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A.4. Academic, Career and Social/Emotional Planning
d. Provide opportunities for all students to develop a positive attitude toward learning, effective learning strategies, self management and social skills and an understanding that lifelong learning is part of long-term career success.

I believe by students learning self management and social skills now, they will be able to build and maintain more positive relationships with peers. As a school counselor, I have an obligation to help students build these skills to be successful.

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Positive Problem Solvers-In this group, second grade students will learn positive conflict resolution skills.

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Students will be given a paper explaining what the group will be covering and an overview of the action plan of the group. Students will take it, along with an informed consent form like the one attached, to have their parents sign. I will also explain that I plan on doing these groups during lunch to ensure that students are not missing out on any instruction. I will attach my information along with the paperwork in case parents have questions or concerns.

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My plan to spread the word about this group is to send an email to teachers and ask their opinion on students who they believe would be a good fit for this group. I would explain the parameters of the group and ask teachers to send suggestions of students who could use skill building in the area of conflict resolution. I would meet with teachers who expressed interest to see what specific behaviors and concerns they are seeing with students.

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Stage 1: Getting Acquainted and Establishing Trust
To get to know each other a little better, I like to start with a simple ice breaker to have the students learn how sharing will be and maybe learn something new about one another. My go to ice breaker is one that involves M&Ms. Candy almost always wins the kids over. With this activity, I have students choose one M&M from their small bag. I do not give any other context. Based off this, I have students answer a question that correlates with their color of M&M. For example, students that chose a red M&M tell the group something fun they did during the summer, blue may talk about their favorite movie, etc. This helps students begin to learn a little more about each other. After this, we talk about respecting one another and being respectful while others are sharing. Then, we begin coming up with the ground rules together. During this time I discuss confidentiality and why it is important. We have a responsibility in this group to not share each other's secrets with other students.

Stage 2: Students will begin to work together to identify if statements about conflict are true or false. During this time, I will ask students their reasoning behind their answer and explain if the statements are true or false. Together we will discuss and explain our feelings about conflict and conflict resolution in a respectful manner.

Stage 3: To wrap up, I will tell the students what we accomplished and review what we learned that day. I will also tell students that we will continue meeting and I hope to see them using what we learned when they have situations that involve conflict resolution in the future.

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These are Behaviors and Mindsets students will learn during this group time:

B-LS 2. Creative approach to learning, tasks and problem solving

B-SMS 1. Responsibility for self and actions

B-SMS 2. Self-discipline and self-control

B-SMS 7. Effective coping skills

B-SS 1. Effective oral and written communication skills and listening skills

B-SS 2. Positive, respectful and supportive relationships with students who are similar to and different from them

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I believe that the therapeutic factors I could potentially see from this group are instillation of hope, universality, development of socializing techniques, and direct advice.

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I would survey students and teachers and ask a few questions like the ones I linked from Counselor Keri (2018) on TeachersPayTeachers.
I would go to each student and introduce myself and tell them that they would be coming to meet with me and a few other students. I will also individually screen students before meeting all together with them.

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American Counseling Association (2014). Code of Ethics.
American School Counselor Association (2021). ASCA Student Standards; Mindsets and Behaviors for Student Success. Alexandria, VA: Author.

American School Counselor Association (2022). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors.

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://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/guid-respon-serv-small-group-counseling-guide-2015.pdf

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

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I would strive to have a participative style of leadership. I believe for students to get the most learning out of the group, they will learn a lot from the other students and I. I believe that the students will be more willing to participate if they know that their input is valued and encouraged in the group.

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A.2. Informed Consent in the Counseling Relationship A.2.a. Informed Consent Clients have the freedom to choose whether to enter into or remain in a counseling relationship and need adequate information about the counseling process and the counselor. Counselors have an obligation to review in writing and verbally with clients the rights and responsibilities of both counselors and clients. Informed consent is an ongoing part of the counseling process, and counselors appropriately document discussions of informed consent throughout the counseling relationship.

Because this is most likely new to students, I have an obligation to make sure they feel safe and want to be there and remain in the group. However, if a student expresses they do not enjoy it or want to be there, I should make sure they know they do not have to be there.

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I would like to build the ground rules as a group together so the kids feel like they have ownership and buy into the rules given. Before making them I would explain that we can all share ideas, but we need to be respectful listeners with each other. I would also say that I want everyone to be able to give input if they would like to so we can go around the circle to share. I would also like to make a "talking stick" to ensure that there are minimal interruptions while others are sharing. I would expect the group to come up with rules like be kind, treat others the way you would like to be treated, no putdowns, etc.