joked with the students that it was probably the only "test" they would have to take where they didn't have to put their name and they could write "I don't know" as the answer. From this information I found that 83% of students in 4th through 8th grade learned more about what a school counselor does. I thought this was pretty impressive for students that have had school counselors for many years! At the end of the presentation I had the students fill out a need assessment. An example of the 8th grade needs assessment is below (each grade was modified a bit to be more developmentally appropriate but they all asked the same questions).
I input all the data for each individual needs assessment into Qualtrics (a statistical survey program that makes the data visual and easier to comprehend). I will take the data, break it down into grade level and then select the topics that would be best served as classroom guidance, small group counseling, or individual counseling; creating my comprehensive school counseling program. The topics that more than 50% of students in that grade stated they needed help with will be addressed as large group classroom guidance. Those topics that 10% or more of students checked as needing assistance with are topics for possible small groups. And I will follow up with students individually based on their academic, career, and/or personal/social needs. From the data collected I will conduct the following large group lessons:
4th: Stress Management, Expressing Feelings
5th: Goal Setting, Expressing Feelings
6th: Goal Setting, Decision Making, and/or Testing Taking/Study Skills
7th: Exploring Future Career Choices, Goal Setting
8th: Exploring Future Career Choices, Goal Setting
The small group and individual counseling will not be posted as of now. I am very excited to be able to work with the students through their classrooms and hope to learn all of their names. I have encouraged them all to practice pronouncing my name and to introduce themselves whenever they see me. The challenge and goal I set for myself for this year is to learn all of the students' names, just under 500 names to learn! Better get to it!
4th: Stress Management, Expressing Feelings
5th: Goal Setting, Expressing Feelings
6th: Goal Setting, Decision Making, and/or Testing Taking/Study Skills
7th: Exploring Future Career Choices, Goal Setting
8th: Exploring Future Career Choices, Goal Setting
The small group and individual counseling will not be posted as of now. I am very excited to be able to work with the students through their classrooms and hope to learn all of their names. I have encouraged them all to practice pronouncing my name and to introduce themselves whenever they see me. The challenge and goal I set for myself for this year is to learn all of the students' names, just under 500 names to learn! Better get to it!