1 00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:05,010 Hi, my friends. When I sat down to come up with another episode 2 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:08,730 for you all, I thought back to the podcast survey that a lot of 3 00:00:08,730 --> 00:00:11,880 you all answered, and I was thinking, we need to talk about 4 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:16,350 non counseling duties. So let's talk about how we navigate non 5 00:00:16,350 --> 00:00:19,830 counseling duties that just take up too much time, because it's a 6 00:00:19,830 --> 00:00:23,460 real thing. And depending on who your administrators are, what 7 00:00:23,460 --> 00:00:26,430 your team looks like, how many counselors are at your school, 8 00:00:26,610 --> 00:00:29,370 you might feel a little overwhelmed by those non 9 00:00:29,370 --> 00:00:30,300 counseling duties. 10 00:00:30,330 --> 00:00:33,090 And then, you know what? You might not be very happy in your 11 00:00:33,090 --> 00:00:36,630 job when you're doing more non counseling duties than direct 12 00:00:36,630 --> 00:00:40,110 hours with students. Isn't that always the case? We want those 13 00:00:40,110 --> 00:00:42,270 direct hours with students, because we want to feel like 14 00:00:42,270 --> 00:00:46,500 we're making an impact, and it often feels hard to make an 15 00:00:46,530 --> 00:00:50,670 impact when you're drowning under paperwork and your desk is 16 00:00:50,670 --> 00:00:53,910 an absolute mess because you have a lot of administrative 17 00:00:53,910 --> 00:00:55,200 type things to get to. 18 00:00:55,590 --> 00:00:58,230 Now when I say administrative, I don't mean like being an 19 00:00:58,230 --> 00:01:01,830 administrator, like an assistant principal at your school. I mean 20 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:06,270 those tasks that just take up your day, eat at your time with 21 00:01:06,270 --> 00:01:09,540 things that feel a little pointless, like spreadsheets, 22 00:01:09,540 --> 00:01:13,740 checklists, to do lists, paperwork, credit checks on 23 00:01:13,740 --> 00:01:17,490 transcripts, emailing people, all of the other things that are 24 00:01:17,490 --> 00:01:20,580 not directly face time with students. 25 00:01:21,300 --> 00:01:25,290 Okay, first, I want to give you some examples of how I have 26 00:01:25,290 --> 00:01:28,260 dealt with these non counseling duties, like, what are the 27 00:01:28,260 --> 00:01:31,770 duties that I'm talking about here, and how did I really feel 28 00:01:31,770 --> 00:01:35,010 weighed down by them? Because you might be able to relate, and 29 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,280 you might be able to pick out some of these same things, or 30 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:40,650 maybe yours are a little bit different, but I kind of want 31 00:01:40,650 --> 00:01:44,370 you to pinpoint what those are for you. And then I want to talk 32 00:01:44,370 --> 00:01:47,280 about how to advocate for your time, especially to your 33 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,730 administrators at your school. And then how to think about 34 00:01:50,730 --> 00:01:53,910 possibly outsourcing some of those non counseling tasks, or 35 00:01:53,910 --> 00:01:58,230 just at least considering what could be possible if you were 36 00:01:58,230 --> 00:02:03,930 able to outsource those or put them somewhere else so that you 37 00:02:03,930 --> 00:02:05,610 could get other things done. 38 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,670 You got into this profession to make a difference in your 39 00:02:14,670 --> 00:02:17,760 students' lives, but you're spread thin by all of the things 40 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:20,940 that keep getting added to your to do list. I can't create more 41 00:02:20,940 --> 00:02:23,550 hours in the day, but I can invite you into my counselor 42 00:02:23,550 --> 00:02:26,820 clique where you'll finally catch your breath. Come with me 43 00:02:26,820 --> 00:02:29,910 as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that'll 44 00:02:29,910 --> 00:02:32,730 help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your 45 00:02:32,730 --> 00:02:35,880 students. I'm Lauren Tingle, your high school counseling hype 46 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:38,940 girl, here to help you energize your school counseling program 47 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:41,220 and remind you of how much you love your job. 48 00:02:43,860 --> 00:02:48,120 So let's talk about those non counseling duties. When I say 49 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:52,230 that, what comes to my mind are things like testing, lunch duty 50 00:02:52,230 --> 00:02:55,500 or hallway duties, bus duties, and then those other 51 00:02:55,500 --> 00:02:58,680 administrative tasks or responsibilities. So let me give 52 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,880 you an example of each of these, and where I have really felt 53 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,210 stuck with each of these, and then I'll kind of tell you my 54 00:03:06,210 --> 00:03:09,630 problem solving process and how I worked through these things 55 00:03:09,630 --> 00:03:11,100 and what the result was. 56 00:03:11,730 --> 00:03:15,210 So I'm pretty sure I've told this story