School Counselors Deserve Better! The Advocacy Problem No One Admits

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:05.908
Hey, hey there, school counselor, happy National School Counseling Week.

00:00:05.908 --> 00:00:19.730
This episode is going to go live on the first day of National School Counseling Week and I am so excited to be here celebrating it with you, even if you're not that excited about it yourself.

00:00:19.730 --> 00:00:29.190
We've been doing some polls and questions in our Facebook group and in other places, just kind of getting a vibe check on the whole National School Counselor Week thing.

00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:31.173
Where do people stand, what are they doing?

00:00:31.173 --> 00:00:59.771
And it seems to be about a 60-40 split where we've got 40% of folks kind of diving in to do something for National School Counseling Week and feel super excited about it and super motivated, and then about 60% of the people that we've talked to saying that either it's just another week or I really don't want to celebrate National School Counseling Week.

00:00:59.771 --> 00:01:20.132
You know I talked in episode 133, which is two episodes back from this one it was called A Realistic Approach to National School Counseling Week about a lot of the big feelings we have about this week, and so I don't want to rehash that information.

00:01:20.132 --> 00:01:22.644
You can go back and listen to it if you want to hear that.

00:01:22.644 --> 00:01:39.129
But I do want to talk about something that sort of blew up in our Facebook group this week and I would also love to share with you some insights from your friends and colleagues about why they love their work.

00:01:40.481 --> 00:01:42.769
So if we haven't met, I'm Steph Johnson.

00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:51.311
I'm a full-time school counselor, just like you, on a mission to make school counseling feel more sustainable and more enjoyable.

00:01:51.311 --> 00:02:03.870
I want you to feel competent and confident every day you walk through the front doors of your school, and tonight I'm recording this episode.

00:02:03.870 --> 00:02:09.866
It's the Sunday night before the Monday that it's going to go live, so talk about living on the edge.

00:02:09.866 --> 00:02:14.902
I'm recording in the evening because the flu has hit our house.

00:02:14.902 --> 00:02:17.609
I have a kiddo down with the flu.

00:02:17.609 --> 00:02:22.204
I have one down with what appears to be some sort of mystery virus.

00:02:22.204 --> 00:02:24.389
At this point We'll see where that one heads.

00:02:24.389 --> 00:02:31.872
But it's just a season, isn't it, of sickness and of snow and of lots of things going on.

00:02:31.872 --> 00:02:35.069
For so many of you, it's kind of a tough time of the year.

00:02:35.069 --> 00:02:39.682
So if you're feeling like you're struggling, you are not alone, I promise you.

00:02:39.682 --> 00:02:42.705
Our plates are just so full.

00:02:42.705 --> 00:02:49.272
Our plates are just so full, which kind of brings me back to the Facebook group Brew Ha Ha.

00:02:50.032 --> 00:02:52.776
Now, if you didn't catch it, here's what happened.

00:02:52.776 --> 00:03:10.912
I had been scrolling the socials getting my own vibe check on the things going on in school counseling world, and I picked up a lot of information about a lot of concerning legislation in a lot of different states pertaining to school counselors.

00:03:10.912 --> 00:03:22.798
And so as I read these and learned about them, of course I went and verified the source first of all, because sometimes, you know, things can get exaggerated on social media, right, they can get inflated.

00:03:22.798 --> 00:03:32.965
So I wanted to make sure that I understood what was really going on, and once I did that, I kind of just made a little list of all of the things I was reading about.

00:03:32.965 --> 00:03:41.787
And the more that I read through all of these proposed bits of legislation, the more concerned I got.

00:03:41.787 --> 00:03:52.893
And then in one post in another Facebook group, a commenter commented this, and I don't know why it hit me the way it did in that moment.

00:03:52.893 --> 00:04:03.909
I had seen this comment many times before but for some reason, in that split second of reading this comment, I thought man, we got to talk about this.

00:04:03.909 --> 00:04:08.020
And the comment was does ASCA know about this?

00:04:08.020 --> 00:04:17.012
It lit a fire in my soul y'all, and I could not help myself.

00:04:17.012 --> 00:04:29.334
I had to answer that post and then write a post of my own in our School for School Counselors Facebook group and I'll give you just a little piece of it, just so that you know where I was coming from.

00:04:30.699 --> 00:04:32.086
Asca is not your advocate.

00:04:32.086 --> 00:04:34.286
They will not come to your aid.

