Future University and Technical/Trade School Scholars by Hugo Tarango https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc EDSC 6302 School Counseling Techniques en-us 2020-11-01 01:56:40 UTC 2025-10-03 17:21:35 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f91c.png 1. Action Plan: htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/879175347 Future University and Technical/Trade School Scolars students will meet once a week for six weeks in order to explore educational options after high school.]]> 2020-11-01 02:08:20 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/879175347 2. ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors to be practiced in "Future University and Technical/Trade School Scholars" htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/879180138 o   The counseling department will visit all English classes (2nd period).  The counselors will ask students to answer the questions and to attend a pre-session meeting if they are interested.  During this time, the counselors will personally explain the goals and benefits of the meeting.  The counselor will also provide a form explaining confidentiality and 
o   The counseling department will collect the answered questionnaires and search for students who failed to answer and personally ask them to fill out the forms.
o   The counseling department will form different homogeneous groups according to interests expressed in the questionnaire.
o   The counselors will call a general meeting with all parents sometime after school, offer dinner, like menudo or spaghetti.  Again, Confidentiality and its limits will be explained to parents, as well as the goals and benefits of the small groups.
a.       The counselor will inform parents of the purpose of small group counseling sessions.
b.      The counselor will inform parents and students of the rules and exceptions of confidentiality.
c.       Parents will be notified before the first session Parents will accept or refuse informed consent.  .  Parent permission will be required.  Students will decide to opt out or to accept the sessions after the first session.
 



]]> 2020-11-01 02:20:57 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/879180138 3. Disseminating Information and Making Announcements htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880051368
  • After the Principal gives his approval, flyers will be distributed and placed throughout the school.  I may ask the FCLA help make some posters.  Daily announcements will be made announcing the visit to the students' English classes.  One counselor will visit the English Department during one of their meetings and ask for permission to designate a day where the counselors may visit their second period.
    • Flyers distributed to all 2nd period teachers (homeroom) in order send to parents.
    • Posters 
    • Daily Announcements

    • The counseling department will visit all English classes (2nd period).  The counselors will ask students to answer the questions and to attend a pre-session meeting if they are interested.  During this time, the counselors will personally explain the goals and benefits of the meeting.  The counselor will also provide a form explaining confidentiality and 

    • The counseling department will collect the answered questionnaires and search for students who failed to answer and personally ask them to fill out the forms.

    • The counseling department will form different homogeneous groups according to interests expressed in the questionnaire.

    • The counselors will call a general meeting with all parents sometime after school, offer dinner, like menudo or spaghetti.  Again, Confidentiality and its limits will be explained to parents, as well as the goals and benefits of the small groups.
      • The counselor will inform parents of the purpose of small group counseling sessions.
      • The counselor will inform parents and students of the rules and exceptions of confidentiality.
      • Parents will be notified before the first session Parents will accept or refuse informed consent.  .  Parent permission will be required.  Students will decide to opt out or to accept the sessions after the first session.

    ]]>     2020-11-01 15:15:25 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880051368     4. Pre-Group Interview and Screening htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880097480
    • The counseling department will identify the names of students who qualify as EDS.  For 11th Grade, that will be roughly between 347 to 417 students.

    • The counseling department will visit all English classes (2nd period).  The counselors will ask students to answer the questionnaires and to attend a pre-session meeting if they are interested.  During this time, the counselors will personally explain the goals and benefits of the meeting.  The counselor will also provide a form explaining confidentiality and its limits.

    • The counseling department will collect the answered questionnaires and search for students who failed to answer and personally ask them to fill out the forms.

    • The counseling department will form different homogeneous structured groups according to interests expressed in the questionnaire.  Each group will be structured as a task group, where students are directed to perform specific types of research and to discuss with peers, their findings and choices.   Each counselor will be assigned a specific group:
      • Students who are interested in enrolling in a four-year university
      • Stuents who are interested in enrolling in a technical school, a trade school, or in a university/college for an associate's degree.
      • Students who are ambivalent or have not given serious thought to the idea of recieving a post-secondary education
      • Students who are not intersted at all, will not participate in a group, at least not immeidately.  Counselors will take the time to speak to them individually, perahps to education or training options or to explore other issues.
    • Homogeneous groups will be formed based on the students' interest stated above.  Groups will also be based on grade level, in this case 11th grade.
    • Counselors will individually screen students who are found to be severely disabled, cognatively or or physically and schedule a one-on-one meeting with the student and/or parents.  p counselor and parent (if present) will determine p lacement or non-placement of the student in a group, depending on parent's and student's disposition.  The counselor will provide other options  post-secondary education/training, or the student may be refered to an external resource for employment options.