before, but it's been 57 00:03:15,210 --> 00:03:19,200 a while. I have very vivid memories of being in my first, 58 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:23,070 second, maybe even third year of being a counselor at my school 59 00:03:23,340 --> 00:03:28,620 and being stuck with testing. I was the 10th grade counselor, at 60 00:03:28,620 --> 00:03:31,470 that time we were grade level counselors. We didn't roll with 61 00:03:31,470 --> 00:03:35,460 students. We did not divide by alphabet. We were strictly grade 62 00:03:35,460 --> 00:03:38,070 level counselors, because that's how many counselors we had at 63 00:03:38,070 --> 00:03:40,680 our school. Maybe some of you can relate to that. I was the 64 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,140 10th grade counselor. And along with being the 10th grade 65 00:03:43,140 --> 00:03:47,100 counselor, came being in charge of the state testing that all 66 00:03:47,130 --> 00:03:51,150 10th graders took. It was one of those graduation exams that 67 00:03:51,150 --> 00:03:55,080 tested their English and Math basic skills, and they had to 68 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,230 pass it in order to graduate from high school. They gave it 69 00:03:58,230 --> 00:04:00,510 to them in 10th grade, if they didn't pass it, they had a 70 00:04:00,510 --> 00:04:02,370 couple more tries to get their diploma. 71 00:04:02,910 --> 00:04:07,530 Okay, I was the one in charge of all of the testing for, I mean, 72 00:04:07,530 --> 00:04:11,880 how many students was that? Over 450. I mean, probably 480 73 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:16,290 students. And I had the delight of organizing the test booklet, 74 00:04:16,290 --> 00:04:19,560 sharpening the pencils, putting them all in the correct baskets, 75 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,460 training the teachers and making sure it all went well on the 76 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:27,390 test day. That was not even all of it. I know, if you have had 77 00:04:27,390 --> 00:04:32,190 any part of testing, you know a lot goes into it, from filtering 78 00:04:32,190 --> 00:04:34,470 lists of students, taking out the students with 79 00:04:34,470 --> 00:04:37,320 accommodations, planning the accommodations for those 80 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,170 students and who is going to give those tests, what you're 81 00:04:40,170 --> 00:04:42,780 going to do with all the other students who aren't testing. I 82 00:04:42,780 --> 00:04:45,960 mean, it feels like a big responsibility that they want to 83 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:47,070 put on one person. 84 00:04:47,490 --> 00:04:51,270 At this point in time, our district was not on board with 85 00:04:51,450 --> 00:04:55,680 counselors not having testing. So what I'm saying is counselors 86 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,680 had testing on their plates at this point, there was not a push 87 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:01,770 to take this off counselors' plates as a non counseling duty 88 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:06,060 yet. So I have these memories, terrible memories. Let's talk 89 00:05:06,060 --> 00:05:09,720 PTSD about these memories. Yes, I do. I would be sitting in a 90 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:15,120 locked testing room, basically a room with a metal door, no 91 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,110 windows, with all these baskets as I was trying to organize 92 00:05:19,140 --> 00:05:22,230 these tests. I would come in when it was still dark outside. 93 00:05:22,350 --> 00:05:25,740 I would leave for the day when it was still dark outside. 94 00:05:26,250 --> 00:05:30,870 I was exhausted. It felt so high pressure. I mean, all you hear 95 00:05:30,870 --> 00:05:34,140 is, you don't do this right, you mess up, you're going to jail. I 96 00:05:34,140 --> 00:05:36,780 mean, that's what I thought about when I was leaving work 97 00:05:36,780 --> 00:05:40,770 and when I was doing this. It was high stress, high stakes. It 98 00:05:40,770 --> 00:05:43,350 was tedious, it was boring. It was all those things. 99 00:05:43,890 --> 00:05:48,060 And I don't remember why, but either my principal called me 100 00:05:48,060 --> 00:05:51,660 into his office or I went in there. I think I was going into 101 00:05:51,660 --> 00:05:56,280 his office kind of after hours, asking for help, saying, Hey, I 102 00:05:56,280 --> 00:06:00,030 could just use some extra hands. Or, teachers are complaining 103 00:06:00,030 --> 00:06:04,470 about this. Can you get some of them on board with me? I don't 104 00:06:04,470 --> 00:06:07,290 know. I was just asking for something because I was doing 105 00:06:07,290 --> 00:06:09,930 something that I didn't want to do, and I was getting a lot of 106 00:06:09,930 --> 00:06:13,560 pushback, and I didn't feel like I had people on my team. And now 107 00:06:13,590 --> 00:06:17,490 I can rally people for something, but it's very hard to 108 00:06:17,490 --> 00:06:20,580 rally people to get excited about testing that no one wants 109 00:06:20,580 --> 00:06:24,750 to do. And it looked like I was, I mean, I was the one in charge 110 00:06:24,750 --> 00:06:27,840 of it, and so it looked like I was giving all these directions. 