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.