What It’s Really Like to Work with Sophomores with Hannah Fain [Episode 138]

Lauren Tingle 0:00
Hello, my Counselor Clique. I hope wherever you are in your summer months, wherever you find yourself right now, my hope is that you’re feeling rested and rejuvenated. Maybe you need a vacation from your vacation at this point, or you’re just ready to see your work colleagues again, I get that. If you went to ASCA few weeks ago, I hope that you’re still riding high from the energy and the momentum that that brought you.

Lauren Tingle 0:22
We’re chatting about 10th graders today. And you’ll get to hear from a high school counselor who loves this group. When you’re done listening, I do have a couple of resources that I love using with sophomores. And I’ve listed those in the show notes. And you can always get those by going to the episode show notes. So this one you can find at counselorclique.com/episode138. That’s this episode, or just check the show notes in your podcast player.

Lauren Tingle 0:47
You’ll see all links for the sophomore year planning bundle, healthy relationships lesson and some career activities since those are all kind of big topics that we talk about with sophomores in this episode.

Lauren Tingle 0:59
Today, I’m interviewing Hannah, who works with all grade levels, but has a specific passion for working with sophomores. I’ll let her introduce herself and tell you why she loves them so much here after we roll the intro.

Lauren Tingle 1:39
Hi, Hannah, welcome to High School Counseling Conversations. I’m so glad you’re here. Yes. Thank

Hannah 1:54
Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Lauren Tingle 1:56
Will you give us a quick intro to who you are and the type of school you work at and how you work with 10th graders like what capacity?

Hannah 2:05
Yes, so my name is Hannah. I am a high school counselor. And I work in Dallas, Georgia. In our high schools public school, we do office split, so I have a certain part of the alphabet. So I have all grade levels. But this past year, especially. I’ve worked with them our 10th graders and then the past three years, my first three years there I did 10th grade as a grade level specifically. So I did all the 10th grade tasks with them.

Lauren Tingle 2:32
Okay, so you’re you’ve always been divided by alpha, but like you your assigned kind of responsibilities and tasks were like all the 10th grade things.

Hannah 2:41
Yes, like 10th grade, which I don’t know is a Georgia thing. I’m not sure if other states do that. But yeah, basically all of the like grade level tasks, like the PSAT and all that good stuff.

Lauren Tingle 2:52
That’s cool, because it’s like when you’re alpha split, somebody has to take the lead on certain tasks. So it kind of makes sense. That’s a cool way of doing it. Like everyone’s still kind of has a grade level that maybe like they specialize in. And then I mean, there are other ways you can do it too. Like, you take the things that you like, you maybe do less of the things that you don’t like, but this is a great way. I think, if you’re maybe someone who’s listening, who like it’s their first time going from grade level to Alpha split, like what a great way to, like assimilate into that and make it work for your department.

Hannah 3:21
Yeah, for sure. It’s worked really well for us thus far, I’d say, because we have five counselors. So basically, one counselor is ninth, 10th 11th and 12th. And then we have one that is eighth to ninth grade transition, because that’s a big thing.

Hannah 3:34
And then we recently did swap, because we kind of are on a three year rotation. So that way everybody learns kind of that grade level. But yeah, I really enjoyed 10th grade. And it was kind of a nice place to start. I feel like so.

Lauren Tingle 3:47
That is actually where I started too. We were strictly grade level counselors, and I was 10th grade. So I’ll be interested to see like if your perspective is similar to mine. What do you think from working with 10th graders, what do you think makes them unique and special?

Hannah 4:02
I think there’s a lot of things. I think, the most current group of 10th graders, I guess, past couple ones, they were unique, because they missed like almost all of middle school with COVID. And so I don’t know about other people out there. But I feel like we saw a ton of like social emotional stuff, just because, as we all know, middle school is where you work out so much of those things.

