 Have a Heart? The School Counselor’s Role in Building Strong Relationships to Help Support Students Kyle Campisi, Nipurna Shah, Paulo Velasco,

Why building positive counselor-student relationships is important? “Schools are defined by relationship between staff and students.” Yvette Jackson as sighted in the Washington Post  Strong relationships influence success in high school  Strong relationships make schools “intellectually safe” for students to learn and thrive  Strong relationships allow students to communicate without feeling judged, guilty or condemned  Strong relationship allow open communication of thoughts to feel respected and understood  Strong relationships recognize that others have differing view points (Jackson, 2011) ; (School-Counselor.org)

Ice Breaker Activity Have a Heart?  On your heart, write down 1 thing you have done to build rapport with one of your students  Let’s share!

The Role of School Counselors Student Perspectives…

The Role of School Counselors Student Perspective Questions When did you first meet your school counselor? How well do you know your school counselor? What role did you play in getting to know your school counselor? How has your school counselor helped you throughout high school? What are the necessary traits of the school counselor? What do you believe the role of the school counselor is?

Why is the School Counselor’s Role Vital in Building Relationships? We’ve talked about research based reasons why it’s vital for a school counselor to build rapport with students, but we’d love to know what you think?

Who Does the School Counselor Reach? Community Agencies School Counselor Teachers Administrators Students Parents/ Guardians

Princeton High School Who Are We?  More than 1,400 students are enrolled in the 9 th to 12 th grades at Princeton High School.

Student Assistant Principal Meetings Individual/Group Counseling Parent Meetings Departmental/Faculty Meetings Child Study Team, Referral, IEP Inter- departmental work Communication: , Phone, Technology College Counselor Meetings Work with Service Learning Director SAC/Counselor, Dean of Students Community Agencies

Building Rapport With Students… TrustListeningEmpathyLaughter “Building Rapport with Students”

Building Trust Between Counselor and School Personnel  “In schools that are improving, where trust and cooperative adult efforts are strong, students report that they feel safe, sense that teachers care about them, and experience greater academic challenge.” (Sebring & Bryk, 2000).  Five Components of Trust:  Benevolence  Reliability  Competence  Honesty  Openness

Building Trust Between Counselor and School Personnel continued…  Suggestions to Building Trust  Engage the faculty in activities and discussions related to the school’s mission, vision, and core values.  Make new teachers feel welcome  Create and support meaningful opportunities for teachers to work collaboratively  Identify ways to increase and/or improve faculty communication  Make relationship-building a priority  Choose a professional development model that promotes relationship-building (Brewster & Railsback, 2003)

Case Study #1 Case Study: Henry On most days when you see Henry, he is a free spirited, social and confident young man. What you don’t know by looking at him is that he severely struggles with his language-based classes and with completing homework assignments and projects. His test grades are relatively strong, but his overall grades are mediocre, sometimes even near failing. He is naturally smart, with a true capacity for learning, but his grades don’t reflect his intelligence. He lives in a home with a single mom and younger brother.

Case Study #2 Case Study: John John is a 14-year-old freshman in high school that comes from an affluent family whose parents both have advanced degrees. His older sister is a high achiever who graduated high school with very strong grades. John’s parents expect that he also earn good grades and get into a good college. John is academically disengaged and has absolutely no desire to be in school. His general attitude towards life is concerning, as he tends to see the negative in everything that he does. John seems to be frustrated with his parents and refuses to communicate with them, particularly, his father.

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Works Cited Brewster, C., & Railsback, J. (2003). Building trusting relationships for school improvement: Implications for principals and teachers. Informally published manuscript, Northwest Regional Educational Library, Northwest University, Kirkland, WA, Retrieved from Jackson, Y. (2011, 05 28). Why relationship-building is vital in schools. Washington Post. Retrieved from sheet/post/why-relationship-building-is-vital-in- schools/2011/05/26/AG7KVODH_blog.html School-Counselor.org. (n.d.). Building rapport with students. Retrieved from