Quick Meetings: Getting to Know the Students
Getting to know the students is one of my top priorities for early in the year. For this reason, I had "quick meetings" with every student in the school within the first three weeks of school. The responses that I gathered from the meetings helped me determine how to design the school counseling program. The "Quick Meetings" last about 5 minutes each, and I ask the student a series of questions to assess their academic, personal, social, career, and spiritual development using scaling questions. With high school students, I also assess to see their knowledge of college-related items such as completing the SAT/ACT, applying to scholarships, and community involvement. I also ask students for one thing that they would like to improve this year, and at least one thing that they would like me to know about them. Before we are done, I give them an opportunity to schedule a longer time to talk with me about anything that's bothering them.
Using the Data: I do not share any of the personal information that I received from the students, but used the overall data to help design the school counseling program. I use the big-picture data to see if there are any trends per grade level or class. I found it interesting when over half of a grade level mentioned the same class when asked how school is going. This lets me know that I need to check in with that teacher to see if I can do a lesson on study skills or organization, etc with her students. I'm also looking for relationships between students in the classes- is one particular student coming up when talking about friendships/ friendship problems? Is one class generally lower in friendship ratings? Follow-up: I plan on doing the quick meetings again mid-year, then again towards the end of the school year. I don't want any students to go unnoticed or feel invisible if they are having problems. After finishing the meetings, I've noticed that students (especially secondary students) are MUCH more open and friendly towards me. Not that they weren't before, but they are more likely to smile and greet me before I get a chance to greet them! |