Resources:

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/careers/teacher-resources/6637.html

http://www.vcef.net/news/tool-kit-for-educators/

 Virginia Career View - http://vacareerview.org/pro/

Common Career Day issues:

 How do I get presenters?

    - Do a needs assessment with the kids and see what jobs they would like to learn about. It can be easier to recruit if you have specific needs.

    - Send home an informational flyer to all parents requesting volunteers. On the bottom, create a cut off part to sign up with the person's name, job, the child he/she has at the school, phone #, and e-mail. Make sure you put a date on it for when it needs to be returned to you.

    - Do the same for your staff and ask them to contact their spouses, friends, neighbors, etc.

    - Contact your local community service board (CSB) or professional societies. Many times they have a database of members and can send out an e-blast asking for participants.

    - Contact your school's local police station, fire station, military recruitment office, etc. Don't forget a local yoga studio, local newspaper, nearby family owned restaurant, or local college's sports department- sometimes they will bring student-athletes, who are wonderful examples for the kids to see. Phone calls are often more effective than an e-mail.

How do I keep track of all of the presenters and organize it?

    - Keep an excel spreadsheet or google doc of all presenters, their contact into, and their needs (i.e. - outside space, projector, quiet space, etc.)

How do I get my staff to buy in to giving up a day of curriculum?

    - Take some time in a faculty meeting to present data on how effective career awareness is in keeping kids in school, excited about learning, etc.

    - Have the kids actively engaged during career day. Use a worksheet where the students are the "reporters," asking and recording each presenter's responses about how they use math and reading in their jobs, and specific questions the students have designed for each presenter!

    - You might also include a writing activity after the presenter's sessions. Consider having the kids to thank you letters using the information they learned and recorded on their session worksheets then write in proper paragraph writing structure - main idea, details, intro and conclusion.

Updated: 12/13/12
You’re now fully in the swing of the school year – guidance lessons running, groups going, and putting out emotional fires right and left! Do you ever feel like you’re burning the candle at both ends at work and yet there’s always more to do than you have time for? In truth, that’s basically the nature of this job, especially at the Elementary level where we are usually by ourselves, but there are things you can do to help yourself. Especially if you’re a new (or new-ish) counselor, don’t forget about these resources that are at your disposal:

1)      Organize: VSCA has a model for you to follow, much like the ASCA model, that will help you organize and make sure you are covering all of the important points of a comprehensive program. This is great to use in the summer in planning for next year, but a Winter Break revamp works well too! Find it under the Professional Development tab on our homepage or here: http://www.vsca.org/model.asp

2)      Personal Wellness: you have to take care of you to be good for everyone else. Don’t skip lunch even though it’s so tempting because that’s when you can pull kids! If you feel yourself getting frazzled, take the 5 minutes in between lessons to just sit and breathe instead of checking e-mail – it can wait. You are not there to be the teachers’ counselor, even though it may sometimes feel that way- set boundaries. When in over your head, phone/e-mail a friend – another counselor in your district, your supervisor, or me! We’re counselors – we love to help.

3)      Give and Take: Use the resource database on this page. Don’t reinvent the wheel – it doesn’t make you any less of a counselor to use other people’s stuff. In fact, that’s counseling smart because good ideas are meant to be spread. And, if you come across a great one, please send it in so that we can add it to the database for all to use. Pay it forward!