    • Students will also be screened and placed/not placed for the following conditions:
      • behavioral histories that could interfere with the group
      • students with recent trauma
      • Siblings will be placed in different groups.

    • Screening and placement will also depend on whether or not a student has turned in his consent form.  Without the parent's consent, participation in the small group  is not allowed as per San Felipe CISDl Policy.

    • There are a total of six session per group, once a week, for hour per session.  Ideally the sessions should be schedule during the student's elective class time.

    • Ideally each counselor in the team will take on two groups of per day.  Specifics on scheduling are pending depending on conditions.

    ]]>     2020-11-01 15:49:47 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880097480     5. Informed Consent and the Limitations of Confidentiality htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880144544 Plans to Obtain Informed Consent:
    According to state law and San Felipe Del Rio CISD's policy on Student Welfare Student Assistance Programs/Counseling, the counselor shall obtain written consent from the parent to be counseled before counseling admitting the student into the counseling  group (San Felipe Del Rio CISD, 2020).

    One option is to distribute during the English class time when the questionnaires are distributed is to provide consent forms to the students in addition to another form with a written explanation of confidentiality and its limits.  At, this stage, students provide assesent, but parental consent is still required.

    The plan to obtain parental permission also involves asking parents to participate in the after-school hours presession meeting where the counselor will explain confidentiality policy and and then ask for the parents' written permission that is to be turned in during that same meeting.

    Daily announcements will also remind students to bring in their written permission from parents.






    ]]>     2020-11-01 16:24:16 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880144544     6. Establishing Ground Rules: Expectations and Rules htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880234787 Ground Rules will be discussed  and established during the following times:
    1. at the pre-session parental meeting -students and parents agree that a condition to being accepted into the group is to conform to the groups expectations and rules - The form below will be distributed as a means to establish behavioral expectations.
    2. at the beginning of session one -review the agreement with students
    3. at the beginning of subsequent sessions
    4.  near the end of the last session
    5. again, during the post-session meeting with students

    Ground Rules:
    1.  "What happens in the group, stays in the group;" the same applies to what is said in the group.  Students will not speak or confide in anyone outside this group what others do or say.  You are bound by the same rules and laws of confidentiality as your counselor.
    • The consequences for breaking this rule are severe.  There will be a referral to the principal's office, your parents will be called, and the adminstration will take further action -depending on circumstances.

    2.  Be respectful to each other and to the counselor:  Avoid foul language, teasing, gossiping, and distracting others and the counselor during session.  Bullying behavior will be dealt with immediately.
    • Repeated or severe violations will result in notifying your parents and/or in removing the offending student from the group.

    Expectations:
    • You are expected to work cooperately with others, in research, in discussions, in presentating to the class.
    • You are expected to work independently, in research, in discussions, in presenting to the class.
    • You are expected to complete "homework" assignments or tasks.
    • You are expected to complet "classwork" assignments or tasks.
    • You are expected to take what is offered to you seriously:  It is your future that we are dealing with.


    ]]>     2020-11-01 17:32:29 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880234787     7. Stages of Group Dynamics htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880303394 Stage 1:  The first Session
    The counselor has one session to establish trust and to convince my students that the program is worth their time, attention, and energy.   
    • Initial steps toward establish trust occured when the counselor included information about wage earnings between those who have not recieved post-secondary studies and those who have.  The counselor establishes trust by doing the following:
    • by constantly reviewing the purpose and and individual goals of the group.
    • by repeatedly emphasize the importance of abiding to the rules of confidentiality and establishing a mutual understanding of confidentiality:  group members will understand that confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, even though it is an expectation.  However, all are responsible to keep secret what is spoken and what is done in the small group sessions.
    • by valuing their opinions and their choices.
    • by encouraging dialogue between group members.
    • by ensuring that individual group members gain knowledge, skills, and strategies to connect with peers, identifying the issue, and encouraging a sense of belonging.
    *Note:  The counselor must always be aware of my own weaknesses and personal values.  I must be careful that these do not interfere with my fulfilling of my task or making the students lose trust in the counselor.

