January 1, 2024 • 33 mins
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Right now, people are busy talking about resolutions, goals, mindset, words of the year, etc., for the New Year.
In this episode, we're not going to get into any of that! Instead, we'll walk through a very specific step by step process for making sure that you have all of the little tedious things (and the little things that jump up and bite you in the rear later on in the school year) handled. Our New Year (re)Start will help you feel confident, prepared and less stressed for the rest of your school year.
Let's raise a toast to new beginnings, to working smarter, and to doing an awesome job at taking care of our own well-being as we work to support students and families.
Mentioned in this epsiode:
New Year (re)Start
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steph Johnson (00:01):
Hey there, school counselor, welcome back to the
School for School Counselorspodcast.
I'm Steph Johnson.
I'm glad to be back here withyou for another week of the
podcast, but also the start of2020.
I'm super excited about it.
A new year always feels like abrilliant, wonderful, fresh new
(00:21):
start and I'm excited.
I'm excited for the springsemester.
I'm excited for what the restof the school year holds in
store for you and I can't waitto dive in to more awesomeness
to help support you and empoweryou along the way.
It's going to be a great year.
You know, right now people arebusy talking about resolutions,
(00:43):
they're talking about mindset,they're talking about words of
the year or all this kind ofstuff.
I'm not going to get into anyof that in this podcast episode.
I'm going to give you a veryspecific step-by-step process
for making sure that you haveall of the little tedious things
(01:04):
, all the little things thatjump up and bite you in the rear
later on in the school year.
We're going to make sure wehave a plan for getting those
all handled and that way you'regoing to feel confident, you're
going to feel prepared andyou're going to feel less
stressed for the rest of yourschool year, and that's what I
want for you.
So keep listening.
(01:25):
We're going to dive into allthe steps of that as we go
through this podcast episode,but first I want to give you a
little bit of sad news.
The sad news is we've run outof podcast reviews.
You all know I love readingthese on the podcast episodes
not necessarily to toot our ownhorn, as much as it is to
(01:47):
celebrate you and the time thatyou spend in submitting those
and the information that yougive about you and your place in
your school counseling journey.
It's just really, really greatto hear from other people who
were doing the same kind of workas I am, as our listeners are.
(02:07):
It's just really superempowering.
So if you have a minute, hop inyour podcast platform of choice
, give us a rating.
If you're an Apple podcast,give us a review.
Those were like gold, and youknow I say that all the time.
It's so, so important.
We would be so, so grateful ifyou would take a few minutes and
submit something like that forus.
(02:28):
So thank you All right.
So this week we want to hop intoour plan for what we call our
new year restart, and the reasonwe call it a restart is.
We've already started a newyear already.
Once, back in August orSeptember, we started our new
school year right.
(02:48):
We got all of our componentsinto place.
A lot of you attended our bestyear ever event, which is far
and away Our biggest event wehave all year long.
It's so fun to get together andcollaborate together.
Over a week's time, we got allyour pieces in place for your
school year.
So January is the restart.
(03:10):
This is where we freshen thingsup.
This is where we get our handsback into the things that really
matter and, like I said, we'regoing to clean up a lot of the
tea damn that gets in the way,all the little things that we
forget about until they jump upand then we go oh man, gosh, I
wish I would have thought aboutthat before this.
We're going to take care of allof that so that we can set the
(03:33):
stage for an enjoyable andrelaxed start to our semester.
So anybody game for that,because I think that is going to
be super, super important as wego through our year.
So the first task in our newyear restart.
And, by the way, don't feellike you have to write all of
these down.
(03:53):
We have this email series youcan sign up for easily to get
all of these sent to your inbox.
Day by day, step by step.
Go to school for schoolcounselorscom slash.
Restart, r, e, s, t, a, r, tall one word, and we'll be glad
to share these with you as youreturn back to your work and
(04:14):
your role on campus, so that youdon't miss a single thing.
The first task, your day, onetask for your restart, is to sit
and think about the goals thatyou had for yourself back in
August or September.
And while this sounds reallyfluffy and silly and fero fero,
(04:35):
there's a reason for it.
The reason is often we havethese great ideas, we have these
great plans for our campus andwe know about some things that
our students really need, butsomewhere along the way those
things get lost in the shuffle.
Right, we get bogged down inthe minute to minute running
(04:55):
from this thing to that thing,all of the walkie calls, all the
phone calls, all of the parents, all the things happening all
the time, and we lose sight ofthe bigger goal.
It's almost like we can't seethe forest for the trees.
And then other times we've setgoals that maybe might not be
(05:17):
completely appropriate for ourprograms Like.
They sounded great at the time.
They were a great idea.
They would be great for yourstudents, certainly.
But maybe now isn't the righttime for those.
And so, as we reflect on thesegoals that we set for ourselves
back in August or September, itallows us to really kind of
(05:40):
re-evaluate not only where we'reheaded but what our own
expectations are for ourselves.
We don't want to maintain theselofty, almost unreachable goals
for ourselves because we'retrying to shoot for this
invisible, all-star counselorbadge that everybody seems to be
(06:01):
vying for.
That should not be part of yourequation in the spring.
We need to be focusing on howcan we do our best work and
still remain happy, healthyhuman beings along the way.
Right, we don't want to beburning ourselves out trying to
pursue these crazy goals, but atthe same time, if there's
(06:23):
something that we really do wantto do, it's really in our
hearts to make happen.
We want to remember that thatthing was on our mind in the
first place.
So go, get yourself a cup ofcoffee, get a glass of sweet
iced tea or whatever floats yourboat, and sit down and just
kind of think through, rememberthe beginning of the school year
(06:45):
, think about the professionaldevelopment you had at the
beginning of the year, the timethat you spent getting your
office, your calendar ready, allyour materials prepared.
Think through all of that,really immerse yourself in that
and reconnect with the goalsthat you set for yourself or for
your program.
Write them down somewhere and,as you remember those goals from
(07:11):
the fall, reevaluate them.
If you want to keep them, writethem down.
If you're going to get rid ofthem, get rid of them.
If you want to modify them,then change them.
But whatever you do, write downyour goals for this spring
semester.
