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“Spread Your Wings and Fly” will focus on special education students who have been strongly guided to stay on task and keep up with things in school they are now in high school and are being expected to pay attention and keep up with notes and assignments in an orderly manner on their own. High school students will be given ways to help take notes, keep up with classwork from day to day, and be organized in classes with little guidance from the teachers.

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Upon completing "Spread Your Wings and Fly" students will develop the mindsets of positive attitude toward work and learning, self-confidence in the ability to succeed, and belief in using their abilities to the fullest to better succeed. Students will also develop the behaviors of self-management skills of having responsibility for themselves and their actions, self-discipline, self-control, the ability to work independently, and perseverance to achieve goals. Students will also learn learning strategies such as time management, organizational skills, study skills, self-motivation, and self-direction for learning skills. Finally, students will develop social skills of positive relationships with adults to support success and self-advocacy skills (American School Counselor Association, 2021).

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Administrators will be part of the planning of the initial group. Next, parents and teachers will be informed of the development of the group through our parent communication app, ParentSquare. Teachers will also receive a form to nominate students for the group with a description of what the candidates should exhibit. Students will learn of the group through the nominations of the teachers as they are invited to the group.

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Participants will be informed of the group eligibility by meeting with me individually for us to discuss how joining this group will positively impact them. We will discuss their goals for high school and we will discuss how participating in this group will help them be able to accomplish those goals and more (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

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Upon enrolling in school parents electronically sign a form giving consent for their child to work with the counselor, however, to make sure everything is in order students and parents would complete this consent form as well (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

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Each member will receive a copy of the guidelines/ground rules. They will fill in the "looks like" and "sounds like" columns as well as add or remove any rules they believe should be there. This will give the group a starting point and then we will discuss as a group what notes they make after reading through the outline (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

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•       Stage 1 - We will discuss as a group our goals for the group and come to a realization that we are all here to improve ourselves and our academics. We will have individualized time when we discuss grades instead of in front of the entire group unless they choose to do so. We will celebrate together when grades and organization begin to improve. After establishing rules we will discuss how the group will go on a regular basis so everyone knows what to expect each time we meet. As stated above we will work together as a group to learn new skills but when grade discussions begin they will be more individualized unless members feel comfortable sharing the information with each other. No matter what we will discuss not leaving the group and sharing information with others outside the group if it is not their own information. If someone trusts the group and shares something it will stay in the group.

•       Stage 2 - Each time the group meets we will take a brief period of time to check the organization of their backpacks as well as their grades so the members can see how the group is helping them and continue to work toward being organized and making good grades without as much guidance. Group members will also know there is an open door policy to my office so if they have something they are struggling with before we meet again they can come by and we can discuss the situation so they do not get overwhelmed in between meetings.

•       Stage 3 - When we have successfully completed all of our meetings each member will have a schedule set up where they will stop by and check in with me once every three weeks to see if there is anything they are struggling with pertaining to our group. We will discuss in our last meeting how much each member has grown and give each other praise for this. Hopefully, when they see each other outside of the group they will continue to hold each other accountable without telling anyone outside the group anything about anyone else but only to help everyone with the new skills they have acquired from the group (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

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There would be opportunities for different types of leadership styles within this group. A participant leadership style will be beneficial to be able to show the members that we all have things to work on, some members may have strengths others do not so they will be able to teach things in a different way. Also, transformational leadership in a way goes hand in hand with participant leadership in that they are able to bring out the best in everyone. If strengths are shared by each member they are more likely to want to continue as they are able to show off their strengths but build on their weaknesses from learning from other group members. Finally, these leadership styles are tied together with situational leadership as the main leader is able to guide but also delegate to others to find the strength in everyone and learn from each other (Cherry, 2023).

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There are several of Yalom's Therapeutic Factors being used in this group. To begin with, the members should have an Instillation of Hope because if they use the techniques they are about to learn they will become more organized and make better grades. Universality should come to light when we start learning new techniques because there will be multiple people who are struggling to stay organized and turn work in on time. The hope is they will leave the group feeling altruistic so they will be able to go out and inspire others who may not have joined the group but are struggling to stay organized and caught up on work (Yalom, 1995).

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According to the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics, counselors should screen group members so they have a common goal and will not impede the progress of the group (2014). If there is a student who does not want to be at school and is struggling with organization it maybe better to try to start with the first problem of the student not wanting to attend school in the first place before placing them in a group to become more organized in their school work. If they revolt enough they could damage the progress of the entire group rather than helping the dynamics.

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According to the Texas Administrative Code, counselors must demonstrate knowledge of group dynamics and productive group interaction (2017). If students are nominated for the group who are very different and do no exhibit similar needs the counselor is going to need to think strategically how to organize the group or possibly form more than one group to help with group dynamics and interactions.

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19 Tex. Admin. Code §239.15

American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

American School Counselor Association (2021). ASCA Student Standards; Mindsets and Behaviors for Student Success. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Cherry, K. (2023, June 27). 6 leadership styles and Frameworks. Verywell Mind.  https://www.verywellmind.com/leadership-styles-2795312

Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators. (2015). Professional school counselor small group counseling guide: A professional school counselor’s guide to planning, implementing, and evaluating school-based counseling groups. Retrieved from https://www.missouricareereducation.org/doc/smallgroup/SmallGroupCounseling.pdf

Yalom ID. (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (4th ed.). New York: Basic Books.