    Stage 2:  Middle Sessions
    The counselor at this stage guides students to explore the topic of College Readiness.  The counselor also has to maintain trust and safety, as well as focus within the group.  To accomplish this, the counselor does the following:
    • reviewing confidentiality and ground rules.
    •  checking-in with each group member -make sure that they are accomplishing and learning, ask them questions about how they think implementing this information will make life easier for them in the future.
    •  keeping the students focused by introducing each session's purpose at the beginning of the session and lesson.

    Stage 3:  The Last Session

    The end has now arrived.  It is time to bring closure to the group.  The counselor does the following:
    • review confidentiality -once again.  Enforcement is important, but trust is much more important, this should be communicated to students. Take a survey on what their confidence level is, on what decisions they may have made during this time and why, and their input on how useful the sessions were to them.  These are shared i discussion.
    • explore how group members are feeling by reflecting on the usefullness of each sessions information and tasks.  Discussions should be focused on solving a particular problem that the student may express.




    ]]>     2020-11-01 18:27:24 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880303394     8. Possible Leadership Style htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880365783           The article "Leadership Styles and Frameworks You Should know" indroduced different leadership styles by different academics, experts in the field of leadership roles.  The style from this inventory that I would choose, is situational leadership.  According to Cherry (2020), situational leadership "stresses the significant inluence o the environment and the situation of leadership."  Since my clients are volunteers who had to be persuaded to join the small group sessions, this creates a situation where an authoritarian style of leadership is unsuitable.  Likewise, since my volunteers expect to acquire knowledge and skills that they do not currently have, they require guidance, a need that a delegative style does not meet.

              Situational leadership is in a sense participative, as Kurt Lewin would explain, but with the exception that Hersey and Blancard's explanation  is more precise in its description of what this type of leader does.  According to Cherry's interpretation of Hersey and Banchard's analysis, the situational leader does the following:  1) Tells his people what to do; 2) Sells -convinces his followers to opt-in to his ideas; 3) Allows his group to participate and take an active role in decision-making.  And since the purpose of this small group is to train students in making informed and reasonablel decisions concerning their post-secondary studies, this leadership practice is a must; 4) Delegates tasks to his or her followers (Cherry, 2020) .  In my case, group members must accomplish tasks independently as homework, accountable to me, and to perform personal research, accountable to the consequences of their own life-decisions.

    Situational leadership is the role for me.

    ]]>     2020-11-01 19:17:25 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880365783     9. A Brief Discussion on Yalom's Therapeutic Factors htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880398160           In one sence the Future University and Technical/Trade School Scholars small group is, and at the same time is not, therapeutic treatment.  The goals are more oriented to guidance rather than counseling in the sense that the focus is on college-readiness.  However, there may be "mental blocks" that affect a portion of our group's members.  In this sense, there will naturally be a therapeutic aspect of the small-group sessions.  As therapy, it is important to recognize those therapeutic factors that will manifest themselves as time goes on.  Yalom's Curative Factors of Group Treatment serves as a basis for analyzing and exploring what may occur in college-readiness small group sessions:

              Whether it is guidane or therapy, there is a necessity to intstill hope in our students, as many of our economically disadvantaged students have grown up with the expectation that their economic and social is immobile.  The desire to move up the social economic ladder is in many of our students repressed.  The results is incredulity, rejection of high school education, and is some other cases rejection of social norms and rules.  In other economically disadvantaged students, the lack of information may simply be the main obstacle for considering postsecondary as a possible road in life's journey, and thus life post-high school is made more complicated, less fulfilling, and economic struggle to some degree will likely follow.

              Universality is another reality that will manifest itself in these sessions.  I expect that many of our students believe that a middle class lifestyle is automatically endowed to certain people, or that this lifestyle is out of their reach often reffering them as "rich people."  Many of thse "rich people" have had to start from the bottom just like our own students.  But what is rarely communicated to our students is that many of these people made decisions to either go to school, or save up enough money to start a bussiness from the ground up, even when they were struggling economically.  The key word is "decisions."  If social and economic mobility is to be expeced from our economically disadvantaged students, decision-making in the shadow of economic struggle and their universality must be addressed.

