Wednesday, July 09, 2014

ASCA14 Highlights - Professional Learnings - Day 1

I am so thankful that I had to opportunity to attend my second American School Counselor Association Annual Conference. The professional development, the people, the resources - really are top notch! Here are my learnings from Day 1 of the conference!

Day 1: Professional Learnings

1. Using Virtual Characters to Combat Bullying (Dr. Carol Dahir)
  • What programs to use: Voki (Recommended by Rebecca Lallier at School Counseling by Heart); Xtranormal now Nawmal; XBox; Digitalfilms
  • Use of avatars is effective in making users wear "digital shoes" (digital role-play)
  • Effective in increasing users enjoyment and learning is maximized
  • Use scripts as prompts for role-plays - use situations that are observed in the hallways, on the bus, in the cafeteria or classroom with the goal of creating their own "avatar-based" solutions
  • Key is to create/prompt the scenario and then resolve it in a pro-social way
  • Kids can critique each other's solutions
  • Handouts
2. Help Girls Unlock Their Leadership Potential (Julia Taylor)
  • Bonding- friendships, emotions, relationships 
  • Trauma vs. Smothering - isolated in lunch room vs. being around other girls 
  • Relational Aggression - goes on forever for girls 
  • Playing rituals are different between genders: boys - play on playground; girls socialize on the playground 
  • Socialization differences between genders: girls socialized to be nice; boys socialized to be tough 
  • Emotional outcome gender differences: girls - get sad; boys get angry 
  • Girls - find their place in the social puzzle around 8 years and elementary girls learn that being mean boosts their social visibility 
  • Dichotomous - all or nothing and Imaginary audience syndrome - feel that everyone is watching everything they are doing 
  • Girls are preoccupied with fairness and are present oriented 
  • Need to talk about the college/career - to plant the seed early! 
  • Why girl leadership? Women/girls being portrayed by very few women writers and directors 
  • 90% of 4th grade girls want to go into something math related; drops to 50% by high school 
  • Resources: Rachel Simmons GirlTips; TedTalks
  • Ideas for working with girls: 
    • Read an article, use a news or video clip and discuss specific issues related to girls/women (make developmentally appropriate) because girls need to see outside their box; Examples: Pantene commercial - Not Sorry; Female Newscaster Video
    • Community Events - I Am Day of the Girl; Girl Rising documentary (parent child night) ** - middle/high school- promoting parental connection; WILD Lunch - Career connections -influential women in the community and come in at lunch to talk about what they do and why they do it - choose folks in the same field with varying levels of degrees - example - dentistry: dental hygienist, dentist, bachelors/associates/advanced 
    • Book: Mistake I made at Work by Jessica Bacal - recommended as a great read for us!! 
    • "We are raising the next generation of workers who won't be able to work a day without rewards." Julia saw this quote recently somewhere. 
    • Parental Support - parent coffee club (showed photo - owl with coffee beans/grounds to promote the coffee club) -ask a local coffee shop donate once a month to school (never had issue with them donating) - have various talks scheduled for each morning 
    • Book club - make a handout that has talking points - remember some parents can't afford the book or read the book - encourage to come for the discussion 
    • Book: Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg Ask: "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" 
  • Handouts
3. Solution-Focused Group Work Toolkit (Tatyana Cottle)
  • Strength based 
  • Positive and optimistic (Yes, but... vs. Yes, and...) 
  • Be curious 
  • Client is an expert and in charge 
  • Empowering 
  • It's the thinking and not techniques 
  • Problem is external 
  • Stress the importance of small changes 
  • The language of solution talk: 1 single meeting or groups that happen frequently - planned or short-term 
  • Parent-teacher conferences 
  • Family sessions/meetings 
  • Conflict Resolution 
  • Miracle Questions - Time Machine - If you got out of a time machine... 
  • Exception Questions - Tell us about the time when something did not occur? What would you do differently then? 
  • Coping questions - What keeps you going? 
  • Scaling questions - Scaling kit 
    • Scaling Ideas: 
      • Use pictures 
      • Lego scale - towers 
      • Superhero scale 
      • Nesting dolls 
      • Pokemon evolution 
