Final Blog

I found developing the comprehensive school counseling program to be an effective way to become familiar with what goes into an successful program.  It provided me with the opportunity to develop knowledge of the various components that are needed in order to maintain an valuable school counseling program.  The biggest barrier that I found to implementing this is time and resources.  In order to follow through and uphold an effective program, I believe that you must have buy in and support from the teachers.  At this point, there is a push for improving academics so you would have to determine the right time to push in.  Also, you may have to be creative due to a possibility of a lack of resources.  Regardless of these barriers, there were three practical pieces that I felt could be used in practicum.  The first one were the lesson plans that were created.  The lessons that were created could be used and adapted to meet the needs of the students.  Next, the calendar could be a valuable resource due to the ideas that could be implemented each month.  I plan on doing my practicum over a years' time so I could take ideas from each month to incorporate.  Finally, the surveys that were created could be used to determine needs of the students.  This would be a great way to establish what they need or how they feel about a particular topic.  Overall, after completing this project I feel comfortable and confident to implement this type of work.  I believe that I am a determined individual that works hard to reach the goals that I have set for myself.  I plan to revisit this again in the summer in order to plan for my upcoming year of practicum. 

This then leads me into the article "Listen to the Voices: School Counselors and Comprehensive School Counseling Programs" (2009) that I read this past week.  This article reiterates the importance of establishing an effective school counseling program.  Over  the years, school counselors have been found to be essential educational partners in student success.  Dahir, Burnham, and Stone (2009) also stated that research has shown that students that participate in a comprehensive school counseling program have found to achieve higher grades, less classroom disturbances, and improve school climate.  Also, counselors are seen more as key leaders in the students achievement.  Finally, a good point was made when Dahir, Burnham, and Stone (2009) posed the question, "To what degree have school counselors acquired the attitudes and skills that will support their ability to successfully implement comprehensive school counseling programs" (p. 183)  It is important that school counselors are being educated in changes that being made as well as attending conferences to gain that knowledge.  In conclusion, this project has been helpful and the article supported the importance of knowing how to develop an effective program. 

Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., and Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Final Blog

I can say without hesitation that I learned a lot from creating this Comprehensive School Counseling Program. At the beginning of the semester it seemed so overwhelming and such a big project to complete that I was not even sure where to start to try to break it down but as we moved through the process and understood the model better it began to make more sense. While I would not call myself and ASCA National Model expert, I do feel as though I have a solid understanding of the model and the different components needed to make an effective program.

I think that the biggest barrier to carrying out this program is getting the buy-in from the different stakeholders in being able to implement this program effectively. The administrators must believe that this program is valuable to this school and support it in order for you to put all of the pieces in place and I think that may be really difficult to accomplish at some schools.

The first piece that I will take with me to practicum and use are the lesson plans that we developed as a group and the resources that we found for other lessons. I think we compiled a solid list that encompasses many different areas and I can really see myself using them. The second piece that I would like to use during my practicum experience is the tier process and being able to reach all students at some level and then working with small groups that need the extra help and going a step farther and working one on one with a student who needs the help at the individual level. The third piece that I will take with me to practicum is the assessments that our group used because I think they are a great way to gauge how the different stakeholders are feeling in the school. The assessments are a critical piece of the comprehensive program and in doing my practicum it will be nice to get a feeling of how the students and teachers are feeling.

I feel like my preparation to implement this program is at a good place. I do not feel totally comfortable with every aspect of the program; however, I do feel prepared with most of it. I think that with something as big as this program is it is nearly impossible to feel totally prepared, but I think I am at a good place and my experience in practicum will help me feel even more prepared.

The article reading for this week was a nice ending to the semester and pulling a lot of what we have discussed in this class together. The one thing in the article that I found interesting is that “middle school counselors appear to be most closely aligned with the goals of the State Plan and the ASCA National Model” (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, 2009, p. 190). In the interviews and shadowing of school counselors that I have done over the last year I felt as though elementary school counselors were more closely aligned with the model so it is interesting that the article shows middle school counselors to be more aligned with the model.

Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., and Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Blog #14 - CSCP reflection & Article

What did you learn from this assignment?

I feel there is still much to learn about ASCA's National Model especially in implementation as it is aligned with a specific school. However, what I took most from this assignment was the collaboration in developing the comprehensive program. Collaboration is a key component of a successful school counseling program. Of course, I feel I understand the four elements of the model more than I did 15 weeks ago (especially the delivery and accountability) as well as the flow of the model, but the themes keep sounding in my head. Only through effective leadership, advocacy, and collaboration can systemic change occur for the benefit of all students.

