President’s Letter: Professional Growth

I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to the school year! In the August newsletter, I wrote that a new school year provides a wonderful time for us to re-commit to growing as professionals in addition to advocating for both our profession and our students. It was wonderful to see so many of you engaging in meaningful professional development at our 4th Annual Critical Issues Conference at Birmingham-Southern College (enjoy the photos below!). I loved the addition of the opening session on Thursday with the Honorable Pamela Casey and am grateful that we continue to not only have such wonderful and talented local and state presenters, but that we also continue to have nationally renowned presenters like Dr. Russell Sabella.
 
I hope that all attendees are as excited as I am about Dr. Sabella’s Data Boot Camp that was included in the Critical Issues Conference registration. Collecting data can feel very overwhelming for many school counselors. It seems like one more thing to add to our already crazy days. However, data collection at every level is as important and vital as ever. Relevant data is what proves why school counselors need to be providing direct services to students rather than engaging in activities such as standardized test coordination and clerical duties.
 
In keeping with this year’s ALSCA theme of “Unlocking Our Potential” and growing professionally, I announced at the Critical Issues Conference some exciting news about upcoming regional workshops in late February featuring Dr. Carolyn Stone, who I consider to be the school counseling ethics guru! Please be on the lookout for information regarding locations, dates, and registration information. We have been discussing adding these da- long regional workshops for school counselors in our state for many years and are excited that this dream is coming to fruition.
 
I hope to see you at the ALCA Annual Conference in November. This event will offer many exciting opportunities to network and learn from other school counselors, including the School Counselor Round Up, New School Counselor Academy and the School Counselor Reception sponsored by the Bryant Jordan Scholarship Program. I am also looking forward to recognizing our School Counselors, Administrators and Counselor Advocates of the Year at the annual ALSCA Awards Luncheon. While you are at the conference, plan to stop by the ALSCA table where we will have ALSCA t-shirts and selected ASCA publications for sale in addition to officer election information, door prize registration and free goodies!
 
We have been working diligently these past few months to overhaul the ALSCA website. We would love for you to check out the new site and send us feedback as we continue to make this a resource for our members. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of your ALSCA Governing Board members should you need us. I hope you continue to grow and learn in ways you didn’t imagine possible!
 
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”  – Arthur Ashe
 
Contact AnnaGrace Baldwin, Ed.S, LPC, ALSCA president, at abaldwin@homewood.k12.al.us.
 
Scenes from our 4th Annual Critical Issues in School Counseling Conference, Sept 13-14, 2018.