School Counseling in Nebraska: Recent Episodes
NSCA Podcast Committee
The School Counseling in Nebraska Podcast is produced by the Nebraska School Counselor Association. We look forward to you following along as we discuss, question, and dive into all that the world of school counseling has to offer. Thanks for listening!
On today's episode of School Counseling in Nebraska Jake is joined by Kalene Heaton. Kalene is a current high school counselor at Glenbrook South High School in Illinois. Illinois as a state implemented their own version of Universal FAFSA a number of years ago, and Kalene has both served on the government side of getting Universal FAFSA implemented as well as the school side being in the trenches. Kalene shares some of the intention behind the legislation, tips for how to engage with parents, the timeline they use at her school, and some final thoughts on how this can benefit families and students.
Join Loni and Jake as they discuss the second half of our NSCA Book Club read, The Anxious Generation. In this episode cell phone bans are discussed: is there a benefit to them? Are cell phones the cause of these behaviors in school or just correlated with some other issue. How do students seem to take to not having cell phones?
Additionally, we discuss the impacts that zero tolerance policies can play and if it impacts some of our students with the most needs. Please share out to us with your own stories and experiences. And thank you for listening!
Welcome back to the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast. We are starting off season 3 with a bang, starting back up our NSCA Book Club with Jonathan Haidt's new novel "The Anxious Generation." Join Jake and Loni as they discuss the themes of the book, as well as addressing the great re-wiring of childhood that has left our schools and students processing how to best serve our communities.
We are so excited for you to join us. In two weeks we will come back with another episode detailing cell phone bans, something that The Anxious Generation touches on and now many schools are starting to implement.
Please reach out with any questions or suggestions. Have a great school year everyone!
Welcome to our 3rd edition of Unusual Professional Development! Loni and Jake share some recommendations for our listeners regarding some reads and listens that could benefit school counselors during the summer months. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and we will see you in July with episodes over our upcoming book club: The Anxious Generation.
We see your questions on the email listerv, and are ready to talk class rank! Are you ready to pitch to your local school board, have you read the research behind reporting class rank?
Listen as Loni tells the story of moving Chadron High School from a traditional class rank/valedictorian system to a cum laude system and the benefits.
Why Stop Reporting Class Rank?
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Reduction in kids avoiding challenging classes in order to maintain a class ranking
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Force colleges and scholarship providers to consider the student's body of work as opposed to rank
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Excessive competition with classmates
Listen and learn how you can challenge the status quo in your own district if needed.
Join Jake and Loni as they wrap up the first ever @NSCApod Book Club with the final chapters of Hope Rising. Listen as they go through 15 tips and tricks to incorporate hope and increase hope scores in students and colleagues for educators everywhere.
Don't forget to join us Thursday, May 23rd LIVE Zoom NSCA discussion happy hour! Time TBD
This week Jake welcomes guest Rachel Catlett - former NSCA School Counselor of the Year, current NSCA Governing Board President, and current Director of School Counseling at Doane University.
Listen to Rachel and Jake talk about why school counselors should be using the ASCA Position Statements, where to find them, and how they are created.
Join in for the third episode of the mini-series @NSCApod Book Club studying the book Hope Rising by Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman. “Hope is measurable. Hope is malleable. Hope changes lives. Hope Rising provides a roadmap to measure hope in your life, assess what may have robbed you of the power of hope, and then provides strategies to increase hope.“
To join the club grab your copy of Hope Rising wherever you buy your books and get ready for some great conversations led by @NSCApod School Counseling in Nebraska hosts. Each month an episode will drop discussing chapters and how we can apply them to our daily lives and our role as school counselors and educational leaders.
This month we discuss chapters 9-16, we talk all things covered in these chapters including the stories and quotes that caught our attention, ACE scores, our interpretation of hard data given from Gwinn and Hellman on domestic violence, obesity, and childhood abuse and how we can use the science of hope to help students find their hopeful future by increasing waypower and willpower.
At the beginning of each month, we will dedicate an episode to the book study, and on Thursday, May 23rd get your favorite beverage ready as we will host a live Zoom to have a social hour, discuss the book, and collaborate to celebrate another successful year of school! ALL ARE WELCOME HERE! You belong, whether you read the whole book, part of the book, or just want to collaborate with great professionals and make connections with other school counselors and educators.
Follow, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and make sure you get on our new Instagram Page @NSCApod for book updates and a School Counselors in Nebraska
The ACT has been the standard in the Midwest for many years as the nesessary admission assessment that students need to take to get into a 4-year college. Join Jake and Loni as they discuss the pros and cons of navigating the ACT as school counselors with students, families, and post-secondary institutions. The ACT: The quintessential love/hate relationship? Join us to dive in!
