What If We Worked on What Works

When we try to do everything, we risk missing the work only we can do. A Story One of the questions I'm asked most often by new school counselors is, "How do you get everything done?" The honest answer? You don't. School counseling is one of the few professions where your calendar can change in an instant. You may begin the day planning classroom lessons, only to spend the morning responding to a student in crisis. You might be preparing for a parent meeting when you're asked

The most important thing you prepare this school year may not be your lesson plans. A Story Next week, I'll officially be back in my counseling office. The hallways will still be quiet. The classrooms will still be empty. There won't be students stopping by my office just yet. Instead, there will be calendars to update, classroom lessons to revise, annual agreements to review, data to analyze, and meetings to prepare for. Like many school counselors, I have a mental checklist

How one question can change a student's future. A Story My office happens to be in the same suite as our grade-level assistant principals' offices. That means I have a front-row seat to one of the busiest intersections on campus. Students who have been sent to the AP for discipline often find their way into my office first, or at least while they're "waiting to talk to the AP." They usually come in hot. They're frustrated. They're embarrassed. They're convinced they have been

What If We Worked on What Works? The question that changed the way I see students, and the way I hope schools begin seeing them, too. I remember sitting across from a student who had spent more time in the assistant principal's office than in class that week. By the time they reached my office, they had already been described as defiant, disrespectful, and unmotivated. Every conversation before mine had centered on what was wrong and how to fix it. As school counselors, we of