Objective 1: Learn the roles and responsibilities of a guidance counselor.
Activities/Resources:
· Talk to supervisor about her roles and responsibilities.
· Shadow my supervisor to see what her day entails.
· Shadow an elementary and high school guidance counselor.
· View different resources used by counselors.
Evidence:
· Include in my portfolio schedules of my days with the counselors.
· Include in my portfolio a list of roles and responsibilities of a guidance counselor.
The following evidence includes schedules I compiled of elementary, middle, and high school counselors. The schedules include the layout of the day and what happened during each time slot. To obtain this information I shadowed guidance counselors at each of these levels. The different schedules show the differences between the roles of a guidance counselor at each level. Included with each schedule is the expected roles of the guidance counselor.
Observing these different professionals helped me to understand the differences and similarities between the guidance counselors. Having access to counselors and being able to see exactly what they do on a given day gave me experience that cannot be gained in a classroom. While shadowing the counselors I learned about confidentiality and how you can plan your day as much as you would like, but when you get to school any number of situations can arise and distract you from your original plan. Despite the inability to always control your day, you have to be willing to work with what happens and help students as much as you can while still working with the other faculty and administration.
Elementary School:
9:00 am: Emails, phone calls, organizing lesson plans
10:00 am: Teach second step lesson to first grade students
11:00 am: Organizing next lesson plan
11:40 am: Recess duty
12:00 pm: Lunch group – 4th graders
Social group for a student who needs help socializing, other students are there as mentors
12:40 pm: Teach second step lesson to first grade students
1:40 pm: Teach second step lesson to kindergarteners
2:30 pm: Office for phone calls and emails.
Elementary Guidance Counselors Roles and Responsibilities
- Involvement in classroom; teaching lesson plans
- Limited one-on-one meetings
- Teach coping strategies
- Lead social groups
Middle School
8:00 am: Student-Counselor meeting
- Student was upset and was brought into the guidance counselor to calm down and talk
8:30 am: Office work, phone calls, emails, etc.
9:00 am: Counselor works with interpreter to contact non-English speaking parents
- Discuss students report cards
- Discuss students who aren’t doing their homework
- Notify parents of students who have really improved.
9:40 am: Meet with students and interpreter to explain to them what they need to do
10:00 am: IEP meeting: Parent, Counselor, Teachers, and Faculty
- Go over student’s performance and grades in each class
- Student not following rules
- Student is overwhelmed, doesn’t use words to describe feelings
- Modify writing accommodations on IEP
11:00am – 12:30 pm: Student-Counselor meetings
12:30 pm: Parent-Teacher-Counselor Conference
- Student is speaking out in class; not out of disrespect, just impulsive
- Student struggles with following directions
- Student is disorganized
· Leaves books in locker
· Doesn’t use planner
· Forgets homework
- Student is making a lot of friends and is excited (part of the reason student speaks out)
- More independence and responsibility than student’s last school
1:00 pm: Parent-Teacher-Counselor-Student Conference
- Student has improved academically
- Apparent that student is trying harder
- Student needs to keep putting in the effort and hard work
- Student needs to work on following directions and memorizing times tables
1:30 pm: Office work
- Preparing for an event, phone calls, emails, etc.
Middle School Guidance Counselor Roles and Responsibilities
- Link between school and home for students, parents, teachers
- Meet with students
- Meet with students who are having academic issues
- Track students’ attendance, grades, and disciplinary issues
- Manage weekly reports
- Assist in parent-teacher meetings
- ILP kick-off and management
High School
7:30 am: Student-Counselor-Teacher meeting
-Student plagiarized paper, student is mainstreamed special ed.
-Working with student to come up with arrangement
-Possible 504 to make things easier
-Parent wants outside placement for student, wants city to pay.
8:00 am: Student-Counselor meeting
- Meeting to assess if student was a victim of bullying
- Student was just messing around with friends, no previous disciplinary issues
8:30 am: Student-Counselor meeting
- Student’s father died suddenly; Student’s work went downhill
- Student removed from school and home-schooled
- Need to work on credit recuperation (getting student credit for work completed while home-schooled and for classes unfinished when student was being home-schooled so student won’t have to make up the year)
- Grades currently good, working on keeping grades up and improving emotionally
- Wants to attend a 4-year college
9:00 am: Student-Counselor meeting
- Meeting with student to see if student is on track to graduate.
- Graduation Requirements:
o 24 Credits
§ English – 4 Credits
§ Mathematics – 4 Credits; 3 mathematics, 1 math-related
§ Science – 3 Credits
§ Social Studies – 3 Credits; One must be US History
§ Physical Education – 1 Credit; .25 each year
§ Health – 1 Credit; .25 each year
§ Fine Arts - .5 Credit; One semester
§ Computer Technology - .5 Credit; One semester
§ Electives – 7 Credits
o 20 hours of community service; 5 each year
o Individual Learning Plan
o NECAP
§ Score of 2 (Partially proficient) or higher in math, reading and writing
o Portfolio
§ Upload assignments with a score of 3 or higher across all academic courses and requirements.
- Assessing goals for after graduation; Four-year college, two-year college, technical school, etc.
10:00 am – 11:00 am: Respond to emails, phone calls, review schedule, etc
11:00 am: Student-Counselor meeting
- Junior level student needs to make up health 9 and physical education 10
- Needs 3 science credits – anatomy, chemistry, and biology or environmental science
- Needs 3 mathematics credits and 1 applied mathematics credit
- Needs to catch up on community service
- Had attendance issues and issues with teachers
- Unsure of future plans; maybe CCRI
11:30 am: Student-Counselor meeting
- Student left country during 9th grade and lost all credits and had to repeat grade 9
- Student wants to graduate with original class
o Discuss night school
o Discuss summer school
- Need English 11 and 12, P.E. 11 during summer, Algebra 2 and applied math next year, science next year, art and computer tech
- Student should be able to graduate with original class
12:00 pm: Student-Counselor meeting
- Student doesn’t do school work, only cares about athletics
- Credits on track but low GPA, need to check rules for NCAA eligibility
- College goals don’t match current academic standings
12:30 pm: Student-Counselor meeting
- Student recommended for Honors level courses, but getting low grades
- Student doesn’t want to put in effort, capable student
- Classic “underachiever”
1:00 pm: Student-Counselor meeting
- Student lost father suddenly – still coping with loss but doing well in school
- Needs to make up P.E.
- Unsure about plans after graduation, but considering 4 year school – not sure what to study
- Needs to sign up for PSAT, SAT and ACT in Spring and think about college recommendation letters
1:30 pm: Student-Counselor meeting
- Conflict between parents
- Student very interested in music- plays three instruments
- Good student – considering Pre-Vet program
- Sign up for SAT and ACT in spring
High School Guidance Counselor Roles and Responsibilities
- Resource for students
- Academic involvement
Ø Course planning
Ø Parent-Teacher meetings
- Involvement with faculty and administration
- Link between school and home
- Not typically involved in classroom setting