00:04:34.286 --> 00:04:45.692
They do not provide support to your state organizations out there trying to do the dirty work of changing hearts and minds and legislatures, right now on a shoestring.

00:04:45.692 --> 00:04:49.586
But they have no problem letting you believe they will.

00:04:49.586 --> 00:04:56.124
With our memberships, we are supporting an educational endeavor, nothing more.

00:04:56.124 --> 00:05:07.120
And by allowing people to believe that they will step in and advocate, they have sealed the deal of the decline of school counseling across the country.

00:05:07.922 --> 00:05:13.250
That parts my opinion and I'm sticking to it, man.

00:05:13.250 --> 00:05:23.913
I mean, I will tell you, I have been thinking this way for years and I have alluded to it here and there in the past.

00:05:23.913 --> 00:05:43.154
And I have alluded to it here and there in the past, but it is really on my heart to start getting more vocal about this, to really start talking about this, because I do believe that lack of organized advocacy in our industry right now is on the verge of promoting our collapse.

00:05:43.154 --> 00:05:47.951
And I'm not saying that because I'm trying to sensationalize it.

00:05:47.951 --> 00:05:53.384
I'm not saying that because I'm just trying to get everybody all in a dither Not my goal at all.

00:05:53.384 --> 00:05:59.533
But if you look around, you're going to start seeing what I see.

00:05:59.533 --> 00:06:15.855
If we start looking at the bigger picture, we're going to see these little threads that we've been watching unwind year after year are now creating some giant holes in the fabric of school counseling.

00:06:17.483 --> 00:06:26.430
I went on to say this this is not an attempt to badmouth the organization, it's just setting the record straight.

00:06:26.430 --> 00:06:44.901
So many people aren't aware of the realities of our national organization Conferences, journals, position statements, a model of unfunded expectations parked behind a paywall Y'all.

00:06:44.901 --> 00:06:52.370
Do you realize that in order to get a copy of the ASCA national model, you have to go online and buy it, and it's almost $50.

00:06:52.370 --> 00:07:01.963
How do we convince our administrators what our jobs are supposed to be if they have to pay $50 to even find out what it is?

00:07:01.963 --> 00:07:06.697
This is crazy to me, absolutely crazy.

00:07:06.697 --> 00:07:18.939
And then, to wrap it up, I said there are no pics of ASCA personnel testifying before state legislatures or meeting with school board leaders.

00:07:19.826 --> 00:07:32.307
There's not even any social media proof of trying to sway public opinion, of trying to sway public opinion.

00:07:32.307 --> 00:07:34.572
We've been under heavy fire post-2020 and nary a public peep about that from their corner.

00:07:34.572 --> 00:07:46.533
If some of these legislative pieces pass soon, such as requiring school counselors to have a psychological evaluation to work with the kid, you know how it happened.

00:07:46.533 --> 00:07:52.021
The lobby is weak, it's neglected and it's showing.

00:07:52.021 --> 00:07:59.074
I am 100% sure that I'm going to get a lot of flack over that.

00:07:59.074 --> 00:08:17.300
I have no doubt in my mind and one of the ways I know that is as soon as I published that post in our Facebook group, we started getting a flurry of join requests from people who are very ASCA affiliated.

00:08:17.300 --> 00:08:31.307
They all of a sudden were interested in what we were doing in our little corner of the internet, presumably because they either wanted to see what I was saying about ASCA or they were coming to defend themselves.

00:08:31.307 --> 00:08:33.932
I'm not exactly sure.

00:08:33.932 --> 00:08:36.719
We have not admitted them into our group yet.

00:08:36.719 --> 00:08:40.152
We put a pause on that just because we don't want the drama.

00:08:40.152 --> 00:08:48.317
We take a lot of pride in having the most drama-free school counseling group on the planet and we intend to keep it that way.

00:08:48.317 --> 00:08:52.677
That doesn't mean that I'm closing off conversation with these folks.

00:08:52.677 --> 00:09:00.355
Once everybody's settled down a little bit and we're ready to have some constructive conversation, we'll be glad to invite them in.

00:09:00.355 --> 00:09:11.476
In the meantime, if you know any of them or maybe you were one of the people that was letting them know about all this stuff, because I do know we had a few members that were doing that, and that's fine have them.

00:09:11.476 --> 00:09:14.190
Email me, steph, at schoolforschoolcounselorscom.

00:09:14.190 --> 00:09:15.974
I welcome the dialogue.

00:09:15.974 --> 00:09:21.231
I want to know more about this because I want to be well-educated in my opinions.

