Professional Development Opo

I attended the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) annual conference this past July, which was held at the Los Angeles Downtown Convention Center.  I decided to attend to learn more about current practices in the school counseling profession as well as ASCA-specific resources. I attended all three days of the conference and personally found the workshop titled “Solutions-Focused School Counselor’s Playbook” by Arond Schonberg, M.S., PPS and Keith Fulthorp, EdD., PPS especially helpful.  The workshop shared about Solution Focused Brief Counseling (SFBC), if it’s a possible single solution for the audience, demonstrated the techniques, as well as provided opportunities to practice together.

As a school counselor, our time with students are limited and out of our scope of practice to work extensively and exclusively with students in a therapeutic manner.  I was drawn to SFBC since it’s solution focused, positive, and fits well within the time constraints we have as a school counselor. SFBC concentrates on finding solutions in the present moment and focusing on one’s hope for the future to find quicker resolutions.  It is a versatile and effective technique that can be used as a single therapeutic intervention or combined with therapy treatments. SFBC can be used individually with individuals across age, gender, cultural backgrounds, etc. The top ten techniques of this intervention recommended by Fulthorp and Schonberg follows the sequence of:

1. Obtain student’s description of the problem
2. Scaling
3. The miracle question
4. Positive goals
5. Exceptions
6. Cheerleading
7. Flagging the minefield
8. What else and instead questions
9. What’s different or better questions
10. Write a note and compliment, summarize strengths

The workshop presentation and the “Top-10 Solution Focused Brief Counseling Techniques” by the presenters with the strategy, description, and example questions/statements are also provided.  This counseling technique is effective in most situations, but especially so in the educational settings due to our limited time as well as within our scope of practice as school counselors. I appreciate that SFBC is goal-oriented and collaborative that encourages the individual to focus on the present moment rather than the complexities of past experiences or anxiety/worry over the future, which often takes significantly more time to analyze in depth.  I also appreciate that SFBC techniques equips us as school counselors with tools that allow students to leave our offices feeling empowered in their ability to resolve their problem(s) as well as a sense of hope for their current situation. SFBC is evidenced-based and supported by various federal and state agencies and insertions, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP).  Research has demonstrated that SFBC is an effective approach to the treatment of psychological problems with effectiveness similar to the results of cognitive-based therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)One way to measure its effectiveness is using one of the SFBC techniques of a scaling question. Through the process, we work with students to identify a starting point for the security of the problem, using a scale of 0-10 (0 is problem-free to 10 is the worst the problem has ever been).  As we go continue through the sequence of SFBC techniques, we can see if the student’s number has gone up or down to determine if the intervention was effective and successful. SFBC can be easily replicated in most contexts and can also be further used as one of the treatment options or on it’s own depending on the situation and need, which is why it is incredibly effective in the limited time setting of the school counselor’s office and role.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer Vo

Death on Campus: Creating a Plan to Support Your School Community

On October 17-19, I attended the California Association of School Counselors (CASC) 2018 conference in Riverside, California. During these three days I met and learned from wonderful school counselors that are truly charting the course of our profession by supporting students, families, schools, and communities all over our state.

In addition to listening to the inspiring presentations of keynote speakers Senator Barbara Boxer, Dr. Jeff Duncan-Andrade, and, now California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, I joined several workshops in a wide range of topics relevant to the school counseling profession. One of these workshops was Death on Campus: Creating a plan to support your school community facilitated by MelissaGillespie and Emily Ritchey, current school counselors at Calabasas HighSchool. I decided to attend this workshop because I want to expand my knowledge about crisis response in schools, particularly around topics of grief and loss. I fortunately have not had to deal with a death in school during my time training as a school counselor, but I understand death is a part of life, and I would like to be prepared to support my students, families and staff if I ever face a crisis of this kind.

Case Study

The presenters opened the workshop by sharing about a tragic event they recently experienced in their school: one of their freshman students and his father passed away in a plane accident (the father was the pilot), while his mother and sister witnessed it. This happened during the weekend, and the news were shared with the counseling team on Monday morning right before the first period bell rang. During that moment, the counseling team of Calabasas High School realized they did not have a crisis plan for such event, and had to develop one in thirty minutes. 

The rest of the presentation described common grief responses in teens, the crisis plan they created and implemented, as well as suggestions and insights the school counseling team gained from this experience.

