[cardnialteach]

i am curious how often other school counselors go into individual classrooms and length of time each visit. Also, T what levels do you visit regularly? Our new Commissioner of Education is rolling out a new plan for the direction of education in our state and one of his goals is the role of the school counselor. Curious what others do on a regular basis.

Do you have a set curriculum or program you use with students? I know I am weak in career counseling, but find that a difficult area for elementary level.

[eeza]

I'm a school psychologist, but I work closely with my school counselors.

They seem to go into the classroom (high school level) about once a semester or so and it seems to be for about full period. They guide students through pre-college computer assessments and later in the year they discuss scheduling for the next year. I don't believe they have any set curriculum for the students.

My district does not have counselors at the elementary level that focus on career counseling. We recently got some mental health clinicians through the county, which is nice, but they book up really fast because there is such a need.

[GraceKrispy]

What a great question! When I was the school counselor, it was a K-12 school. I met with all 6-12 graders weekly for 1.5 hour blocks to do college/career counseling. I did a lot of things I came up with on my own, but the school also had a college/career website/database where the students had accounts and could explore career paths and stuff. It was pretty cool, and really helpful for the students.

I made it into the 1st grade classroom once a week for 1.5 hours to do nutrition, safety, community types of lessons. Again, I made them up, but they fit the standards. The next year, I had planned to do weekly classes in the K-5 grades as well, but I ended up switching to being a school psych. The reason I did 1.5 hours in 1st grade was partly for a class I was taking that required me to conduct some action research and take data.

The school was really small, so there was one class (or less) per grade. The counselor before me came in a few times, but she had panic attacks and couldn't handle leading the class (I was a classroom teacher at that time). It was horrible. Absolutely horrible.

The next school I was at had 3 counselors for over 1000 students (K-5). They came into classrooms every other week. 2 grades per counselor, 5-6 classes per grade. That amounts to about 6 classroom lessons a week. I was working as a school psych, so I'm not sure if they followed a curriculum.

[Becca4]

Our guidance counselors meet with each class 40 minutes a week. She has a lot of times free but she won't do individual counselling like our previous counselor...and our kiddos need it so much!

[cardnialteach]

Do you know if she uses a certain curriculm? If you are a classroom teacher, do you feel her lessons are helpful to your classroom? I have some teachers who are not very supportive and others that understand the importance of my time. Our previous counselor I did not feel was very good and didn't engage the students much. When I took this job, I didn't want to be that counselor. I am trying to find balance, but struggling due to lack of teacher support. If the kids don't think you are all in it together, they don't buy in either.

Thanks again.