00:09:21.231 --> 00:09:35.038
Right now I'm reporting on what I see and I'm very aware that there are things that I have absolutely no idea about, and if someone wants to come clear the air with regard to those, I am all ears.

00:09:37.145 --> 00:09:50.206
But all that to say, these kinds of situations are probably why you're feeling so frustrated and ambivalent about National School Counseling Week, because it is a mess.

00:09:50.206 --> 00:09:53.412
It is an absolute mess.

00:09:53.412 --> 00:09:58.700
The truth is we have no large-scale advocacy in place.

00:09:58.700 --> 00:10:14.129
We have a lot of conferences, we have a lot of awards, we have a lot of distinctions that everybody likes to pat each other on the back for and not taking anything away from those folks, for people that have achieved RAMP or that are a school counselor of the year.

00:10:14.129 --> 00:10:21.928
I mean that's amazing, but are we focusing in the right direction for our journey at this time?

00:10:21.928 --> 00:10:34.135
Sure, school counselor of the Year and RAMP programs might help promote awareness of school counseling, but there's so much more that needs to be done.

00:10:35.666 --> 00:10:43.350
This week, asca posted a position statement on some of the new president's remarks, and that is all we've seen from them.

00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:44.735
Advocacy-wise.

00:10:44.735 --> 00:10:47.932
National School Counseling Week is coming up.

00:10:47.932 --> 00:10:57.989
In my opinion, just knowing what I know about promotion, about reaching people on the socials, they should have already started a warm-up campaign for this.

00:10:57.989 --> 00:11:03.606
I haven't seen one, and again, I'm not here to criticize only them.

00:11:03.606 --> 00:11:08.759
In my post, I said a lot of state organizations are working their guts out.

00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:10.849
I do think that is true.

00:11:10.849 --> 00:11:37.011
However, I will be honest, I'm not seeing a lot of evidence of that either, and so if we're trying to change the hearts and minds of people who make these decisions, who are in the legislature or who have the ears of those that are, we need to be getting more information out in a more efficient manner, in a more targeted manner and in a more intentional manner.

00:11:38.852 --> 00:11:44.154
I have nothing against them.

00:11:44.154 --> 00:11:55.240
They have built a brilliant ecosystem of trainings, conferences, all kinds of credentials, certificates, you name it.

00:11:55.240 --> 00:12:02.403
But, guys, they've made it very clear they do not intend to build an advocacy organization.

00:12:02.403 --> 00:12:15.725
They intend to build an educational platform, and those are two very different things.

00:12:15.725 --> 00:12:17.671
Every once in a while, you'll see them toss the word advocacy around in one way or another.

00:12:17.671 --> 00:12:18.833
But is it intentional?

00:12:18.833 --> 00:12:19.697
Is it targeted?

00:12:19.697 --> 00:12:25.457
Is it designed to change the trajectory of some of these proposed bills?

00:12:25.457 --> 00:12:27.672
No, it's not.

00:12:27.672 --> 00:12:33.072
They're waiting to see what happens and then they're going to react, just like they do with everything.

00:12:33.072 --> 00:12:39.870
They're either going to issue a position paper or they're going to tag themselves on the back of someone else's.

00:12:39.870 --> 00:12:41.291
We saw that a lot during COVID.

00:12:41.291 --> 00:12:49.014
Not mad at them, not trying to talk badly of them, but I do want you to be educated and informed.

00:12:49.014 --> 00:12:51.730
They are not your advocacy organization.

00:12:53.235 --> 00:12:53.897
Here's the good news.

00:12:53.897 --> 00:12:56.894
We need some good news in all of this right.

00:12:56.894 --> 00:12:58.230
We do need some good news.

00:12:58.230 --> 00:13:00.551
You're not helpless.

00:13:00.551 --> 00:13:05.416
You have the power to advocate from the inside out.

00:13:05.416 --> 00:13:13.815
I don't think that the way that you've been taught to advocate for yourself from these organizations is the right way to do it.

00:13:13.815 --> 00:13:34.171
I think we need to be focusing on advocating from the inside out, meaning developing the professional fluency to be able to have needed conversations at the drop of a hat, differentiating yourself from other school staff Y'all your printable lessons are not going to do that.

00:13:34.171 --> 00:13:38.698
If anything, they make you look like a second grade substitute teacher.

00:13:38.698 --> 00:13:41.265
Get rid of that stuff.

00:13:41.265 --> 00:13:49.514
And third, building a sustainable and strong relationship of know like and trust with your school administrator.