111 00:06:27,870 --> 00:06:30,870 I was the strict person about this, which really does go 112 00:06:30,870 --> 00:06:33,750 against everything in my personality. I don't care. I 113 00:06:33,750 --> 00:06:36,960 don't care about anything that much. It's hard to care about 114 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:40,080 testing, which took me away from working with students. 115 00:06:40,530 --> 00:06:44,640 I remember feeling so absolutely defeated because when I went to 116 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:49,530 talk to my principal, he just didn't hear me or see me. I 117 00:06:49,530 --> 00:06:53,550 remember turning around leaving his office and crying. I have 118 00:06:53,550 --> 00:06:56,430 only cried a handful of times in this job as a high school 119 00:06:56,430 --> 00:07:00,330 counselor, and this was one of those times I just knew that 120 00:07:00,330 --> 00:07:03,210 counting test booklets, sharpening pencils, writing 121 00:07:03,210 --> 00:07:06,420 procedures for teachers. It just wasn't my skill set. It wasn't a 122 00:07:06,420 --> 00:07:10,350 good use of my gifts. And now I am a big proponent for being a 123 00:07:10,350 --> 00:07:13,800 team player. I would never just not do something because I was a 124 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,500 snowflake and I just didn't feel like it aligned with my gifts, 125 00:07:16,500 --> 00:07:20,190 like I am going to put my head down and I'm gonna work hard. I 126 00:07:20,190 --> 00:07:23,160 am not saying I could not do something hard. It was just this 127 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,490 feeling of being misunderstood, knowing that this wasn't the 128 00:07:26,490 --> 00:07:29,580 role of a counselor, and feeling like I had no help and no 129 00:07:29,580 --> 00:07:31,170 support. I was on an island. 130 00:07:31,500 --> 00:07:34,710 And a lot of you feel that way right now, like what I just 131 00:07:34,710 --> 00:07:38,280 described is how you go to work every day. You feel like nobody 132 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:41,940 hears you, nobody sees you, and you're doing things that are 133 00:07:41,940 --> 00:07:44,850 outside of your scope and outside of what your 134 00:07:44,850 --> 00:07:48,690 responsibility should be. I hope you know it can get better. This 135 00:07:48,690 --> 00:07:52,050 is not everywhere. It's not every school. It's not every 136 00:07:52,050 --> 00:07:56,340 administration. This was not my experience forever. It partially 137 00:07:56,340 --> 00:07:59,610 had to do with the principal, and when the principal shifted 138 00:07:59,670 --> 00:08:02,820 and the district initiative shifted, everyone started 139 00:08:02,820 --> 00:08:06,210 advocating for counselors a little bit more to have less of 140 00:08:06,210 --> 00:08:08,070 those non counseling duties. 141 00:08:08,730 --> 00:08:12,540 I will say I did during this season, put my head down and do 142 00:08:12,540 --> 00:08:16,860 what I was supposed to. And there was a push to have 143 00:08:16,860 --> 00:08:21,120 administrators come in and take that role of testing coordinator 144 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,870 off of the counselors, but it was a slow grind. Let me tell 145 00:08:24,870 --> 00:08:28,980 you, like even though they put the title on an assistant 146 00:08:28,980 --> 00:08:31,920 principal, they didn't want to be trained. They didn't want to 147 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:36,360 do it either. It was so hard, a real slow burn, to get that 148 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:38,400 responsibility off of our counselors. 149 00:08:39,210 --> 00:08:43,380 Next, I remember a very specific time when my principal, who I 150 00:08:43,380 --> 00:08:47,850 loved so dearly, sat us down for a meeting. It was like our team 151 00:08:47,850 --> 00:08:50,820 meeting, and he was going to come to it. He was sort of 152 00:08:50,820 --> 00:08:54,840 coming to us as a mouthpiece for the teachers, but I also knew 153 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:59,400 that he was a huge advocate for us as counselors, and he wanted 154 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:03,870 to support us, but he basically sat us down and said, okay, the 155 00:09:03,870 --> 00:09:08,280 teachers want you to have duty in the hallways just like they 156 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:12,570 have. They feel like it's unfair that you all are not doing that 157 00:09:12,570 --> 00:09:15,420 part of the job that they are doing, that they have to give 158 00:09:15,420 --> 00:09:18,030 out some of their planning time to do it. And he basically was 159 00:09:18,030 --> 00:09:22,290 like, tell me why you cannot do this. Like he knew in his heart 160 00:09:22,290 --> 00:09:24,930 that we shouldn't be doing it, but he was like, I need 161 00:09:24,930 --> 00:09:27,120 something to go back to them and tell them. 162 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:31,080 So we laid it all out there. We said we are doing crisis 163 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:35,100 management. If we're on duty in the hallway and we have to leave 164 00:09:35,100 --> 00:09:37,980 because there's a crying student, or there is an absolute 165 00:09:38,010 --> 00:09:41,730 emergency where there's a