Ready for Summer? Close out These 3 Things to End the Year as a High School Counselor [Episode 124]

Lauren Tingle 0:00
Hi, welcome to another episode of High School Counseling Conversations. I want us to start thinking about getting ready for summer. And what should we be tossing around to make sure that we close out the year with a lot of success and organization?

Lauren Tingle 0:16
So I wanted to make sure I got this episode out early enough to you all so you could let some of these ideas roll around a little bit. But also, some people are out really early for the summer. I know in our area, we have really transitioned recently to starting school really early, in my opinion in the first week of August, and then closing out really early to our schools are out before Memorial Day.

Lauren Tingle 0:39
So that might not be where you are, you might be going all the way through mid June or something. But for the variety of different schedules that we have out there, I wanted to put this episode out early enough that it could pertain to everyone whether you’re finishing now, or you’ve got a little bit more to go.

Lauren Tingle 0:57
No matter who you are, I can bet right now that you’re getting tired. And all you want to do is take a nap. But we’ve got to keep pushing forward, we’ve got to think about how we’re going to wrap up the year in a way that leaves us feeling energized and that we feel like we have completed a job well done, so that we can rest going into the summer.

Lauren Tingle 1:15
There are three kind of big buckets that I want to talk about in terms of closing out our year. So we’re going to talk about student things, office things, and then personal things. So let’s get into this week’s episode.

Lauren Tingle 1:35
So let’s first talk about the student things that you’re going to tie up at the end of the year. Now, of course, you’re trying to get everyone ready for graduation, but maybe you don’t work with seniors. And so there are some other things that you could be thinking about. If you work with seniors, you are juggling that as well as all of your other students because they have needs too, right?

Lauren Tingle 2:25
So the first thing that I’m thinking about going into the summer with all of you know you’re finishing this year, and you are promoting and retaining students and their report cards are going out. So inevitably, you’re going to have a list of students who need credit recovery, or some sort of online course to stay on top of their grades and be promoted to the next grade level for the summer.

Lauren Tingle 2:47
So you are getting students signed up for credit recovery, you are getting organized and keeping lists of who is taking what classes and how you’ve contacted them. So make sure you’re sending out any emails or any hardcopy letters to parents and students saying, Hey, this is what you need to be promoted. Or this is what you need to make up a class or this is what you need just to take a class and get ahead, you’re gonna have probably a variety of credit recovery, and just general online courses.

Lauren Tingle 3:11
So keep your list organized for yourself. Communicate it with those students and parents so that they know what they need, what they need to do, how they log in, how they contact you or their teacher for help. Keep all that stuff organized, maybe in a spreadsheet of when you sent it out and keep that documentation so you can reference it later when they say they didn’t know they were supposed to be taking a class. Yes, you contacted them. Yes, here’s how you communicated. And when you communicated with them.

Lauren Tingle 3:39
Have a plan for checking back in with them. Maybe that’s even an automated email that you could schedule to send on a certain date. Wow, I mean, talk about multiplying your time and working smarter and not harder. Have some sort of templated email that you’re going to send out to that student or those parents and just say, hey, checking in, we’re at this point in the summer, we’re at this halfway point, you should be logging in and working on it.

Lauren Tingle 4:01
Who knows if they’ll actually take you up on that and take those things into consideration. But you tried, that’s about all you can do, especially in the summer trying to reach these students and their families. Put any of those big dates on your calendar, like when the class starts when they need to log in before they’re getting dropped from the class. And then maybe when the class ends, so that you can take their grades, finalize their grades and put them back in on their transcript so that you can promote them potentially, before the school year starts back up again.

Lauren Tingle 4:31
For those seniors who you’re tracking down and making sure that they graduate, that they get their final transcripts to the right places. It’s important to think about your systems for closing out the year here because people are going to be coming in and asking you questions left and right even if you’re not the one in charge of all this stuff.

Lauren Tingle 4:46
So graduation, things that you need to have a system for. Diplomas. Are your students all showing up and walking at graduation and getting their diploma there? If you’re working at a big school with a lot of students who are graduating not all of them are probably walking across the stage and getting their diploma on graduation day. So you need to have a system of how you’re going to give those diplomas to them if they’re coming to pick them up later.

Lauren Tingle 5:07
So maybe that is a checkout list or a spreadsheet where you’re signing out, or whoever is handing it to them is signing out and showing some accountability that it has been picked up on this date. And this was the person who gave it out to them, because you don’t want someone coming back to you later blaming you for something that you had no say in or that you did not do.