Hannah 4:24
But I feel like also it’s kind of a cool spot for them because they’re not quite halfway through. So they’re not in ninth grade, which is like the huge transition year where everything is new. They’re trying to learn and adjust to all these things. They’ve kind of they’ve gotten that year. Now they’re in their second year. And so they can they still have a lot of big decisions in front of them, but they also have time to change maybe the direction they’re going into make some different decisions.

Hannah 4:51
So it’s kind of nice, because, you know, sometimes when you’re working with 12th graders, it’s kind of sad because there’s only so much they can do when they’re they kind of finally matured and you’re like well you have one semester left.

Lauren Tingle 5:03
As a counselor feel like you can help them like you can make an impact because they can still change. Yeah, I think we all can think back to like being in 10th grade and being able to like breathe a little bit because you’re not the youngest one, you kind of know where your classes might be like, all that stuff that can make you really nervous in that transition. You’re like, Okay, I’m past that now. Like now let’s concentrate on high school.

Hannah 5:24
No, for sure, yeah.

Lauren Tingle 5:26
Their confidence is built a little bit, maybe maybe too much for being in 10th grade.

Hannah 5:31
I know. Yeah. It is interesting. We I think we probably had what freshmen always you have the misbehavior, but we had a lot of just ongoing drama with 10th grade too I feel like.

Lauren Tingle 5:43
Okay, so that’s kind of my next question. What kind of trends are you seeing with 10th grader? So like, the drama doesn’t stop from ninth grade and continues into 10th grade?

Hannah 5:51
Oh, yeah, it really did it. And I don’t know if part of that, like we said was kind of the maturity, middle school stuff. But I ended up doing two small groups this past year, and I had an intern, which was helpful. And so I was thinking back to it, and almost all of my kids were ninth and 10th graders, and one of them.

Lauren Tingle 6:10
When you had opened it up to everyone, but that’s like, who ended up being?

Hannah 6:13
Yes. And part of that was just admin input. Like admin, were having a lot of issues with 10th graders, teachers were seeing a lot of issues. And then me personally, I was seeing a lot of 10th graders in my office for different issues, or different things going on.

Hannah 6:27
But one of our small groups, we ended up calling the Bad Girls Club, not really with them. But it was the highest behavior girls, and it was almost all 10th grade girls, and so we worked on a one thing with them is they just didn’t have any conflict resolution skills. Their answer to everything was, we just like confront him in the hall. And I’m like, okay.

Lauren Tingle 6:48
Okay, this is what we’re working with.

Hannah 6:50
Yeah, that’s just not gonna go well, nine times out of ten.

Lauren Tingle 6:54
I feel like it’s so interesting that, like, just changing their perspective, or, you know, even the perspective of people in the school, like, these are the girls who are, quote, bad. But really, they’re the girls who don’t have conflict resolution skills.

Lauren Tingle 7:07
Like that’s a much nicer way of saying it, but from like a counselor’s vernacular, like, that’s what you see is like, they don’t have the coping skills that they need to have healthy relationships or friendships, or be able to communicate what they need and to solve conflict with other people.

Hannah 7:23
Yeah, well, it was sad, too, because it ended up being kids that would come to our offices all the time. Because, you know, like you said, they they didn’t have healthy relationships. And so there was a lot of insecurity there that manifests in different ways. But also they would constantly come because they’re having an issue with this person, or one week, they didn’t have any friends because they’ve gotten in a big fight.

Lauren Tingle 7:45
What a way to put a mirror back on them and be like, maybe to you, like everybody in this room is having this problem. Like, they’ll have something in common that you need to develop these skills a little bit more. That’s right, that’s a cool perspective to have as a counselor to get all those people in a room to get to work on those skills together.

Hannah 8:02
Yeah, it was interesting. I, I won’t say that it always went super smoothly, because we ended up having, you know, two girls that had an issue with another one, but in my sweet interest, but I was like, You know what? This is the place for now. Like, yep, we’re gonna talk it out. So so it didn’t end up being really cool. And hopefully those girls took some stuff out of it. But it did you feel like to back to our original or point not original point, but a little bit ago that they still have so much time to work on this thing, being in 10th grade.

