On Thursday, September 19th, 2024, I talked with WJR Radio Host, Kevin Dietz, on ‘All Talk with Kevin Dietz’ about social media in schools; you can listen to my interview hyperlinked below: https://all-talk-with-kevin-dietz.simplecast.com/episodes/social-media-influence-in-schools-_TP9ZQWv?t=0m0s
Here we are with another book that I just had to review, because, as an educator (and school counselor, more specifically), there just don’t seem to be a lot of great books out there for students interested in pursuing a Trades career after high school. However, once I read 2020’s Millennials’ Guide to the Construction Trades: What No One Ever Told You About a Career In Construction, I knew I had finally found what I was looking for: a book…
When I got my (first and current) school counseling job, one of the first things I decided to do was keep a designated space in my office for students to gather-up needed (free) school supplies or to grab a quick snack. Sure, this ends up costing several hundred dollars a year (probably similar to what a lot of teachers spend to stock their classrooms), but the pay-off is more than worth it in my mind. If you are a savvy…
I cannot seem to remember the last time that I actually wrote a book review. Was it middle school? Elementary school? However long ago that it was, here I am again: Deciding to dust-off my book review skills for the first time since kids still rocked snap bracelets; fanny packs (back in fashion now, I may add) and ate Dunkaroos after school. I really did not set out to write a book review this month, to be honest, but by…
Recently, I took some time to craft a Mission Statement and Vision Statement for my career as a school counselor (my Mission Statement), and, more holistically, for all aspects of my life (in the form of a Vision Statement). You can see them below. It is my hope that you, too, may also be inspired and emboldened to create your own statements, that will serve to encourage and motivate you in areas both inside and outside of your career. Mission…
In this first of a two-part series on branding, I take a look at the Blue-Collar Counselor moniker, while also taking a trip down memory lane. The Blue-Collar Counselor Goes to School: It seems that I have always been interested in people and places. Maybe it goes back to elementary school, where, every year, I expeditiously leafed through my Social Studies books looking for all the colorful graphs, charts, maps, and pictures to study that could be contained within the…
One of America’s best-kept secrets might not be so much a secret as much as an often-overlooked, unsung hero in the landscape of higher education. That secret? The community college. Perhaps part of what makes the American college system the envy of the world is the fact that there is such a wide breadth of options—and levels of accessibility—for anyone who wants access to a college experience and education. Community colleges; public state universities; private colleges; Liberal Arts schools; colleges…
I guess that I never really thought of myself as a first-generation student throughout most of college. I went to a smaller, not highly-competitive high school where a good number of students went on to college (whether many finished or not is another story) and a smaller, but certainly not statistically insignificant, number of students did not go to college. Most people around me did not seem to obsess over college brands, rankings, or prestige (and most of what I…
The focus of this discussion is working with underrepresented students of Color—particularly African-American and Latinx high school students (but the following points can also apply to all students), and how counselors can help these students gain greater access to—and experience yearly success in—Accelerated and Advanced Placement courses. (For the sake of uniformity in our discussion: Honors or Accelerated Courses will be categorized as one subset, and Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Dual Enrollment options will occupy the other subset. Together,…