Summer 2005 Counselor's Network

The Counselors’ Network welcomed newbies from fledgling ISA partner schools into far-reaching conversations about distributed counselingTM, the functions, duties and responsibilities of high school counselors, and the formation of advisories.  The meetings emphasized how the counselors could help train, support, collaborate with teachers running advisories, and help teachers in this aspect of their work.

To be sure no child falls through the cracks, students in ISA partner schools are assigned a staff member—usually teacher or counselor (though it may be whoever the school designates for a specific group of students)—to develop relationships.

“Successful advisory teams have structures and roles,” said Tanganyika Jackson, counselor at ISA’s small learning community at Annandale High School, in Virginia.

Teams may be formed by grade, ability, with one team member acting as parent moderator. The role of the counselor is often to support the advisory curriculum with topics, lessons, and strategies or approaches with specific cases. That may happen one to one, or, hopefully, at team meetings.

Advisory groups meet at a regular time, whether weekly or monthly, and encourage students to discuss issues of importance to them.

Jeanette Oaks, ISA counselor at MCA High School in Brooklyn, noted that counselors might find resistance to advisory by students, who may think it’s not cool to be a joiner or to spend time with their teachers. To make those negatives into positives, she suggested holding weekly activities, open to all, an opportunity for students who haven’t joined to feel advisory’s sense of community; and structured monthly meetings with specific topics to keep everyone excited, forward-thinking, and on the same page. For example, in September, advisory group could discuss study habits, self-management, and the transition to a new grade or school. “Ask your students, “Where do I see myself in June? In 5 years?”

If school administrators are very supportive, try for a daily advisory in a specific, set period. Keep it short, and very structured. “You’ll find the team aspect of advisory greatly enhanced.” Or once a week, the entire staff might address every issue of concern to the community, or use the time for journaling, or silent reading.

Counselors may co-facilitate with teachers to develop discussion between teachers and students and their parents through the asking of open-ended questions. These work well for all aspects of student/teacher relationships, including peer mediation and college counseling.

Ms. Jackson looks forward to this upcoming year. “Where I functioned alone last year, this year there’ll be an advisory team to share with!”

In connection with an exhibition of case conferencing, the counselors discussed how case conferencing works best. All the stakeholders for the student must be present—mentor, advisor, parent, teachers. Again, structure, forms, roles and teaming were stressed. A net of discipline is owned by the team, and proactivity is a must for counseling students. The counselor and her team members must anticipate students’ issues and develop methods to solve these issues, thereby keeping case conferencing from having to occur.

At Annandale’s small school, Ms. Jackson said, core teachers were advisors and team leaders. There were parent advisors for non-English-speaking parents, who kept in contact with parents and reported back to the team leaders. At the beginning of the year, the parent contact called students’ homes. It was a simple ‘let me introduce myself’ call, acknowledging the parent’s importance and the teacher’s place as stakeholder in their child’s education. It was a positive contact, a basis laid for future contact so parents didn’t cringe if or when they received a later call from the school.

Anna Marsh, counselor at Bushwick School for Social Justice, said, “Advisory’s a class where we talk about our problems,” and advised, “Keep it interesting. Keep it relevant.” She noted that daily advisory in the 10th grade focused on career issues. In the 9th grade, advisory focused on health, sex, teen issues. New York State mandates six HIV lesson per year, but her advisory added a ‘raise your baby’ program and self-defense classes, seeking to put their students in real-life simulations because they yield the best results.

Virginia Bovien, counselor at ISA’s small learning community at Peekskill, said, “Counselors are in important part of the team. And what’s important to a team is that everyone must be on the same page.” Toward that end, an important function of the counselor is to make public the number of credits required for high school graduation. These may differ per district, but the publication of this information is a legal function of the guidance counselor. A teacher would like to understand what’s mandated. “They also know their students and what they need to succeed at their majors. It’s not enough to hear a student say, ‘Oh, I’m going to Harvard.’ By guiding them to visit college websites in the ninth grade, teachers and counselors put concreteness in that college dream. They understand what they need. It helps them buckle down and work toward it.

Another major counselor responsibility is an annual review and evaluation of student transcripts. Consulting with team teachers, counselors should develop a check sheet to keep current with what credits students have earned, then meet with students. It shows students they’re earning credits for a purpose. When they can see what their intended college’s requirements are, and match their classes to those requirements, students can clearly see the distance remaining to reach their goal.

Most impressively, the entire three days of discussion was led by the team, an advisory of advisors and their counselor peers, and facilitated by ISA Counselors Don Freeman and Marian Mogulescu.

During breaks in the sessions, counselors were quick to note each other’s materials and eagerly discussed how and where to get them, everything from where to find the best pricing, and how best to use the materials.

Did you know?

That in New York State, a student can not be denied graduation based on the lack of gym credits if he already has enough other credits to graduate.

That in New York State, a student may only graduate high school after passing five required Regents exams—two in math, one each in global science, United States history, foreign language, and English.

Summer Institute 2005

Panel Discussion

Pedro Noguera

Professional Development