·       All students can achieve academic success when encouraged in a respectful environment

·       All students will be treated with respect regardless of race, culture, gender, and religion

·       All students will have the ability to learn and have the right to take advantage of quality educational opportunities provided.

·       All students will have access to the school counselor to address personal/social needs, academic achievement and career planning.

An area I did well on is in the mindset categories.  This is knowing what we believe as counselors. One that I truly stood out to me is “Effective school counselling is a collaborative process involving school counselors, students, families, teachers, administrators, other school staff and education stakeholders.” I believe in team work to help a child because it takes a village to help many.  If we as counselors can utilize our resources, this would be beneficial to meeting our goals and the students.

Areas for improvement is studying more about the legal and ethical principles.  This all comes in time and counseling is a new program to me.  This is important for me to learn and understand because I want to maintain my licensure in my State and what to follow in the protocols required.  This will not only protect my role, but my students’ information as well. Another area of growth is the appraisal process.  Documenting data is something that I feel I need to be better at based on experience.  I currently work in a school setting now and we do document our conversations with students.  I have learned from my experience that every manager has their own demands on how they would like it written.  It seems as if there isn’t a universal way.  Following the ASCA model gives me a better understanding of the key components and that is a good start for me.

American School Counselor Association. (2019). ASCA national model: a framework for school counseling programs (4th ed.). Alexandria, VA.