              Another two of Yalom's therapeutic factors that will manifest themselves in our group sessions are the imparting of information and direct advice.  This will come from the counselor, by a combination of direct communication and guidance to students by which they are led to discovery.  It is the purpose of these small-group sessions to offer information so that they may make informed decisions concerning career choices.

               As for altruism, development of socializing techniques, imitative behavior, existential factors, and Interpersonal learning, these will manifest themselves in some students.  Working in groups helps build relationships.  It exposes some individuals to another student who serves as a role model.  So the role model has the opportunity to experience altruism and the struggling student has the opportunity to imitate the decision-making process of his or her peer. They may also share their problems and experiences, as well as mutual interests that go beyond the classroom. If Yalom is correct, these three things will help cure a student from some mental blocks that may impede a student's clarity of mind or decision-making ability.
                 
      One other factor in Yalom's inventory of factors, is catharsis, where the student expresses a strong effec. It seems to be the golden nugget that teachers famously labor endlessly to discover: the famous "Aha! moment" when a student says "Ohhhh! I get it!" Not only is it curative for the educator to hear these words, the student, according to Yalom, is also cured.

    Finally, the corrective recapitulation of primary family group, where the student transfers family experience to relearn and clarify distorted understanding of information or the world around him or her.   Personally, I do not recognize it by either word or by my experience. So, I will learn to identiy it as therapy sessions come along. This is going to be one of my weaknesses for which I am supposed to be aware at the beginning of my first session.]]>     2020-11-01 19:45:50 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880398160     10. Legal Requirement for School Counselors Pertaining That Pertain to Group Counseling. htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880527765           Title 2,  Chapter  Subchapter A: Section 33.003 Parental Consent of the Texas Education Code states:  "The board of trustees of each school district shall adopt guidelines to ensure that written consent is obtained from the parent, legal guardian, or person entitled to enroll the student...for the student to participate in those activites  for which the district requires parental consent"  (TEC, 2018 )

              Section 33.004 on Parental Involvement of the same Title, Chapter of The Texas Education Code provides a more specific requirement pertaining to the statute above:  "(a)  Each school shall obtain and keep as a part of the student's permanent record, written consent of the parent or legal guardian...The consent form shall include specific information on the content of teh program and the types of activities in which the student will be involved" (TEC,  2018).

              In other words, the school and counselors must have written parental permission before the student recieves counseling services.  The form where the parent signs must have details of the small group program that the student will participate in.]]>     2020-11-01 21:40:41 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880527765     11. Legal Requirement for School Counselors Pertaining That Pertain to Group Counseling. htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880553794 Title 2,  Chapter  Subchapter A: Section 33.007 Counseling Regarding Postsecondary Eduction of the Texas Education Code states: "Each counselor at an elementary, middle, or junior highschool, including an open-enrollment charter school offering those grades, shall advise postsecondary education, coursework designed to prepare students for postsecondary education education, and financial aid availability and requirements" (TEC , 2018 )

    It seems that the state of Texas has preempted my proposal.  However, my proposal is that Del Rio High School establish small group counseling that focuses on the economically disadvantaged students demographic.]]>     2020-11-01 22:07:53 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880553794     12. References htarango1 https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880564939 American School Counselors Association.  (2020, November 1).  ASCA ethical standards for school counselors.  https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf

    Cherry, K. (2020, August 3).  Leadership styles and frameworks you should know. Very Well Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/leadership-styles-2795312


    Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, Missouri   Department of Elementary & Secondary Education and the Missouri Center for Career Education. (May 2015). Professional school counselor small group counseling guide: A professional school counselor’s guide to planning, implementing & evaluating school-based counseling groups. 1-43. https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/guid-respon-serv-small-group-counseling-guide-2015.pdf   

    San Felipe Del Rio CISD.  (2020, November 1).  Student welfare: Student assistance programs counseling. Texas Association of School Boards.  https://pol.tasb.org/Policy/Download/1180?filename=FFE(LEGAL).pdf

    Texas Constitution and Statutes.  (2020, November 1).  Education Code: title 2 Public education, Subtitle F Curriculum, programs, and services, Chapter 33 Service programs and extracurricular activities, Subchapter A School counselors and counseling programs.  https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/ED/htm/ED.33.htm (2019)]]>     2020-11-01 22:18:59 UTC https://padlet.com/htarango1/zz7g6yvdjt8w9xyc/wish/880564939