Let's talk about Breaking The Cycle of Reactive School Counseling Practices: Hatching Results. Mindi and Angie join us on School Counseling in Nebraska to prep for their Keynote presentation at the Nebraska School Counselors Elementary Conference coming up!
The NSCA Elementary School Counselor Conference is just over a week away. It will be held on Friday, March 22nd at the Lied Lodge and Conference Center in Nebraska City. Come enjoy a relaxing day full of networking, learning and shopping for Elementary specific books, fidgets, brain tools, puppets and more. REGISTRATION CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT today so register now so you don't miss out. The $130 registration (NSCA member rate) includes a copy of the book "Hatching Results for Elementary School Counseling."
This 270 page book is full of TIer 1 lessons and activities that you can take back and immediately implement in your school counseling program.
Objectives:
- Identify priority lesson topics that ALL students need and deserve in all three domains
- Create lesson plans that are focused on "teaching" and not "presenting"
- Assess students' attitudes, skills and knowledge to support behavior change
- Draft pre/post test questions that align to measurable objectives and ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors
- Explain the importance of sharing school counseling program results with key partners
- Create a Flashlight, 1-Pager or Highlight Reel to showcase results of Tier 1 interventions
- Create charts/graphs that highlight student success and outcomes
- Identify things that keep school counselors locked into a cycle of reactive and inefficient school counseling practice
Hope Rising by Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman. “Hope is measurable. Hope is malleable. Hope changes lives. Hope Rising provides a roadmap to measure hope in your life, assess what may have robbed you of the power of hope, and then provides strategies to increase hope.“
To join the club grab your copy of Hope Rising and get ready for some great conversations led by @NSCApod School Counseling in Nebraska hosts Jake Wilems and Loni Watson.
Each month an episode will drop discussing chapters and how we can apply them to our daily lives and our role as school counselors and educational leaders.
Follow, like, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and make sure you get on our new Instagram Page @NSCApod for book club updates and a School Counselors in Nebraska 👀 GIVEAWAY👀.
Today we will discuss Chapters 1-8 on the March 1st episode. At the beginning of each month, we will dedicate an episode to the book study, and on Thursday, May 23rd get your favorite beverage ready as we will host a live Zoom to have a social hour, discuss the book, and collaborate to celebrate another successful year of school!
ALL ARE WELCOME HERE! You belong, whether you read the whole book, part of the book, or just want to collaborate with great professionals and make connections with other school counselors and educators.
Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and join the giveaway!
GIVEAWAY
To enter the $25 Amazon card giveaway
1) Follow @NSCApod on Instagram
2) Comment on our book club post to let us know you are IN!
3) Like and share the post so other great counselors and educators can join us in learning more about HOPE
4) Follow School Counseling in Nebraska wherever you get your podcasts!
Book Club Schedule:
Listen to the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast to get all the details on the upcoming @NSCApod Book Club and snag your copy of HOPE RISING.
March 3rd - Chapter 1-8 podcast/social media discussion
April 7 - Chapter 9-16 podcast/social media discussion
May 5 - Chapter 17-22 podcast/social media discussion
Thursday, May 23rd LIVE Zoom NSCA discussion happy hour! Time TBD
We have a special episode that our Nebraska School Counselor Association executive team wanted to jump on and speak directly to listeners. In this year’s Nebraska legislative session, a new bill, LB1322, has been introduced that directly speaks to our profession as school counselors. Executive Director of NSCA Doug Hauserman and Assistant Executive Director Katie Cameron will be discussing and going over the creation of this bill, its intent as a pro-school counseling piece of legislation, and some immediate action steps that should be taken regarding public comment down in Lincoln.
The School Counseling in Nebraska Podcast is super excited to announce the BUILDING BETTER HUMANS BOOK CLUB! Our first book is announced in this podcast give it a listen and join us for our inaugural book club! We cannot wait to join with you in connection and develop personally and professionally along side the amazing School Counselors across the state of Nebraska and perhaps the country! Share with your colleagues, listen along, and let's build HOPE in a time where education definitely needs it! Check out the Nebraska School Counseling Facebook Page for more information and dates.
Nic van Oss is the SEL Services Coordinator at the St. Croix River Education District in Minnesota. He is the lead author of the free Be Good People SEL curriculum, a project that started during the first week of COVID lockdown and is now used across the globe. Nic began his career as a paraprofessional in a residential behavior program and spent several years of his career as a School Psychologist facilitating SEL groups at a K-12 behavior program. He is passionate about every school growing an efficient Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) that lightens educator workloads, increases self-efficacy, and gets every student the support they need, when they need it.
