KY School Counselor Meet-up
Counselors:
You are doing it! Keep up the great work and continue to offer those direct/indirect services for your students regardless of the virtual, hybrid or in-person model your district has chosen.
I will be facilitating a meet-up for school counselors on Oct. 13 at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET. There is a maximum of 250 participants per meet-up. Complete this School Counselor Meet-up form to register and submit questions you'd like to discuss during this learning opportunity.
 Kentucky School Counselor Mixtape
Listen to "Ok Not to Be Ok" by Demi Lovato and Marshmello. Many of the students and colleagues we work with need to be reassured that it is absolutely OK not to be OK right now. Reassure them that they are normal people trying to be resilient during a difficult time.
You can connect this song to Mindset 6: Positive attitude toward work and learning, Behavior/Self-Management Skill 7: Demonstrate effective coping skills when faced with a problem, and Behavior/Self-Management Skill 8: Demonstrate the ability to balance school, home and community activities.
School Counselor Use of Time Survey
Counselors,
Every superintendent recently received a survey that is mandated by law to be completed by Nov. 1 of each school year. The local school district superintendent shall report to the department the number and placement of school counselors in the district. The report shall include the source of funding for each position as well as a summary of the job duties and work undertaken by each counselor and the approximate percentage of time devoted to each duty over the course of the year.
Please make sure you are speaking with your district's central office and communicating your data to ensure the KDE receives accurate information. You also may choose to work with your district in order to create a districtwide system to collect this data.
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This free, one-hour self-paced course is a guide for school-based or community-based mental health professionals to train school staff to lead Kentucky’s suicide prevention course for students in grades 6-12.
The course also reviews the comprehensive suicide prevention training used with students in Jefferson County Public Schools, how to involve parents, and how to use the tools available for risk assessment and other resources. Topics include how to give students a voice in the training, how to recognize signs of suicidal ideation, how to deal with social media pressures and how students can find help for themselves or their peers in distress.
The course also examines how schools can support student well-being by taking a strength-based perspective on mental health. This course is designed to be a mid-year refresher offered prior to going into winter break.
We recommend that schools offer this course in November in an effort to prevent suicide and normalize anxiety, depression and more for their students prior to winter break.
The Kentucky Department of Education would like to thank Sara O'Keefe from KET, Dr. Michelle Sircy from Jefferson County Public Schools and Beck Whipple from the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities for their partnership and contributions to this project.
Free Middle and High School Lessons on Resilience and Coping
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) recently met with students from all over the state who are on the Commissioner's Student Advisory Council. We specifically asked about subjects and tools they felt they needed to learn the most.
We gave many options, but overwhelmingly they explained that they needed information and tools that would help them with coping. Take a look at the most recent newsletter from Lead4Change (which specifically teaches coping) to learn about tier 1 social/emotional lessons you can implement in your comprehensive school counseling programs. The Lead4Change curriculum is free and can be found at www.lead4change.org.
Free Elementary School SEL Lessons to Help Students Respond to Challenges
Do you have students who feel disconnected or not sure how they can help make the world a better place? Then check out the Global Game Changers curriculum, which uses service learning to teach essential social-emotional skills. It's free and full of tools that translate seamlessly into the classic or virtual classroom. Check out the Global Game Changers website to learn more.
Howell Elementary School Counselors (Erlanger) Embrace Virtual School Counseling
Take a look at Craig Dollin's virtual counseling office along with his co-counselor, Sherry Ryle's virtual counseling office.
You will be able to find several embedded links in each Bitmoji classroom. These links include Character Effect Videos (Assigned Weekly), Counseling Referral Forms, Calming Videos, Educational Stories and so much more! Way to go, Craig and Sherry!
If you are doing something in your comprehensive school counseling that you'd like to share with others so they can enhance their programs, please email me at damien.sweeney@education.ky.gov.
Bardstown/Nelson County Chambers of Commerce produce Workforce Hub Website to Retain Local Talent
As part of Lincoln Trail's efforts to retain local talent and Bardstown High School's efforts to get students out in the community for work-based experiences, they worked with the Bardstown and Nelson County Chambers of Commerce to develop The Workforce Hub website.
The website provides their community with hundreds of workforce resources for job seekers, employers, students, educators and those looking to overcome barriers to employment. Here is an overview about the website.
They also have developed an internship management system called Imblaze, which is integrated into The Hub website. Employers can access the site and post/advertise work-based learning opportunities for students. Students can access the database to search, suggest and apply for positions. It is a social media-like platform in that students also can use to share opportunities with their friends. The best part about it is that students use this system to clock in/out of the internships, which helps with accountability.
KDE Seeking Nominations for 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholars
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is seeking nominations for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. This is not a scholarship; however, all scholars will be honored for their accomplishments during the National Recognition Program held in June in Washington, D.C.
Presidential Scholars will be guests of the U.S. Department of Education commissioner during the National Recognition Program and enjoy an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with government officials, educators and other accomplished people. To commemorate their achievement, the scholars are awarded the U.S. Presidential Scholars medallion at a ceremony sponsored by the White House in Washington D.C. An in-person ceremony is planned at this time.
Each school may nominate two high school seniors: one male and one female. Educators are encouraged to nominate students who, while demonstrating outstanding scholarship, might not otherwise be nominated through the current ACT/SAT or arts recognition processes.
For the arts component, students must participate in the National YoungArts program. In addition to the general nominations, educators also are being asked to nominate additional students from your jurisdiction to be included as candidates for excellence in career and technical education.
It may be helpful to consider the following questions:
- What about the student makes him or her stand out as having outstanding scholarship?
- What special challenges or hurdles has this student overcome while still achieving success in academics, technical education or in the arts?
Students who apply should complete the first page of this application form. The second page must be completed by a counselor or teacher who is most familiar with the student. Email the completed application for the male and female candidate from your school to Kathie Anderson by Oct. 30.
KDE will select 25 students for the 2021 application and submit these to the national selection committee who will determine Presidential Scholar winners.
New Report from the Council on Postsecondary Education Highlights the Need to Increase Dual Credit Participation Rates by Minority and Low-income Students
Recently the Council on Postsecondary Education released their new research report. The report especially highlighted the positive effect of dual credit opportunities for minority and under-resourced students:
“Among non-minority, low-income students, participation increased second-year persistence by 9.3 percentage points. In addition, non-minority, low-income participants were 11.1 percentage points more likely to earn a 3.0 GPA or higher in their first year, compared to non-participants.
Among underrepresented minority, low-income students, participation increased second year persistence by over 8 percentage points, and the likelihood of earning a 3.0 GPA or higher in their first year also increased by over 8 percentage points.
A dual credit experience also had a slightly greater effect on the second-year persistence for underrepresented minority students, compared to white and Asian students.”
These findings highlight the need to increase dual credit participation rates by minority and low-income students. KCTCS was challenged in a subsequent meeting by Aaron Thompson, CPE president, and Rep. James Tipton to increase this participation rate.
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