Lauren Tingle 5:26
And then another thing for those seniors is having a list of where you sent their final transcript, because they are going to be calling you saying that the college did not receive their final transcript. So you can put in the student’s name on that spreadsheet, where you sent their final transcript per them asking you to send it to that place, when you sent it, and then if they are wanting to ask you like the date or where it was sent, you have that record of that.

Lauren Tingle 5:52
Now colleges will put that back on you, unfortunately. So you will be the one answering a lot of those questions. But hopefully the college has received it and they can say, Yes, we received it or you or your office staff have the proof in front of you that yes, this is when it went out. This is when we sent it out. And you know, you can’t confirm that they received it or not. But you can say we sent it on this date, maybe it just hasn’t been processed yet.

Lauren Tingle 6:15
Students often want that reassurance from adults in all of those areas, whether it’s school, college, or their own portal to see that it has been sent. And maybe they haven’t processed it yet. But you’ve got those bases covered because someone in the front office might be the one responding to that student request or student question. Okay, next, we talked about student things.

Lauren Tingle 6:35
Now let’s talk about office things that you want to think about closing out at the end of the school year. This is a great time to clean things out, especially if you have a quiet day when students are gone, report cards have gone out, maybe teachers have started exiting the building.

Lauren Tingle 6:50
I want you to think about the things that would make your office a more peaceful place for you, especially if you’re like me, and you’re type B, you’re not that type a person who’s kept an organized office all year, there are things everywhere, you’ve got piles, you’ve got recycling that needs to go out, you’ve got things that need to be shredded, you’ve got things coming out of every corner of your office ready to overflow, it’s time to stop and clean those things out.

Lauren Tingle 7:13
Go through your file folders, if you are someone who keeps papers, or just even keeps the basic things that you need to make copies of in a file, like your DSS reports or resources from your district, go through those and get rid of the things that are old and outdated. Get rid of the things that you don’t need extra copies of anymore.

Lauren Tingle 7:32
Maybe update any sort of resources that you have in there. So if it’s community resources, or contacts or school information that is going to be outdated after this year, don’t be afraid to go ahead and throw that away. If you have file folders of student information that need to leave your office and maybe go to a more general area or go to a district office or be passed along to another counselor, this is a great time to stop what you’re doing, pick up those files and move them somewhere else.

Lauren Tingle 7:59
Because if you’re moving files somewhere else, that means you’re probably going to be receiving files from someone. So you want to make sure that you have the space to welcome in those new files or new student information packets as you’re getting rid of some old ones.

Lauren Tingle 8:12
If you’re like me, and you receive those ASCA magazines, because you’re an ASCA member, maybe you bring them to the school, or maybe you have them delivered to the school, it’s time to clean those out. Don’t let them keep taking up valuable space on your shelf or collect dust because they’re sitting there and you never actually get around to reading them.

Lauren Tingle 8:29
I have found a lot of freedom in letting those go without reading them. Because all of those articles are also found online when you log into your account. I find that if I’m looking for a specific topic, or I want to read a bunch of articles about something, so say advocacy or group counseling, they usually dedicate whole magazines to those topics. And so I can go in and find the articles that I’m looking for.

Lauren Tingle 8:51
This really gives me a freedom to let go of the junk that has accumulated in my office. Not that those magazines are junk, you know what I mean? It’s just clutter, adding to the chaos of the high school counselor’s office. So I’m giving you permission. All of that is online, you can get rid of it if you need to, to clear out some space and make your office a more peaceful place.

Lauren Tingle 9:12
If you have binders in your office of things like student schedules time to clear those out. You will not need old students schedules from this school year ever again. You’ve probably mark those up. You have notes from parents that say will you please change my kid’s schedule? If you need to save those notes or just have that paper trail from people put that in their folder that you are keeping on those students, but get rid of the schedules. You don’t need those anymore. I’m giving you permission again. Take them out and recycle them. Clear out your binders because you’re going to fill those binders up with some new students schedules this summer and this upcoming school year.

Lauren Tingle 9:46
Do yourself a favor and dust off the shelves. Use a duster, use a Clorox wipe, make it fresh and clean that you are excited to sit in there and look at your shelves again. I know what that feels like when it’s just overflowing with junk and you just never have time to get up and walk across the room and clean off those shelves.

Lauren Tingle 10:03
It’s time to take down any outdated dates that you have hung up on your walls. You’re usually using these for quick reference for your students throughout the year. So maybe those upcoming SAT or ACT test dates are college deadlines, or FAFSA deadlines for your state. Go ahead and take those down. Those dates have passed, you don’t need those up anymore.

Lauren Tingle 10:22
They end up staying there on our walls or on our bulletin boards, because we’re using them all the time. And then we get used to looking at them and we forget, okay, we can take those down those dates have passed.