 

What is the biggest barrier to implementing a CSCP?

The existing school system is what I see to be the biggest barrier to implementing a CSCP. For instance, I recently shadowed an elementary school counselor that was balancing duties between two schools. His job mainly consists of managing IEP's. He conducts classroom guidance lessons twice a year and as needed. There are two small groups that he runs for fourth and fifth graders and does little individual counseling. Although, I sensed that he would like it to be different, he is at the mercy of the administration's expectations. Perhaps if he were younger, (he is retiring this year) he may be interested in slowly affecting change. Traditional programs are difficult to break or change because the system has become comfortable. I believe that until they are provided with data showing its lack of effectiveness then no one is interested in what the change might look like. They need to see the data-driven results to understand what positive effect the counselor could have on student achievement if change were allowed.

   

What are three practical pieces that can be applicable to your practicum?

Although I am unsure of the perspective of the district, an advisory council would be a piece of the CSCP that I would like to see utilized. In addition, the lesson plans we developed and found will be beneficial as I hope to encourage classroom guidance lessons at the secondary level. Being creative is one of my fortes, but I also acknowledge the necessity of having what we do be evidenced-based. Therefore, another practical piece to apply in practicum will be the pre and post tests for guidance lessons and small groups.

 

What do you feel about your overall preparation to implement this program?

 

I believe Nate had shared, ' I'm still not sure what we did.' To some degree, I concur. Fifteen weeks ago, this project seemed incomprehensible. Now, I have to say that I am comfortable with the design of the model and feel more at ease with the idea of implementing the program. I know when it is time to do so there very well will be hiccups, but that with a cohesive team, barriers are surmountable.  

 

Listen to the Voices:

Dahir, Burnham, and Stone's (2009) findings did not surprise me especially after reading the various research articles this semester.  However, one finding did. The authors found that middle school counselors reported higher results for involvement in personal/social and academic development. I had expected that the elementary level would have scored higher in at least the personal/social component. It has been my understanding that elementary school counselors are much more likely to conduct classroom guidance lessons and focus on the personal/social domain. I see now this is not always true. Middle school counselors are proactively emphasizing the personal/social components of the ASCA National Model, sometimes more than the elementary level.

 

Dahir, C. A., Burnham, J. J., and Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Reflection and Article

What did I learn from this project?
                This entire project was very eye opening.  It allowed me to see how much time and effort goes into a school counselor’s job.  It also let me see the real picture of how the CSCP will work.  It is one thing to read about topics in a textbook but it is a totally different experience to actually put into place what you have read about.  This has really allowed me to see the full scope and sequence of a program that I hope to someday implement on my own. 

It allowed me to look at my school counselor now and know that she is very busy and works extremely hard so that the students are able to reap the benefits.  I am very supportive of her interactions with the students and help support her when other teachers don’t understand why she is not sharing information with us. 

What is the biggest barrier in implementing a CSCP?

                I feel as though there are two main barriers to implementing a successful CSCP.  The first barrier is funding that is available to provide the different aspects of the program.  If the district is to fully implement the career component of the program than they need to buy Career Cruising or another program that can assist with teaching and instructing the students.  The second barrier that I also see is getting all staff on board with your vision and how you want to implement your goals.  I have worked in three different districts and school counselors have always gotten a lot of grief.  I think a crucial component is to start at the beginning of the year educating the teachers and staff about your vision and mission of how you plan on implementing the ASCA National Model. 

What are 3 practical pieces or applications that you can use in your practicum?

                One piece that I would like to take with me once I start my practicum is the lesson plans that were created by my group.  They have a lot of creativity and I think they will help keep the students attention so that they can learn the identified skill.  A second piece that I want to use in my practicum is the Assessments and Action Plans that we created.  I think it is critical to survey students, teachers, parents, and other staff on their perceptions at the beginning of the year and as well as the end of the year and see what has changed.  It is important to keep evaluating your effectiveness and if something is not working then tweak it for the following year to make it better so that the students are able to obtain the benefits of you being their counselor. 

How do you feel about your overall preparation?
                This project has made me see that no one job is any easier than another.  Sometimes I would hear comments from others about the counselors’ job being so easy and it would frustrate me.  I have now seen firsthand how much time goes into making assessments for students or parents to take and wish that other teachers respected school counselors more than what they do.  I feel as though this project has given me a real basis of where to start once I start my practicum or have my own job as a school counselor.  I feel as though I have been prepared to set flight and I hope that I am able to remember and put into place all of the pieces of a full program. 

