Friday, October 19, 2012

Chapter 7 - 10/23/12


                I think schools have changed tremendously over the last 10 years.  I have been teaching in Lancaster County for that time frame and it is really eye opening at how the pendulum swings back and forth so much.  The majority of the schools are forced to jump on and swing with the changes.  Sometimes I feel as though it might be better to stay in the route you are going and not make so many drastic changes.  I think it is always key and critical to evaluate the effectiveness of what you are doing and make changes based on the needs of the current students that you are working with. 

                As a teacher I am constantly reflecting on my teaching practices to make sure that the students are making growth in reading and writing.  I hope that I am able to keep the practice as prominent in my daily work as a counselor.  It is easy to measure a teacher’s success with their students by making sure they are making at least a years’ worth of growth in a current school year.  If the growth is not being shown in the words they read per minute or the amount of math facts they learned there are several interventions that you can look and move toward.  As a counselor I think it will be more challenging to measure the student’s self-worth, self esteem, self concept, etc. but I hope that is my main focus to make sure that I am making a strong impact on student’s lives. 

                As a counselor I hope that I will continually keep looking at the student body as a whole but also in several small subgroups.  If I see that not all subgroups are improving at an appropriate rate I hope that I will make additional changes for the subgroups that are not making as much progress as some of the others. It is crucial to publicize the data of how well the group as a whole is improving and it is imperative that I am very respectful of each subgroup because some nationalities will take some interventions personally and think that they are not being treated fairly.   As a counselor I will need to treat all groups fairly and not show any favoritism towards anyone group of another.  Sometimes as a school employee it is hard to stay non-biased and treat all students fairly. 

                I have not seen any of the data-driven models put to use by any school counselors that I have worked with in the past.  A few of the models look as though they would be helpful and beneficial to use.  The IDEAS model seems very clear and concise to use and all staff members could see your results easily.  Once you evaluate yourself I think it would be beneficial as a counselor to share that growth at faculty meetings with other staff members. 

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