The first peer review assignment that I completed was a classroom guidance lesson about bullying. I did feel fairly confident in my lesson because from a ‘teacher’ standpoint I thought this would be the type of counseling situation that I would be the most familiar with. I do feel confident in my abilities to guide and lead a classroom of kids to talk and learn about specific issues.
I know that I need to continue to work on my questioning styles, I sometimes like to over talk things as I had mentioned in a previous blog. I am consciously aware and trying to be careful in that manner.
I will know that my counseling abilities have improved when I am able to validate my efforts against a well seasoned counselor and when I reflect about my progress I will be able to monitor where I have grown and recognize where I still need growth.
I will continue to work to improve my counseling skills by adding to my experience and seeking knowledge that will be beneficial to me. I will also work with my supervising counselor at my school to gain insight on techniques and applications that will be useful to me.
While we are in class it helps me to hear about what has worked for my classmates and just as much what some may have tried and it did not work. I do like to hear examples as well as non-examples, sometimes hearing what wasn’t successful helps me gain more of an insight and perspective about situations.
I’m the same way, our class meetings also assist me in improving upon my counseling skills by hearing about what strategies and techniques have and have not been very beneficial when working with the students. Being able to bounce off different ideas from one another is one of the most useful tools in trying to improve ourselves as counselors. By doing so, we can gain new outlooks and understandings.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree, Alisha, that sometimes I learn just as much from what others have tried and found to be unsuccessful. Each situation is different and sometimes a well planned guidance lesson/counseling session will not go as expected because a certain strategy is found to be ineffective in that particular situation.
ReplyDeleteI have the same "problem" that you feel you have and that is talking too much during a session, I think I get excited for the client and while it is important to be attentive and upbeat, I believe I go overboard sometime. I am aware of this and have done better I think in the last couple of days. I continue to tape some of my sessions and listen while making notes to try to improve on this and other problems I see. We will get there!
ReplyDeleteEven with guidance lessons I have done the past eight years, I still find improvements to make on them each time I deliver the lesson to a class or group of students. Even as an experienced counselor, this class has taught me to listen more to the student. Sometimes, I get so busy I feel pressed for time and try to guide the discussion instead of just listening. This class has been a great experience so far and is helping me become a better counselor just sharing and listening to you guys and Dr. Shavers.
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