Blog 10

       " Middle Schools are characterized as striving to be more student centered, focus on creative exploration, allow for flexible scheduling, organize teachers into interdisciplinary teams and emphasize affective and cognitive development" ( Akos, 2005,p. 95) I read this statement and the first thing that came to my mind, is; what school district is this happening in and where? Thinking back to the literature we have been reading and just our own experiences dealing with middle school students, I feel like middle school is the hardest place to feel like you are making a difference.. I hear all the time about young girls 14-15 becoming pregnant, bullying is an issue as well as dropping out. Maybe my perception is off but there is much work to be done in the middle school years to improve student achievement and connectedness to peer, teachers and parents. The article touched on puberty, identity formation, changes to peer groups, and moral decisions among the few things in an adolescents life that are changing, especially based on the teens own perception of self and how they feel others view them. Throughout the classes in the school counseling graduate program, we have gained plenty of insight into the development of adolescents based on multiple theorists, as well as career exploration.

            I had the opportunity to observe a middle school counselor and I have to say that just based off my experience at the school; I feel more excited about working in a middle school than ever. The day went by extremely fast as different students came in to talk to the counselor, and it seemed as though she was not able to get done a lot of the day to day things. There was an incident with abuse as well as a bullying situation. At the end of the day, an emotional support student was self-injuring herself and we had to go down to the classroom and talk to her and then bring her back to the counselor’s office. A lot of the style and techniques we have been learning about in theory classes and brief were put to use today and it was encouraging to see. I learned a lot from just sitting back and taking in the experience and asking clarifying questions. Middle school is a tough couple of years and some children strive and others do not. I saw first had a young lady whom was very intelligent back lacked the emotionally maturity to deal with things she did not want to do.  

                Something that the counselor said to me was that you need to take care of the more pressing issues in the day. The ones that are most harmful to the students and peers, such as abuse and bullying. It is overwhelming to think about all the different problems and situations one is going to encounter in middle school but knowing that you can use other counselors in the building as well as the network we have developed in school will be beneficial.

 

 

Akos, P. (2005). The unique nature of middle school counseling. Professional School Counseling, 9(2), 95-103.