Celebrate good times, come on!!!
Without a doubt, my fourth year as a school counselor has been my most challenging. Stress doesn’t even begin to cover what I felt this year as I battled never ending changes – I had my confidence rocked so many times that a part of me considered this to be my last year in this profession. But I’m happy to say that I’m not throwing in the towel; I’m using it to wipe off the parts of me that have been wounded and I’m carrying on…
It’s easy to reflect on a school year and go, “huh, look at everything I didn’t get done.” I went into the year with so many ideas and so much enthusiasm, but sadly both dwindled away with each “no” I received and each additional responsibility I was handed. Sigh.
What’s a counselor to do? Well, this counselor is going to hold her head high because this counselor deserves to feel good about the work she did get done! She’s also going to smile because she knows she tried her best and she knows her students love her anyway. And she’s going to carry on as a professional school counselor because she refuses to let one year of seemingly insurmountable obstacles stop her from doing what she loves!
This counselor is also going to CELEBRATE making it to the end of the school year by sharing a few things with her readers.
First, I was so touched by these thank you letters I received by some of my amazing first graders, that I knew I had to share. The detail in their drawings is pretty remarkable as well!
“Thank you for helping me when I needed help.”
“Thank you for giving us erasers.”
“Thank you for letting my friend and I eat in your room.”
Secondly, I want to share something new I did this year to show accountability and advocacy for my role within my district. I created a School Counseling Report, modeled after the lovely annual report at Elementary School Counseling (thank you, Marissa!).
The purpose of my report is to show how I used my time and how I served students this year. My goal was a concise, one page report that others could read quickly while perhaps opening their eyes to what I do. I used data from the documentation that I complete all year – numbers are powerful, so I let them speak for themselves! I uploaded the document to my district’s email system so anyone in my district could take a look. I’ve already gotten some great feedback about it!
Here’s a snapshot of my report. Click on the image to see the actual document in color and more clear.
Now for some much needed rest and relaxation! Have a lovely and quiet summer, my fellow counselor friends and readers! :)