Tuesday, January 5, 2016

School Counselors? Who Are They Again?




School Counselor...Ha...at an elementary school?  What do you do?  I mean, do you really "counsel" the kids...hahahahaha...what could they possibly need help with...I mean really....school counselors in an elementary school...? Does this sound remotely familiar to anyone other than me? Well, I get that all the time!!! People still consider us as paper pushers and it doesn’t help that there are those in our field that don’t mind!!  

Ever get that "What you talkin' bout Willis" look?

At the beginning of the school year, I generally send home a Counseling Brochure and a Parent Survey!  The brochure includes information about our counseling program: 
  • Mission and goals
  • The Role of the School Counselor
  • The services we offer-individual counseling, small group counseling, large group counseling and consultations
  • And a brief description about why as Counselors, we prefer to use the term School Counselors as opposed to Guidance Counselors!

In the past, I made a brochure for each student in my school and sent it home during the first week of school with a parent referral form attached.  This year, I’m at a much larger school so my principal sent the brochure, along with the parent referral, out in an E-mail blast to all the parents.  My Co-Counselor and I also made copies to go in the front office just in case parents needed a copy of the referral form on the spot! 


This has been really helpful in fully explaining the role of the school counselor and how we can help!  So now when I get the “What you talking bout Willis” look, I simply smile and give them a brochure!! I’ve uploaded the brochure to my TeachersPayTeachers site along with the Parent Referral formFeel free to take the brochure and make it your own!! No need to completely recreate the wheel if you don’t have to...(Unless you really get a kick out of creating wheelsthen in that case go ahead :0)!!

I hope this helps!! Feel free to add me to your Google Circle, comment below or shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions!!

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