00:13:49.514 --> 00:13:55.139
All three of those things have to be in place to effectively advocate from the inside out.

00:13:55.139 --> 00:13:56.421
So that's step number one.

00:14:02.705 --> 00:14:06.825
Step number two is leaning on your state school counseling organizations.

00:14:06.825 --> 00:14:08.927
Now, the bad part about this is that they don't have a lot of money.

00:14:08.927 --> 00:14:20.520
Most of the school counselor organizations are operating on a literal shoestring and have leaders that are getting paid a grand total of zero dollars to lead the organization.

00:14:20.520 --> 00:14:25.684
This is true.

00:14:25.684 --> 00:14:32.668
There are a few state organizations that can't afford to pay their leaders, but they are few and far between last I checked.

00:14:32.668 --> 00:14:39.356
So I thought, in all of this talk about advocacy, let me look at the organizations and see what's going on on their state pages.

00:14:39.356 --> 00:14:42.139
Let's just get a quick look-see of what's happening.

00:14:42.139 --> 00:14:51.664
So I pulled up a list of the first 10 school counseling organizations in the United States, starting with Alabama, ending with Georgia.

00:14:52.666 --> 00:14:59.913
I went to every single school counselor association site in the first 10 states to see what they had on their homepage.

00:14:59.913 --> 00:15:16.599
Because, with legislative sessions starting, with all of the federal politics going on right now, one would assume that we would seize material on their homepages to educate members, to educate the public something.

00:15:16.599 --> 00:15:27.046
And on all of those webpages, except for a couple, there was nothing about advocacy Zero.

00:15:27.046 --> 00:15:32.057
Most of them were about their annual conferences.

00:15:32.057 --> 00:15:38.778
Remember what I said about building an education platform instead of an advocacy platform?

00:15:38.778 --> 00:15:42.673
Yeah, it's reached the state organizations too.

00:15:42.673 --> 00:15:46.325
Colorado props to Colorado.

00:15:46.325 --> 00:15:55.570
They shared the ASCA position statement from this week but then went right to their conference that's not going to be held until October.

00:15:55.570 --> 00:16:01.227
Connecticut's webpage is the most current Out of those first 10,.

00:16:01.227 --> 00:16:07.346
They mentioned National School Counseling Week 2025, nominations for awards.

00:16:07.346 --> 00:16:12.658
Everybody else was either e-learning conferences or nothing.

00:16:14.326 --> 00:16:17.073
But then, before I got too discouraged, I thought you know what, steph?

00:16:17.073 --> 00:16:18.546
That's not a good way to look at this.

00:16:18.546 --> 00:16:29.357
Let's look at the pending legislation in states, let's look at some of the most concerning bills involving school counselors and let's see what those state organizations are doing.

00:16:29.357 --> 00:16:34.654
Maybe it's just because all of these states aren't in the thick of that stuff right now, right?

00:16:34.654 --> 00:16:37.894
I mean, I don't know when everybody's legislative sessions are.

00:16:37.894 --> 00:16:52.908
So I went and pulled some of the most concerning bills I'd heard about, and I also searched all pending bills in the United States for the words school counselor, and I kind of picked out some of the ones that bothered me the most.

00:16:55.072 --> 00:17:03.412
In Mississippi Senate, bill 2611 seeks to remove the acquirements of school counselors to follow the ASCA code of ethics.

00:17:03.412 --> 00:17:05.916
That's an odd one to me.

00:17:05.916 --> 00:17:07.528
I don't know why that would be a push.

00:17:07.528 --> 00:17:10.454
I feel like there's a story behind that.

00:17:10.454 --> 00:17:19.430
So I went to the Mississippi School Counselor Association homepage nothing.

00:17:19.430 --> 00:17:21.314
Their X feed, formerly known as Twitter, is blank.

00:17:21.314 --> 00:17:23.218
Okay, and that's not great.

00:17:26.525 --> 00:17:28.047
So then I went to my home state of Texas.

00:17:28.047 --> 00:17:36.440
Texas Senate Bill 559 strikes the word certified from all descriptions of school counselors.

00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:41.476
Yeah, they, they, I guess, think that anybody can be a school counselor.

00:17:41.476 --> 00:17:45.015
They're just going to start hiring people off the streets, I don't know.

00:17:45.015 --> 00:17:50.515
And then in another bill House Bill 1510, it does the same thing.