Andrew Huzeker is the Outreach Service Coordinator for the EcucationQuest Foundation. Andrew has spent the last month helping students and guardians navigate the new 2024 FAFSA as well as helping provide quality access to college across the state of Nebraska.
EducationQuest Foundation is a nonprofit with a mission to improve access to higher education in Nebraska.
They provide free college planning services, need-based scholarship programs, college access grants for high schools, college access resources for middle schools, and outreach services for community agencies.
EducationQuest locations in Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney, and Scottsbluff.
EducationQuest has provided free college planning services since 1986. Before 1998, we served Nebraska families through what was known as Educational Planning Centers.
In 1998, the EducationQuest Foundation was created when the Nebraska Higher Education Loan Program (NEBHELP) converted from a nonprofit secondary market for student loans to a for-profit corporation providing similar services. EducationQuest used the loan portfolio sale proceeds to create a permanent endowment. It is through this endowment that we fund our free programs and services.
The Nebraska School Counselor Association is accepting applications to join the board. This is a great opportunity for school counselors across the state to be a part of the organization.
Jake and Loni take on part 2 of Unusual Professional Development from season 1. As avid readers, listeners, watchers and consumers of books, podcasts, and all things media - Jake and Loni give their most recent enjoyable recommendations right in time for the holiday break. Snuggle in with a new book and get ready for BIG things including a read-along/book study coming from School Counseling in Nebraska in the new year.
One of the most important parts of our job as school counselors, this week we will be diving into documentation. Joining us this week we are thrilled to have Jessica Mukherjee. Jessica is a high school counselor in Omaha Public Schools, and has previously been a middle school counselor. Jessica has also served as a board member for the Nebraska School Counselor Association and has been vice-chair as well as a voting delegate at the ASCA Leadership and Delegate Institute. We will talk a little about why we document, what are some pro-tips we’ve heard or seen from other school counseling professionals, and break down why documenting is important amidst all that comes across our desk over the course of the school day.
Geoff Heckman is a school counselor and counseling department chair at Platte County High School in Platte City, MO, an ASCA RAMP school, and an adjunct instructor for Missouri Baptist University. He has been a school counselor for 20 years counseling at both the middle and high school levels. He is a Past President for the Missouri School Counselor Association and was selected as Missouri's School Counselor of the Year in 2017, and was an ASCA School Counselor of the Year Finalist in 2018. Most recently he served on the ASCA Board of Directors and was the 2022-23 Board Chair. This podcast will leave your feeling empowered to advocate for the great work you do as a school counselor.
Geoff will explain how advocating for yourself doesn't have to be "daunting" or have you feeling less like a team player, but empower those around you to see where your roles collide and how to spend more time doing things that positively contribute to your student's success.
Jake welcomes all school counselors to the 2023 School Counselor Academy in Kearney Nebraska. We look forward to seeing you ther!
Studies have shown that hope is the number one predictor of future well-being. It is easily measured, defined, taught and practiced. Listen and learn how you can implement hopeful behaviors in your school setting to improve attendance, engagement, achievement and staff resilience. Over 2,000 research studies have shown that hope is the #1 predictor of future well-being outcomes. Simply stated high-hope individuals are more likely to be healthier, happier in their jobs, and more fulfilled in life than their lower-hope peers. Hope is easily defined, easily measured, and easily taught/practiced. In school settings, hope is a predictor of attendance, school engagement, achievement, and staff productivity. We will learn how to define hope and apply hope science to our own lives and to those around us.Liz Bartels is a Training Specialist at Project Harmony. In her role as Training Specialist, Liz trains professionals and community members about child abuse laws, trauma, methods to engage youth and families, and prevention strategies. Prior to working at Project Harmony, Liz spent 8.5 years at a local foster care agency providing in-home support, crisis management, training foster parents, licensing foster homes, and walking with youth and families through the foster care system. Liz is passionate about empowering those who work with and care about kids by providing training that is engaging and relevant. Please welcome Liz Bartels!
Jake and Loni discuss a common thread that has been occurring in their conversations with parents, students, and friends: Processing and how to react to student's disappointments. This episode addresses many common disappointments both students, parents, and families can go through in a school year and some "aha" moments Jake and Loni have learned from along the way.
Does your school have a specific policy for accepting homeschool credits? Are you seeing a rise in students doing partial days at the elementary and middle school level? Is the new NSAA policy and LB7051 helping or harming students in regards to the flexibility of homeschool vs. public school? Hear Jake and Loni talk about their experience with homeschooled students, advising students, and the rise of online school as a viable option in replacement of traditional public education.
What are your personal boundaries with students and parents concerning cell phones, social media, and email communication? Hear Loni and Jake talk about their district and personal policies on what to do when you get that text, friend add, or email that you didn't expect!
