3 Tasks You’re Going to Do Before You Check Out for the Year [Episode 169]

Lauren 0:00
Hi, my friends. If you are listening to this, I’m venturing that you are either at the end of your school year, you have made it across the finish line, your students have graduated, or you are this close to getting there. Like, you can see it, you can taste it, it’s about to happen for you. I know we are all barely hanging on through the end of the school year, whether that is in your work life or also add in personal life, just this time of year ends up getting crazy. It’s like the craziness without the holidays, but all the to do lists, et cetera. So let’s talk about how we’re going to wrap up the end of the year, how we’re going to check out, but the things that we need to do before we officially get out for the end of the year.

Lauren 0:49
If at this point, you are still interviewing for jobs, like you are trying to make a transition from elementary or middle to high school, you’re in a high school and you’re trying to move to a different high school, or maybe you’re an intern and you’re hoping to get a job, I want to make sure that you get these free interview videos that will give you tips and strategies for interviewing for your jobs. I can’t promise that you’re actually going to get the job from doing it, but a lot of people have. So go to counselorclique.com/interviews to get those videos sent to your email inbox to help you prep for your job if you are still hoping to nail an interview and get that dream job.

Lauren 1:25
And then if you still have some time left in the school year and you are trying to get together some end of year resources, I have an end of year bundle that I’ve put together with some of my favorite resources as you’re wrapping up this school year. It has things like data collection and just some things you can do in classrooms and individual lessons and counseling sessions with students. So I’d encourage you to check that out. I will link that in the show notes. If you are still feeling like you need to have some counseling tools in your back pocket, I’ve got you covered there. Let’s go ahead and get into the three tasks that you’re going to do before you check out for the year.

Lauren 2:04
You you got into this profession to make a difference in your students’ lives, but you’re spread thin by all of the things that keep getting added to your to do list. I can’t create more hours in the day, but I can invite you into my counselor clique, where you’ll finally catch your breath. Come with me as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that’ll help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your students. I’m Lauren Tingle, your high school counseling hype girl, here to help you energize your school counseling program and remind you of how much you love your job.

Lauren 2:36
First and foremost, I want you to collect and write down any notes that you just think that you’re going to remember, because we all have this ideal that we will remember everything we set out to. We will know that when that student’s name pops up, we’re going to remember that they are doing algebra two and credit recovery over the summer, and if they don’t complete it, they’re going to be retained in 10th grade. Okay, I think I’m gonna remember that because it’s so specific, because I know that student so well. We sat and talked about grades every week in my office, but if I don’t write down the specifics, I might not remember where we left off with this conversation, or what my responsibility was gonna be when that grade came back in or it didn’t, or what their plan was going to be when they actually didn’t finish the class.

Lauren 3:23
So write down all the information that you think you’re going to need, like, who are your failures at the end of the year, and what that plan is for each of those individual students. If it’s credit recovery, if it’s some sort of summer school, if they are trying to finish something in the first week of summer and average with their grade, I don’t know. I’m sure there is something unique that your district does, that your school does, that might be different depending on where you are or what grade level you work with. So write those things down so that when you get a random parent phone call in the middle of the summer or the craziness of the school year starts, you can quickly just trigger that memory with the notes that you have.

Lauren 4:02
If you have any weird scheduling or transcript stuff, let’s also write down these type of notes. So if, you know, you’re in the middle of this master schedule, getting everybody’s schedules just right, but there are things you know that are coming that you’re going to have to make big changes with, like a teacher is going to change and it’s gonna push all these, you know, the ones that I’m talking about, like, where you know that this special ed class is gonna be dissolved, and you’re gonna have to find new things. Like, go ahead and just like dog ear those pages. Jot your notes down. Print out any of the emails from admin that say, like, Band One is now, you know, marching band, and it’s whatever those prerequisites are.

Lauren 4:43
And then transcript stuff. If you have students who are graduating that need certain transcripts sent places, or you have already sent those places, I kind of talked about this in a senior episode before, but get your systems in place for your senior transcripts and where they’re going. If you have some final grades for your other students that will be printed on their final transcripts at the end of the year, make sure that if there is just something weird about it, like that they are failing due to attendance, or you are waiting on a last minute grade to get this one up to passing, and it’s gonna make or break them being retained or being promoted, like those kinds of tiny details are all very important. They’re the ones that you don’t wanna forget what the backstory was, but the parent wasn’t involved, so the parent never sent you an email, like you have no paper trail other than the notes that you write down.

Lauren 5:38
So pick where you’re gonna keep your notes written down for your failures and their plans, any weird scheduling things, any weird transcript stuff.

Lauren 5:46
If you still have emails that are like ongoing conversations where the loops haven’t been closed yet, I want you to either flag those, put them in a special folder, print them off, and file them in the student’s folder that you keep the extra special printed stuff in. Like, you know, the ones that are still continuing on into the summer, the loops that you wish you could close, that you just haven’t closed yet. Go ahead and print those out, or jot some notes on there so that you don’t forget where you left off with those conversations.

Lauren 6:17
A thing that I want you to remember to write down, reference last week’s episode if you need help with this, write down some quick data points that you’ll want to track year over year, or you’ll want to be able to reference when the new school year starts. So I’m talking about doing the things that will serve your future self, do those right now. Because I know when I would get to the end of the year, I don’t have that readily available in my brain of what the promotion or retention rate was at the end of last year. I do not know how many students fail their classes due to attendance. Like the things that you might want to have some new initiatives for or set some new smart goals off of, it is so much easier to do it when it’s still fresh in your mind at the end of the year, versus going back and digging for that information when August rolls around and you have 1,000,001 other things to do.