These do not have to be hugecomprehensive school counseling
(07:34):
program goals.
These might be something thatfeel kind of silly to say.
It might be.
I'm going to make sure that Ileave campus by four o'clock
every day.
Some of you may be 4.45 or fiveo'clock, right.
Whatever it is.
You might decide that you wantto perform one random act of
(07:56):
kindness on your campus eachweek.
You might decide that you justwant to make it to the end of
the school year.
Whatever it is, set those goalsfor yourself.
Have a direction, set yourcompass so that you know where
you're headed when the springsemester comes around.
(08:18):
So that's step one in therestart.
Step two in the restart is notas reflective as the first step.
Step two is a little moretactical.
We're going to get a littlemore pinpointed in this.
We're going to review ourcalendars for 2024.
(08:39):
I can't even believe I'm saying2024.
That's crazy to think we'rethere already.
So review your calendar.
Review the things that you haveon it, things like the events
that come from your districtcalendar, your testing dates.
Even if you're not responsiblefor testing coordination, those
are certainly going to impactyour work, right when you're
(09:02):
able to see kids or maybe whenyou're able to be in your office
at all.
So go ahead and make sureyou've got those dates down.
Lesson times If you're doinglessons, if those have already
been determined, make surethey're in your calendar.
Staff birthdays If you doanything, for those would be
helpful to have your personalappointments or personal
(09:23):
obligations Make sure you havethose on your calendar.
I can't tell you how many timesI've had one of those jump up
and I'm like, oh my gosh, that'sin two days.
I forgot to say anything.
I try to be super intentionalabout that, but it slips my mind
all the time.
So I know it does yours too.
Try to write those down as bestas you can recollect, and then
any awareness campaigns, anycelebrations you want to observe
(09:47):
I'm thinking about in thespring, things like random acts
of kindness week, nationalSchool Counseling Week, those
kinds of things Make sure youhave them on your calendar.
They're so easy to forget, andit's easy for things to sneak up
on you, right, if you're notpaying attention.
The thing is, though, as you'reputting these items on your
(10:09):
calendar, remember that youcannot do it all, particularly
if you are a solo counselor onyour campus, or if you're a
testing coordinator, if you're a504 coordinator, something like
that.
There's no way that you'regoing to be able to do
(10:29):
everything you want to do.
This has got to be anincremental process for you.
I was just talking with someoneearlier this morning about this
, as we were recording anupcoming interview for the
podcast, and we were talkingabout how, so many times, folks
jump into school counseling veryeager, very bright-eyed, with a
(10:50):
lot of energy and passion fortheir work, which is incredible
but all too often, they beginburning themselves out because
they feel like they have to doeverything right away.
All the great things they'veheard about, all of the
comprehensive program components, all the things, and they try
to cram it all into a year ortwo, and then they're left
(11:12):
wondering why it didn't work,why they don't feel fulfilled,
why they didn't reach thosegoals.
Sometimes we have to rememberthis as a step by step, baby
step by baby step process, andthat's okay, isn't it?
So we're going to keep itsimple and we're just going to
make sure we have everythingwritten down.
(11:32):
That's all that goes in to steptwo.
All right, so we have reflectedand adapted our goals.
We have looked at our calendarscoming up for 2024.
Now we're headed into stepthree of the New Year restart,
and step number three issomething that I would say 90%
(11:55):
of the time is overlooked.
It is something that isessential to feeling like you
are somewhat in control of theday-to-day goings-on on your
campus, and this is reverseengineering your calendar.
Now we put all those dates andobservances on your calendar in
(12:17):
the last step, as we wanted tomake sure we didn't miss
anything.
Now what we're going to do islook at the things that may
require some extended action, sowe might go into a test
administration and then we mightgo back a week and write one
week until practice test, goback another week two weeks
(12:39):
until the practice test.
Go back another week threeweeks until the practice test.
You getting what I'm layingdown here.
We're just giving ourselvesperiodic reminders that these
things are coming up.
It doesn't mean it has to becompletely planned out.
It's just to remind you thatyou need to start thinking
(13:00):
toward that direction.
And let me add here this doesnot have to be on paper.
This could be your electroniccalendar.
I know most of us are keepingthose at work these days.
Put it on your electroniccalendar, have it, give you an
alert.
One month until 504 deadline.
Two weeks until state testingbegins.
(13:20):
Three weeks until nationalschool counseling Wait, yeah,
it's coming y'all.
So make sure you have those inyour calendar.
That will help you stay on topof things and feel like you are
a little bit more in control,instead of it slapping you
across the face.
You know, a week before it'ssupposed to happen and you're
panicking and going.
I don't know how I'm gonna getall this done.
(13:41):
How am I gonna get all thistogether?
You will be able to plan moreproactively.
You'll be able to have thingsin place and feel a lot more
calm and assured in whateverthat activity is If you don't
love the details.
This is a super great Jedi trickfor you.
(14:02):
It is fitting these remindersin your calendar to get your
brain thinking that way.
If you're super detail oriented, you might already have some
plans ready.
You might already have youroutlines for your events or your
observances or testing alreadyready to go, if you do.
Kudos to you.
Not all of our brains work thatway, however, and so these
(14:23):
reminders are super, superhelpful.
We have some templates for someevent planning in our School
for School Counselors planner.
We provided that free this yearto any school counselor that
wanted it.
So if you haven't gotten yourcopy yet, you can hop to our
website,schoolforschoolcounselorscom
slash planner, download that andtoward the end of the planner
(14:46):
we've got a bunch of templatesand things like that that you
can use to plan those events sothat you can make sure that you
do not forget a single thing.
All right, moving on to stepfour, this one is sending home
communication to families,making sure that we are
communicating well, that there'snot anything we need to let our
(15:09):
families know, things likeactivities coming up on campus,
maybe some policies that need tobe revisited, or parents need
to be reminded about how toaccess resources, how to access
counseling resources online, howto get in touch with you those
kinds of things or evencalendars or timelines for due
(15:30):
dates.
Particularly if you're workingwith students on college
applications and things likethat.
You wanna make sure you'recommunicating these things
between school and home.
This does not have to be somesort of razzle-dazzle
presentation.
