Blog #2

           It was interesting to read about what makes an effective school and an effective school professional.  Throughout my childhood, I attended a few different private schools.  When reading through the bullet points about what is expected of professionals in schools, I thought back to my days of attending those private schools.  It seemed to me that they did a pretty good job of meeting the many expectations that the text mentions.  School employees today have very high standards to live up to.  Many people are unfair in how they judge school employees, especially with how much responsibility they place upon them.  When I attended school growing up, it seemed to me that many of the school employees were set up to be successful based upon the constant support that they received from the community and the parents.  That type of positive support is not seen in many schools.  It seems like many people today are very quick to judge from afar and not as motivated to get their feet wet and help out. 

           My own experience of working in a school is very minimal.  This semester I plan on doing many days of observations at various schools.  I want to learn as much as I can about every job in a school, simply because I don’t know enough.  In some of my schools growing up, we didn’t even have a school counselor, a school psychologist, a school social worker, etc…The longer I go through this program, the more I am learning how important it will be for me to learn as much as I can about “everything”.  I want to be an expert at my job, but also be able to appreciate and respect the roles that all school staff plays within a school.  As a counselor, I also want to be able to utilize the strengths of the entire staff, while also supporting all of them throughout the process.

           I believe that in order for a staff to be successful in a school, everyone involved must work collaboratively.  I also believe that everyone must have some of the same goals in mind.  This includes the community, government, parents, administration, school board, etc…Like any other business or organization, responsible collaboration and planning must start at the very top, but it is the people working on the “front line” that can truly make a difference.  I hope that some day I have a job as a counselor in an effective school.  Most importantly, I hope that I can be an effective counselor within that school.

Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. (2nd ed.)  
          New York: Pearson, Inc.