Lauren Tingle 8:33
What was the other topic of the small group that you did? You said you did two of them.

Hannah 8:37
Yeah, the other one was kind of an attendance focus. So these were kids that were missing a lot of school. And that’s something else as I was thinking kind of about 10th graders specifically that I feel like I had a lot of 10th graders who just were missing tons of school.

Hannah 8:52
And part of it, I think, is that most of them can’t drive. Only, like half of our kids have the economic means to have a car when they’re a little bit older. But then also we have, we had a good population that just are kind of more transient, or were moving in or whatever. And so anyway, I think it was a combination of parents not making sure they got to school, and then parents not having the means to get them to school.

Hannah 9:15
And when they can drive. I feel like that’s a little bit different, too. But anyway, it was the kids that were missing a lot. So the other big focus of that one was study skills. That’s another thing. I feel like my 10th graders I was like, oh gosh.

Lauren Tingle 9:26
Like, how did you make it here? And you don’t have these study skills yet.

Hannah 9:30
Not only were they missing school, but we were teaching them like basic middle school things like okay, like, this is how you organize a binder. Maybe you should do different folders. This is what a planner looks like, which is really, in my mind, because I’ve worked with middle schoolers before, these are middle school thing.

Lauren Tingle 9:48
But they didn’t have that. They missed that whole gap of middle schools that have anyone telling them this is how you do it.

Hannah 9:55
Yeah. And I do feel like people, some people moved more during COVID Some of our kids And then that group had been to three different middle schools and they didn’t even attend in person. So they just didn’t have a chance to learn this skill. So that was a good group too because, like we said, like, those skills are necessary for not only high school, but also like life. Yeah, you have to be organized in some kind.

Lauren Tingle 10:18
Now I know what I would answer to this. But I’m going to ask this because I think a listener is thinking this, how do you run a small group for attendance for kids who don’t like to come to school? Or who are missing school a lot?

Hannah 10:29
Oh, gosh, yeah, I will say one thing that we found was that for a lot of our kids, if they knew that they had something to attend, we did it on Mondays. So they knew every Monday, either second or fourth block, that they would have something and somebody was waiting for them, checking up on them, wanted them to be there, they were a lot more likely to come.

Hannah 10:29
And even my kids that didn’t come every week, they would come find me and say, Hey, Ms. Fain, I’m so sorry I miss like this, or this was going on. And I was like, Oh, thank you for letting me know, it’s okay. You’re not in trouble. But like, they they cared more than we did also, of course, try to do incentives like they had buddy. So we buddied him up, and so they were supposed to be each other’s accountability partners. So they checked in the Friday before it’d be like, Hey, man, like, remember, we have small group on Monday in second block. So kind of like help them. And then as their whole friendship started to develop.

Lauren Tingle 11:26
Yeah, yeah. So you make the relationships like stronger in the group and outside the group. I feel like the reminder you haven’t like horizontally, like for a peer level, and then vertically like an adult in the building, who was looking forward to seeing them and who they know they’re going to check in with.

Lauren Tingle 11:42
Like that, that becomes I don’t know if there’s research out there that shows this, but I experienced the exact same thing. When they had something that someone was looking forward to seeing them, it’s like, they’ve just kind of been sometimes I’m not saying everyone I didn’t like invisible in school. Sometimes we’re like, there isn’t an adult that is asking how they’re doing or like noticing that they weren’t there. And all of a sudden, they’re like, wow, like somebody cares. And somebody notices me.

Hannah 12:05
Yeah, and I feel like that’s such a combination of multiple things. Like we touched on COVID. Obviously, if they’re not coming in person, they aren’t building those relationships. But also if they’ve moved a lot, or even just haven’t developed some of those social skills, like and we see this with so many kids, I mean, who wants to go somewhere if you don’t have any friends?

