Start Your Year a Strong Leader

A new school year is like a freshly plowed field. If you take the lead and plow the first row straight, the rest of the field will be straight. But if the first row is crooked, the rest will follow and the end result will be more work and time. The same is true for your school counseling program. Putting systems in place will help you tremendously throughout the year, especially on those rough days when you feel like a disheveled cat. These tips will help you plow your first row straight and set up your year for leadership.
 
Before we start plowing ahead, here are three questions we ask ourselves before we implement a new idea or activity:

• Does this make me successful?
• Is this an effective use of my time?
• Does this position me as a leader?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, we won’t move forward with that idea. Our time is valuable, not to mention limited. Using these three questions to guide our decision making has kept us focused on using our time and resources for things that benefit our students and our school.
 

Leadership

Plowing our first row straight is impossible without considering leadership. Whether you feel like a leader or not, ASCA says that we are leaders in our district, state and nation. Your first assignment is to start thinking of yourself as a leader. In our book, we divide leadership into three different personality types: the bull who will force ideas onto the rest of the group, the mouse who misses out on advocating due to a lack of confidence and the eagle who can see various points of view and brings unity to tense situations.

When school counselors are seen as leaders, we are in a better position to advocate for our students. So build relationships with others, try not to take things too personally and ask for leadership opportunities if you aren’t already serving in those roles.
 

Advisory Council

The advisory council may be one of the best kept secrets in school counseling. As school counselors, we should assemble an advisory council with parents, teachers and community members that meets at least twice a year to review our mission, vision and goals for our school counseling program. We transformed our advisory council from a checklist item on our to-do list to something that really works for us, quite literally. Although school counselors often feel pulled in multiple directions and can’t duplicate ourselves, we can create an extension of ourselves through the advisory council. Here’s how:

• Be selective. Think about who will work hard to help you reach your school counseling goals. A group of about 10–12 with diverse representation is ideal.
• Have a mission. We’re talking about giving your advisory council a project to work on that will help move your program forward. We have asked our advisory council to help with:
  • Career fair
  • Back-to-School Bash
  • Mentoring
  • Recycling program
  • Weekend snack distribution
  • Grants
  • Holiday assistance
• Be prepared. Share your mission statement, vision statement and outcome goals. Don’t be afraid to talk about those tasks you need help with. Find a way to share your passion and make that passion contagious!

We want your advisory council to work for you, too. We hope you see that taking the lead and plowing this row straight can set you up for success, make you shine and push your school counseling program forward.
 

Data

Data may seem like a four-letter word to you, and we used to feel the same way. The ASCA National Model (2019) says: “A school counseling program requires school counselors to be proficient in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of student achievement, attendance, and disciplinary data” (p. 32). This means that knowing the data of your school isn’t optional if you want to run an effective school counseling program.

Start immediately: Look at data as soon as you get back to school in the fall. Pull those test scores. Look at old grade reports. Check the attendance and discipline reports from the previous year. This gives you a starting point for students who might need a small group, a mentor, a job or some other intervention to keep them at school.

We know that in no time you will have those rows sorted and your year planned, with great things ahead for you. We are excited about your next steps and the harvest that is to come. Now go take the lead, start your year strong and plow that first row straight!

Laura Rankhorn is a school counselor at Good Hope Middle School in Cullman, Alabama, and Kim Crumbley is a school counselor at Parkside School in Baileyton, Alabama. They are on social media as @counseloraccents