It doesn't have to be a fancygraphic newsletter or anything
like that.
It can be something very, verysimple, but let's make sure
(15:52):
we're getting that informationout to the people that need it.
I think it's going to cut downon a lot of the questions that
you get, a lot of the concernsthat you hear.
People are going to feel likethey're more in charge and in
control of what they're doing ontheir end because they're gonna
have the information that'snecessary.
(16:14):
All right, so we're on to stepfive.
Just to recap really quickly,step one was reevaluating,
revisiting your goals from thefall and modifying them as you
need to.
Step two was getting all ofthose basic, essential dates on
the calendar.
Step three was reverseengineering those dates to make
(16:37):
sure that we know they're comingup, that they don't come up and
bite us later and we weresurprised and frantic and
frazzled.
And then step four was gettingour communication home to
parents, making sure we'recommunicating with students and
that we're all still on the samepage, all right.
So step five of the New Yearrestart is going to be looking
(17:01):
at our themes, looking at ourtopics for lessons, if you're
providing those on your campus.
Are your lessons still goingaccording to plan?
Are they still on the timelinethat you said at the beginning
of the year or do those need tobe modified?
Do you have any lessons oractivities coming up where you
need specialized materials?
(17:22):
Do you need to start orderingcertain things now so that you
have them on hand in plenty oftime?
This is something that you'regoing to want to get ready to go
right at the start of thespring semester.
No running around trying tograb whatever you can grab.
One of my pet peeves is gettingat you know.
(17:42):
I reply all email from someonesaying I need pipe cleaners for
an activity today.
Does anybody have pipe cleaners?
And I always think Lord.
I mean.
I know we all need help fromtime to time, but please plan
ahead.
Make sure you've got thosethings ready to go for your
activity.
So check and make sure you haveall of your materials, all the
(18:04):
things you're going to need forthe things coming up in the
spring.
That's not bad right.
Getting your mind wrappedaround what you want to do, what
your plans are, I think, is thehardest part.
From there, the rest is prettyeasy, as long as you have
everything in place and ready togo.
All right.
So that was step five of yournew year restart plan.
(18:26):
We're almost to the end.
Step six is to look at yourtechnology angle.
We want to make sure that we'relooking at any counseling pages
or online presences that we areresponsible for.
Maybe a website.
It may be a teacher page on aschool website, it may be a
(18:50):
social media account.
Whatever it is, we want to lookat it and make sure of a couple
of things.
Number one are the links up todate?
Are they still valid or any ofthem broken?
Can people get to where theyneed to go relatively easily?
Number two, are yourannouncements current?
You guys may not know thisabout me, but sometimes I creep
(19:16):
your school websites.
Did you know this?
And the reason is we reallywork hard to vet anybody that we
bring into our school.
For school counselors Facebookgroup it's not just your name
pops up and you have a postabout feelings, and so we think
things are gonna be okay.
We have a very high declinerate in our Facebook group and
(19:38):
that's not to be ugly, that'snot to keep people out of the
group, to try to be malicious,but it is an effort to keep the
quality of the discourse high.
We want to make sure we're onlyaccepting people who have a true
vested interest in the field ofschool counseling and so, as
part of that process, sometimeswhen we're looking at profiles
(20:01):
and things like that, if we seea school name or something like
that, we'll hop over to theschool webpage.
We wanna see what the school'sabout and we'll see.
If there's a counselor page,we'll go look at that, and I
cannot tell you how many pagesI've looked at where there are
announcements on there that areold, old, old.
(20:21):
Just a few weeks ago in 2023, Iran across a counselor webpage
that still had information upabout COVID, pandemic resources,
things like from quarantine,shutdown days that were still up
there loud and proud on theirschool counseling page.
(20:42):
So just kind of get thosefreshened up, get them dusted
off.
Make sure all the informationis up to date and looking good.
Make sure you have the rightresources listed for students
and parents Again, thateverything is still there, it's
still working, those programsstill exist.
And then if you've donesomething amazing, like you've
(21:03):
lost 100 pounds, you've choppedoff all your hair, it's now a
different color, you'd now weareyeglasses, whatever the case
may be, you might look and seeif it's time to update that
profile picture.
You want people to be able toinstantly recognize you on your
school webpage if they know youand if not, you want them to be
(21:24):
able to see your picture on thewebsite and then connect it to
the real person once you meetthem live and in real time.
So go ahead and give thoseaccounts, give those pages a
once over, make sure they'renice and clean, that they're
looking good.
It's only going to help yourprogram and you yourself look
(21:44):
more professional, and weabsolutely need that as we begin
advocating on our campuses andwithin our greater communities.
All right, step seven for ourNew Year Restart is going to be
pre-planning self-care or mentalhealth days for ourselves.
(22:04):
This may not necessarily beanything that you have
specifically planned right now,but you do know that once the
spring semester gets underway,we're all running around like
frantic people again.
We are going to forget to stopand assess our own needs many
(22:26):
times, and so we've got to getsuper proactive about making
sure that we're leaving spacefor taking care of ourselves.
It is imperative, it is anon-negotiable.
Nobody needs a counselor that'snot taking care of themselves
and, despite what your principalmight lead you to believe, your
(22:49):
campus can survive without youfor a day.
They absolutely can't.
They can survive without youfor even a couple of days, and
they can definitely survivewithout you for an afternoon.
So don't feel guilty.
Don't buy into this baloneythat we peddle on our school
campuses about.
(23:09):
You know it's for the kids weneed to be here all the time.
I get it.
I get it.
Education is important work,but you are important too.
So go ahead and put some days onthe books that you know you're
going to be able to use to pauseand to catch your breath.
It sounds simple, right, itsounds almost ridiculous to say,
(23:34):
but how often have you trulymade this a priority?
How often have youintentionally gone in your
calendar and said I'm going totake one day every six or eight
weeks and I'm going to focus onmyself?
This is going to be your year.
This is the year that you'rereally going to implement some
(23:55):
better self care for yourself.
So book those days and promiseyourself that you're not going
to compromise, you're going tokeep those days and you're going
to make yourself a priority,because you have to treat
yourself like you believe thatyou're amazing because you are.
