[msdee2]

I'm getting ready to do my internship at my school and my principal is not very supportive of teachers advancing in the school system. Can you ladies/gentlemen give me suggestions on how to ask her- I don't want to pay money for my pre-praticum class and not be able to get my hours. TIA


Dee

[eeza]

I think you could pose it as you would be an additional counselor and this could be especially enticing for your principal if your hours are unpaid. There is a high need for counseling services in the schools and you would be there to support the emotional/social needs of the students.

As for advancement, the counselors where I'm at don't make much more than teachers, so I am not sure if that would be called an advancement. Maybe a little.

[GraceKrispy]

In all the districts where I've worked, the counselors are on the teacher pay scale, so not an advancement- more like a lateral move. But people seemed to think I was "moving up" when I went from teacher to school counselor. Probably because I was out of the classroom.

I'd go in with cold, hard facts. Will doing your practicum mean they won't have you in the classroom? That could be problematic. I would spell out what this internship would mean for the school- advantages to having your in the counselor internship position (now and in the future) and also stress and specify how little it would impact the school negatively. If it does mean that you'll be out of your classroom, then make sure you have a plan for how that will work in a way that impacts students and staff as little as possible.

I also posted some links in a thread below about convincing administration of the importance of counselors in schools. I will c&p that post here:

This site has lots of information on WHY having counselors, but this link might make the biggest difference (empirical studies on the effectiveness of school counselors).

Some additional links to help:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/cg/rh/counseffective.asp
https://wvde.state.wv.us/counselors/...Counseling.pdf
https://www.counseling.org/PublicPol...CORE_02-11.pdf
https://www.umass.edu/schoolcounseli...-Brief-8.2.pdf
http://www.nacacnet.org/research/res.../McDonough.pdf

If you google, you'll find a ton more (I found these via google).

If you really want to try to make this work, I would make an appointment with the people in charge and plan for a short powerpoint or have a handout with pertinent points ready on WHY school counselors will BENEFIT the district (and also the kids themselves). I'm guessing the studies that focus on the academic benefits will be of the most interest to administration that is focused on test scores and the like.

[msdee2]

Thank you ladies, I took your advice and told her the importance of a counselor and intern and she agreed! I'm now an intern

Dee

[GraceKrispy]

Congrats! Wishing you a fantastic year!

[eeza]

Yes, congrats! Let us know how it goes and if you have any questions.