Lauren Tingle 12:23
And the opposite, if you feel like you belong, if someone knows your name, like you want to show up to that, that feels good.

Hannah 12:30
Yeah, definitely, it was cool to see. And like you said, I mean, we had one that just came like one time, and there were other family issues going on. But we had one or two that would come more and more like would miss one or two at the beginning. And then we had eight sessions. And by the time we hit four, they were there every time like if they were coming to school was on a Monday. So that is really cool to see.

Lauren Tingle 12:50
And I mean, an attendance group like that, or if you’re, you know, doing study skills, but you’re like secretly measuring attendance too and seeing how that improves, like that is really meaningful and impactful data that you can share with an administrator or your teachers when the teacher is like, why are they missing my class they miss all the time. It’s like, because they’re here, they’re coming so much more. And you can show them like this. This was meaningful.

Hannah 13:14
Yeah. Yeah, that was our goal. Obviously, with the Bad Girls Clubs. I thought that too, as well, because those kids, most of them weren’t doing taught in classes, because of all the behavior things going along with it, but they tended to skip classes anyway.

Lauren Tingle 13:30
It can only go up from here.

Hannah 13:31
We’re like they’re not going anyway. So we’re going to take them and find them and be like, Hey, we’re going to do something fun in here. Yeah, so it’s always gonna do but we tried.

Lauren Tingle 13:47
Okay, I’m gonna put you on the spot and see if you can think of something but have you ever tried anything with 10th graders that failed? Or it didn’t go as well as you had hoped it would?

Hannah 14:42
Yeah, I feel like I’m trying to think I feel like there was something in one of the small groups that was kind of a bust.

Lauren Tingle 14:48
It could be an activity or it could be like an event that you planned, like I won’t do that again.

Hannah 14:52
Well, so this is related, but I also have been in charge of a club at our school called Sources of Strength. And I think it’s national. So there’s probably other people. And when me and one of our other counselors run it, and what we found is really hard is just getting kids to remember and show up to things. And they like to do a lot of things in the cafeteria. But if you do the same things over and over again, kids won’t respond slash, if you just set up in the cafeteria, nobody is coming right to, like, they’re just not.

Lauren Tingle 14:53
Like an announcement to everyone. If an announcement to no one, like, if it’s not pointed to the right person, they’re not going to come up and just see.

Hannah 15:32
Yeah, yeah. But what we found was like when, when me and my coworker helped, they were not coming over there. They were like, No, thanks. I don’t want to go to this table during my lunch time. But when I kids actually helped, they would go to the tables, and then all of the kids would come. It was like someone they respected as a peer. So that was one thing.

Hannah 15:52
And then in a more 10th grade specific, one of the small groups we did, they did kind of things that were like, Okay, let’s answer questions. And then who can relate sort of things. But I think in hindsight, we did it too early. And there was also some side drama going on, but they just weren’t willing to share. And so it was like, you know, one girl would say, yeah, like I’ve been, I’ve been having a really hard time with my boyfriend or whatever. And so then we were like, okay, can anyone else relate to that thinking welled up, you know, most of these had something and they were like, I don’t know.

Lauren Tingle 16:24
And they just like stared like, yeah, like to be you like that’s never happened to me. Right? And you’re like, all right, but not what we want to do in small group. Okay, cool. But there’s a great example that like, things that you learned from it, like, Okay, we could do that activity, but maybe like, a couple sessions later, or even that, like, that’s, those are very low stakes things.

Lauren Tingle 16:45
Like the thing in the cafeteria is like, Okay, we quickly realized, like, We’re not the ones they want to come talk to. It’s their friend. So I mean, what a quick pivot, and it was probably way, way more meaningful, and something that actually like something came out of it because of that cool, for sure.

Lauren Tingle 17:01
What opportunities do you think that counselors have to uniquely pour into 10th graders specifically? Like you kind of mentioned this, that they still have time to make an impact, like freshman year is really transitional senior year is really high stress. So like, what should counselors be capitalizing on with 10th graders there that maybe they don’t have the opportunity with other grades?

