I had a ridiculous caseload, at least at the time. 325 students—I know, I know, many of you would love to have a caseload that small—seemed just unmanageable at first, and serving them all was clearly out of the question.
Then something interesting happened—the students started sorting themselves out. First came the seniors, who were generally eager to see me for two reasons:
- If they loved school, they saw me to apply to college
- If they hated school, they saw me to make sure they were going to graduate from high school, and never go to school again
It’s certainly true I didn’t see much of the latter group after September, but it’s also safe to say most of them didn’t really need a lot of counseling at that point. The ones who didn’t have a post-high school plan were easy enough to spot in September, so they would get some extra appointments, of course. The others got a wave in the hallways, to let them know I was there.
The 9-11th grade students needing help also rose to the top, thanks to three things:
- Self-referrals—it’s amazing how many kids who need help actively seek it
- Teacher-referrals—the teachers with huge hearts who would run into the office at the bell and say “You have to see Belinda, and soon.”
- The high school policy that students with more than two failing grades at the quarter had to be seen in the first three weeks of the next quarter.
With that in place, I decided I’d try something, and see every 9th grader in a month, and every 10th grader the month after that. This was pre e-mail, so you can only imagine the organizational nightmare this was, and it certainly kept the student helpers busy in the office. But even though the meetings were about 10 minutes each, something magical happened—we got to know each other, especially when there was no burning issue to discuss. Some only came the two or three times I asked them to, and some came back more often, but the whole tone of my relationship to my caseload changed, 10 minutes at a time.
If I were doing this today, I’d make some small changes:
- Introductory e-mail: I’d send a note the week before the appointments started to let the students know I was setting time aside for them. I’d tell them if there was anything they’d need to prepare ahead of time, then let them know this is really their time, so if there was anything they wanted to know about—scheduling, careers, college, jobs—they should bring those questions with them. I was here for them.
- The meeting: The actual meeting would likely be the same—some initial chit-chat, a couple of minutes on the task at hand, and then I’d turn in over to them. Sadly, since most students aren’t used to working with adults who want to put the student’s future in their own hands, I’d need to have some key questions handy for the student who didn’t know how to lead or help themselves. These aren’t just questions to kill time; they are questions to model self-leadership skills.
- Post meeting: A quick email to thank the student for coming in, mentioning what we discussed, along with some follow-up information in case there were some questions I needed to look into after the meeting.
A counselor’s job is a tough one for many reasons, but it’s vital to find ways to make the job work for us, not against us. This one worked for me.