(24:15):
You keep walking onto a schoolcampus every day, searching to
serve students, looking to buildother people's futures, and
doing it in conditions that areoften a little difficult to
navigate as a professional right.
The go, go, go mentality.
(24:38):
The moment to moment shifts andpivots and all the crazy things
that happen the hearing theworst there is to hear on your
campuses and still being able tokeep yourself composed and
professional and handle thosesituations.
You have a hard job and you'reamazing because you keep showing
(24:59):
up to do that, day after dayafter day.
So you need to believe thatabout yourself and you need to
treat yourself like you believeit's true.
You are amazing for the workthat you do.
All right, and then we're toour last step in our new year
(25:21):
restart.
If you've been keeping track,this is step eight.
The last step in your new yearrestart is figuring out what
you're going to do to grow.
Thank you.
Determining the areas that youwant to learn more about doesn't
mean you have to binge on it,doesn't mean that you have to go
(25:43):
all in and learn everythingthere is to know about it by the
end of the school year, but youdo need to identify something
that you'd like to be moreknowledgeable about, something
that maybe you feel might helpyour work with students on your
campus, or something that youfeel would help you grow as a
counseling professional ingeneral.
Identify some things you'reinterested in.
(26:06):
They may not necessarily be theright things right.
It may not necessarily be themagic bullet for your campus or
for your program, but learningnever hurt anybody and you're
only going to grow and mature asa professional the more you
read, the more you engage inconsultation and the more you
(26:28):
seek to develop your expertiseand to develop your professional
confidence when you're calledupon to discuss that Super,
super important.
So maybe it's something liketrauma-informed programs really
getting down into the meat ofwhat it means to be
trauma-informed and not thissurface-level conversation that
(26:51):
we're hearing everywhere.
Maybe it's staff morale or howto get your staff on board with
your counseling program.
Maybe you want to kind of pokearound and see if you can find
some tricks or strategies tomake that happen.
Maybe you want to learn moreabout multi-tiered systems of
support, and that can get prettycomplicated the deeper you dive
(27:11):
into that.
So do you want to get some moreinformation on how to really
invest in that on your campus?
Do you need to know more about504?
Have you been saddled with thatresponsibility and you feel
like you're kind of making it,but you're also kind of faking
it at the same time?
You're not really sure ifyou're getting it exactly right
or if you're meeting bestpractice.
(27:33):
That might be an area that youwant to look at.
Do you want to get better atbehavior intervention?
Do you want to feel like you'remore in control when you walk
into a behavior situation?
Do you want to feel like youcan better regulate yourself?
Do you need some behaviorstrategies?
Do you want some ideas that youcan toss to your staff when
(27:55):
they come to you for support andfor help?
Those are all areas that youcould seek to learn more about
Now.
Should you do them all?
No, no, no, my friend.
Pick one, pick one thing,because there's always time to
dive into something else or todive into something more deeply
(28:16):
when you have some morebreathing space, perhaps during
the summer, or you can continuein the fall.
This is not a one and done kindof thing.
We should be constantlylearning and evolving.
But identify that one specificthing that you would really love
to know more about and thenmake a plan for how you're going
to do that.
Schedule it on your calendar.
(28:38):
That is my magic trick forlearning and for being
productive and getting thethings done.
I have to have it written downon a calendar to remind me to
get to it, or my brain will go ahundred different other
directions and I may not getback to it.
But decide how are you going tolearn?
Are you going to read researchpapers?
(28:59):
Are you going to seek out peerreviewed research?
Are you going to seek outtextbooks or academic books on
the topic?
Are you going to seek someprofessional organization
knowledge?
How are you going to get thisinformation Schedule, some
reminders Y'all you can remindyourself into any habit that you
(29:22):
want to build.
But whatever you do, make sureyou do this with intention
Because, again, as we get intothe busyness of the spring
semester, as we get into thetask and task and moment to
moment stuff, as we get into allof the crisis intervention, as
we get into the counseling andthe lessons and the parent
(29:43):
support and all the things we do.
This is a piece that often goesby the wayside and you are too
good at what you do to becomestagnant.
So be intentional about thisprocess.
If you feel like you need aquick and easy way to build your
expertise that doesn't requirepulling up a bunch of peer
(30:05):
reviewed research, that doesn'tinvolve buying a bunch of $60 or
$70 books or whatever it is,consider joining our School for
School Counselors Mastermind.
In there we have a Netflixstyle library of tons of topics
that your grad school educationforgot the things that you need
to know in real world schoolcounseling application.
(30:27):
We have weekly consultation andsupport chats every Tuesday
evening.
They are freaking amazing.
You have never been in anythinglike this ever so cool.
We have periodic book studies.
We do those in the summer tobuild our skills.
This past summer we focused ondialectical behavior therapy.
That was a huge eye opener.
(30:48):
We've also done motivationalinterviewing with students.
We've done solution focuscounseling.
We've looked at a lot of RossGreen's work and lost at school,
which is to try to figure outhow we can help students more
purposefully on campus and moresuccessfully.
All of those things are goingon.
We have an exclusive mastermindgroup for folks to ask questions
(31:11):
and get feedback in a morecontrolled environment.
It's just an amazing, amazingcommunity to be a part of, and
we built it to help folks buildand develop their expertise.
Whatever you do, though whetheryou join the mastermind or you
go out on your own both areperfectly awesome, but make sure
your intention about it, makesure you decide in your heart
(31:35):
that you're going to dosomething, because, like I said,
you're amazing.
You're too good not to begrowing and developing your
competence and your expertise.
Super, super important that youdo that.
All right, I hope you enjoyedhearing about our steps to our
new year restart.
(31:56):
And again, if you need these inemail form, it's super
digestible this way.
You send you one email everyday for eight days, and it gives
you one actionable step eachday.
You'll have them in your email.
You can refer back to themanytime you would like.
You can sign up absolutely freeon our website,
schoolforschoolcounselorscom.
(32:18):
Slash restart, all right, well,I hope this was helpful to you.
I wish you all the best in 2024.
I can't wait to hear about yoursuccesses.
