Leadership Letter: Present Through Lessons

One of the best ways for us to connect with our students and to help build rapport and a trusting relationship with each of them is to be as present as we are possibly able to on our campuses. Our kids need to see us. They need to know we are there for them. By providing classroom counseling lessons in each of our classrooms on our campuses, our students have an opportunity to grow their emotional intelligence by actively engaging in our lessons, but also have an opportunity to see us, get to know us, connect with us and be reminded that we are there for them.

Finding time to effectively plan for our comprehensive school counseling programs can be a challenge for many of us because of the growing demands placed on school counselors. We are moving in the right direction with SB 179 helping to protect our time with students, and with the creation of T-SCESS that many school districts across the state are now using to evaluate school counselors’ time, but we know we have a ways to go before we truly are able to focus 80 percent of our time on our direct support for our students.

One way we want to help our members with the multitude of tasks you face is to provide you with access to lessons to use with your students. These lessons can now be found in the Members Only section of our LSSSCA website. They were created by the elementary school counselors in Richardson ISD who have spent time aligning their lessons to the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors, Texas Competencies and Goals, and include topics such as: Introduction to the Counselor, Bullying, College and Career Readiness, Drug Prevention, Friendship, Goal Setting, Gratitude, Wellness, and Coping Strategies, Kindness, Personal Safety, Self Confidence, Understanding Differences, and Worry/Anxiety. We have also added several small group lessons including the following topics: Supporting New Students, Emotional Regulation, and Worry/Anxiety.

Our hope is that these lessons will be an invaluable resource to you in your comprehensive school counseling program and that you will be able to shift some of the time you may be spending planning your lessons to being able to spend more time with your students as we all strive to get closer to that 80 percent direct service to our kids.

Our students need us now more than ever. We will continue to work together to find ways to make our time with them the priority. They deserve to always be at the top of our lists! Best wishes as you begin your new school year!

Contact Paige Pendery, LSSSCA VP for elementary counselors, via the LSSSCA website.