Assessment skills are essential for any school counselor in a number of areas. From academic and skills assessment to personality testing and career advisement, the ability to discern the intersection of talent and desire is essential to offering good counsel.
Assessment also includes determining if a student has special needs and interpreting test and non-test data to decide where the student should be placed, and what programs will most benefit them. Regardless of the reason for assessment, the steps often include, but are not limited to the following:. Assessments involve some testing but must also be combined with listening, empathy, and the relationship that has been built to determine how testing outcomes relate to personality, desires, and the goals of the student.
Efforts and activities can fall into a couple of different categories. A counselor will have to coordinate Individualized Education Plans IEPs for students, and other student specific plans as well.
Along with coordinating individual student plans and interacting with teachers and other school officials, the school counselor often coordinates other activities and projects as well. In many cases, the school counselor is in charge of parent newsletters, school announcements, managing social media accounts, and other community outreach and event planning efforts.
The ability to coordinate and manage these efforts and activities requires strong leadership and organizational skills. Teaching these skills to students by allowing them to take responsibility for their own educational goals and other efforts enables a counselor to show leadership by example. In order to be able to implement programs, direct student activities and coordinate tasks, a counselor must exercise a certain amount of authority.
This means first of all that the counselor must be granted the authority to handle certain tasks by other school officials such as principals and administrators.
The more their authority is validated by their actions, the more the counselor will be perceived as a leader by parents and students alike. Secondly, the school counselor must be willing to wield the authority they have been granted, taking charge of tasks and situations, setting expectations, and holding those responsible to deadlines.
The counselor must also know in any given situation when to cross the line from friend to professional. If a student is being abusive or abused, a more professional response is ethically and legally mandated.
If one thing is certain in the field of education, it is that things will change. Student needs and the needs of the school overall often take priority over scheduled meetings. They have to be firm and assertive yet compassionate even under the most stressful conditions.
According to the American School Counselor Association , the functions of a guidance counselor within the school system cover a broad range of services from behavior assessment to conflict resolution and from program design to test administration. In many cases, the school counselor works with minimum supervision or assistance in handling all of these functions.
The ability to multitask is a key requirement of the job as is being organized to keep up with the rigorous pace of a job with many responsibilities. The school counselor is a vital part of the education team. The successful school counselor should have adequate training and experience along with the right characteristics to face a demanding, challenging yet personally rewarding job. Search Search. Newsletter Sign Up. Columnists All Columnists Ken Shore School Issues: Glossary.
Search form Search. As school counselors take stock of their visions and accomplishments this week, Education World wondered What attributes do effective school counselors have? Counselor Judy Standley shared with Education World the heart-tugging sentiment that the student wrote: "The important thing about our counselor is that she listens. I do know that lots of other people listen, but she listens the most.
She does B. She tells stories with important morals. She listens to you and tells no one. She is an important counselor. But the important thing about Mrs. It read Thank you for being a special person who really cares to listen and hear me. I wish you a very happy Mother's Day. Your friend One response that stands out came from a student whose number one competency was To possess self-knowledge: This is a crucial competency that includes a deep understanding of my own paradigms, my biases, my strengths and weaknesses, and my theoretical perspective on counseling.
For me to create a career that is beyond mediocrity, I must first look inward. The vision that will lead me to effectiveness, my mission statement, is both personal and professional. It would feel false to separate the two, for I don't change my inner being depending on the circumstance. Following are four more: On Laughter and Humor With all of the tragic issues our youth must deal with, it is important for them to have someone they can turn to who will support them and also help them to find ways in which to laugh.
Julie Dillehay, school counselor Crossroads Middle School Meridian, Idaho On the Ability to Advocate The school counselor needs to be able to advocate on behalf of the students and the counseling program. Jo Hayslip, professor emerita Plymouth New Hampshire State College On Humility The best help we can give is to be a person who knows that we have our own personal issues to address, works on them as best we can, and makes it possible for others to work on theirs too.
Ned W. Trending Report Card Comments It's report card time and you face the prospect of writing constructive, insightful, and original comments on a couple dozen report cards or more. Here are positive report card comments for you to use and adapt! Struggling Students? You've reached the end of another grading period, and what could be more daunting than the task of composing insightful, original, and unique comments about every child in your class? The following positive statements will help you tailor your comments to specific children and highlight their strengths.
You can also use our statements to indicate a need for improvement. Turn the words around a bit, and you will transform each into a goal for a child to work toward. Sam cooperates consistently with others becomes Sam needs to cooperate more consistently with others, and Sally uses vivid language in writing may instead read With practice, Sally will learn to use vivid language in her writing.
Make Jan seeks new challenges into a request for parental support by changing it to read Please encourage Jan to seek new challenges. Whether you are tweaking statements from this page or creating original ones, check out our Report Card Thesaurus [see bottom of the page] that contains a list of appropriate adjectives and adverbs.
There you will find the right words to keep your comments fresh and accurate. We have organized our report card comments by category.
Read the entire list or click one of the category links below to jump to that list. Behavior The student: cooperates consistently with the teacher and other students. Character The student: shows respect for teachers and peers. Group Work The student: offers constructive suggestions to peers to enhance their work. Interests and Talents The student: has a well-developed sense of humor. Participation The student: listens attentively to the responses of others.
Social Skills The student: makes friends quickly in the classroom. Time Management The student: tackles classroom assignments, tasks, and group work in an organized manner. Counselors need interpersonal skills to resolve conflicts and work with administrators to set program goals.
School counselors have to enjoy helping people. They need compassion and empathy to understand problems and work with people in stressful situations. Counselors should always be looking for ways to help, and know how to intervene in a crisis with sensitivity. The job can be emotionally draining: According to The Princeton Review, 60 percent of counselors quit within the first two years. Guidance counselors are problem-solvers at heart. Problem-solving skills also help counselors plan programs to prevent bullying, cut dropout rates, educate students on health issues and help them maneuver difficult relationships with peers.
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