Inside Clique Collab Live: Hear Ideas, Challenges, and Inspiration From This School Counselor Community [Episode 105]

Lauren 0:03
It’s time to ease into 2024 by resetting all of your high school counseling things. Hit follow on this uniquely curated podcast playlist with six flashback episodes from high school counseling conversations to reset your year. Let’s use some tangible strategies to make sure your new semester is run more smoothly, enjoyably and effectively on this podcast playlist.

Lauren 0:25
You’re going to discover how to reset yourself, your admin relationships, your surroundings, your counseling team, and your systems. There’s even a bonus pep talk episode in here because I’m cheering for you big time. Prep yourself for a successful second half of the school year by signing up to get your reset playlist by going to counselorclique.com/resetplaylist. Now back to the show.

Lauren 0:49
I’ve never done a podcast episode like this before, but there’s a first time for everything right? I want to take you inside the Clique Collaborative, my high school counseling membership. Now of course, I already have a tour of the inner workings of the membership and the stuff that you get inside and I can link that YouTube video in the show notes for you. I also have a website that tells you more about the membership.

Lauren 1:13
But what if you could listen in on a community aspect of the membership as well. Each quarter I host a clique collab live where members are invited to show up and show out. We meet live but we also record it, so that if you have to miss you can revisit it or listen on the private podcast when it’s convenient for you. Now that the clique collaborative is open year round, I want to give you a chance to get in before our next click collab live that happens in February.

Lauren 1:39
You can always check us out and see if it’s a good fit for you by going to cliquecollab.com. So get comfy, pretend like you’re listening in without even having your camera on. And join us for a snippet of August Clique Collab live. After listening if you’d like to join us inside or learn more about this high school counseling membership, visit cliquecollab.com or check out the show notes for some quick links.

Lauren 2:09
You got into this profession to make a difference in your students lives. But you’re spread thin by all 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 2:38
You could come up with something that I’m going to ask right here like a challenge as you have headed back into school or maybe as your team has come together, if you have co counselors or something and you’re starting to plan or do schedules or 504s or whatever that looks like as you’re prepping for back to school. Because I think when we put brains together and say like, Hey, this has been hard for me, does anyone have something I haven’t thought about to make this better or have a solution.

Lauren 2:38
That’s one of my favorite parts of like all getting together is being able to ask those things and hear feedback from other people. So does anybody have something that like comes to mind that has been a challenge? I know, we’ve heard like new administrators, new, new and fresh and new is like kind of a challenge that I mean, it’s gonna happen that’s inevitable, but anything else that people are like running into?

Speaker 2 3:30
I’m starting multiple clubs this year, which is new for me or small groups. And especially with our we’re more virtual, we’re not in person, so that is a benefit. So it can include kids from all seven different counties. But it’s always nicer when we can all be together. So I’m worried that I might have been off too much than I can chew. So I’m a little bit nervous about that. One of them is a carryover from last year, it’s a Rotary Interact Club. It’s like the high school version of Rotary. I’ve learned a lot, especially with my leadership kids, they’re going to be taking over more of that which I’m thrilled with, and it’ll be good for them as well.

Lauren 4:09
I feel like that’s always a sign of a good club when you’ve got some good student leaders who want to own part of it.

Speaker 2 4:15
Yes, and I do. So that’s good when we went to a couple of training things that rotary offered, and that definitely helped because I didn’t have any connection with our rotary club who was technically sponsoring us, which was difficult and we had no budget last year. So finally this year, they’re giving us some seed money that we can do some community projects with.

Speaker 3 4:34
But I’m also starting a career exploration club, one for high school, one for middle school and a college application club, starting a GSA club with a parent who wants to help lead that and a middle school coding club. We’re going to be using the free Girls Who Code curriculum. It’s free. You just sign up for it and they give you the whole curriculum, but I’m not a computer science person. So I’m just a little bit nervous and hopefully I know just a little bit more than a middle school student.

Lauren 5:02
Right, you will be the expert because you know 10% more than them.

Speaker 3 5:06
That’s what I’m hoping for. But I could be very easily proven wrong, but that’s okay.

Lauren 5:12
My question for you, do you find that students engage in those? Well, even though it’s like virtual, because they want some sort of connection? Or is it hard to, like, get students to, like, show up to virtual things or connect with each other or talk? Or like, when do they get on video? And do they share or what is the like, dynamic like?

Speaker 3 5:31
See, and that’s what’s hard. I did the rotary last year, and we started our meetings, kind of a hybrid in person and virtual. So my sister schools have some learning centers that I was able to use some of their space that was closer to a couple of them, and then we had tech come in. Have you heard of the owl thing? So it has like a camera that can follow the speaker, even if the speaker is moving.