Lauren Tingle 10:32
While we’re talking about things up on our walls that we’ve just left up for too long. Do you need to do a refresh on your bulletin boards? We might not feel very creative. So we don’t want to spend time updating these. And you know, it’s kind of feels like why am I going to put some time into this when maybe you feel like nobody looks at it, or we really aren’t changing these out every month.

Lauren Tingle 10:53
Okay, let’s go into summer with an update and a refresh on our bulletin boards. This will serve future you for the start of the school year, you can put something up for August right now at the end of the school year. I love refreshing a bulletin board because it feels like you can see I started a task, I did a task I finished a task. And now it’s done, I can check it off my list.

Lauren Tingle 11:14
If you need some ideas for your bulletin boards, whether that’s in your office, in your lobby or waiting area or in your conference room, or out in the hallway, outside of your school counseling office, I’ve got you covered. I’m going to link in the show notes some bulletin boards that I have created and that I’ve used in the past.

Lauren Tingle 11:29
And maybe you can find one that is a good fit for your school and what your school needs right now, whether that’s about financial aid, or introducing your counseling team, or mindfulness and SEL resources, I’ve got a lot of different ones in there that I think that you would find useful and that you actually can leave up for a long time, once you put it up.

Lauren Tingle 11:47
Take all that data that we talked about in last week’s podcast episode, and put it in a Drive folder or somewhere that you’re going to be able to recap and look at it again in the future. I don’t want you to collect all this data for your school counseling team and your office, and then not do anything with it.

Lauren Tingle 11:58
So I want you to put it somewhere where you’re going to find it again. If you’re thinking data, what data have not collected any data, go back and listen to last week’s episode, I also will link in the show notes to a free guide of places to find data. Because I don’t want you to pass the end of this school year and have not thought about that. Because honestly, you’re not going to think about it again, you’re not going to think about that going into the summer.

Lauren Tingle 12:26
So grab that data and put it somewhere in your office, whether that’s digitally or hardcopy that you’re going to go and look at again for when it really matters because right now you’re just compiling it all and you’re probably not going to dig too much into it.

Lauren Tingle 13:30
Okay, lastly for your office, this is talking about resources. It’s not completely necessary. But it’s like bonus points. If you want to be an overachiever. I want you to take inventory of the resources that you, have the resources that you used, and then the resources that you wish you had for your school counseling program.

Lauren Tingle 13:46
Organize them whether that’s digitally on your computer or in a Google Drive or if that is hard copies. And then keep a wish list somewhere or something that would make your life easier. If there are resources out there that you wish you had, go ahead and start a wish list whether that’s on TPT or just like a note in your phone or somewhere on Google Drive where you’re going to reference it again.

Lauren Tingle 14:05
There are always TPT sales and so if you’re prepared for what you need, you could spend school money or your own money on things that really matter and move the needle for you better than just spending frivolously without really thinking about it.

Lauren Tingle 14:17
So right now some resources that you actually could use with your students going into the summer, my recommendations right now would be the digital mega bundle, which could be some resources that you hand to your students digitally for them to either work on over the summer and send back to you. Or you could share with a Google Classroom of just some social emotional things that they could be doing check ins with you over the summer, if that’s something that you want to put out there.

Lauren Tingle 14:41
Or a junior planning guide. Your juniors are probably chomping at the bit to start thinking about some college stuff. You know, you’ve got those high fliers who are already asking you questions going into the summer feeling like they need to be doing stuff for senior year. I’m actually going to be using that junior planning guide with a neighbor friend of mine who is a junior and we’re gonna sit down and talk about some of that planning that she could be doing going into the summer and for the start of her senior year in terms of college planning.

Lauren Tingle 15:07
So I’ll link to both of those specifically in the show notes. But I’d encourage you to think through like your wish list and organize what you have already, so that you can make informed, smart decisions without just like off the cuff spending money that you don’t need to spend on things.

Lauren Tingle 15:22
Okay, we talked about student ideas, office things. And now let’s talk about personal things kind of combined with your office kind of combined with just like you and your job and your sanity.

Lauren Tingle 15:33
So before you leave for the summer, change your voicemail, if this is your hours of availability, or that you’re not available at all, and who they should contact, go ahead and do that. Write out your little script of what you’re going to say. I know it always took me like five times to record my voicemail. Because I didn’t say the right thing. I wanted to say it differently. I want it to sound differently. So go ahead and type that out. And then read it and update your voicemail.

