8:30 am: Arrive

• Arrive at your school site on time. Check-in with the principal/secretary so that they know you are on campus.

• Set aside some time to have a brief meeting with your principal at least once a week so they can fill you in on anything that happened on days you weren’t at the school site/provide you with information about students (these check-ins go toward your 3000 hours)

• Check your mailbox in the faculty room for referrals or returned permission forms from teachers

• Get settled in your space and make a goal for the day of a few students that you need to see and who is a priority for the day. 

 

8:30am - 2:30pm: You Are A School Counselor! 

• You will typically meet with students for anywhere from 15 – 40 min (average is 30 min)

• We recommend not keeping them for too long so they don’t miss large chunks of class time

• Subjects to try your best not to schedule student sessions  – Math, ELA, Science

• Subjects that teachers are usually okay with having their students see the counselor – religion, PE, social studies, music, various electives

• BE FLEXIBLE. A school has dozens of moving parts that will throw a wrench in your schedule so you will have to be flexible. (student absences, star testing, exams, mass, practices, student council/campus ministry, class presentations, science fair, book fair, field trips, fire/emergency drills, and crisis situations). 

 

Recess (usually around 10:30-10:50) and Lunch (usually around 12:30-1:15)

• During recess is a good time to check in with teachers regarding a student referral that you received or to confirm student session times

• This is also a good time to be out on the playground and observing student’s interactions with their peers. Take note of who maybe isn’t eating snack/doesn’t bring a snack. Help young students open their applesauce and put straws in their juice boxes while getting to know them – just be a presence at the school and let them see you around so they know they can come to you if they need to

• For lunch – you can schedule lunch bunch – informal group for students to come and eat lunch with their classmates and the school counselor, play games, and practice social skills

• Faculty room – on days when you don’t have lunch bunch don’t be afraid to eat lunch in the faculty room. However, try not to get caught up in gossip sessions about students that unfortunately occur every now and then

 

Classroom Lessons and Small Groups

• Throughout the school year, your principal or a teacher may request that you work with an entire class or a small group of students, regarding a specific issue. Classroom lessons are fun! These lessons can be about friendships, conflict resolution, bullying, empathy, and social skills. There are tons of resources in the group binder that you were provided. Additionally, if you are having trouble coming up with an activity/lesson for a topic, reach out to other interns who will be happy to share resources with you! 

 

Counselor’s Corner - School Newsletter Article

• Every school has a weekly newsletter that gets emailed to the parents and families of the students. This is a great place for the school counselor to reach all of the families at their school. 

• We recommend writing a little Counselor’s Corner article for the newsletter - nothing too long, just a few paragraphs about a topic that provides resources to parents for their children. 

• Talk with your principal to see how they can incorporate you into the school community via the weekly newsletter! 

• If you would like to see some examples, let me or one of the other counselors know and we can send you some examples. 

 

Misc. 

• If you need to schedule a parent meeting during your hours at your school and the parent is unable to make it onto campus, and they would like to meet virtually, meeting over Zoom is an option. We have a program Zoom account that we use for Group Supervision and that you can use for parent meetings. The sign up sheet to reserve a time is located in the folder “Group Info/Announcements”. 

• Try your best to leave on time! 

• HAVE FUN! Not everyone has the privilege of being able to work with children and families in this capacity. You were sent here to work with children for a reason, so embrace it! The more you put in, the more you will get out of this experience!