Lauren 5:55
Oh, cool.

Speaker 3 5:56
It kind of trips me out. But you know, there you go. It’s very cool. And then other students were virtually at home. And I struggled with that it just felt very disjointed. When we do have our virtual meetings, a lot of the kids don’t turn on their cameras, which is difficult, at least for me, and just how engaged they are, even if they’re there, or did they go out and get a drink of water, and they’re not even there?

Lauren 6:20
Right.

Speaker 3 6:21
So but with the Rotary Club, we all get together once a month, and either do a fun activity or do a community service project. And that’s when a lot of those connections are made. And the more we do those, the more connected those students feel. But students keep asking every year, they want some clubs to meet other homeschool, they call themselves homeschooled, even though we are a public school. They want to meet other public school kids.

Lauren 6:47
And they’re asking for it, they just need to, like, actively participate when they’re there. But I guess they’re like timid and nervous. Just I mean, you know, when you’re not used to like being on camera like that, or making friends? It can be kind of weird.

Speaker 3 7:00
Yeah. And how do I pick a time, that’s going to be good for every single student that’s out there. I do have a large portion of my kids that take dual enrollment classes at a variety of community colleges, where I am. So I’m trying to pick Friday for club meetings, because community colleges typically don’t have classes on Fridays.

Lauren 7:20
So that’s good. And then they can know to expect that does anybody else sponsor clubs, or coaches, sport or anything?

Speaker 4 7:25
So I’m an advisor for Bring Change to Mind. It’s fighting the stigma of mental health. And that was something that students have asked for, it’s a really good program, they actually give the club a $500, I guess, grant to promote, like mental health on campus. And they’ll come and they’ll do like a school wide event, or they have like a club portal that has tons of information and resources. You get free access to Headspace, to all club members. But I think it’s really good. This is our second year in the club. It’s new to us. But they’ve been around like with other states, and then the students are receptive and they enjoy it.

Lauren 8:06
Wait, tell us what the name of that is, again, because that sounds awesome.

Speaker 4 8:10
Bring Change to Mind, BC2M and they are really awesome. And then they have a summit that they have once a year. And they want to encourage all the students to go and they’ll provide transportation. There’s one that’s going to happen at Berkeley this year. And they’re actually going to come in and provide transportation for all of our students to get well the students in our clubs.

Lauren 8:32
That’s amazing.

Speaker 4 8:33
It’s really cool.

Lauren 8:34
And the fact that they give you a stipend to like do stuff on your campus and stuff. And to get those I feel like that’s a very can be a very student led club, like you said, because students are receptive to that right now. Anyone else, any clubs or sports or anything?

Speaker 5 8:50
Well, I lead a grief group every spring. But I also am an adult advisor for something called Sources of Strength. I don’t know if you guys have heard of that before. But it is a national suicide prevention initiative. It’s not really a club, but it kind of operates like a club, and it involves peer leaders. So we get students, and we try to get a student group for the school year that looks like every student, every lunchroom table is how we kind of say we wanted to, we want the peer leaders to look like the rest of our students in our schools so that we have every different type of group of students involved.

Speaker 5 9:26
And it’s really cool because we don’t talk about doom and gloom and all all of that about suicide, we talked about strength. The idea is, we all have strengths that we use to get through tough times, its strength base and talking about reminding students of what they do have and trying to connect people to trusted adults in our building. So it’s really cool.

Lauren 9:47
I’m obsessed with that. Yeah, from the way that you recruit the peer leaders to how you focus on the strengths. Yeah.

Speaker 3 9:55
Yeah.

Lauren 9:56
So I’ve heard of that before. Like that sounds very familiar to me. Sources Strength, but I hadn’t heard about recently.

Speaker 2 10:02
Sourcesofstrength.org. And again, I think it started out less somewhere in Northwest or maybe South Dakota, started somewhere out out there. But it is a national program. And our county does give us a stipend, or they write grants because it is for mental health. But it’s a very positive, upbeat. And if you guys are ever looking for something, check it out.

Speaker 2 10:22
They get they give you templates for different campaigns to do in your school, you know, for positive friends for mental health, family support healthy activities, those are all these little spokes around a really colorful wheel that we focus on. And we just really do fun things, bulletin boards, social media, just generosity is another thing. And so sometimes we would give out little notes before final exam saying good luck on your final exams, and just it’s really positive. And I love it because I get to know all the kids a lot better than just some of the things that I do in my office.