I can't wait to celebrate withyou as the semester goes on and
you get those wins that you'vebeen looking for, and I can't
wait to support you, and Ireally hope and pray that this
(32:44):
coming second semester is goingto be your best semester yet.
I truly, truly want that foryou and I wish you all the best.
Keep listening.
I'm going to be back soon withanother podcast episode and
until then, I hope you have thebest week.
Take care.
Hey there, school counselor, welcome back to the
School for School Counselorspodcast.
I'm Steph Johnson.
I'm glad to be back here withyou for another week of the
podcast, but also the start of2020.
I'm super excited about it.
A new year always feels like abrilliant, wonderful, fresh new
(00:21):
start and I'm excited.
I'm excited for the springsemester.
I'm excited for what the restof the school year holds in
store for you and I can't waitto dive in to more awesomeness
to help support you and empoweryou along the way.
It's going to be a great year.
You know, right now people arebusy talking about resolutions,
(00:43):
they're talking about mindset,they're talking about words of
the year or all this kind ofstuff.
I'm not going to get into anyof that in this podcast episode.
I'm going to give you a veryspecific step-by-step process
for making sure that you haveall of the little tedious things
(01:04):
, all the little things thatjump up and bite you in the rear
later on in the school year.
We're going to make sure wehave a plan for getting those
all handled and that way you'regoing to feel confident, you're
going to feel prepared andyou're going to feel less
stressed for the rest of yourschool year, and that's what I
want for you.
So keep listening.
(01:25):
We're going to dive into allthe steps of that as we go
through this podcast episode,but first I want to give you a
little bit of sad news.
The sad news is we've run outof podcast reviews.
You all know I love readingthese on the podcast episodes
not necessarily to toot our ownhorn, as much as it is to
(01:47):
celebrate you and the time thatyou spend in submitting those
and the information that yougive about you and your place in
your school counseling journey.
It's just really, really greatto hear from other people who
were doing the same kind of workas I am, as our listeners are.
(02:07):
It's just really superempowering.
So if you have a minute, hop inyour podcast platform of choice
, give us a rating.
If you're an Apple podcast,give us a review.
Those were like gold, and youknow I say that all the time.
It's so, so important.
We would be so, so grateful ifyou would take a few minutes and
submit something like that forus.
(02:28):
So thank you All right.
So this week we want to hop intoour plan for what we call our
new year restart, and the reasonwe call it a restart is.
We've already started a newyear already.
Once, back in August orSeptember, we started our new
school year right.
(02:48):
We got all of our componentsinto place.
A lot of you attended our bestyear ever event, which is far
and away Our biggest event wehave all year long.
It's so fun to get together andcollaborate together.
Over a week's time, we got allyour pieces in place for your
school year.
So January is the restart.
(03:10):
This is where we freshen thingsup.
This is where we get our handsback into the things that really
matter and, like I said, we'regoing to clean up a lot of the
tea damn that gets in the way,all the little things that we
forget about until they jump upand then we go oh man, gosh, I
wish I would have thought aboutthat before this.
We're going to take care of allof that so that we can set the
(03:33):
stage for an enjoyable andrelaxed start to our semester.
So anybody game for that,because I think that is going to
be super, super important as wego through our year.
So the first task in our newyear restart.
And, by the way, don't feellike you have to write all of
these down.
(03:53):
We have this email series youcan sign up for easily to get
all of these sent to your inbox.
Day by day, step by step.
Go to school for schoolcounselorscom slash.
Restart, r, e, s, t, a, r, tall one word, and we'll be glad
to share these with you as youreturn back to your work and
(04:14):
your role on campus, so that youdon't miss a single thing.
The first task, your day, onetask for your restart, is to sit
and think about the goals thatyou had for yourself back in
August or September.
And while this sounds reallyfluffy and silly and fero fero,
(04:35):
there's a reason for it.
The reason is often we havethese great ideas, we have these
great plans for our campus andwe know about some things that
our students really need, butsomewhere along the way those
things get lost in the shuffle.
Right, we get bogged down inthe minute to minute running
(04:55):
from this thing to that thing,all of the walkie calls, all the
phone calls, all of the parents, all the things happening all
the time, and we lose sight ofthe bigger goal.
It's almost like we can't seethe forest for the trees.
And then other times we've setgoals that maybe might not be
(05:17):
completely appropriate for ourprograms Like.
They sounded great at the time.
They were a great idea.
They would be great for yourstudents, certainly.
But maybe now isn't the righttime for those.
And so, as we reflect on thesegoals that we set for ourselves
back in August or September, itallows us to really kind of
(05:40):
re-evaluate not only where we'reheaded but what our own
expectations are for ourselves.
We don't want to maintain theselofty, almost unreachable goals
for ourselves because we'retrying to shoot for this
invisible, all-star counselorbadge that everybody seems to be
(06:01):
vying for.
That should not be part of yourequation in the spring.
We need to be focusing on howcan we do our best work and
still remain happy, healthyhuman beings along the way.
Right, we don't want to beburning ourselves out trying to
pursue these crazy goals, but atthe same time, if there's
(06:23):
something that we really do wantto do, it's really in our
hearts to make happen.
We want to remember that thatthing was on our mind in the
first place.
So go, get yourself a cup ofcoffee, get a glass of sweet
iced tea or whatever floats yourboat, and sit down and just
kind of think through, rememberthe beginning of the school year
(06:45):
, think about the professionaldevelopment you had at the
beginning of the year, the timethat you spent getting your
office, your calendar ready, allyour materials prepared.
Think through all of that,really immerse yourself in that
and reconnect with the goalsthat you set for yourself or for
your program.
Write them down somewhere and,as you remember those goals from
(07:11):
the fall, reevaluate them.
If you want to keep them, writethem down.
If you're going to get rid ofthem, get rid of them.
If you want to modify them,then change them.
But whatever you do, write downyour goals for this spring
semester.
These do not have to be hugecomprehensive school counseling
(07:34):
program goals.
These might be something thatfeel kind of silly to say.
It might be.
I'm going to make sure that Ileave campus by four o'clock
every day.
Some of you may be 4.45 or fiveo'clock, right.
Whatever it is.
You might decide that you wantto perform one random act of
(07:56):
kindness on your campus eachweek.