Hannah 17:22
I feel like one thing that I specifically want to focus on more this year, with my 10th grade students is one thing, I don’t know, obviously, people working at different schools, everybody has kind of different retention rates, and also graduation rates. But what I found is 10th grade is the Make It or Break It year for kids that are going to drop out or stay in school.

Lauren Tingle 17:42
I think so too. I think there’s all this like research that says it’s ninth grade, but I think 10th grade is so huge, that we pour all these resources into ninth grade, because that’s what the research says. And then we just drop off and forget about 10th graders.

Hannah 17:54
Because I feel like, you know, if you have a kid, because they all have well, they’re supposed to come right in ninth grade for the most part, because a compulsory school age being 16. But then if they have a really bad ninth grade year, and they come into 10th grade, and it’s also going downhill, and nothing seems to be helping, they’re going to drop out as soon as they can.

Hannah 18:14
And so I feel like I’ve had that with so many of my 10th grade students. And so one thing I want to just focus on this year specifically is taking those at risk 10th graders that I already know, you know, I’m aware of because they had a pretty bad ninth grade year, a lot of behavior issues, whatever they had those risk factors, and just really sitting down with each of those kids individually.

Hannah 18:34
And making a point to say, Hey, this is where you’re at, this is your academic plan. Let’s talk about it. What are your realistic goals? What can you pass this year? Can you get back on track? Because I think a lot of this kids too, they get stuck in like a negative mindset of well, I failed everything in ninth grade, so I’m never gonna make it. And it’s like, well, no, we’re on a block schedule. So it’s easier for our kids to make up credits because they get a whole credit and each semester, but kids don’t think logically right.

Hannah 19:02
And so I think just also focusing on those things, and really hammering down the career plan kind of thing too. And that’s one thing we 10th grade that we do is we do use science, which is a career assessment in 10th grade. And I think we specifically want to be better at utilizing that so that they realize that this is why it’s important to actually pass these classes because these are potential careers you could do and can be successful in.

Lauren Tingle 19:28
Yeah, so I want to say for anyone who’s listening like the start of the year comes and if you’re working with all grade levels, you are like jumping in to seniors because they have a lot of needs a lot of really high pressure deadlines, all this stuff but and I think that’s how we forget about 10th graders but you make such a good point of taking your at risk 10th graders from the very beginning of the year because they could turn something around like they could turn a bad ninth grade around in the first semester of 10th grade and it’s still not be way too far gone.

Lauren Tingle 20:01
But if you wait the whole year, or you wait till you’re not busy, like your, your 10th graders are not going to hear you, they’re already gonna be going down that path again and staying at risk unless they hear you and have a face to face conversation and see that it’s possible. So I love what you said about concentrating on careers in 10th grade, because they can really like something that could be motivating to them to get them back on the right track.

Hannah 20:22
Yeah, and one thing too, and obviously not every school has this resource. And I wish we had a lot more than we do. But we have a teacher on assignment, basically, who is also a graduation coach. And usually he works with 12th graders who haven’t always worked really well, because by the time he gets them, we’re gonna want to do, right, yeah.

Hannah 20:43
And so one thing I want to talk to him about this year is, hey, I would really love if you specifically targeted my 10th, and probably 11th graders, too, that are behind because not that I don’t want my 12th graders to catch up. But it’s just different. And so I think just having an extra person besides me, because I have all the different grade levels, like if you do have that resource in your building, or you have somebody else you can tap into your 10th grade admin, if you do that, yeah, like our admin still does grade level. So talking to my 10th grade admin and working with him, like collaboratively, I think is a good thing, too.

Lauren Tingle 21:16
Yeah, being a tag team for both of those people and saying, like, Hey, I already have a relationship with a student, I can tell I can give you the list of students and where they are at what times like, you talk to them about behavior and discipline. Can you talk to them? Do your graduation coach spiel, but like started in 10th grade? And like, let’s watch these kids together. I mean, you’re only gonna have good things happen. I feel like by utilizing the other adults in your building.