Lauren Tingle 15:56
Now, also put on your calendar to change that voicemail back when the school year starting back again, because I know I have gone into a school year with that same voicemail on there that says I’m out for the summer. That’s frustrating to a parent or a student or someone trying to get in contact with you. Even if you’re there, even if you’re listening to them, you can easily forget to change it back to a back from summer break voicemail. So put that date on your calendar to serve future you.

Lauren Tingle 16:20
Put up an email away message if you’re taking time off, whether you choose to check your email or not over the summer, or whether you’re taking time off or not, I want you to put up that email away message with maybe some emergency resources, some common FAQs, or a link to some things that would be useful for them. So maybe that’s just your school website, where they can find all the information that they’re going to need.

Lauren Tingle 16:41
Give them some expectation of if they could hear back from you or when they might hear back from you or they will not hear back from you over the summer. And that will give some reassurance to parents or students or at least just some clarity that you are either available or you’re not and they can take a break from emailing you.

Lauren Tingle 16:59
Plan out your summer hours. I know this is a hot topic around high school counseling departments, who is working what summer hours and when. Maybe your principal requires that you work a certain amount of hours or that you are available to answer student emails, phone calls, or be actually present in the office. So plan that around your summer vacations and your availability and your childcare.

Lauren Tingle 17:21
I know that in my department, we have had to be there over the summer before and I have not had childcare because I don’t have family in town. So I have definitely brought a baby in for summer hours to get some work done while a baby is napping.

Lauren Tingle 17:36
Look at your deadlines for the summer. Do your schedules need to be done by a certain point? Like before you actually leave the office for the summer? Or does your school require you to come in a certain amount of hours like go ahead and put on your calendar, your own personal and work deadlines so that you can work it in with your personal stuff.

Lauren Tingle 17:54
And know that just even making the time to plot that all out, you will be thankful because like I said, you’ll know do I have to arrange childcare for this? Do I get Friday off and I can put a fun lunch date on the calendar with a friend? It helps get you excited for the time off that you’re going to have and keeps you organized for the couple of things you might actually have deadlines for over the summer.

Lauren Tingle 18:16
Think about your certification hours. Do you have to be doing any PD over the summer? Do you need some official CEU things or credits to keep your certificate intact? You know, are you at a five year mark or a 10 year mark where you need to be actually turning in some paperwork to renew your certificate.

Lauren Tingle 18:32
And maybe you have personal work goals during the summer. If you want to develop yourself professionally, we would love to have you over in the Clique Collaborative. You can take your time and kind of choose your own adventure with your PD. I get it. Some people want to be learning over the summer. And some people don’t want to use their brain at all. Maybe you want to read romance novels by the pool, I see you. Maybe you want to put in your air pods though and listen to some school counseling related content that will help you spark some ideas and grow yourself as a professional.

Lauren Tingle 19:02
We’d love to have you in the Clique Collaborative. Either way, I hope that you get some time this summer to rest and relax and just let your brain melt. Either one is fine. I just want to help you think through identifying what kind of combination of that you want for yourself this summer.

Lauren Tingle 19:19
And at the end of the school year, I want you to take some time and celebrate with your team. Reflect, look back, what went well, what didn’t, did we meet our goals? Is there something that we want to push ourselves towards as a team for next year?

Lauren Tingle 19:32
Take some time maybe you get to go out to eat at the end of the year after graduation or something. Or maybe you order lunch in and have it catered. I think there’s just like something special about either leaving your setting and going out or bringing in something fun and new that kind of shakes things up and gives you an opportunity to reflect and think about what went well, what didn’t go well. I love doing that with a team. I don’t know I just think that like the end of the year we can tie a pretty bow on things and be able to carve out That space is really important.

Lauren Tingle 20:02
So here’s a recap, a quick checklist, if you will. I want you to be sure that you are tying up loose ends with student things, office things and personal things as you go into the summer. I’ll link in the show notes and episode I did back in 2022, about closing out your year and ending it strong. It’s episode 22. If you liked this episode, I think that you will find that one helpful too.

Lauren Tingle 20:24
And if you didn’t get a chance to listen to last week’s episode all about end of the year data, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to that. The end of the year is a great time to collect data that will serve you all throughout next year. But if you don’t take the time to record it, collect it, jot all of your notes and observations down now, it won’t be as fresh. You’re just not going to really remember it and so that data might go to waste if you don’t think about it ahead of time. So the data collection episode is definitely one to take action on right now to serve future you.

Lauren Tingle 20:52
I’ll include all of those links that I mentioned to resources and membership, freebies, all in the show notes. So you can always find those by going to counselorclique.com/episode whatever number it is, but they’re also in the show notes as well. I hope this episode serve you as you head into the summer and tie up all of your loose ends at the end of the school year. I’ll see you next week.