safety issue with a student, if you 166 00:09:41,730 --> 00:09:45,360 want us to leave that spot in the hallway that we are supposed 167 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:49,200 to be manning and watching and checking passes, if we walk 168 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:52,260 away, are you okay with that? Is that okay that you're not gonna 169 00:09:52,260 --> 00:09:55,260 have that person there? Because chances are we're gonna get tied 170 00:09:55,260 --> 00:09:59,580 over in a meeting, or we're gonna be in a crisis situation, 171 00:09:59,610 --> 00:10:01,740 or we're not going to be able to report to that spot. So if 172 00:10:01,740 --> 00:10:06,360 you're okay with that, then sure. And we said we have a very 173 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:09,930 specialized skill set that not anyone could just jump in and 174 00:10:09,930 --> 00:10:14,100 handle that crisis situation with a student who is wanting to 175 00:10:14,100 --> 00:10:18,360 end their life. Okay, if you have another body who could 176 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,240 stand in the hallway and check hall passes, that feels a little 177 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:24,690 more generalized that I'm gonna say anyone could do. 178 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:27,600 And then, as counselors, it feels like we just have to be 179 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:31,350 available for walk ins. You know, we have people scheduling 180 00:10:31,350 --> 00:10:35,130 appointments, and that would be really hard to do, to block off 181 00:10:35,130 --> 00:10:39,180 a big chunk of time every single day to sit in the hallway when 182 00:10:39,180 --> 00:10:41,550 there are parents who want to come in and talk to us, or who 183 00:10:41,550 --> 00:10:45,720 are making appointments to come in and talk to us. It just felt 184 00:10:46,020 --> 00:10:51,030 silly to have to say to us that, yeah, you must be available to 185 00:10:51,030 --> 00:10:53,550 people who are walking in. You must be available for people to 186 00:10:53,550 --> 00:10:57,330 be able to make appointments with you, but then to say, Nope, 187 00:10:57,330 --> 00:10:59,790 you're actually going to use your time sitting in the hallway 188 00:10:59,790 --> 00:11:00,390 here. 189 00:11:00,690 --> 00:11:04,530 So we got out of that real quick. It was something that we 190 00:11:04,530 --> 00:11:07,560 had never had on our plate before. And then when it was 191 00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:10,500 brought to our principal to potentially put that on our 192 00:11:10,500 --> 00:11:15,150 plate, we came in with a PowerPoint ready to say why we 193 00:11:15,150 --> 00:11:18,930 couldn't do it and what we would be doing instead. And he went 194 00:11:18,930 --> 00:11:21,900 back and reported, and they backed down when they realized, 195 00:11:21,900 --> 00:11:24,810 yeah, I don't want to be the one having those conversations with 196 00:11:24,810 --> 00:11:26,910 students in case of emergency. 197 00:11:27,300 --> 00:11:30,630 So he, our principal, walked away from that and basically 198 00:11:30,630 --> 00:11:33,480 said, okay, then I want you to be visible when you can. I want 199 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:36,390 teachers to see you in the hallways and to be talking with 200 00:11:36,390 --> 00:11:41,070 those students when you're not doing this duty position. I want 201 00:11:41,070 --> 00:11:44,190 you to be with students all the other times. Don't be the person 202 00:11:44,190 --> 00:11:47,250 who's sitting in their office just doing all the paperwork. I 203 00:11:47,250 --> 00:11:51,720 want you to get to do what we hired you to do, which, let me 204 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:54,150 tell you, feels really good as a counselor, to have that kind of 205 00:11:54,150 --> 00:11:57,390 support. He basically was like, I want you to be doing the 206 00:11:57,390 --> 00:12:01,770 things that make your program a ramp worthy program. He said, I 207 00:12:01,770 --> 00:12:05,160 will cut these non counseling duties if I can have you working 208 00:12:05,370 --> 00:12:09,840 on board, everybody on board to have a program that really 209 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:11,670 serves students that we can be proud of. 210 00:12:12,420 --> 00:12:15,300 And I think it's inevitable that in high school, you're going to 211 00:12:15,300 --> 00:12:18,510 have a lot of those administrative duties, more so 212 00:12:18,540 --> 00:12:22,050 than elementary and middle. Now, that's a generalized assumption. 213 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:25,950 My only experience in elementary and middle is in my internships. 