Motivation

As a counselor, the vast majority of my interactions with students center on teaching them to take control of their decisions.  As they enter my office as 14 year old freshmen, generally nervous about even knowing where the counselor office is, I begin the journey with them to find where they want to be in life and exploring how they want to get there.  It is often a very circuitous journey because it is primarily teenager led, but watching them learn and grow is fascinating.  So many aspects of education can't be student led due to the many testing expectations they must surpass.  It is empowering for the student as they reach their senior year and look out to their future and see that they get to make all the decisions, and it is okay to change your mind throughout the journey as long as you stay on the journey and push yourself to achieve the goals you set.

Module 3 - TIM Reflection

This is another reflection piece that is difficult for me to do as a counselor since I don't have a classroom of my own.  I will do my best to adapt TIM to my world :)
 
1. Where would you rate yourself in each area?
     Active - I would say Adoption to maybe Adaptation since I assist students registering for the SAT and ACT online, with requesting transcripts via Parchment, and college applications.  Other ideas I can think of all still seem to be primarily exchanging the technology for paper/pencil procedures though.
     Collaboration - Entry level :(  So much of my job is individually based by confidentiality requirements that it will be difficult to move past that I fear.
     Constructive - Entry to maybe Adoption, but this is one area that I am having difficulty translating to my role.
     Authentic - Much like the Constructive line, I would say Entry to Adoption again with difficulty matching it to a counselor role.
     Goal Directed - Much like the Constructive line, I would say Entry to Adoption again with difficulty matching it to a counselor role.
 
2. Where do you think you could reasonably be at the end of the next grading period?
     I would like to increase my use of technology as a counselor and to assist my students to use varying forms of technology to help them in their high school career and beyond.  Ideally I would be at least adaptive in all the categories by the end of the school year, but that would also require me figuring out how to translate all of this to a counselor role!


3. What steps will you need to take in order to make the growth happen?
      The first will be determining how my role as a counselor (without a classroom) fits into this model as I work individually with kids. Once I have a better understanding of that, then I can better evaluate myself and then make plans to improve my skill level.

Moving Mindsets

How could you adapt or change one of your current class/course policies to reflect a moving mindset? Is this a change you are willing to make? Why or Why not?

As a counselor, this question doesn't really apply to me.  I do not have any courses that I teach or set policies for at this time. I address every individual student differently as needed. I am excited to continue to  increase our use of technology in our department and with our students over the next several years.

Module 1: Where do I fall on the rubric?

After examining my responses to the questions and my comments back to my peers, I would have to rate myself overall as safely on the line between emerging and effective.  I feel I do a good job demonstrating my understanding of the course topics and hope that I am writing as clearly as I think I am.  I incorporate some personal and professional experiences in my responses, but I have very minimal experience with outside readings so I am unable to include that at this time.  Normally I would say that I am very effective at collaboration, but this format is very new to me.  I do not participate in social media so to put my thoughts and opinions out into the world in this way is certainly breaking me out of my comfort zone.