Service Delivery from the Guidance Office is seeing big shifts:

Students in my middle schools are no longer just readers of or listens to information put out by guidance counselors. Within the password protected Blackboard site our District has set up for me for guidance curriculum, we have Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Videocasts, Email, Homepages, Calendars, Discussion Boards, Questions forums, Guidance PowerPoints, Articles, etc. Our students are able to interact with the information we post and with each other as they share their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for application of guidance curriculum. Because we have more than one middle school, we are able to put students in touch with students from other buildings within a safe internet system. As students learn that our site is a Read/Write site we are getting more and more participation.

 Right now I am doing a project with my 8th grade gifted students on Blackboard. We are using the message system, discussion board, Blogs, Wikis, course documents, etc to learn more about the 7 Habits and how they can be applied. I have three middle schools so my time in each building is limited. Being able to communicate with students through Blackboard enables me to better meet their needs. In the future, I can see doing group counseling through password protected Wikis or chat rooms within our system. 

When I first started learning about Web 2.0 technology in the classroom, my brain hurt and I thought this would be over my head. After only a few weeks of training, I see Web 2.0 tools helping me provide great  service my students more effectively. Using technology in the guidance office is a shift that my colleagues were originally surprised by and resistant to. Now after seeing what I am doing, they want a guidance page set up for our whole Guidance department so they can do what I am doing. The more students we reach out and help students and their families, the more other staff will see the usefulness of Web 2.0 technology in all areas of education.

Ideas for Guidance Podcasting include:

• Students telling their experiences and advice for transitioning to a new school or grade level.

• Guidance Counselors recording interviews with students about Time Management, Study Skills and Test Taking Strategies.

• Guidance Counselors recording the upcoming calendar of college speakers, standardized tests, or other guidance activities.

• Guidance Counselors giving strategies for dealing with stress, decision making, goal setting, implementing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, and bullying.  bullying.   CAS007 – Bullying: Intervention Strategies for the Victim and Bully w/ Dr.  Walter B. Roberts.  Airdate 2/16/2006.   I would recommend using this Podcast in staff development or with students in small group or individual counseling as you work with the bullies, bystanders, or the targets.   

• Guidance Counselors recording presentations for students or parents who could not attend (this may need to be longer than the 5-10 minutes maximum-it depends on the content and who the presenter is).

 The easiest way to begin is to create a podcast or vodcast (video podcast) of  a presentation or topic you have already worked with for years.   Check out Podcasts for Educators, Schools and Colleges for help getting started.    The Counselor’s Podcast™, a service of the Naviance Network™, features leading voices from the  school counseling community speaking on topics of professional interest.  The CounselorAudioSourse.net is another great site for examples of  School Counselor Podcasting. 

I was surprised last Saturday when I brought up Web 2.0 technology at the lunch table with other SAT proctors.  They were all resistent to the new additions to the district Blackboard page because they saw  having to Wiki and Blog as a burden instead of a help.  More training needs to be done so that they and others feel comfortable and move forward in their use of Wiki’s and Blogs.  My response is always to ask for more staff development classes.  We are actually, on Tuesday,  having a class that will teach district staff about Wiki’s and Blogs that can be done within our Blackboard system.   I plan to attend and learn as much as possible. 

http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/category/6/68/58/