it's been a blur, and there has been nothing but fog since April.
It's amazing how many ups and downs you can have in this profession. It's also amazing that as a person how many times exhaustion can take over and make you not such a great person. I can't make anyone understand the mental exhaustion. Then the adult exhaustion, but that's not for public complaint. The last month has been the hardest race I've ever had. Trying to get everything ready for graduation, and trail by fire is not how I like to do things. But being inducted as the senior counselor by fire, maybe I should have fought harder to stay with the freshman. Here's what I know, I know now that everyone calculates everything differently and trying to explain that difference has been exhausting. I also know that having new administration and trying to understand the process has not been easy, especially when they are not familiar with the process either. Let's just say I know how to calculate GPAs very well now. I also know how to change outfits four times in one day, and what it's like to sleep eighteen hours with three kids. Graduation, awards, senior walk though, senior luncheon, all in one day, it was overwhelming. I am proud of awards day though, each student was able to receive something, and not jus some made up aren't we proud of you award. I gave out over 100 Work Keys certificates and it was a lot of fun. Graduation practice did not go as well as I had hoped, but now I know that the kids check their INow a lot, and we've figured everything out. I only cried for about twenty minutes. I will tell you, I'm not one to advocate for myself, because I've never been that brave. Funny, me teaching kids to advocate and push for what they want, and I won't even take my own advice. I made mistakes this last week, mistakes I will learn from and have corrected. But, the expectations and the pressure, I don't think anyone realizes how important administrative support is to a counselor. That they are our sounding board when it gets hard, that they are the people that we need to stand behind us, even if we are wrong. I don't need an administrator to sit and question me in front of everyone if they don't know, because sometimes I don't know. I know I shouldn't post all of my failures, but sometimes, reading back through helps one to see the mistakes that they made as a person. I'm not perfect, I have never claimed to be, and sometimes blogging is my advocation for what I need. But for now, I'm trying to get myself ready for tomorrow. Heels for fourteen hours on Friday, and I"m still so very very tired.
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There are no words to describe how exciting today has been. There are no words to describe how thrilled I am that my hallways are covered with over twenty-five recruiters. I can't believe in less than two weeks I was able to put this together. I can't believe how quickly these recruiters came out to assist the new girl. The juniors were in heaven and the administration was beyond impressed.
It's kind of hard to not walk out in the hallway and be like, I did this. I put this together. Every year I've tried to grow as a counselor, to add to what I was doing, to make each year something I could be proud of. I think the first eighteen weeks, combined with everything I've done since I've been here, truly makes everything worth it. I'm so proud of everything I've accomplished, I know that's a little conceited, but boy, I've worked really really hard, and I'm so proud of myself. So, when you host a free event, apparently people really want to come. I have twenty recruiters and I've been mapping out where they are all going to be today. Britney has been trying to help with as much organization as possible since the rest of the end of the year push she doesn't really know how to do yet. We've hit our last lull, so I've tried to cram as much into the last few weeks as possible.
Because on top of getting twenty recruiters, we've also been working on course selection and request. We started that this morning, and I may have taken on a bit too much. . . . let's just see how it goes. I am really excited about Friday though. It's something I've always wanted to do, host a college fair, and now I know the process of inviting everyone, so I already have day marked off in the calendar for next April to have the junior fair. I'm aiming for thirty recruiters next year. Wow, I got my tenth email confirmation this morning for the junior college fair. We've set it so they will have about half an hour to roam through if they are interested in speaking to the recruiters. Thank goodness the library is so large, because if everyone had responded, I'm not sure where all I would have put them.
I've sent thirty-five emails to the recruiters and a couple of local businesses. We are going to have a college fair on April 12th. I mean, it's not much of a fair, it's only five people, but it's a start. It gives me a plan for next year that's for sure. So, let's see what happens.
So I had an email from my favorite office aide. I know we shouldn't have favorites, but he really is something. He sent an email wanting to know why the juniors didn't have the option to attend the college fair that is put on by the district, or why there is not one in the spring for the juniors. I don't know dear boy, but you asked so let's see what we can find out.