00:17:50.515 --> 00:17:59.239
Now you guys know they've already passed legislation in Texas to allow chaplains to serve in a school counseling role on campuses.

00:17:59.239 --> 00:18:02.111
So I guess this is the next step.

00:18:02.111 --> 00:18:08.047
So I went to the Lone Star State School Counseling Association homepage.

00:18:08.047 --> 00:18:09.612
There's nothing on it.

00:18:09.612 --> 00:18:12.519
I clicked the advocacy tab.

00:18:12.519 --> 00:18:14.905
It hasn't been updated in a year.

00:18:16.729 --> 00:18:24.669
Next up Indiana Senate Bill 523, providing for chaplains to come on campus to provide advice.

00:18:24.669 --> 00:18:27.976
Because you all know that's what we do with school counselors.

00:18:27.976 --> 00:18:33.217
Right, we just sit back, we chat with the kids and then we give them advice about what they should do next.

00:18:33.217 --> 00:18:37.625
These people are sorely mistaken about our level of training.

00:18:37.625 --> 00:18:50.179
Again highlighting the need for effective advocacy, but I digress Indiana's homepage no information about it whatsoever on the homepage or under the advocacy tab.

00:18:50.179 --> 00:18:53.125
Y'all.

00:18:53.125 --> 00:18:56.613
I'm not trying to light these people up, I'm just highlighting a weakness that I see in our industry.

00:18:58.317 --> 00:19:18.159
South Dakota House Bill 1201 requires school counselors to gain consent from parents before beginning a counseling relationship with a student and requires the school counselor to notify the parent if the counseling session contains a substantially different subject matter.

00:19:18.159 --> 00:19:21.690
Really, what they're talking about is gender identity.

00:19:21.690 --> 00:19:26.219
Looked at the home page no information.

00:19:26.219 --> 00:19:34.729
Looked at the home page of the school counseling organization looked at the homepage of the school counseling organization no advocacy or organizing information there.

00:19:34.729 --> 00:19:53.618
And North Dakota this is my favorite one so far and I'm being extremely facetious when I say that North Dakota House Bill 1490 requires school counselors to undergo a psychological evaluation before providing services to students.

00:19:53.618 --> 00:19:59.453
Who comes up with this stuff Legit?

00:19:59.453 --> 00:20:03.830
I saw a comment on our Facebook page this morning.

00:20:03.830 --> 00:20:12.306
Someone said if they're going to require school counselors to get psychological evaluations, they ought to require the administrators to do one too.

00:20:12.306 --> 00:20:14.630
That made me laugh.

00:20:14.630 --> 00:20:21.469
North Dakota went to their school counseling association homepage and you guessed it squat.

00:20:21.469 --> 00:20:27.318
So again, I'm not talking about this because I'm trying to badmouth people.

00:20:28.226 --> 00:20:31.299
Again I say these associations are running on a shoestring.

00:20:31.299 --> 00:20:38.086
They're not even able to pay the people working within them because they get no support from the national organization.

00:20:38.086 --> 00:20:47.237
To my knowledge, according to ASCA's tax returns, they have not distributed any money to the state organizations other than the dues they collect on their behalf.

00:20:47.237 --> 00:20:52.335
Those state dues are usually pretty small compared to the ESCA dues.

00:20:52.335 --> 00:21:02.185
Right, and I think, more to the point, what this illustrates is the fact that we are stuck in the cycle of education.

00:21:03.548 --> 00:21:16.465
We are so bound and determined to continue talking about trainings and webinars and models and conferences that were missing the forest for the trees, friends.

00:21:16.465 --> 00:21:22.217
If we don't do something soon, we won't have any need for these conferences anymore.

00:21:22.217 --> 00:21:36.732
They won't be happening, and I hate to sound like the sky is falling, but y'all, it kind of is, and it seems that everyone's just sort of sitting back going oh well, you know let's, let's just wait and see what happens.

00:21:36.732 --> 00:21:49.714
So I hate to be such a downer, especially on a week like this week, but man, we got to start talking through this because this is getting to a point of critical mass and I'm not seeing a lot of movement on it.

00:21:49.714 --> 00:22:08.105
So contact your state associations, ask what you can do to help, volunteer, put in a few hours a week, creating posts for their Facebook groups, creating articles for their homepages, educating people on these pending pieces of legislation.

00:22:08.105 --> 00:22:28.039
Do something, find some way that you can help, because if you don't, we're going to end up with this kind of baloney all over the United States and it's going to be extremely difficult to do the jobs that we spent so much time and so much money acquiring.