In reading the article by, Dahir, Burnham and Stone (2009) I was able to see the importance of a lot of what we discussed in class.  It seemed to reinforce what we read in our textbook as well as our group discussions.  One fact that I read that is beneficial to hear over and over in articles is that the level of commitment that a school counselor gives is correlated to the schools improvement and growth level.  A school counselor can really change the atmosphere of a school in either direction.  I have seen both sides played out in my years of teaching.  This is beneficial for me to hear so that I see the benefits of all of the hard work of the counselor and that it does pay off. 

Dahir, C., Burnham, J., & Stone, C., (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

 

Reflection on CSCP and the Power Struggle

After completing the comprehensive school counseling program on Tuesday night, I feel very accomplished.  Being able to see the hard work and effort that our group put into the project over the past semester was incredible.  It took me a while to even recognize what the final project would end up looking like and I was amazed to see everything that we had done.  Through this project, I learned a lot about myself, my role as a future school counselor and the amount of time and effort it takes to put together a comprehensive school counseling program.

Something I was able to recognize is that all the pieces of the ASCA National Model are important and should be connected together in order for a CSCP to be successful.  It was hard to imagine from the beginning that it would be necessary to go through all the steps on our wiki and in our framework book in order to develop what we have now.  With this opportunity I was able to understand how those pieces fit together and why/how they can benefit a school environment.  I also learned how to look at the big picture, the CSCP, and the individual pieces that make it up.  Zooming in on each of those pieces made sense but then being able to bring it back to the overall project was a challenge.  I learned how important it is to tie everything back with your beliefs, mission, vision and goals.  Your program is founded on those concepts and should help to form all other parts.  Lastly I was able to gain a greater understanding for how the ASCA model functions.  Before this class and this project, the ASCA National Model was just an idea to me and now I see it as a workable manageable model.

The largest barrier that I think I will have taking this project out into the real world and implementing it is the support and collaboration of all stakeholders.  I have come to recognize that even though you can make small changes as a school counselor, effectively producing and using a CSCP that will be successful requires the buy-in of everyone.  After reading the Dollarhide & Saginak (2012) text and all the various articles this semester, it has become clear that we have a difficult road ahead of us.  The conception of what a school counselor actually does is still varying and many stakeholders do not recognize the entirety of what we can do in a leadership role within our schools.  When we go out and find school counseling jobs, we will need to be ready to fight for our role within the schools and advocate in the best interest of the students.

Practicum is the next step we will take before going out and getting jobs.  During this class, I have been able to find some different practical pieces that I can use at my practicum site.  One important thing to know and understand is all of the responsive plans and systems put in place at your school.  This semester I learned a lot about their importance within a school and how crucial it is that the school counselor knows these procedures and is able to function in a time of crisis.  Another practical piece has been learning about programs that can collect data or other small surveys and pre/post tests that can be used on a regular basis in order to help with the accountability portion of the model.  In my practicum, I feel more prepared to create a data collection program within my school.  Finally the last practical piece I can take to practicum is learning how to form goals for the school year based on previous data and school climate.

Speaking to my preparation for trying to implement our program successfully, I feel somewhat prepared.  I definitely have a greater understanding of everything that goes into a CSCP but I am still unsure about some of the portions of the project.  I believe that once I actually start to put something into place, I will gain more experience.  It seems that most school counselors make mistakes along the way and are learning day by day.

The last article we had to read for class discussed the readiness of school counselors to implement a CSCP and what school counselors are currently doing well and need to improve.  The part of the article that I found most interesting was the issue of a power struggle within a school environment.  "Awareness and understanding is power and motivates school counselors' desire to align beliefs with behaviors for the benefit of improving student achievement and school success" (Dahir, Burnham, & Stone, p. 11, 2009).  Several times this semester the idea of power was brought up and discussed as to whether or not school counselors have it.  My feelings are that without a belief that we have power, school counselors won't be capable of making changing and benefiting their students to the best of their ability.  This quote says it best that with awareness and understanding of our role and the importance of the ASCA National Model we can gain power in our position and help the entire school community.  My goal as I move forward in the program is to gain as much awareness and understanding that I can so that I can have a sense of power that will make be a better school counselor in the future.