Lauren 10:54
Yeah, that sounds awesome. And I love that they have like templates and stuff because that feels way less overwhelming, especially if you’re like thinking about dipping your toe into taking something else on. But if you ever have like admin who are pressuring you to own something in the school, you know, besides your job, I know that happens some places like you need to be involved in something. That sounds like a great thing that would double dip with your job, like you said, like you get to know more students because of what you’re doing. And it aligns with your mission as a counselor.

Speaker 2 11:24
And they train you to so there’s training and everything.

Lauren 11:28
Look at you, you’re the spokesperson right now, I hope they know,

Speaker 2 11:31
We were like I kind of got voluntold to do it about five years ago. But we’re running it like a club. So we had we started you know, kids get into it with the leadership opportunities. And it’s fun, so I enjoy it. But yeah, they train you to, I think it’s a great program.

Lauren 11:45
I love that great idea so far.

Lauren 11:50
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Lauren 12:11
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Lauren 12:39
Okay, if no one has anything else on that, what other challenges have you all run into so far? Because I feel like we have so many different perspectives here.

Speaker 4 12:46
Well, for me, like I said, we have a new counselor starting tomorrow, and the kids come back tomorrow. Our admin, but we only have one person and she’s out on maternity leave. So we’re working with the interim, we call him a dean instead of the principal. So in the interim is coming from another building. So it’s just been kind of challenging, and I feel like.

Lauren 13:07
Blind leading the blind.

Speaker 4 13:08
Yes. So I’m just looking for it to be a very hectic start to the year even though it was already hectic last year, it’s gonna be very challenging, because she doesn’t really know the high school like that. She’s a curriculum and instruction person. So at the middle school or intermediate, so she doesn’t really know the high school, she’s doing the best she can. But at this point, our pathways person, they’ve moved him to another building. A lot of staff changes. So it’s just going to be challenging all the way room.

Lauren 13:38
Would you what like, are you telling yourself or what can you tell this new co-counselor of yours because she’s brand new, you were just her last year? Like what are you going to make sure that you hold her hand with and tell her as you’re starting the school year?

Speaker 4 13:52
I’m gonna have to hold her hand with everything because we’re gonna have to help each other. But no, I feel like I’m gonna have a lot to offer because like I said, I was kind of thrown into everything. I don’t know, because she’s a new counselor. She never been a counselor before. So she worked with Communities in Schools, which I’ve kind of forget what that does, but she does. She works with high school students to some degree. So I’m hoping that with that,

Lauren 14:15
She’s got like that natural like relational piece.

Speaker 4 14:17
Yes.

Lauren 14:18
When that’s hard to teach, you know, you hope that somebody comes in with that already.

Speaker 4 14:22
Right? Yes. So hopefully so but what was the question? I’m sorry.

Lauren 14:28
Like, what are you what like words of wisdom are you going to be like telling her as you’re like, to make sure she shows back up on Monday?

Speaker 4 14:34
Like, you got to show back up on Monday.

Lauren 14:38
I can’t do it myself.

Speaker 4 14:39
No I mean, I’m just gonna let her know she’s not alone. We are in this together. And like you just said I was her last year so I get it. And then I’m the Interim told me Friday. She’s like, Yeah, Monday, I want you to show her the nuts and bolts of the school.

Lauren 14:53
Like in my spare time while I’m meeting new students and enrolling new people.

Speaker 4 14:57
Exactly. So We’ll get through it. I’m looking forward to it, though. So my goal for this year this week is to be optimistic.

Lauren 15:05
Well, I feel like you seem like an optimistic person in general. So I think that you are going to nail it.

Speaker 4 15:11
I try, it doesn’t always happen, especially when I get to school, it’d be a different story. But I’m being optimistic this week.

Lauren 15:18
Yes, you’re telling yourself this now, you have the accountability of this group, you’ve spoken it out loud, and we’re going to ask you about it.

Speaker 4 15:25
Appreciate it.

Lauren 15:27
Anyone else?

Speaker 5 15:28
I’m with several others, we have a whole new admin team this year. So they’re not exactly sure what they’re doing. And so one other person and myself are trying to train them on lots of different things, even how to use our SIS. And how to look students up, then whose job is to do what so that is definitely another added complication. As we’re all trying to do whatever we need to do. So I feel you.

Lauren 15:58
And like, you don’t have the same job as them. So it’s like you’re training them in little pieces of things that like little tidbits that you remember talking to the old admin about.

Speaker 5 16:08
She was site manager, she’s now business tech. And so she and I are trying to train the new registrar and the new all of those kinds of things. It’s alot, just breathe, I just breathe. When in doubt, I just breathe.

Lauren 16:21
You’ll make it through. You’ll live to the end of the day, everyone will be in classes, and it’ll settle down soon. And then you’ll get to do the things that you thought you were going to do as a school counselor.