So what I know is that April is a quiet month for the recruiters, so I've sent out some emails to see what we can do. If I'm lucky I can get four or five of the recruiters out and that will at least peak some interest for the juniors. I'm pretty excited about it that's for sure. So far I have four confirmed, and I'm emailing the military recruiters tonight. I was mentally exhausted at Christmas I think because of everything I had to leave behind at Verbena. That was one of the most challenging moments of my career having such issues arise when I was trying to leave. I guess that was God just making sure I was where I was needed most at the moment.
But I am tired. I forget how much you have to eat in this profession. As I learn about the students and the issues that they face, the more it eats at me. The more that I start to loose sleep. Counseling is not for the faint of heart and at time I think it has hardened me and taken some of the joy out of me. Then there are moments where I see the increased Work Keys scores and I'm just thrilled with what a little encouragement can do. I got to take a group of sophomores on a tour of the career tech center Monday. All seven of them. No one told me that the kids couldn't just hop the bus like they did in Chilton County, so my first solo assembly did not go so well, I took seven kids.
The new Britney has officially arrived, and she is a Britney. She's fun and loves pink and flamingos. She got here last Wednesday, and we've been trying to gear up for Work Keys. She's never been in high school before, she's straight out of the classroom in middle school world, so we shall rise to the challenge. I've also not been feeling so hot. I think the last six weeks have exhausted me. It's been harder to do than I thought its as going to be, but everything is going well. As soon as we get done with Work Keys I have a scholarship meeting to get ready for. I'm excited about that, but it has been really really hard trying to gather scholarship information from the kiddos. Brittney did that a whole lot different than I did, but we are starting to figure it all out. Long day back at work after taking a beating from the airbags. So we have a new counselor in name, she will be approved at the next board meeting at the end of the month, but it will be after spring break before she can join us.
Finished transcript audits on the seniors and juniors over the weekend while I was still laid up. My friend from Verbena asked me how I was doing this morning, and I told him that I had never in my life been so sore. I told him about how the principal asked if he needed to come down and check on me that morning, and how many people from school stopped on the way. He started laughing, and said it's a far cry from the broken ankle. I'm bad about keeping up the blog, but back in October, I was getting out of the car with the Pre ACT and fell, and broke my ankle. I texted the principal and she was like, get inside and stop complaining basically. So when I called her a couple of hours later to tell her my ankle was broken, she still didn't really say anything about not coming to help me. What can I say, it was the finally decision that Verbena wasn't home anymore. So here I am a week after totaling my car, and I've had a lot of emails and texts from people I hardly know, just trying to make sure I'm okay and was there anything they could do to help. I've missed that. I haven't had this since my days in Coosa County. It was a dangerous play taking a job with a grant, but it has been since I left Hanover that I've felt like I truly belong somewhere. It's nice to feel like I'm at home. I'm pretty routine oriented. I like to have a sweet tea every morning since I'm not a coffee drinker. I'm fairly fond of Chick-fil-a, but it gets really expensive, so yesterday I decided I wanted old faithful, Bojangles. I probably should learn to not go to unfamiliar territory though.
So, now, I find myself in need of a new car. I got t-boned yesterday in Moody and it was moment I never want to experience again. There are no words to describe when that air bag punched me, and there are no words to describe how grateful I was that the backseat was empty. We had debated since Christmas on whether to go ahead and transfer the kids up to Springville or St. Clair. This morning as I'm laying here nursing my wounds, I'm glad they are safely tucked away at Calera. This has been my fear since we took the jobs, that something like this would happen. I was sitting still and the impact, I never want to experience anything like that again. Sadly, I'm missing interviews for Brittany's replacement. We did three of them Tuesday, and the last two were scheduled for today. Brandon said he would make his decision by Friday. The thing about it is, they are not going to move the board meeting, so it will be probably the first of April before anyone gets here. . . . . it's okay. We are rocking and rolling and I'm getting ready for testing. |
AuthorHello All! I'm Kelli Muncher and I'm a high school counselor trying to change the world one student at a time. Archives
June 2020
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