You might decide that you justwant to make it to the end of
the school year.
Whatever it is, set those goalsfor yourself.
Have a direction, set yourcompass so that you know where
you're headed when the springsemester comes around.
(08:18):
So that's step one in therestart.
Step two in the restart is notas reflective as the first step.
Step two is a little moretactical.
We're going to get a littlemore pinpointed in this.
We're going to review ourcalendars for 2024.
(08:39):
I can't even believe I'm saying2024.
That's crazy to think we'rethere already.
So review your calendar.
Review the things that you haveon it, things like the events
that come from your districtcalendar, your testing dates.
Even if you're not responsiblefor testing coordination, those
are certainly going to impactyour work, right when you're
(09:02):
able to see kids or maybe whenyou're able to be in your office
at all.
So go ahead and make sureyou've got those dates down.
Lesson times If you're doinglessons, if those have already
been determined, make surethey're in your calendar.
Staff birthdays If you doanything, for those would be
helpful to have your personalappointments or personal
(09:23):
obligations Make sure you havethose on your calendar.
I can't tell you how many timesI've had one of those jump up
and I'm like, oh my gosh, that'sin two days.
I forgot to say anything.
I try to be super intentionalabout that, but it slips my mind
all the time.
So I know it does yours too.
Try to write those down as bestas you can recollect, and then
any awareness campaigns, anycelebrations you want to observe
(09:47):
I'm thinking about in thespring, things like random acts
of kindness week, nationalSchool Counseling Week, those
kinds of things Make sure youhave them on your calendar.
They're so easy to forget, andit's easy for things to sneak up
on you, right, if you're notpaying attention.
The thing is, though, as you'reputting these items on your
(10:09):
calendar, remember that youcannot do it all, particularly
if you are a solo counselor onyour campus, or if you're a
testing coordinator, if you're a504 coordinator, something like
that.
There's no way that you'regoing to be able to do
(10:29):
everything you want to do.
This has got to be anincremental process for you.
I was just talking with someoneearlier this morning about this
, as we were recording anupcoming interview for the
podcast, and we were talkingabout how, so many times, folks
jump into school counseling veryeager, very bright-eyed, with a
(10:50):
lot of energy and passion fortheir work, which is incredible
but all too often, they beginburning themselves out because
they feel like they have to doeverything right away.
All the great things they'veheard about, all of the
comprehensive program components, all the things, and they try
to cram it all into a year ortwo, and then they're left
(11:12):
wondering why it didn't work,why they don't feel fulfilled,
why they didn't reach thosegoals.
Sometimes we have to rememberthis as a step by step, baby
step by baby step process, andthat's okay, isn't it?
So we're going to keep itsimple and we're just going to
make sure we have everythingwritten down.
(11:32):
That's all that goes in to steptwo.
All right, so we have reflectedand adapted our goals.
We have looked at our calendarscoming up for 2024.
Now we're headed into stepthree of the New Year restart,
and step number three issomething that I would say 90%
(11:55):
of the time is overlooked.
It is something that isessential to feeling like you
are somewhat in control of theday-to-day goings-on on your
campus, and this is reverseengineering your calendar.
Now we put all those dates andobservances on your calendar in
(12:17):
the last step, as we wanted tomake sure we didn't miss
anything.
Now what we're going to do islook at the things that may
require some extended action, sowe might go into a test
administration and then we mightgo back a week and write one
week until practice test, goback another week two weeks
(12:39):
until the practice test.
Go back another week threeweeks until the practice test.
You getting what I'm layingdown here.
We're just giving ourselvesperiodic reminders that these
things are coming up.
It doesn't mean it has to becompletely planned out.
It's just to remind you thatyou need to start thinking
(13:00):
toward that direction.
And let me add here this doesnot have to be on paper.
This could be your electroniccalendar.
I know most of us are keepingthose at work these days.
Put it on your electroniccalendar, have it, give you an
alert.
One month until 504 deadline.
Two weeks until state testingbegins.
(13:20):
Three weeks until nationalschool counseling Wait, yeah,
it's coming y'all.
So make sure you have those inyour calendar.
That will help you stay on topof things and feel like you are
a little bit more in control,instead of it slapping you
across the face.
You know, a week before it'ssupposed to happen and you're
panicking and going.
I don't know how I'm gonna getall this done.
(13:41):
How am I gonna get all thistogether?
You will be able to plan moreproactively.
You'll be able to have thingsin place and feel a lot more
calm and assured in whateverthat activity is If you don't
love the details.
This is a super great Jedi trickfor you.
(14:02):
It is fitting these remindersin your calendar to get your
brain thinking that way.
If you're super detail oriented, you might already have some
plans ready.
You might already have youroutlines for your events or your
observances or testing alreadyready to go, if you do.
Kudos to you.
Not all of our brains work thatway, however, and so these
(14:23):
reminders are super, superhelpful.
We have some templates for someevent planning in our School
for School Counselors planner.
We provided that free this yearto any school counselor that
wanted it.
So if you haven't gotten yourcopy yet, you can hop to our
website,schoolforschoolcounselorscom
slash planner, download that andtoward the end of the planner
(14:46):
we've got a bunch of templatesand things like that that you
can use to plan those events sothat you can make sure that you
do not forget a single thing.
All right, moving on to stepfour, this one is sending home
communication to families,making sure that we are
communicating well, that there'snot anything we need to let our
(15:09):
families know, things likeactivities coming up on campus,
maybe some policies that need tobe revisited, or parents need
to be reminded about how toaccess resources, how to access
counseling resources online, howto get in touch with you those
kinds of things or evencalendars or timelines for due
(15:30):
dates.
Particularly if you're workingwith students on college
applications and things likethat.
You wanna make sure you'recommunicating these things
between school and home.
This does not have to be somesort of razzle-dazzle
presentation.
It doesn't have to be a fancygraphic newsletter or anything
like that.
It can be something very, verysimple, but let's make sure
(15:52):
we're getting that informationout to the people that need it.
I think it's going to cut downon a lot of the questions that
you get, a lot of the concernsthat you hear.