Lauren 7:05
If you’re wondering what sorts of data points you could collect, head back to last week’s episode, the one that comes right before this, and I’ll also link it in the show notes, but that is a great data episode for the end of the year.

Lauren 7:17
Okay, we’ve already talked about the things that you’re going to write down, any notes that you’re going to collect, because let’s be real, you’re not going to always remember them. Now, let’s talk about relationally. I want you to tie up any loose ends you have with your students. If you have high flyers and you’re still connected to them now, because they haven’t left your school building yet, I want you to have a game plan for them. Connect with them, talk to them about the summer resources they might need.

Lauren 7:40
So whether that is summer school, and you need to follow up and make sure A, they’re registered, B, they know how to access their account if it’s online, or where to go if it’s in person, and C, why it’s important and get them some motivation going to get that completed. I want you to touch base with them before they leave for the summer. They need to know how important whatever the work is that’s in front of them, so that they follow through. If they’re your high flyers, you probably know that maybe they’re not the most accountable to actually finishing work. And so every touch point that you can have all the way till you don’t see them anymore, is valuable in your book.

Lauren 8:18
If you have students who are going to need some extra mental health resources over the summer, don’t let that slip by before they walk out of your school building. Give them the things that they’re going to need. Do they need to follow up with a counselor outside of school? Are they doing some sort of, okay, I’m going to say mental health summer camp. That sounds maybe weird, but in our school, our LPC used to hold. I’m gonna put it in air quotes, summer camps, for her students on her caseload. Don’t know if this is common everywhere else, but it was really cool. But I would have to remind students, hey, when Miss Jera calls you over the summer to invite you to her summer camp, make sure you answer. Text her back, make sure you go. It’s gonna be really fun. She would offer these activities, but then have some coping skills and therapy mixed into whatever they were doing. It was a really valuable time for those students, so I always wanted to make sure I was just helping facilitate that connection point before they left for the summer.

Lauren 9:15
And then if you have students who maybe have some basic needs that need to be met over the summer, if you’ve had students who have been homeless throughout the year, make sure they have the contact information of the shelters or the homeless liaison. Yes, you will probably be working some over the summer, but you might not be available whenever they need you. So if they can know where they can access food banks or just emergency resources that they might need, I think you will sleep better at night knowing that your students are connected. It’s so hard to go away for the summer knowing that you have these high flyer students with a lot of needs, and you can easily spend your summer worrying about them or hoping that they have everything that they need when they’re not connected at school.

Lauren 9:57
Lastly, I want you to dream big about your summer. What are your big hopes and dreams for this summer? And there is no right or wrong answer here. I just want you to take a second to do this before you completely check out for the school year. Do you want to revamp a part of your program? Jot some notes down. Do some daydreaming. Maybe chat over lunch with your team about it just as you exit the year, and it’s all still fresh on your mind.

Lauren 10:26
So if you did one small group right here as you ended the school year and it went well, talk about that, remind each other and hype each other up like we want to do this again next year. Or maybe when you see some of those data points that you wrote down as you got to the end of the year, you’re dreaming big for next year about something that you can see going really well in your school to meet a need based on the data that you pulled and just some of the things that you observed as you got to the end of the school year.

Lauren 10:53
Is reading a book on your list this summer? Now, of course, it could just be, you know, the newest fantasy novel or something, but maybe you want to read a PD book this summer, and you challenge yourself to put one on your to be read list, and you actually do it. What is that for you? I am finally going to finish The Anxious Generation here pretty soon. I’ve been listening slowly but surely on audiobook, and I’ve loved every second of it, so that’s free to listen to on Spotify if you have Spotify, but I’d highly recommend that or some other PD book that you’ve seen floating around. Don’t forget that you can pop in some air pods and listen to that after you listen to your weekly episode of High School Counseling Conversations.

Lauren 11:37
As you’re going into the summer, maybe have big dreams of onboarding a new team member, or you’ve already signed up to take on an intern for next school year. You’re probably already thinking about what that’s going to look like as they come into your office, as they get situated, and what you’re going to kind of need to do to make sure that they have a great experience in your school counseling office and with your school counseling team. So if there are a couple little bullet points that you want to jot down for that, or just dream about what that might look like, now is the time to think about that.

Lauren 12:09
And maybe your big dreams for the summer are just relaxing, laying by the pool, thinking nothing about high school counseling, and that is totally fine. I am here to give you permission to say you can check out at the end of this school year and not think about school for the entire summer. Depending on the season that you find yourself in and the level of stress or not stress that you find yourself in, you might have different goals for the summer, and that is okay. It’s okay for that to change every summer, or it’s okay for every summer for you just to say, I want to check out. I don’t want to be responsible for anybody else, and I am not going to do schoolwork over the summer, if I can help it.

Lauren 12:48
I hope thinking about these three big things that you’re going to do before you check out for the year is exciting and encouraging, because you have either already made it, or you are so close to making it. So write down any notes that you need to remember, tie up any loose ends with your students, and dream your big dreams for the summer, and we will talk more this summer.

Lauren 13:08
Remember, if you’re still interviewing and you need some help with those interviews, counselorclique.com/interviews is going to get you those free videos that are going to help you through the interview process. And I’m going to link some end of year resources in the show notes if you are still looking for some resources for your high school counseling program that’ll help you tie up the end of the year. Enjoy.

Lauren 13:30
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of High School Counseling Conversations. All the links I talked about today can be found in the show notes and also at counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you listen to your podcasts, so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me a DM @counselorclique, that’s C, L, I, Q, U, E. I’ll see you next week.