Speaker 6 16:33
Can I just say it’s okay to cry sometimes too? Saying funny not funny, but I did that twice last week. So and yeah, made it through, not last week, the week before.

Lauren 16:43
We’re also like, laugh so you don’t cry. Like when you’re with a co counselor or someone that you’re like, this is so chaotic, like, if we don’t laugh about how ridiculous this situation is like, we are going to cry, right?

Speaker 6 16:55
Yeah, I wish I still had a counselor this year, but I dont. You asked about challenges, besides like the admin piece, because I feel like I tell myself every day I’m like, you know, it’s gonna get better. It’s just the beginning of the school year, right? You have to get over the hump there, if you will, and then it’s gonna get better, it’s gonna get better as we progress, you know, things will transition and it’ll smooth out.

Speaker 6 17:19
So that part aside, I’m hoping because I know, you guys are all at high school. And I know my high school situation is a little bit different in that it’s alternative Ed. If there’s any, anybody who’s worked with, like, students who are maybe not as, and I know, we all probably have in some degree, but they’re not as receptive or they don’t want to talk to you or they just hate school in general. Like, they use colorful language every day. And you know, f this school, things like that.

Speaker 6 17:54
Some of those students were there last year, so I’m okay with those within the new ones. I’m trying to make those connections with them, and get them to be comfortable. Because to me, they just, they don’t see me as the counselor, they, I don’t know why, I think because in the our office, because there sometimes I was the only person there.

Speaker 6 18:13
So I’m trying to figure out because like when the teachers told me, they saw me coming into class, and they were like, Oh, my God, it’s Mr. Butcher, like somebody’s in trouble. And I’m like,

Lauren 18:21
This is not what I do.

Speaker 6 18:23
Why do they think that? So I’m like, I’m working on a presentation like, this is what the counselor does. This is what I don’t do. But yeah.

Lauren 18:31
I think that’s a great start.

Speaker 6 18:32
If anybody has tips into like, connecting with students who have even anger issues and things like that.

Lauren 18:39
I have thoughts, but I’d love to hear your thoughts first.

speaker 7 18:42
I think starting small is helpful. Like, just the little interactions that you have, like, just little conversations that aren’t like, we’re going to be get into counseling right now, just to like, check on them, like, how are you. I think the little things is kind of, I wouldn’t want to say it’s not like it wears them down eventually. But it’s just like, the small ways that you interact with them that you’re showing them. And that’s what you do that you’re showing them like, I care and genuinely care about what’s going on with you.

speaker 7 19:14
And I think that they probably haven’t had very many people in life that have done that. So it takes a while to break those barriers down. So I think just starting with like, check ins, like easy, like five minutes or less, how are things let’s look at your grades. That’s kind of an easy way to get in there. Like we’re not in trouble, I’m just checking on you. Like how are things going?

Speaker 6 19:39
Yeah, I did that last year, and by the end of the year, it was good with most of them. But then some of those ones graduated. So I was like, I’m starting all over again, I guess kind of.

Lauren 19:52
You can think back on like those stories and those relationships because I’m sure not all of them started like rainbows and butterflies. Like they probably were the ones with walls up and wanted nothing to do with you. But by the end, you can see like, okay, they’ve softened and there’s a relationship there.

Speaker 6 20:09
Yeah, because we had a couple that were like, they’ve even like been on probation before, but by the end of the year, they cleaned up their acts, I’m talking about graduating, and then some of them graduated. And they’ll even when they come back to camp, they’re like, Miss butcher, like, you know, for you. I know, I did something, right. But then, like, some of the other ones are like, you know, first thing in the morning, they’re like, f this school, f everybody who works here, and I’m like, Okay.

Lauren 20:35
You’re like I have bad days, too. Sometimes. I know.

Speaker 6 20:39
Yeah. So anyway, I see stuff on teacher pay teacher. And I’m like, man, I want to do all these things, you know, with students and these activities, but then I’m like, none of these are going to work with the student population that I have. So that’s what I’m looking for something that will, you know, and I’ve got games and things and, you know different stuff.

Lauren 20:59
I want you to look up Informed Decisions on TPT. Her name is Leslie, and she was on my podcast before but informed decisions. She works in New York City and has like just all different types of students. And I feel like that’s like something she really thinks about of students that it’s like tough to break through with relationships with them. So I don’t have anything like her activities off the top of my mind, but she would be a good person to look up.