Common Grief Responses in Teens

• Full range of emotions: teens experience emotions just as adults, it is important to not minimize their feelings due to a “lack of experience”. We must validate all emotions experienced due to loss.
• Social dimension: loss can impact academics and extracurricular activities. We must be alert to significant changes in engagement and achievement. In addition, some teens tend to engage in “bullying by loss”, they can be mean to others because they have strong feelings and little to none resources to deal with them.
• Often rises philosophical questions: teens can start questioning the meaning of life and engage in spiritual quests.
• Exaggeration of normal adolescent behavior: higher incidence of risky behaviors such as experimentation with drugs and alcohol are common grief responses in teens.
• Leads to worry of surviving caretakers: teens might be fearful for the parent or adult that is still alive.

The presenters also introduced the term social grief as part of the new movement towards mourning and grieving in social media. They mentioned that utilizing social media pages, such as Facebook that allows turning an active account to a “memorialized” account, has become highly popular and can be a great space for young people seeking support and validation, as it tends to be easier for teens to share and connect through social media. 

The Crisis Plan

Creating and implementing a crisis plan proved to be a multitasking team effort. The counseling team at Calabasas High School had to divide responsibilities by tapping into the strengths of each school counselor, and the following steps to implement their crisis plan were adopted:

1. Connect with the affected family to ask what information the school is allowed to share: Taking this step is vital, as it is really important to only share facts and have the family’s permission to share. This gives the family a sense of control about their story, and it allows the school to offer support to the family and share resources they may need.
2. Contact district and sister schools to request support (as needed): school counselors and other members of the counseling team of various schools in the district were asked to go over to the affected school to provide support in the grief center.
3. Inform teachers of the death: all teachers were called to the multi-purpose room (MPR) and were given the facts (only what was approved by family and administration). The school counseling team offered support for teachers and checked for teachers’ comfort level to share the information and process with students during first period.
4. Create and monitor grief center: the GYM was turned into a grief center with various activities students could participate in such as creating a care tag for self-care or writing to the family in a post-it and adding it to the memorial board later shared with the family. In addition, counselors were ready to offer one on one support to those that wanted to talk about the situation. Finally, students that did not feel like being in a large classroom at the moment could go there to work in their academics independently in a quiet and comforting space.
5. Provide in-classroom support: teachers that did not feel comfortable sharing the news with the students requested a school counselor to join their first period to talk to the students.
6. Principal to send letter to families about the death: this letter included the same facts shared with the teachers and students, in addition to community resources that can be accessed for support as needed.

Suggestions and Upgrades to Creating a Crisis Plan

The counseling team at Calabasas High School provided the following document to guide other school counselors in creating a crisis plan.

Some of the things they would upgrade, do different, or include in their crisis plan are: 

• Keeping data: include a sign-in sheet in the grief center to be able to follow up with those that sought individual support or participated in the grieving activities.
• Provide emotional support for staff: this could include having substitutes or other people to give teachers a break throughout the day if they wanted to access the grief center. Provide teachers with a list of resources they could seek for support after school hours, as well as self-care activities for immediate and long term.
• Creating short document of “how to talk to kids about death”: this could be beneficial for teachers and families, as most people do not know what is appropriate to tell or not tell to kids that are grieving. This document should have specific examples of what to say and what not to say.
• Counseling team follow-up: having space and time to debrief about the situation (both personal and professional) and evaluating crisis plan to make adjustments as needed.
• Crisis plan follow-up: create a crisis plan that is written in policy, and have all materials needed ready and stored. Think about the crisis long-term, what will the counseling team do for the anniversary of the event or the birthday of the student? Some suggestions include having an honor announcement for the family with a minute of silence, having students write comforting letters to the family, or hold a seat for the student during their graduation class.

Overall, I thought this presentation was very informative and grounding. The experience of death in schools is often unexpected, but having a crisis plan to address the situation and support the school community is something all school counselors can do to be prepared. I can foresee myself using the tools and insights shared by the presenters to develop and improve current crisis plans in my fieldwork site and any future schools I have the honor to serve.

Resources

• The Coalition to Support Grieving Students
• Comfort Zone Camp
• The Dougy Center
• The Moyer Foundation
• Our House Grief Support Center

Written by Anahi Amador

                  San Diego State University

                  Graduate Student

Mira Costa Machinist Professional Development Training

I had the opportunity to attend a training that was held at Mira Costa Community College. This training was conducted by The Technology Career Center, and the main sponsors were Mira Costa and the American Promise Grant. The meeting was conducted by Calandra Crawford who is the head machinist instructor at the education center. My supervisor and I wanted to attend this event because it is a great trade school that is free for students to attend. In the past, the tuition was as much as a 4 year school to attend. The program directors were able to advocate for their program, and work on several grants to give them the opportunity to provide tuition free education.