People are going to feel likethey're more in charge and in
control of what they're doing ontheir end because they're gonna
have the information that'snecessary.
(16:14):
All right, so we're on to stepfive.
Just to recap really quickly,step one was reevaluating,
revisiting your goals from thefall and modifying them as you
need to.
Step two was getting all ofthose basic, essential dates on
the calendar.
Step three was reverseengineering those dates to make
(16:37):
sure that we know they're comingup, that they don't come up and
bite us later and we weresurprised and frantic and
frazzled.
And then step four was gettingour communication home to
parents, making sure we'recommunicating with students and
that we're all still on the samepage, all right.
So step five of the New Yearrestart is going to be looking
(17:01):
at our themes, looking at ourtopics for lessons, if you're
providing those on your campus.
Are your lessons still goingaccording to plan?
Are they still on the timelinethat you said at the beginning
of the year or do those need tobe modified?
Do you have any lessons oractivities coming up where you
need specialized materials?
(17:22):
Do you need to start orderingcertain things now so that you
have them on hand in plenty oftime?
This is something that you'regoing to want to get ready to go
right at the start of thespring semester.
No running around trying tograb whatever you can grab.
One of my pet peeves is gettingat you know.
(17:42):
I reply all email from someonesaying I need pipe cleaners for
an activity today.
Does anybody have pipe cleaners?
And I always think Lord.
I mean.
I know we all need help fromtime to time, but please plan
ahead.
Make sure you've got thosethings ready to go for your
activity.
So check and make sure you haveall of your materials, all the
(18:04):
things you're going to need forthe things coming up in the
spring.
That's not bad right.
Getting your mind wrappedaround what you want to do, what
your plans are, I think, is thehardest part.
From there, the rest is prettyeasy, as long as you have
everything in place and ready togo.
All right.
So that was step five of yournew year restart plan.
(18:26):
We're almost to the end.
Step six is to look at yourtechnology angle.
We want to make sure that we'relooking at any counseling pages
or online presences that we areresponsible for.
Maybe a website.
It may be a teacher page on aschool website, it may be a
(18:50):
social media account.
Whatever it is, we want to lookat it and make sure of a couple
of things.
Number one are the links up todate?
Are they still valid or any ofthem broken?
Can people get to where theyneed to go relatively easily?
Number two, are yourannouncements current?
You guys may not know thisabout me, but sometimes I creep
(19:16):
your school websites.
Did you know this?
And the reason is we reallywork hard to vet anybody that we
bring into our school.
For school counselors Facebookgroup it's not just your name
pops up and you have a postabout feelings, and so we think
things are gonna be okay.
We have a very high declinerate in our Facebook group and
(19:38):
that's not to be ugly, that'snot to keep people out of the
group, to try to be malicious,but it is an effort to keep the
quality of the discourse high.
We want to make sure we're onlyaccepting people who have a true
vested interest in the field ofschool counseling and so, as
part of that process, sometimeswhen we're looking at profiles
(20:01):
and things like that, if we seea school name or something like
that, we'll hop over to theschool webpage.
We wanna see what the school'sabout and we'll see.
If there's a counselor page,we'll go look at that, and I
cannot tell you how many pagesI've looked at where there are
announcements on there that areold, old, old.
(20:21):
Just a few weeks ago in 2023, Iran across a counselor webpage
that still had information upabout COVID, pandemic resources,
things like from quarantine,shutdown days that were still up
there loud and proud on theirschool counseling page.
(20:42):
So just kind of get thosefreshened up, get them dusted
off.
Make sure all the informationis up to date and looking good.
Make sure you have the rightresources listed for students
and parents Again, thateverything is still there, it's
still working, those programsstill exist.
And then if you've donesomething amazing, like you've
(21:03):
lost 100 pounds, you've choppedoff all your hair, it's now a
different color, you'd now weareyeglasses, whatever the case
may be, you might look and seeif it's time to update that
profile picture.
You want people to be able toinstantly recognize you on your
school webpage if they know youand if not, you want them to be
(21:24):
able to see your picture on thewebsite and then connect it to
the real person once you meetthem live and in real time.
So go ahead and give thoseaccounts, give those pages a
once over, make sure they'renice and clean, that they're
looking good.
It's only going to help yourprogram and you yourself look
(21:44):
more professional, and weabsolutely need that as we begin
advocating on our campuses andwithin our greater communities.
All right, step seven for ourNew Year Restart is going to be
pre-planning self-care or mentalhealth days for ourselves.
(22:04):
This may not necessarily beanything that you have
specifically planned right now,but you do know that once the
spring semester gets underway,we're all running around like
frantic people again.
We are going to forget to stopand assess our own needs many
(22:26):
times, and so we've got to getsuper proactive about making
sure that we're leaving spacefor taking care of ourselves.
It is imperative, it is anon-negotiable.
Nobody needs a counselor that'snot taking care of themselves
and, despite what your principalmight lead you to believe, your
(22:49):
campus can survive without youfor a day.
They absolutely can't.
They can survive without youfor even a couple of days, and
they can definitely survivewithout you for an afternoon.
So don't feel guilty.
Don't buy into this baloneythat we peddle on our school
campuses about.
(23:09):
You know it's for the kids weneed to be here all the time.
I get it.
I get it.
Education is important work,but you are important too.
So go ahead and put some days onthe books that you know you're
going to be able to use to pauseand to catch your breath.
It sounds simple, right, itsounds almost ridiculous to say,
(23:34):
but how often have you trulymade this a priority?
How often have youintentionally gone in your
calendar and said I'm going totake one day every six or eight
weeks and I'm going to focus onmyself?
This is going to be your year.
This is the year that you'rereally going to implement some
(23:55):
better self care for yourself.
So book those days and promiseyourself that you're not going
to compromise, you're going tokeep those days and you're going
to make yourself a priority,because you have to treat
yourself like you believe thatyou're amazing because you are.
(24:15):
You keep walking onto a schoolcampus every day, searching to
serve students, looking to buildother people's futures, and
doing it in conditions that areoften a little difficult to
navigate as a professional right.
The go, go, go mentality.
(24:38):
The moment to moment shifts andpivots and all the crazy things
that happen the hearing theworst there is to hear on your
campuses and still being able tokeep yourself composed and
professional and handle thosesituations.