Hannah 21:39
Right, I thinkann so too.

Lauren Tingle 21:41
If you had a magic wand, and you could wave it and solve a problem for 10th graders, what problem would you be trying to solve?

Hannah 21:48
Ooh, that’s a good question. Like I said, so much of it is just with the conflict stuff back to that, specifically my girlies in 10th grade, they just get so focused on that stuff. And it’s the wrong thing to be focused on. But they have like a one track mind, this is all that matters, and they cannot let even like the little things go.

Hannah 22:11
So just, I mean, this is a weird, like, kind of a weird answer, but just giving them like perspective is gonna be so helpful in that way, with the conflict stuff with like, hey, this one girl that you hate right now, you will literally not remember her name in 10 years. And they don’t believe that. No, they’re like, No, I will hate her forever. I’m like, okay.

Hannah 22:31
But also like the career stuff like, hey, perspective right now, like, I know that you are hating ninth lit or whatever world lit. But this is why it matters. You have to pass this class to get your diploma to do what you want to do. And I think they’re just immature enough, where they’re lacking that whereas the, you know, your 11th and 12th graders are starting to see that. In 10th grade for my experience, they don’t. Yeah, but it’s hard. Because like we said, they’re approaching where it’s like, no, this really matters. It always there’s like, it really is starting to define your high school experience.

Lauren Tingle 22:32
Yes, that’s a great answer for like a magic wand question. Like you want to give them some perspective to say, hey, here’s what matters. Listen to me. Not like we have all the answers. But like, we are adults who have like, we’ve all done high school before. So like, we know what it’s like to be in that adolescent brain and body where you think everybody’s looking at you, you think everything is about you. And it’s very inwardly focused.

Lauren Tingle 23:25
And we know like, psychologically, like, that is true. That’s how they think. But they need the perspective of somebody probably who’s not their parents to tell them that. So that’s like, those are good conversations to be having. And if we had a magic wand, that would be a perfect one to help our 10th graders along in their maturity journey.

Lauren Tingle 23:45
Okay, if you had unlimited resources, like unlimited time, money, manpower, what kind of things would you do for your 10th graders? Like, a special event, a trip somewhere? Something like comprehensive at school for them to like, all learn about like, do you have any ideas floating around? That if you could, like, dream it you could do it?

Hannah 24:06
Yeah. That’s a good question. I think, one kind of a trend, I guess, that we’ve seen, and I’m sure everyone has seen is this push for kids to be their own bosses, be entrepreneurs, we have tons of kids that are want to start their own clothing line, and like all these things that are not necessarily bad things at all, but it’s like, okay, let’s, we’ve got to be realistic about some things. And what are we doing now to get there?

Lauren Tingle 24:31
They’re like, like, I want to be a YouTube star. And you’re like, Do you have a YouTube channel? And they’re like, No. Yeah, we’ve all we’ve all had these conversations.

Hannah 24:39
Yeah, like I want to own my own business. And I’m like, Okay, well, maybe we should pass algebra one you know, because you do need to know math to run your business.

Hannah 24:47
So I don’t know something and we do something called a Reality Fair. I’m sure other schools do something version of this too. But it’s in the school gym. And it you know, it only is going to hold so much weight. So I feel like if we were able to do something thing that they thought was actually cool, right? That has like, the status that they respect or whatever with really big well known companies.

Hannah 25:08
Because we have a few we actually because we’re in Atlanta, we have like some people from Delta and stuff come out, which is nice, but just something that holds weight in their eyes. But it’s also like, hey, you know, real people that they think are cool, that are young, hip, whatever doing jobs that they would like to do. But also, this is how I got here. This is how I struggled. This is what I had to do to make it here. It’s not all like glamour, and you just float along online Etsy shop, and then it all just works out.