             The first part of the presentation involved learning about what a Machinist does and how it impacts the lives of others. Machinists are in charge of a variety of tasks. These tasks can range from robotics to making the screws that hold furniture together. Machinists make golf clubs, and other sports equipment. Anything that is usually metal, is made first by a machinist. This professional development workshop focused on providing options for students who do not want to go to college, and are interested in learning how everyday metal items are made. The course is 13 weeks and aims to prepare students for immediate entry into the work field. The program is intense but they boast a near 100% hire rate. The presenter Mrs. Crawford shared her own personal story. She went to college, and found that it was not a good fit for her. She joined the Navy in 1992 and while she was serving in the Navy she learned about becoming a machinist. Becoming a Machinist fit for her, and after having a successful career for over 20 years, she has decided to come teach others. She explained that not everyone is cut out for the traditional college experience. This resonated with me, as my college experience was not traditional either. Every student has a different path and skill set, it is good for students to not be so focused on a 4 year school and to explore every option to find their passion.

The second part of the professional development breakout session was to tour the facilities. We were able to see the machinist tools and also witness students making different parts for different products.  Mrs. Crawford then showed us to the robotic lab. I really enjoyed this part of the professional development session. We were given a demonstration of the robotic software that Mira Costa uses. The robot was named Betty and could be programed to pick things up and do other simple tasks. All of the students who were working with the robot were so excited that she had learned how to do something new. I was able to see their passion and to see how dedicated they were to developing new software for the robotics that they work with.   

During this professional development I learned that not everyone has the same path after high school. All students are not the same, and have different interests. A 4 year college is one path that students can choose from. There are other paths as well, that may be better suited to the students interests or skill sets. I would use this knowledge in advising students when they approach me regarding what career they should pick. I would tell the students that there are more options besides going to a four year college. I would also advise them to take advantage of the career assessments that are provided through Naviance. The appropriate age group to use this with, would be middle and or high school students. Students typically begin to think about college in middle and high school. I would want students to know that this path looks different from student to student. This training taught me that some students can gain a profitable career without going to a four year institution. Students have been going to community college, the military or vocational schools for many years. I will be able to measure the effectiveness by asking students if this approach was helpful to them. Students may want to know about other career options, especially if they are not on track to meet the requirements for entering a 4 year university. Overall, I will use my added knowledge to help benefit all the students on my caseload when I am a school counselor. I have learned a great deal and plan to use it in my professional practice.

Christina Waters 

Eric Cruz_Restorative Practices

Professional Growth Opportunity Blog Entry

            On October 18-19, 2018, I was fortunate enough have attended the California Association of School Counselors (CASC) Conference in Riverside, California. This two-day conference was attended by over 1,300 passionate school counselors and educators from all across the state. This conference consisted of two phenomenal key-note speakers, and over 50 breakout sessions centered in seven core topics, which included Safe and Supportive Schools, Mental Health in Schools, Social Justice and Equity, and Advocacy and Accountability, just to name a few. I decided to attend this conference as a way to gain more knowledge in my future career, network with current school counselors, and gain more resources and skills to add to my toolbelt to become a better-prepared school counselor. For the purposes of this blog entry, I will be focusing on a breakout session that I attended on the second day titled, Professional School Counselors ARE Restorative; presented by Hayleigh Herrera, Heather Lampron, and Brittney Pacini. All three presenters are school counselors, with experience in elementary, middle, and high school counseling in southern California. As I prepare to embark on my career path, I have been thinking practices that are becoming popular and successful in the education system, one of them being restorative practices. I thought this would be an excellent way to gain more knowledge on this topic, which was a very popular one that consisted of over 100 attendees.

            The presenters began by giving the audience background information on restorative justice, and some of its’ benefits, which include: developing a sense of community, building relationships, managing conflict & tension, and repairing harm. Restorative justice was implemented in our society as a way to address the high incarceration and recidivism rates and soon enough, restorative practices began to be implemented in schools as a way to address the disproportionality of suspensions/expulsions among certain student subgroups (E.g. race/ ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status) and to address the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative practices in schools do this by way of having restorative conversations, restorative circles, and restorative conferences. Before, practices in schools were focused on being punitive and punishing the wrongdoer, now with restorative practices the focus is on “who was harmed and what are their needs?” along with collaborating with the offender to discuss “how things can be made as right as possible now and changed for the future.” These restorative practices can be implemented in all three tiers and can range from being informal, to more structured and formal.

