National School Counselor Week

National School Counselor week was created to increase awareness of what school counselors do and recognize their hard work in assisting students in areas of academics, social awareness and interactions, emotional development, and future careers. 

I am often asked what exactly I do as a middle school counselor, so I thought that in the spirit of the occasion, I would run you through a "day in the life of . . . ME!"

I arrive at school at approximately 7:15 every morning. I unlock my door, drop my purse and keys into a drawer, hang up my coat, put my lunch in the refrigerator, and push the on button to start up my computer. If I have time before morning hall duty, I log into e-mail and get ready for the day.  At 7:22 I head to the 8th grade hallways to watch and greet students as they come in for the day. By 8th grade, the groupings of students are quite predictable. Many students bring in their Starbucks or McDonald's coffee drinks or cokes and try to finish them before the 7:35 bell, or they will be asked to throw them away.

As I am standing in the hall, a few students greet me, but the precious morning free time minutes are usually taken up by wanting to share the newest gossip or previous evening activities with friends. I slip into the closest classroom as the Pledge of Allegiance begins over the intercom.  Once the students are seated and see me standing in the doorway, requests to come talk to me start. This morning it it was a girl who was having a friendship issue. I quickly told her I would try to get her right after my morning meeting. Wednesdays are counselor meeting days.

As I wander back to the guidance office, I greet a few tardy students straggling in from the main office. As I go to my door, I pull the passes off my name plate to see who has already stopped by to sign up.  (OK, I just realized this is getting long, so I'm going to have to speed it up).

I usually see between 6-12 students per day, depending on what meetings I have. Meetings might include team meetings to discuss student behavior or academics, meetings with our assistant principals, parents who want to meet, weekly department meetings, and annual case reviews for special education students.  In the middle of the day is lunch supervision, which is about 45 minutes. I supervise my own grade level, so some students take the time to come talk to me, only to say that they need to see me RIGHT AFTER LUNCH! (Supervising lunch will take a whole blog by itself by the way)

Topics I usually cover in student meetings: friendships, grades, problems at home, conflicts with other students, investigating rumors, high school looming ahead, and schedules among other things.  In between all these meetings and student conferences, I usually have to pour through 30 or 40 e-mails per day from parents and teachers, respond, and return 3 or 4 phone calls.  Oh, and in between all that, I work on projects, like get ready for 5th grade visits, sign students up for 21st Century Scholars (more phone calls), write 504 medical plans, behavior plans, and general education plans, follow up with new students, consult with the nurse on frequent clinic flyers, gather testing data for struggling students, plan for ECA (end of course assessment) exams, prepare for 8th grade scheduling, make CPS (Child Protective Services) reports- average of one per month or so, and . . . . . . .

Hey, it's all in a day's work! Like my blog title says, I Love Being a School Counselor!

The Headphone Phenomenon

There is an interesting phenonomenon in middle schools across the country. It is that of wearing headphones walking into and out of the building each day. If you don't have headphones on, or earbuds in, you are not very cool. Listening to music is a good way to watch others without them thinking you are paying attention, be cool with friends, and is sort of like a baby's security blanket.  As I stand in the hallway in the mornings, it is very interesting to watch how kids interact with each other, especially those wearing the "headphones." (Note: It makes no difference if the music is actually playing, just the appearance of the headphones on your head is sufficient)

Much like fashion "jeans", what type of headphones you have puts you in different social status classes. If you have Dr. Dre's "Monster Beats," (a couple hundred dollars no less), you are definitely part of the elite, untouchables.  If you don't have them, well, you are somewhat scoffed at.

If you own a pair of "skull candy" earbuds, (twenty dollar range),  you are in the middle class and somewhat socially accepted, and if you own just a pair of black no name earbuds (seven dollar range), you might as well go hide in a corner or put them in your locker away from the scathing eyes of your peers.

Some kids are so insecure that they hide their earplugs and ipods in their clothing and have one sticking in their ear up through their hooded sweatshirt. If you aren't looking for it, you might not see it!

Thinking back to my middle school years, I definitely would have fallen into the black, no name, lower class citizen category. I would have been lucky to get a pair from Goodwill that had only one working earbud and a staticy sounding left bud. My parents just didn't care what social class I was in. I wouldn't have wanted a pair of Dr. Dre's for fear of them being stolen or me just masquerading as a rich kid. I would definitely have saved my money from mowing my aunt's lawn to buy a pair of Skull Candy buds.

Actually, now that I think about it, I probably wouldn't have had any earbuds or music device at all.
How about you? What headphone classification do you strive for?