Success = Graduation

Graduation is the goal. First, last, always.

School Counseling = School First + Counseling Second

Many things will try to steal a school counselor’s focus, but the compass must always point in one direction: education. The true north of school counseling is encompassed in the capstone event of on-time graduation. Everything else a school counselor does must serve it. One experienced counselor broke it down for her school counseling interns by saying “school comes before counseling in your title … you are first and foremost an educator.” (She also followed up that those who significantly prefer the counseling piece over the education one can sometimes find community counseling more rewarding.)

REFLECTION: When you crafted your calendar and weekly schedule, does it reflect a focus on education and the outcome goal of graduation? If not, this is a good time to revisit it before you get too deep in the weeds. With each thing you add to your calendar, ask yourself the anchoring question: “How does this activity support this student’s (or all students) on-time graduation?” It’s truly that simple.

CSC Tip #2: Developmental, Teachable Moments

Empowering students with information is an essential piece of a school counselor’s job. As an educator, try to see each moment as an opportunity for a check-in or opportunity to monitor desired behavior/skill. One veteran counselor, for example, maintains an electronic graduation checklist that she shares with her students. When a student emails or stops by, she finds a way to insert a graduation progress check-in. This both reminds the student of the importance of using their shared graduation checklist (in this case an electronic one the student can independently view but not edit) and allows her the opportunity to give the student ongoing feedback and/or mentoring as needed.

*There is currently no charge for the tools shared by Carolinas School Counseling. Users are asked to credit Carolinas School Counseling by maintaining the tool’s watermark and link to our website so that other school counselors can follow & benefit.