The reflection of the blogging experience

1.    Describe how you used the course blog.

2.    What has your experience been with the course blog?

o    What about this experience stands out for you?

o    Did anything in particular or anyone connected with the experience stand out for you?

o    What were the advantages/disadvantages to using this over a more traditional journaling activity?

3.    What feelings were generated by the experience?

4.    What thoughts stand out for you?

5.    Are you aware of any changes in thinking while using the course blog?

o    How were your personal values and assumptions influenced?

o    Did the blog enhance reflection, if so how?

6.    What did you like about the blogging experience?

7.    What was challenging for you about the blogging experience.

8.    If you could make some suggestions about using the blog in a future course, what would you suggest?

9.    Have you shared everything that is significant with reference to the experience?If not, what would you add?

1)       I used the course blog to post my thoughts and reflections about our class progression and reflection of my counseling skills.  Most importantly, I used the blog to get ideas from other counselors.  It was helpful to see how they felt about topics we all face as well.

2)      I had never created a blog before.  It is always helpful as an educator to learn new ways to communicate in the ever changing world of technology.  I like using the blog over traditional journaling because it is easier to type than write.  It is easier to share with others than trying to pass around a journal.  My students are more likely to blog than keep a journal.

3+4) I enjoyed learning how to create a blog.  Also, it is very effective to share ideas and feelings with classmates.

5)  The blog really enhanced my tech skills.  The blog was essential in reflection because it made it very easy to share our thoughts and feelings with other classmates. 

6)  As stated before, I liked the ease at which I could share ideas and reflections with classmates.

7)  I had never created a blog before, so the technology part was the main hurdle.  Since, we created it in class guided by our professor it was relatively simple.

8)  I would make it so that I had access to every student’s blog.  When we created the blogs I only added 5 other students instead of the whole class.

9)  I think I have shared the full experience of the blog when I answered my other questions.

Week 11 Cyberbullying

I wish that people had to be at least 18 to have a social media account.  You would not believe the amount of problems that originate from social media sites at our school everyday.  Cyberbullying  has longer lasting effects than physical bullying.  A site we have found to be very helpful at our schools is
http://makeadifferenceforkids.org/index.php?id=69

Cyberbullying is just an example of how even though technology is great, counselors have to stay on top of it to deal with students who are using it.

Ice Breaker

My icebreaker I used in class was to pass around a majic wand and say what you would change about your life if it really worked.  I use this with kids because you can really find out what they think is their biggest problem this way.  Hope you guys will be able to use it with your students as well!          

week 14 reflection of counseling

I have really learned from doing this practicum class.  Even though I did not want to go to an elementary school, it was enlightening to see what school counselors do at different levels.  It did make me realize and appreciate that I am at the high school level.  This experience made me appreciate and break out of the rut you sometimes get into.  As a high school counselor, you get so busy just putting out fires all day and completing paper work, you forget to simply reflect on your counseling.  You get so busy doing your job sometimes, you forget to make sure you are doing the most important job you have which is counseling the students effectively!

week 14

One of the benefits to being a counselor is you can apply what you have learned to your personal life.  My mom just lost one of her best friends.  I told her about what we had done to grief counsel at school when we lost 2 students.  We had a big role of paper and everyone wrote their thoughts about the deceased on it.  Mom did this with her friends and this seemed to really help with their grief.  I, also, am able to deal with conflict well in my personal life because I usually talk things out.  There is not much monetary benefits of being a counselor but definitely many mental health ones!

Post for November 6th week 12

My post this week does not have much to do with school counseling but I just wanted to share a story I watched on HBO over the weekend.  HBO had a special about people who had died in Iraq.  In the special, their families read the letters from them before they died.  In one of the letters, a female soldier told her mom that "to be loved and to love where the best things about life.  She thanked her mom for showing her both of these things."  I just thought this was an awesome idea and very true!

week 9 magic wand

If I had a magic wand I would change the amount of time I get to spend counseling students as opposed to the amount of time I spend doing administrative paperwork and duties.  I do no think school counselors do a good job of letting other faculty members know the amount of responsibilities we have to do.  Our counseling staff went to our new principal this year and advocated for ourselves.  He was very understanding and assigned many of our testing duties to the academic dean.  This has freed so much more time for us to meet with students which will result in less behavior problems and failures.  Luckily, we had a new and understanding principal.  I do think it is a good idea to get together as a counseling staff and list all of the different duties you have and let your administrator know the amount of time those duties are taking away from the students. Also, be able to show how more time meeting with the students will lower failure rates and help control the amount of behavior problems.  Even if they do not change anything at least they know how valuable you are to the school.  I would suggest being as positive as you can be during the presentation and be prepared for the possibility that your administrator will decide to make no changes.