California School Counselor - Fall 2008 - (Page 10)

could be better diet and nutritional practices, more exercise, reducing stress, developing better ﬁnancial practices, more sleep, etc. Core professional areas of improvement could be better time-management strategies, evaluating how major events like the “ﬁrst day of school” went, and targeting speciﬁc areas to improve upon for next year, better teamwork between the school counseling faculty, etc. A strong core, whether it be physical, mental or emotional, is essential to our resiliency and our effectiveness. Building and/or improving can be painful (as I have exper ienced in Pilates and as evidenced r by my groans during the workout regimen). n Putting groaning aside, what core areas a professional ly do you need to tackle this l year? If your school counseling team already r works well together, then it is fairly easy to maintain a team spirit by just enhancing what has been established over the e years. However, if there is a lack of cooperation o and/or if it is “every counselor for o themselves,” ” strengthening n that team can be a diﬃcult. Same m thing when there is core e organizational n or timemanagement n issues. If you u are to tackle e developing essential qualities and d practices, you would have to “chunk it out” in doable, b bite-size pieces or improvement could be thwarted m from the get-go. Begin where success t can be evident in a relatively short period of e time. It is OK to identify that better teamwork, K better organization or better calendaring is an n overarching goal; however, measure it in small increments. As I’ve grown older, I have come to see more r clearly just how much more I need to grow. I realize 10 that simple answers do not ﬁt every situation…or every student we work with. I knew that in looking back on my consistently inconsistent behavior toward establishing a physical conditioning program, consistency was the ﬁrst hurdle that I needed to overcome. I would venture to say that consistency is an issue in almost every improvement pursuit. In order to maintain resiliency this year, a consistent, ﬂexible approach to handling challenges allows more room for maneuvering through diﬃcult territory. If we approach this year with taking better care of ourselves, by focusing on the core and by carving out time to plan and set personal and professional g goals, I truly believe that the quality of our personal an nd professional life will improve. Just as individuals need core strengthen ning, so do organizations. As a ﬁnal note, I am a asking for a favor that should not require too mu uch of your time. CASC needs to strengthen its n core membership base in order to go to the o next level as a dynamic organization. We have less than 20 percent of the Calif fornia school counselors as members at this time. I would like to challenge e you to bring at least one o new person into the o organization this year. I would d ask that yo let ou us know t the success o your of eﬀorts s so that we can persona ally respon to nd you and a your new r recr ruit. Ple ease e-mail u us the n name o of the new rec cruit and their d e-mail address along with a brief description of how you brough ht this person into CASC (i.e. sponsoring, informing, encouraging, pestering, bribing, etc). E-mail me at t cascmembershipdrive@gmail.com. I promise you these individuals will receiv a ve personal welcome by me and/or a CASC b board member as a follow-up to your initial action n. Thank you for contributing to the CASC co ore and have a wonderful 2008-09 year! ■ The California School Counselor | fall 2008 r

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of California School Counselor - Fall 2008

California School Counselor - Fall 2008 Contents Presidential Perspectives Jackie's Jottings Executive Director's Report Pics, Clicks and Technics Calendar Index to Advertisers Prevention is Key in Crisis Response High Schools Partner with Cash for College to Boost Cal Grant Awards CASC Southern California Conference and Research Summit II Reflection 2008 WACAC Annual Spring Conference H.B. McDaniel Foundation Awards Announced 2008 Delegate Assembly 2008-2009 School Counseling Program Grant Recipients Named Solution Tree Outsert

California School Counselor - Fall 2008

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