            I can see myself implementing these practices when addressing conflict among students by way of restorative circles. As we all know, school counselors are not to be disciplinarians but by approaching it from this angle, it allows school counselors to have the offender really think about what they did wrong, who they affected, and how they can make things right. This can also be applied with students who have a behavior violation.

Additional resources

http://7svjmj.m.attendify.com/app/sessions/9akb7lu5sLjObgrce2/details

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0fme8xvvwov2190/AADv_tZR-XfVj1dpURi3-1ypa?dl=0

Restorative Practice and Circles Training at Helix Charter High School

Our team had the opportunity to attend a Restorative Practice and Circles Training held by the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) on Monday, September 10, 2018. The four presenters were Anthony Ceja (SDCOE), Phillip Lumula (GUHSD), Marc Barlow (GUHSD), and Ashley McGuire (IIRP Consultant). The materials were provided by the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP). What is normally a two-day training was condensed into a one-day professional development at Helix Charter High School. The professional development was brought to Helix with the intent to reinforce and increase the awareness of students' social-emotional needs while also providing tools and strategies to consider implementing.

We decided to participate in this professional development because we were interested in learning more about the implementation of restorative practices in the context of the high school setting.

Theoretical Foundation

Restorative practices have roots in ancient indigenous traditions found all over the world. In our modern society the practice has been defined as a collaborative process called conferencing. Family Group Conferencing (FGC) and Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) are two forms of counseling that use similar circles and principles. Theoretically, circles are a form of small group interventions intended to resolve conflict and build community.

Evidence-Based Practice

Organizations and individuals in fields such as education, social work, counseling, and criminal justice are combining theory, research and practice to develop restorative models that will measure positive outcomes. In education, circles and groups provide opportunities for students to share their feelings, build relationships and solve problems, and when there is wrongdoing, to play an active role in addressing the wrong and making things right (Riestenberg, 2002).

Counseling Intervention Techniques and Considerations

Restorative practices and circles can be incorporated into counseling techniques, which could be used preventatively or as a response to disruptive behavior and crisis. Teachers can use restorative circles to build relationships, trust, and an open environment among students within the classroom. Restorative practices can be used routinely, for example in the beginning of every class or at the end of every week, or as needed (such as one-on-one with a student who has broken class rules). We have observed Helix administrators utilize restorative questions when addressing student behavioral referrals. We have also observed Helix school counselors utilize restorative circles as a form of conflict mediation between students and among staff.

The training at Helix was geared towards all high school level students. The training was presented from the lens that students are expected to be at a developmental level where they can become aware of their behavior and the consequences it may have on others. Restorative practices welcomes all backgrounds because they are inclusive and allow all who are present to contribute to the conversation.

Although the training was focused on supporting older students, this practice is versatile. At the heart of restorative practices, it is seeking to understand rather than provide punitive punishment or one-sided leadership. One context restorative practices can be used in is with the entire class. In this form, a teacher or facilitator may use a restorative circle to allow students to take the lead in understanding a topic or resolving a large-scale issue. Another form it can take is in small group or individual conversations with a school counselor to acknowledge harm caused and rebuild trust that may have been lost.

A consideration a counselor must take into account is the severity of the conflict before implementing a restorative circle. For example, if the event is of a violent or abusive nature, other disciplinary measures could be considered. However, this does not mean that the healing power of a restorative circle cannot be used concurrently. Some circles may require an extensive amount of time to ensure that everyone has a chance to participate. Thus, one must be attentive of any time restrictions and number of participants. Lastly, we must educate our faculty and students on the philosophy, practice, and purpose of the group to encourage full buy-in and participation.

As future school counselors, we can incorporate this technique into our counseling practice by using restorative questions, which is one of the tools provided by SDCOE and IIRP. This tool is a small card that is double-sided. One side has questions to ask those who have caused harm and the other side includes questions to ask those who have been affected. This is a simple way to get in the habit of thinking in a restorative mindset. It does not take very long yet it allows students to feel heard and authority figures to better understand their students and the context of the situation.

Measuring Effectiveness

Both qualitative and quantitative methods could be used to measure outcomes. The restorative practices can be measured through the level of cohesion of a class or student perceived sense of safety through school-wide data, such as California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS). This is difficult to directly measure, but can be observed through interactions and a rising level of mutual support and individual initiative. It can also be measured through tracking the decrease of student referrals and the decrease in repeating offenders.

Additional Resources

Defining Restorative Article

Natalie Kutches, Melanie Lim, Juan Ugarte, & Jay Villafuerte
SDSU School Counseling Interns