After teaching several years on the high school level, I have earned a master's degree in school counseling. I've just recently been hired as an elementary school counselor for the upcoming school year. I am very excited, but also very nervous. Can anyone give me some advice on how I can be successful? Any good websites or books I should look in to? I don't want to burn out of be a failure! Thanks in advance!

[eeza]

Congrats on finishing up your program! Your nervousness is totally normal since you will have a different job and a different age group. I am a school psychologist, but I do counseling with some students so this is what I would recommend to avoid burnout:

• know when you need to refer out to a mental health professional because you are only supposed to do educational counseling
• know about risk-assessments and mandatory reporting
• know how to explain confidentiality to little kids so they understand it at their level
• don't be afraid to say no to additional duties your first year or two (this one is a general burnout avoidance thing, but it's good to repeat it!)

Best of luck!

[GraceKrispy]

Congratulations!!! That is really exciting Eeza had some great advice in her post. There are also some links and resources in other posts on this board, so be sure and look through what is already here.

Sometimes it can be helpful to start the year with a brief questionnaire for teachers asking what services are most helpful to them/where they would like the most support, etc. This type of questionnaire has a name, but I can't remember what it is Service needs or something? Making it brief and specific and also with a little blurb at the beginning on the types of ways you can support classroom teachers and other staff will help set their minds in the right direction (versus just an open-ended "how can I help" which will get you a whole ton of interesting - sometimes inappropriate- ideas ).

Ok, I did some creative googling and came up with this site that may be a helpful starting point for what I'm talking about!

Also, please be sure to check in here frequently and join in the conversation! We're happy to have you!

[delikate]

Thanks for posting this information. I have been hired recently too as a new school counselor after teaching for a few years and cannot wait to learn more. I can't wait to learn from those of you who have done this and know what I am going through!