Hannah 25:35
Because there’s a real, as I’m sure, you know, just from this, and your podcast and everything, like it’s a grind, right, like a nonstop struggle. And I just think their perception of work is not always realistic or healthy for them going forward. So some kind of reality kind of thing where they would they would get to have fun, they would get to, you know, eat free Chick fil A, because we have Chick fil A. Yeah, whatever that looks like, but also have a better understanding of, hey, this is what it takes to succeed in the world and maybe make, you know, 100,000 or plus more dollars.

Lauren Tingle 26:08
And I love that. If you could if you could dream that whole thing up and make it happen. I mean, you’re still like ever would be pumped to be a 10th grader.

Hannah 26:16
Yeah, hopefully, that would be awesome. For sure.

Lauren Tingle 26:20
Well Hannah as we wrap up, tell me what is your favorite thing that you love most about working with sophomores.

Hannah 26:27
I think kind of what we said like having the potential for them. Like knowing there’s potential there knowing you have more time with them. And you’re able to invest and kind of talk to them so that you’re they’re realizing too, they can see, hey, there’s a you can continue to make these decisions you’re making, or you can make a few different decisions and kind of take a different path.

Hannah 26:50
But I think also, they’re still at a very interesting age, because they’re not ninth graders, like we said, but they’re also still still pretty immature still trying to figure out who they are. Whereas my 11th and 12th graders more I feel like especially by 12th grade, they kind of they pretty much know who they are and kind of what they’re about.

Hannah 27:08
But 10th graders are definitely in my experience more malleable. And so and they’re a little more honest. Than you know, 17 or 18 year old and so I will say I think I get my funniest stories from my 10th graders. They’re out of control, they have no filter.

Lauren Tingle 27:23
Right. No filter, but not as nervous as ninth grade. But then they are on the younger side.

Hannah 27:30
I mean, I’m like trying not to laugh. I’m like, don’t laugh. This is not funny. Like it’s so mean. Or it’s so bad or whatever. But they’re like, you get to know their little personalities too.

Lauren Tingle 27:41
Oh that’s so good. And when you’re saying like, you know, in 11th grade and 12th grade, they’re more mature. I’m like, there are more mature than ninth and 10th grade right, like teeny tiny bit more. It’s like when I think back I’m like, was I that much more mature in 11th and 12th grade? I mean, I’d like to think so. But I’m sure I wasn’t.

Hannah 27:59
Yeah, I think 12th graders when you when stuff hits you more, right, right. I mean, you feel the way they won’t say for all of them yet. Some of them. I’m like, Okay, I need this to hit you by April.

Lauren Tingle 28:10
Well Hannah thanks so much for talking to us about sophomores. This was really fun. And feel like I related to a lot about those common struggles with 10th graders when I think back to my early days working at the high school that I was at, and and I think back to being a 10th grader, I’m like, things haven’t changed. This is just like, how the world is in 10th grade.

Lauren Tingle 28:33
You know, maybe some different things with COVID and stuff. But when it all boils down, like we see some of the same trends, and hopefully some listeners who hear this feel seen and heard like, Oh, yes, I have funny stories from 10th grade too. And maybe they got some good ideas from stuff that you’ve done in your school. Thanks for being here.

Hannah 28:51
Yeah, thank you so much.

Lauren Tingle 28:56
We are more than halfway done with our grade level series. If you love this episode, or this series in general, why don’t you head right into your podcast app right now and leave a five star rating and review to go with it. I love reading reviews on the show and it’s been a hot minute since I read a new one. I’d love to do that again soon.

Lauren Tingle 29:14
Do you share your sophomore caseload with another counselor or two at your school? Do me a favor and just text this episode to them right now. It’ll give you something to chat about with them at lunch, am I right? And the more high school counselors who share the pod the more it can have a broader reach and impact on other high school counselors and in turn the students that they work with.

Lauren Tingle 29:34
So thanks for listening to this week’s episode and we will chat again next week about 11th graders.