Time Triage - How do you triage your time as a school counselor? Do you ever feel guilty when you don't get to that "to do list", are you having a hard time deciding what needs to be done first? Social-emotional toll of deciding what is the most important of all the tasks can be real! Listen as Loni talks with NSCA Assistant Director and long-time OPS school counselor Katie Cameron as they discuss how to manage the emotional labor that comes with managing time with a 300+ student caseload. Katie also shares tips and tricks for documenting time and why we should be doing so.
Listen as school counselors Jake and Loni rapid-fire five of their most recent favorite reads, listens, and maybe even a watch or two. If you are in need of a good book or podcast that not only engrosses your attention and fills your cup, but leaves you thinking about your job in a more compassionate way - you are not going to want to miss this episode!
8 to Great® is an 8-step Success Skills process that is as practical as it is powerful. Using an evidence- based middle school and high school curriculum, 8 to Great® restores hope and inspires possibilities for students, helping them believe in and achieve their goals and dreams. Join Michael Garcia and his daughter as they talk about the program and the growth they achieved using this program this school year.
Betty White is coming back to Nebraska and the NSCA Elementary School Counselor Conference due to popular demand. Her previous presentation at the Elementary School Counselor Conference was energizing, engaging and sent attendees home with practical ideas to implement immediately in their schools. Her topic will focus on elementary student mental health with special emphasis on Tier 1 supports as a way to prevent mental health challenges.
Dr. Wendy Rock currently serves as the chair of the ASCA Ethics Committee and served as the co-chair during the latest revision of the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors which were released last summer. Initially trained as an elementary educator, Dr. Rock also has experience at the secondary level. She currently is an Assistant Professor of Counseling and School Counselor Coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana University. Dr. Rock will provide essential ethics training on current topics including a review of all the changes to the ASCA Ethical Standards in the 2022 edition compared to the previous edition.
Jake Willems gives an overview of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and some practical strategies for working with culturally diverse, LGBTQ+, pregnant, and assorted other students as well. This is a brief reworking of his breakout session at the 2022 School Counselor Academy.
Josh MacNeil (CEO InMind Services) began his career as a teacher where he began adopting trauma-informed strategies into his classroom. He realized how important this approach was and saw amazing improvements in his students. Because of Josh’s success, both in his classroom and in communicating trauma-informed educational practices, he began to get many requests to consult and train others, which propelled him to opportunities to train all over the world.
In addition to earning his Masters in Multicultural Education, Josh has completed certifications in both The Child Trauma Academy’s Neurosequential Model of Education and Therapeutics. He has presented at regional, state, national, and international conferences and now offers training and consultation for schools and individuals throughout the United States and abroad. Josh is also an adjunct professor in Eastern University’s Masters of Education program, and he is the CEO of InMind Services, an organization whose mission is to support those who support children.
https://inmindservices.com/
https://www.instagram.com/inmind_services/
https://www.facebook.com/NeuroLogicByLakeside/posts/joshua-macneill-director-of-neurologic-initiatives-traveled-to-oslo-norway-last-/2303618983298707/
Jake Willems speaks with Doug Hauserman, executive director of the Nebraska School Counseling Association about the Day on the Hill and a few bits of legislation that impact school counselors
You may remember that in the fall, Mrs. Hahn was named the Elementary School Counselor of the year for the Nebraska School Counselor Association (NSCA). Along with a plaque and a $200 stipend, this award allowed her to be entered as a candidate for the 2023 overall Nebraska School counselor of the year. At a celebration in Lincoln, Nebraska, last night, Thursday, February 23, 2023, Mrs. Hahn was selected as the 2023 Nebraska School Counselor of The Year.
To say we are elated for Mrs. Hahn is a complete understatement.
Dr. Rhodes describes Mrs. Hahn as an invaluable North Platte Public Schools team member. "Mrs. Hahn exemplifies character with a student-centered approach to educational principals." Rhodes added, "Mrs. Hahn shares a caring attitude with everyone she interacts with. She is never afraid to step in and assist when others are in need."
Mrs. Hahn will serve as the Nebraska School Counselor of the Year until February 2024. Additionally, she will visit Washington, D.C., next February to represent Nebraska nationally.
Enjoy this episode where Kara talks ALL THINGS school counseling including her closing the gap program, experience at the state legislator, and tips for new professionals in school counseling.
ASCA Position Statements:
The School Counselor and Transgender and Nonbinary Youth: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Transgender-Gender-noncon
The School Counselor and LGBTQ+ Youth: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-LGBTQ-Youth
How Chadron Schools go about administering Social-Emotional Screeners in Primary, Intermediate, Middle School, and High School and all the logistics that come with.
ASCA Position Statement: The School Counselor and Social Emotional Development: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Social-Emotional-Developm