214 00:12:25,950 --> 00:12:29,040 I have never had a full time job in either of those. But my 215 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:33,180 perception is that high school has a little bit more of your 216 00:12:33,180 --> 00:12:36,120 basic paperwork, your spreadsheets to manage, reports 217 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:39,870 to fill out and submit, letters of recommendation to write, 504s 218 00:12:39,870 --> 00:12:42,930 to manage, write, print, schedule, disseminate. You can 219 00:12:42,930 --> 00:12:46,410 keep that list going, I'm sure. I've never been in one of those 220 00:12:46,590 --> 00:12:49,860 other level roles, but I'm pretty confident that high 221 00:12:49,860 --> 00:12:52,140 school counseling does have a lot of this. 222 00:12:52,140 --> 00:12:55,020 So let's first accept that like that's gonna come with the 223 00:12:55,020 --> 00:12:58,350 territory. But let's also be proud that we get to work with 224 00:12:58,350 --> 00:13:01,710 the coolest students. I know I'm a little biased here. I won't be 225 00:13:01,710 --> 00:13:04,950 too braggy that high school counseling is the absolute best. 226 00:13:04,950 --> 00:13:08,970 But if you're listening to this, chances are you probably think 227 00:13:08,970 --> 00:13:14,940 this is true too. I would gladly take a few of those type of non 228 00:13:14,940 --> 00:13:17,820 counseling duties, the administrative paperwork type 229 00:13:17,820 --> 00:13:21,420 stuff, if it meant that in exchange I got to keep working 230 00:13:21,420 --> 00:13:24,450 with teenagers. I think it's a small trade off that I'm willing 231 00:13:24,450 --> 00:13:24,990 to take. 232 00:13:25,740 --> 00:13:30,210 Okay, so how do we advocate for our time as a counselor with 233 00:13:30,210 --> 00:13:33,390 administration? It could totally depend on where your 234 00:13:33,390 --> 00:13:35,730 administration is coming from, what the culture at your school 235 00:13:35,730 --> 00:13:39,360 is like, but I think if you are going to have the opportunity to 236 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:43,380 get a new principal or any new administrators, this is your 237 00:13:43,380 --> 00:13:47,310 shot. I don't want you to miss it. You only get one shot. Okay? 238 00:13:47,700 --> 00:13:50,520 You have a new principal, you have a new administrator. Use 239 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:52,860 the beginning of the year presentation that I have in my 240 00:13:52,860 --> 00:13:58,920 TPT store and offer to do that in front of your principal or 241 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,400 your administrators in some sort of team meeting. If they can 242 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:06,180 hear about what you do and what your role is, everybody's gonna 243 00:14:06,180 --> 00:14:07,410 be clearer up front. 244 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:12,240 I also like to think about sharing my calendar with these 245 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,450 people, these important stakeholders, and you know this 246 00:14:15,450 --> 00:14:17,550 means that you actually have to use your calendar. You can't 247 00:14:17,550 --> 00:14:20,940 just share a blank calendar with them. But when you have that 248 00:14:20,940 --> 00:14:24,750 sort of transparency with your stakeholders, and I'm talking 249 00:14:24,810 --> 00:14:26,550 the people that you're working closely with, those 250 00:14:26,550 --> 00:14:30,480 administrators, maybe department heads, I don't know who needs to 251 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,060 see it. You could have a different one for the public 252 00:14:33,060 --> 00:14:35,820 that's public facing, and a different one for administrators 253 00:14:35,820 --> 00:14:39,120 or your clerk in your office. But I found that the more 254 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:42,840 transparent I was or the more outspoken I was about trying to 255 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,260 be open about what I do, then the more I was able to dispel 256 00:14:46,260 --> 00:14:49,830 myths about what was actually going on behind the scenes. Of 257 00:14:49,830 --> 00:14:52,650 course, you cannot be sharing what you're talking about and 258 00:14:52,650 --> 00:14:57,750 who you're seeing, but I just found that by being as 259 00:14:57,750 --> 00:15:01,680 transparent as I could be within Re. Reason that people couldn't 260 00:15:01,710 --> 00:15:06,090 assume what I was doing was what they made up in their mind. 261 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:09,090 And I totally understand being on the other side of this 262 00:15:09,090 --> 00:15:13,680 mentality, like I've been the person who assumes all the way 263 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:19,110 down the storyline and make something up until I come up 264 00:15:19,110 --> 00:15:22,380 with what I think is rational in my head, because I don't have 265 00:15:22,380 --> 00:15:26,160 all the information at hand. And I would even say in my marriage, 266 00:15:26,370 --> 00:15:30,060 a phrase that we use a lot in our marriage, is believing the 267 00:15:30,060 --> 00:15:33,210 best. We try and believe the best in each other. And I think 268 00:15:33,210 --> 00:15:35,370 that that can be taken into the workplace too. 269 00:15:35,850 --> 00:15:39,750 Now I do know not everybody is going to do this job or their 270 00:15:39,750 --> 00:15:43,500 job in a school with complete integrity, some people are going 271 00:15:43,500 --> 00:15:47,670 to be difficult to work with, like, that is a real thing, and 272 00:15:47,670 --> 00:15:51,000 so that is hard to believe the best of those people. But I want 273 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:53,670 to try and give people the benefit of the doubt. I want to 274 00:15:53,670 --> 00:15:56,400 hope that people are