You have a hard job and you'reamazing because you keep showing
(24:59):
up to do that, day after dayafter day.
So you need to believe thatabout yourself and you need to
treat yourself like you believeit's true.
You are amazing for the workthat you do.
All right, and then we're toour last step in our new year
(25:21):
restart.
If you've been keeping track,this is step eight.
The last step in your new yearrestart is figuring out what
you're going to do to grow.
Thank you.
Determining the areas that youwant to learn more about doesn't
mean you have to binge on it,doesn't mean that you have to go
(25:43):
all in and learn everythingthere is to know about it by the
end of the school year, but youdo need to identify something
that you'd like to be moreknowledgeable about, something
that maybe you feel might helpyour work with students on your
campus, or something that youfeel would help you grow as a
counseling professional ingeneral.
Identify some things you'reinterested in.
(26:06):
They may not necessarily be theright things right.
It may not necessarily be themagic bullet for your campus or
for your program, but learningnever hurt anybody and you're
only going to grow and mature asa professional the more you
read, the more you engage inconsultation and the more you
(26:28):
seek to develop your expertiseand to develop your professional
confidence when you're calledupon to discuss that Super,
super important.
So maybe it's something liketrauma-informed programs really
getting down into the meat ofwhat it means to be
trauma-informed and not thissurface-level conversation that
(26:51):
we're hearing everywhere.
Maybe it's staff morale or howto get your staff on board with
your counseling program.
Maybe you want to kind of pokearound and see if you can find
some tricks or strategies tomake that happen.
Maybe you want to learn moreabout multi-tiered systems of
support, and that can get prettycomplicated the deeper you dive
(27:11):
into that.
So do you want to get some moreinformation on how to really
invest in that on your campus?
Do you need to know more about504?
Have you been saddled with thatresponsibility and you feel
like you're kind of making it,but you're also kind of faking
it at the same time?
You're not really sure ifyou're getting it exactly right
or if you're meeting bestpractice.
(27:33):
That might be an area that youwant to look at.
Do you want to get better atbehavior intervention?
Do you want to feel like you'remore in control when you walk
into a behavior situation?
Do you want to feel like youcan better regulate yourself?
Do you need some behaviorstrategies?
Do you want some ideas that youcan toss to your staff when
(27:55):
they come to you for support andfor help?
Those are all areas that youcould seek to learn more about
Now.
Should you do them all?
No, no, no, my friend.
Pick one, pick one thing,because there's always time to
dive into something else or todive into something more deeply
(28:16):
when you have some morebreathing space, perhaps during
the summer, or you can continuein the fall.
This is not a one and done kindof thing.
We should be constantlylearning and evolving.
But identify that one specificthing that you would really love
to know more about and thenmake a plan for how you're going
to do that.
Schedule it on your calendar.
(28:38):
That is my magic trick forlearning and for being
productive and getting thethings done.
I have to have it written downon a calendar to remind me to
get to it, or my brain will go ahundred different other
directions and I may not getback to it.
But decide how are you going tolearn?
Are you going to read researchpapers?
(28:59):
Are you going to seek out peerreviewed research?
Are you going to seek outtextbooks or academic books on
the topic?
Are you going to seek someprofessional organization
knowledge?
How are you going to get thisinformation Schedule, some
reminders Y'all you can remindyourself into any habit that you
(29:22):
want to build.
But whatever you do, make sureyou do this with intention
Because, again, as we get intothe busyness of the spring
semester, as we get into thetask and task and moment to
moment stuff, as we get into allof the crisis intervention, as
we get into the counseling andthe lessons and the parent
(29:43):
support and all the things we do.
This is a piece that often goesby the wayside and you are too
good at what you do to becomestagnant.
So be intentional about thisprocess.
If you feel like you need aquick and easy way to build your
expertise that doesn't requirepulling up a bunch of peer
(30:05):
reviewed research, that doesn'tinvolve buying a bunch of $60 or
$70 books or whatever it is,consider joining our School for
School Counselors Mastermind.
In there we have a Netflixstyle library of tons of topics
that your grad school educationforgot the things that you need
to know in real world schoolcounseling application.
(30:27):
We have weekly consultation andsupport chats every Tuesday
evening.
They are freaking amazing.
You have never been in anythinglike this ever so cool.
We have periodic book studies.
We do those in the summer tobuild our skills.
This past summer we focused ondialectical behavior therapy.
That was a huge eye opener.
(30:48):
We've also done motivationalinterviewing with students.
We've done solution focuscounseling.
We've looked at a lot of RossGreen's work and lost at school,
which is to try to figure outhow we can help students more
purposefully on campus and moresuccessfully.
All of those things are goingon.
We have an exclusive mastermindgroup for folks to ask questions
(31:11):
and get feedback in a morecontrolled environment.
It's just an amazing, amazingcommunity to be a part of, and
we built it to help folks buildand develop their expertise.
Whatever you do, though whetheryou join the mastermind or you
go out on your own both areperfectly awesome, but make sure
your intention about it, makesure you decide in your heart
(31:35):
that you're going to dosomething, because, like I said,
you're amazing.
You're too good not to begrowing and developing your
competence and your expertise.
Super, super important that youdo that.
All right, I hope you enjoyedhearing about our steps to our
new year restart.
(31:56):
And again, if you need these inemail form, it's super
digestible this way.
You send you one email everyday for eight days, and it gives
you one actionable step eachday.
You'll have them in your email.
You can refer back to themanytime you would like.
You can sign up absolutely freeon our website,
schoolforschoolcounselorscom.
(32:18):
Slash restart, all right, well,I hope this was helpful to you.
I wish you all the best in 2024.
I can't wait to hear about yoursuccesses.
I can't wait to celebrate withyou as the semester goes on and
you get those wins that you'vebeen looking for, and I can't
wait to support you, and Ireally hope and pray that this
(32:44):
coming second semester is goingto be your best semester yet.
I truly, truly want that foryou and I wish you all the best.
Keep listening.
I'm going to be back soon withanother podcast episode and
until then, I hope you have thebest week.
Take care.
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