ASCA 2010 Boston #1
The American School Counselors Association is providing an amazing variety of workshops designedto improve the skills of school counselors in all kinds of settings. attending workshops, presenting, and networking are keeping our days jam packed. We hit the bed exhausted every night. I am here with Amy La Grasta and Morgan Champion from FLVS. An extra pleasure is that one of our virtual interns, Lynette Henry is here presenting also.
I attended an interesting workshop yesterday on helping disorganized students become organized. Part of the presentation centered around motivating students to develop organizational habits that they have missed along the way. Very practical advice was given to assist students. It is interesting that we once thought that only children of poverty came from chaotic households, but now, chaos seems to have spread to the middle class. Parents, feeling pressure to keep their children involved in a myriad of activities, are too busy carpooling to instill organizational habits in their offspring. I think the advice from this worksop might make an excellent webinar for our FLVS Counseling Team to adapt and present.
Another interesting workshop was on setting counseling standards for international schools. I chose this workshop because I am interested in how our Global School will provide counseling services as it grows. The presenters were counselors working in international schools in Argentina and Singapore. What an eye opener! These schools have virtually no oversite, and often seek accreditation from American Regional Accrediting Agencies like SACS. Currently when counselors are hired at an international school half of them have to start a program from scratch and half have a program in place. This is because the previous counselor often does not write down SOPs and keeps the program in her head. When she leaves, the program leaves. It reminded me of the importance of writing down what we do here at FLVS. Why are standards needed. Counselors all over the world need to speak a common language, have a common vision, clarify the role of the counselor and define consistent elements in different countries. I am going to keep up with this group:
internationalschoolcounselor@gmail.com
Our Global school ma really be able to benefit from the progress they make and be able to provide a value added service to this population