going to work with integrity and are 275 00:15:56,400 --> 00:16:00,390 going to say what they are doing behind the scenes. So hear me 276 00:16:00,390 --> 00:16:03,810 out. This is not a plea for toxic positivity. I know not 277 00:16:03,810 --> 00:16:06,330 everybody is going to be the best. I know that we cannot 278 00:16:06,330 --> 00:16:09,120 believe the best about everybody, but this is a mental 279 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,030 shift. If you find yourself always thinking the worst about 280 00:16:12,030 --> 00:16:15,090 somebody's work ethic or what they're doing, if you haven't 281 00:16:15,090 --> 00:16:18,330 taken the time or energy to understand the bigger picture or 282 00:16:18,330 --> 00:16:21,570 understand what makes them tick and what kinds of things they 283 00:16:21,570 --> 00:16:24,330 like doing as a counselor, like if you're assuming the worst 284 00:16:24,330 --> 00:16:27,870 about your teammates or your administrators, I think doing 285 00:16:27,870 --> 00:16:33,690 some deep digging into your own thoughts and opinions about them 286 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:37,140 and their work standard would be a good thing to consider. 287 00:16:37,770 --> 00:16:40,140 When I talked about sharing your calendar and using your 288 00:16:40,140 --> 00:16:43,770 calendar, if you found yourself saying, Well, I don't really use 289 00:16:43,770 --> 00:16:46,920 my calendar, and that is a struggle for you, that time 290 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:51,420 management and calendar piece of your department and your role is 291 00:16:51,420 --> 00:16:54,210 a struggle, then I would encourage you to go back and 292 00:16:54,210 --> 00:16:57,030 listen to the episode I did just a couple weeks ago with my 293 00:16:57,030 --> 00:17:00,240 friend Casey Ranger. She had some great tips about time 294 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:03,330 management and batching things and blocking off your schedule 295 00:17:03,330 --> 00:17:06,480 and getting things done. So I'll definitely link that in the show 296 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:07,230 notes for you. 297 00:17:08,190 --> 00:17:10,380 The last strategy I want to mention about your non 298 00:17:10,380 --> 00:17:14,070 counseling tasks and how to just manage them make them a little 299 00:17:14,070 --> 00:17:18,060 bit more bearable, would be outsourcing them. Of course, we 300 00:17:18,060 --> 00:17:20,370 would like to outsource them out of our building, not even have 301 00:17:20,370 --> 00:17:23,070 to think about them, outsource them out of our brain, and not 302 00:17:23,130 --> 00:17:26,760 even have to bring them to the forefront. But I'm talking about 303 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:30,090 using people in your building who are either offering to help 304 00:17:30,090 --> 00:17:33,450 or who could take on something else that is more aligned with 305 00:17:33,450 --> 00:17:37,320 what they're doing. And so think about some of the tasks that 306 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,500 maybe you do that aren't directly student centered, or 307 00:17:40,500 --> 00:17:44,100 that take away from the time that you could be using with 308 00:17:44,100 --> 00:17:46,980 students directly. And then think about the people around 309 00:17:46,980 --> 00:17:49,890 you who you could help bring in to help support those things. 310 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:54,180 So here's one big area that I felt like I could take off my 311 00:17:54,180 --> 00:17:57,690 plate if I could come up with somebody to help me. Some of 312 00:17:57,690 --> 00:18:02,670 those 504 duties. We know them. We love them. When I looked at 313 00:18:02,670 --> 00:18:06,060 my calendar and how I was spending my time, this took up a 314 00:18:06,090 --> 00:18:10,860 huge chunk of time, and it felt like parts of this were pretty 315 00:18:10,860 --> 00:18:13,950 repetitive, like emailing teachers, scheduling a meeting, 316 00:18:13,950 --> 00:18:17,850 confirming with parents, sending calendar invites. And so here is 317 00:18:17,850 --> 00:18:21,660 where I brought in my counseling clerk. We had a clerk or 318 00:18:21,660 --> 00:18:25,680 secretary who sat in our office, and you know, she could do a lot 319 00:18:25,710 --> 00:18:30,240 of tasks for us that were not counseling related, but 320 00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:34,920 supported us as counselors. Now, I had to be organized on my end 321 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,890 to make this happen, and so when she was doing things like 322 00:18:37,890 --> 00:18:41,220 scheduling, she was having to look at my calendar, so I had to 323 00:18:41,220 --> 00:18:43,740 keep that up to date, and I had to put in every meeting that I 324 00:18:43,740 --> 00:18:46,410 had and every appointment that I had and when I was going off 325 00:18:46,410 --> 00:18:50,100 campus to train for something, in order for her to know when I 326 00:18:50,100 --> 00:18:51,660 was available to make that happen. 