Speaker 6 21:24
Okay, I’m looking at her thank you appreciate it.

speaker 7 21:27
About a year ago, we were the educational provider for a residential treatment, like a group home for juvenile hall kids. And, you know, for me, and I would be at the group home once or twice a week. In my school, we can be really creative with electives. And I know, I mean, these are all credit recovery kids. So they don’t really have much room for electives. They’re just trying to get the kind of the bare minimum for graduation.

Speaker 5 21:54
But I did offer electives to them. And I had this one kid who was tough as nails and F bombs everywhere. And she was really interested in marine biology. So I found a marine biology online class for her. And she was just oh my gosh, who listened to me. And unfortunately, she, you know, she started it, she really liked it. And of course, then she has group homes do she got moved to another group home. So unfortunately, we couldn’t continue that for her.

Speaker 5 22:25
But you know, kind of like what Katie said, trying to remember those little things that they tell you of how was your day off visiting with your mom, or how was, you know, the dinner your group home made together, you know, those kinds of things, to remember that. I would try to give them choices, you know, within reason. So it was a win win, no matter what they chose was a win. But they still, you know, if you’re in living in a group home, or if you’re that credit deficient kids at juvenile hall or whatever, they don’t have choices.

Speaker 5 22:58
And the fact that if somebody can give them a choice, makes them feel like they have just a little bit more power over their lives or control in their lives. So that helped me when I was working with these kids. But it’s tough. It’s a tough population. I love them. I’m they’re all still just kids. They’ve just been through crazy traumatic histories. Sometimes they’ll tell you about it, sometimes they don’t. But it’s it’s tough. And there were times where I would go home and cry. So I get that. But I’d be back the next day.

Lauren 23:29
Those are great points.

Speaker 4 23:30
Yeah, I just wanted to piggyback off Christine, actually, before social work, I worked at STR TP which is a group home. But the kiddos were very, very tough. And I agree with you, and just little things like Hi, oh, you did your makeup, great today, you know, look at your outfit you put together for for school. Little things go a long way and then keeping up to whatever you guys had agreed to do. So even if that’s just checking in on a class, like they really anchor to all of that.

Speaker 6 24:00
I think because I was there last year, I think working with the students is I’ll be okay with that part. I think just the admin duties that I think I have are kind of weighed me down with balance. Trying to find a balance of those and I want to do all these classroom things. And I haven’t really got into that yet or like sending out a needs assessment like for students, and maybe for staff. So anyways, I’m gonna work on those things.

Lauren 24:28
Well, I think just staying clear, like you’re saying like your desire is to be the counselor and you want that for your students to, like you don’t want them to think you’re the disciplinarian, you’re the administrator. But with the roles in your school, it sounds like it can, it can get blurred sometimes like you are the one in charge. But as much as you can, like remain the counselor so that you’ve earned that right to like speak into those things and to go into the classroom and to be seen as the counselor that you are and that you want to be.

Speaker 6 24:54
I think being the admin designee since there’s nobody else there. Last year teacher said she thought the students were dealing drugs in the bathroom. And I was the admin designee that day there was nobody else there by me. So I had to search their back pack. I had to call the SRO to come and stand there with me in the principal’s office.

Lauren 25:20
Oh, that’s terrible.

Speaker 6 25:21
They hated me after that. And I’m just like, I think it’s just a challenging school site. So I think for me, I’m trying to decide if I’m going to be able to stay there. So because I always wanted to be a high school counselor is what I wanted to do. But I’m sure as you guys know, like, you know, what’s open and available, like, that’s a learning opportunity. And that’s how I saw it. And but I did it last year, I could have left last year, but I had a great experience so that I’m like, No, I’m gonna stay for these kids.

Lauren 25:50
Maybe see how this year goes.

Speaker 6 25:52
And the admin changes, I think is what is kind of tripped me up a little bit. But anyways, that’s why I joined because I found the clique collaborative last year, but it was after being unemployed all summer. So I’m like, Okay, I can’t really do that right now. But I want to learn and I want to follow and then this year, I was like, Okay, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna learn more.

Lauren 26:10
We’re glad that you’re here.

Lauren 26:13
Thanks for listening. I hope you got to feel like a fly on the wall in our conversation. There are truly some extraordinary counselors inside the clique collaborative, doing amazing things in their high school. It’s such a gift for me to know them and for us to get to come together to troubleshoot and share wins and brainstorm. I don’t take any of these conversations for granted, and they absolutely light me up.

Lauren 26:36
So I hope you left with a little bit of wind under your wings as you enjoy your winter break. If a high school counselor community sounds interesting to you in the least bit, I’d encourage you to come check out the clique collaborative, cliquecollab.com. I hope we get to see you inside.

Lauren 26:53
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 podcast so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me a DM @counselorclique. That’s CLIQUE. I’ll see you next week.