Dahir, C., Burnham, J., Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the voices: School counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Dollarhide, C. & Saginak, K. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs: K-12 delivery systems in action (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 

Dahir, C., Burnham, J., Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the Voices: School Counselors and Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. Professional School Counseling, 12Dahir, C., Burnham, J., Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the Voices: School Counselors and Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. Professional School Counseling, 12

Blog 14 – School Counselors and CSCP’s article and CSCP project reflection

Blog 14 – School Counselors and CSCP’s article and CSCP project reflection

                In the article Dahir, Burnham & Stone discuss many points of the ASCA model that guide the way counselor’s role out programs aligned to the ASCA National model. They say that school counselors should plan to be committed to school improvement, data analysis to address equity, social justice, manage resources in order to motivate students to close achievement and information gaps (2009). For these reasons school counselor preparation programs have been shifting as well. The elementary results were not surprising to me and proved even further what I had mentioned in class yesterday about having more lineation between middle and elementary when it comes to academic and career domains. The results for middle school and high school were not surprising either. The unique (and I think positive) nature of middle school counseling is that if students receive a solid set of skills in elementary school then they can focus on future, career, and academic planning than elementary schools have time for. At the same time, middle school students do not to have as focused ideas about their future so there is also still time for individual and group counseling around social skills and coping strategies. I absolutely agree that MUCH more professional development is needed in schools MUCH more often around the ASCA national model.

                In reference to the CSCP project, I cannot possibly discuss everything I learned here on the blog; however I will say that I do not think I have ever learned so much from a project before in my educational history. I also do not think I ever worked so hard on any one project either. I definitely reached my goal of truly understanding the ASCA national model, I see myself referencing the book a lot in the future when I am in a professional counselor position but feel confident speaking about the model and how it should be implemented. I also learned a lot about secondary counseling and how it looks different, in reference to the model, from the presentation last night.

                Some of the barriers I see in implementing this model in schools have to do with is already in place in a school when you are hired as a counselor. I would think that implementing all of the pieces at once would be unrealistic and that a new counselor would need to have a plan for how to roll out the program gradually. I think another barrier is support since many counselors report that the model is not even enforced let alone supported in their school or district.

                I could definitely see myself using the tier process for referrals and when making decisions about individual and group counseling in practicum. I would also implement some of the parent pieces during practicum, especially since this is a portion that is missing in some schools. Finally I would want to make sure that I make a calendar plan for the semester, week, and each day for practice and too show accountability during my time there. I feel very prepared to implement at CSCP in my school when I become a counselor. I have to admit I did not anticipate feeling like this at the beginning of the semester and I am very very pleasantly surprised. I know that I would need to spend a lot of time planning how to present, implement, and carryout my CSCP, but I am really looking forward to doing so!

Dahir, C., Burnham, J., Stone, C. (2009). Listen to the Voices: School Counselors and Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. Professional School Counseling, 12(3), 182-192.

Presentations/Conceptions of School Counselors

Last week’s presentations were enlightening.  I was interested in learning about the different evidence based research.  One that hit home for me was the suicide piece presented by Karen.  While all presentations were well done, I was able to relate to this topic on a personal level.  This is an area that we have to be cautious about because you have to take every threat or statement seriously.  The scary part is that the individual may seem fine, but then one day they snap and complete the unthinkable of taking their own life.  My sister is going through a lot of this year with a death in the family, work schedule, and high expectations at school.  Due to these stressors in her life, she was at this breaking point where she did not feel that her life was important.  At this point she seems to be doing okay; however, she has not received the proper support that is needed to help her with dealing with situations that may arise.  Being in this field, it is hard to not to jump in and start trying to counsel.  Instead, I am working with her to find counseling to ensure that these thoughts of taking her life do not repeat. 

On another note, in regards to the article on “School Administrators’ Conceptions of the School Counselor Role,” I found it to be realistic in terms of various opinions.  As an educator, I have seen the shift in the thought of roles played by teachers, administrators, and counselors.  When it comes to teaching, we constantly are rethinking our strategies to ensure the best education for the students.  Then with administrators, Amatea and Clark (2005) state that they need to look at how they lead a school and the relationships that are developed.  Finally, with counselors, it is looked at how they should also be seen as educational leaders.  On that note,   leadership is a controversial topic in regards to the counseling profession.  Counselors should be seen as leader but are often not.  This then leads to the results that I read regarding the study that was done.  When I was reviewing the results I was not surprised because it is highly realistic for there to be different opinions depending on what school or district you are in.  Counselors play a major role in the school setting and it is important as future counselors to be aware of the responsibilities that we agree with as well as the roles we will not agree to.    

Amatea, E. S. & Clark, M. A. (2005). Changing schools, changing counselors: A qualitative study of school administrators' conceptions of the school counselor role. Professional School Counseling, 9(1), 16-27.