00:22:29.527 --> 00:22:31.595
All right, well, enough gloom and doom.

00:22:31.595 --> 00:22:36.732
I do have some awesome news and a higher note to end this podcast episode on.

00:22:36.732 --> 00:22:50.589
I asked our School for School Counselors, podcast listeners and Facebook members to submit what they love most about their school counseling work, and we got a lot of great submissions.

00:22:50.589 --> 00:22:58.121
So, as I leave you for this episode, I'm going to let you listen in on some of my most favorite voice memos.

00:22:58.121 --> 00:22:59.885
I hope it lifts you up.

00:22:59.885 --> 00:23:11.876
I hope it inspires you for National School Counseling Week and remember as you listen and reflect on what it is that you love about this wonderful profession.

00:23:11.876 --> 00:23:20.179
Reach out to your state association and ask how you can help, and then follow through.

00:23:23.306 --> 00:23:33.835
I love being a school counselor because I get to be someone that kids can always count on, whether they're having a great day or a tough one.

00:23:33.835 --> 00:23:51.599
I just love watching them grow and helping them feel understood and helping them build their confidence and seeing the impact of these small moments of connection that we have, like when a student feels seen or learned something new about themselves.

00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:56.717
It just makes this work so truly meaningful to me.

00:23:59.746 --> 00:24:05.018
What I love most about school counseling is building relationships with my students and their families.

00:24:05.018 --> 00:24:18.176
There's no better feeling than being able to build that connection, help those students and their families and let students know that while they're at school they are so very loved.

00:24:20.646 --> 00:24:26.993
I love working with kids and helping them on their journey through life, as they face obstacles, and helping them overcome those obstacles.

00:24:26.993 --> 00:24:33.109
I also love working with staff and teachers, because they do so much for our kids on a daily basis and helping them.

00:24:36.555 --> 00:24:40.546
School counseling is a job that gives me a sense of purpose.

00:24:40.546 --> 00:24:42.970
How lucky am I to have this job.

00:24:42.970 --> 00:24:49.239
I love so much about school counseling.

00:24:49.239 --> 00:24:50.886
It has been a wonderful career for me.

00:24:50.886 --> 00:24:54.134
I love the variety that we have in our day.

00:24:54.134 --> 00:24:56.018
Every day is a new day.

00:24:56.018 --> 00:25:06.236
I love seeing the students and their aha moments, Like I had a class leave about 10 minutes ago and one of the students said gosh, your class is kind of like therapy.

00:25:06.236 --> 00:25:11.457
I know we're not doing therapy, but it was so great to see that she made the connection.

00:25:11.457 --> 00:25:14.253
It was good for her to do what we did today in our lesson.

00:25:14.253 --> 00:25:18.954
So I just love that when the kids can see and benefit from what you're doing.

00:25:19.175 --> 00:25:19.917
It's a wonderful thing.

00:25:23.405 --> 00:25:33.867
Hello, my name is Glenda Meadows, and what I love about being a school counselor is I get the chance to positively impact the life of a child every day in the most simple ways.

00:25:33.867 --> 00:25:56.171
I've been a school counselor for 31 years and I get joy from the smallest things, like giving friendly smiles that may help turn around a student's day, or seeing a student's eyes light up when you help them to find money to buy a yearbook, or the tight hug that a student gives you at the funeral of his dad who passed away unexpectedly.

00:25:56.171 --> 00:26:06.256
I learned early on in my career that we can have impact by simply building meaningful relationships with our students, and that is my why.

00:26:06.256 --> 00:26:09.348
That is what I love about being a school counselor.

00:26:09.348 --> 00:26:11.295
Now, don't get me wrong.

00:26:11.295 --> 00:26:28.511
I understand the importance of the big things like accountability and data, classroom guidance and small groups, 504s and behavior management plans, but for me, it's the little things, the little intangibles, that have sustained me through the years.

00:26:29.792 --> 00:26:35.238
Thanks, sustained me through the years.

00:26:35.238 --> 00:26:35.659
Thanks, all right.

00:26:35.659 --> 00:26:38.240
I hope you loved those as much as I did.

00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:44.886
Keep fighting the good fight.

00:26:44.886 --> 00:26:47.811
We're all in this together and I'll be back soon with another episode of the School for School Counselors podcast.

00:26:47.811 --> 00:26:48.272
Take care.

School Counselors Deserve Better! The Advocacy Problem No One Admits

Listen On

Recent Episodes