327 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:56,160 This was a game changer for me. I just felt like I was doing a 328 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:59,550 lot of behind the scenes communication, which I don't 329 00:18:59,550 --> 00:19:02,940 mind doing. I like to communicate, but it was just a 330 00:19:02,940 --> 00:19:06,810 lot, and it felt like something that someone else could do if I 331 00:19:06,810 --> 00:19:09,870 found the right person with the right skill set. And let me tell 332 00:19:09,870 --> 00:19:12,990 you, our clerk was the right person. She made it happen. It 333 00:19:12,990 --> 00:19:16,530 made those meetings so much more bearable, because when I was 334 00:19:16,530 --> 00:19:19,290 sitting down to actually concentrate on my 504 335 00:19:19,290 --> 00:19:21,960 responsibilities, do you know what it was? It was sitting down 336 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,080 with the student, the parent and a teacher, where I was being the 337 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,740 one who was running the meeting, talking, kind of doing 338 00:19:28,740 --> 00:19:33,150 counseling type things in a meeting type setting. All of the 339 00:19:33,150 --> 00:19:35,910 behind the scenes stuff was taken care of by someone else. 340 00:19:36,630 --> 00:19:40,050 Another thing that came to light when I looked at my calendar 341 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:43,620 where I thought, hmm, maybe somebody else could help us with 342 00:19:43,620 --> 00:19:47,640 this, was having to constantly stop what we were doing as we 343 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,640 were enrolling new students and going and giving them a tour. 344 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:53,670 Now, I love walking around the school with new students and 345 00:19:53,670 --> 00:19:57,510 chit chatting and showing them around, but at the beginning of 346 00:19:57,540 --> 00:20:00,930 each semester, when you have lots of students waiting to 347 00:20:00,930 --> 00:20:04,620 enroll, and they are trying to get into class, it almost felt 348 00:20:04,620 --> 00:20:07,800 like a frivolous thing to walk them around the school. And I 349 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:10,890 say that like if I put myself in the student's shoes, yes, that 350 00:20:10,890 --> 00:20:13,650 is very important. I would want to walk around and know where 351 00:20:13,650 --> 00:20:15,960 the auditorium was or where the cafeteria was or where the 352 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,500 bathroom was. But is there somebody else in the school who 353 00:20:19,500 --> 00:20:20,550 could help with that. 354 00:20:20,940 --> 00:20:24,180 So we thought maybe we could have some students partner with 355 00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:27,960 us that feels like something that is not super private, 356 00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:31,800 doesn't violate any FERPA violations. We would have 357 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,970 students come in and essentially be a peer leader or peer mentor, 358 00:20:36,150 --> 00:20:40,410 be a friend to a new student, and help connect them to clubs 359 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:43,920 and the basic things that they might need to know around the 360 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:47,280 school. It was really cool to watch those friendships blossom 361 00:20:47,580 --> 00:20:50,910 by equipping students to be leaders in the school and be 362 00:20:50,910 --> 00:20:54,630 welcoming faces, smiling faces to new students. 363 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:58,410 So in the past, where I would have to sit down with a family, 364 00:20:58,500 --> 00:21:01,080 make a schedule, then take them and walk them all the way around 365 00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:05,610 the school, I could almost pass them off to a student. I'm 366 00:21:05,610 --> 00:21:09,930 helping equip a student to be a bolder, more confident leader in 367 00:21:09,930 --> 00:21:12,930 our school, and I'm helping these two students connect and 368 00:21:12,930 --> 00:21:17,580 make a peer relationship happen. Hence peer leaders were born. I 369 00:21:17,580 --> 00:21:20,520 have a whole episode on how to build out a program like this, 370 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:23,670 and a TPT resource that has all the important pieces done for 371 00:21:23,670 --> 00:21:26,610 you. So I'll link those in the show notes as well. I think 372 00:21:26,610 --> 00:21:30,540 that's a very practical how to episode, if you're thinking, 373 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:34,980 wow, I could equip some students in my school to do something 374 00:21:35,010 --> 00:21:36,780 like this for other new students. 