      • Uphill and downhill 
      • Rainbow 
  • Goal-setting questions - 1. pre-test 2. use the pre-test to determine two or three long-term goals based on the pre-test 3. Identify mini-goals weekly and scaling 4. post-test -- see Powerpoint on goal setting 
  • Goal-Setting Sheet in Power point
  • Weekly meeting notes- write goal in their assignment book for students, parents, and teachers to view frequently 
  • Narrative Approach - ** ask group members to draw their answers 
  • Helpful Questions on PowerPoint
  • Vision Board 
  • Power cards - originally used with children on the spectrum -- one side superhero; other side you put what they will be doing when... "I will be ______" Example, I will be writing; I will be sitting in my chair 
  • Email for explanation of activities: tvcottle@fcps.edu 
  • Handouts
4. From Crayons to College and Careers (Holly Todd and Lynette Schless)
  • ** Article in July/August ASCA School Counselor magazine 
  • Language to use: WHEN you go to college rather than IF you go to college 
  • College means all types of post-secondary education/training 
  • Articulation - hearing the same message across all grade levels: 
    • When we grow up pictures - Students holding a sign of what they want to be when they grow up (4th grade) - post in the library in frames (keep) - be careful with the student spelling 
    • Parents/Grandparents invited in to talk about their careers (K) 
    • Friday Volunteer Program - parents come in to discuss their career while teachers did progress monitoring - found teachers chose to listen to presentations instead of progress monitoring 
    • Career Dress-Up Day - dress up in the apparel of what career they want to do 
    • Standies - poster boards to put head in - of career folks; took pictures, writing activities - Utah higher education assistance authority 
    • Class Crayon - need to send the crayon to work - need to decorate the crayon to go to that career 
  • Hard Skills -- skills needed to perform a certain career 
  • Soft Skills - ex. honesty, integrity, caring, responsibility - VERY IMPORTANT 
  • 35 attributes - 35 weeks in school year that have at least 3 days 
  • School-wide implementation 
    • Daily announcements - morning announcements - list by day/date - brief - used quotes but principal and teacher made the abstract more concrete 
    • Classroom Posters - Each teacher gets a sign with attribute name and quote - each teacher to hang and change each week; bulletin boards; alphabet word wall 
    • Each teacher would nominate a student each week of those student who demonstrated the weekly attribute and put name on slip to enter a random drawing for a college savings plan (community banks partnered with them to match $10 - so each winner started with $20 - a check was written to student and bank so they had to go in and cash - bank's job to sell opening an account) and got a special pencil that said ABC's of crayons to college and career ready; Student name went on poster in the classroom beside each attribute 
      • Positive contact opportunity 
      • Bank partnerships 
      • Posted recognition on the bulletin board (up all year long) 
  • School Counselor Lesson- 1-2 times per month in each classroom on an attribute - based on what your school needs - 30 minute lesson 
    • Setting goals/plan (Oh the Places You Will Go) 
    • Integrity - The Empty Pot 
    • J - Jobs - Snowmen at Work - had to rip their paper into small circles to build a snowman - and had to decorate the snowman into the career 
    • S - Study Skills - test taking skills review - Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! - Smart Bingo -- very very simple test taking skills - 3rd & 4th - BINGO - Yelled "I'm Smart" 
    • T - Teamwork - Swimmy video on Youtube 
    • Y - You - The Important Book - the most important thing about YOU - what are the most important things to know about you? - Create a candy bar wrapper - name of candy bar, ingredients - 5 characteristics that describe them (positive to make us want to buy it), decorate it in a way to want to buy - bring it to quality control (school counselor) and then got to wrap it around a full-sized candy bar - had to take it home and tell someone about it before they ate it. 
    • Sesame Street.org video on the last day of school - What I am... ** Very cute by Will-I-Am 
    • Journals - simple; sheets of paper cover with sheets inside writing about that attribute 
  • Parent survey - very helpful 
  • Handouts
                                                                                                         

        

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