375 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:41,160 And then lastly, a place that I don't want you to miss in terms 376 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:45,330 of outsourcing, would be taking on a counseling intern. If you 377 00:21:45,330 --> 00:21:48,510 have not taken on a high school counseling intern, yet, this may 378 00:21:48,510 --> 00:21:52,560 be the sign that you need to do so. Yes, it is real work to 379 00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:55,860 teach someone and to give them feedback and to have them kind 380 00:21:55,860 --> 00:22:00,630 of shadowing you and taking the reins on some things. However, 381 00:22:00,690 --> 00:22:03,810 there are so many benefits to furthering the profession 382 00:22:03,810 --> 00:22:07,170 through your influence as a supervisor to an intern. I talk 383 00:22:07,170 --> 00:22:10,800 all about this in episode 134, what I learned from supervising 384 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:12,510 interns. It was not easy. 385 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:15,870 I do just want to take a minute and highlight though, when 386 00:22:15,870 --> 00:22:18,750 you've got some good synergy going with you and an intern, 387 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,530 you can multiply yourself. And I'm not saying put all the non 388 00:22:22,530 --> 00:22:25,890 counseling duties on them. That's definitely not the goal, 389 00:22:26,250 --> 00:22:29,970 but you can use them to multiply your direct counseling duties, 390 00:22:29,970 --> 00:22:33,450 because you're in it to make an impact with students, right? And 391 00:22:33,450 --> 00:22:37,320 so if you care about making those direct hours happen more 392 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,140 for your caseload, with an intern, you can do more 393 00:22:40,140 --> 00:22:42,720 classroom lessons, more small groups, more individual 394 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:43,770 counseling sessions. 395 00:22:44,130 --> 00:22:46,920 You also get the perspective of someone who's eager to learn 396 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,850 right now, and then, you also have their connections to 397 00:22:50,850 --> 00:22:53,610 troubleshoot anything that you're going through with a 398 00:22:53,610 --> 00:22:58,110 student, with their professor, their peers and you. You get to 399 00:22:58,110 --> 00:23:01,650 be learning too. You get to continue being a student when 400 00:23:01,650 --> 00:23:03,660 you have an intern alongside you. 401 00:23:04,590 --> 00:23:06,960 So I want you to look for opportunities to take on more 402 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,050 direct counseling hours so that you can make an impact on 403 00:23:10,050 --> 00:23:13,710 students just like you signed up to do. This doesn't mean all of 404 00:23:13,710 --> 00:23:16,890 your non counseling duties will disappear altogether, but if 405 00:23:16,890 --> 00:23:20,490 you're making small efforts to shift your own mentality around 406 00:23:20,700 --> 00:23:22,680 your transparency, around your calendar and your 407 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,280 responsibilities, you may win over some of those big decision 408 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:30,090 makers to get them to realize you are best serving students in 409 00:23:30,090 --> 00:23:33,750 the places where you are especially trained to serve 410 00:23:33,750 --> 00:23:37,650 students as a counselor, managing sensitive issues that 411 00:23:37,650 --> 00:23:40,170 not everyone in the school is equipped to do. 412 00:23:40,860 --> 00:23:43,680 If you're a new or aspiring high school counselor, I'd encourage 413 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,590 you to bop over and grab the new counselor playlist that I put 414 00:23:46,590 --> 00:23:50,550 together for you. It's a list of curated podcast episodes that I 415 00:23:50,550 --> 00:23:53,070 think will be perfect for you as you're embarking on a new 416 00:23:53,070 --> 00:23:57,000 journey. I have that listed in the show notes for you. If you 417 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,630 are a veteran and this episode was just refreshing for you, a 418 00:24:00,630 --> 00:24:03,450 breath of fresh air so that you can think through some of those 419 00:24:03,450 --> 00:24:07,170 tedious old tasks you do, and then envision a world that has 420 00:24:07,170 --> 00:24:10,410 less of them, I'm so glad you listened to this episode. I hope 421 00:24:10,410 --> 00:24:14,070 it serves you in some new ways. A great free resource for you 422 00:24:14,070 --> 00:24:17,790 would be those copy and paste advocacy email templates I have 423 00:24:17,940 --> 00:24:21,270 for you to send over to your administrators and to your staff 424 00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:24,780 that advocate for what you do. I challenge you to send them to 425 00:24:24,780 --> 00:24:27,150 your people and see what happens next. Go to 426 00:24:27,150 --> 00:24:30,390 counselorclique.com/challenge and you can get those email 427 00:24:30,390 --> 00:24:32,490 templates sent right to your email. 428 00:24:33,180 --> 00:24:35,370 Thanks for listening. I'll see you for another episode next 429 00:24:35,370 --> 00:24:35,670 week. 430 00:24:37,530 --> 00:24:39,990 Thanks for listening to today's episode of High School 431 00:24:39,990 --> 00:24:43,320 Counseling Conversations. All the links I talked about today 432 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:45,540 can be found in the show notes and also at 433 00:24:45,540 --> 00:24:50,100 counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you 434 00:24:50,100 --> 00:24:53,190 listen to your podcast, so that you never miss a new episode. 435 00:24:53,730 --> 00:24:56,400 Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me 436 00:24:56,400 --> 00:25:01,470 a DM @counselorclique, that's C, L, I, Q, U, E. I'll see you next 437 00:25:01,470 --> 00:25:01,800 week.