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So let's talk data. I know it doesn't always feel like
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the most glam thing to talk about, but it's really
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important, especially at this time of year. Your data is a
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huge advocacy tool, and honestly, it's pretty pointless
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if you just let it go to waste and you don't do something with
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it. So let's be thinking about that as we get into the last few
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months of the school year.
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You got into this profession to make a difference in your
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students' lives, but you're spread thin by all the things
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that keep getting added to your to do list. I can't create more
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hours in the day, but I can invite you into my counselor
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clique where you'll finally catch your breath. Come with me
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as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that'll
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help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your
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students. I'm Lauren Tingle, your high school counseling hype
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girl, here to help you energize your school counseling program
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and remind you of how much you love your job.
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I hope this episode is coming to you at the perfect time where
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you're thinking, Okay, I only have a few weeks or a few months
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left. What should I be keeping in mind so that when we get to
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the point where we're trying to cruise out the door and turn our
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keys in and lay by the pool—okay, wait. I know that was
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wishful thinking. But when you are ready to walk out that door,
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I want to make sure that you are ready for summer, but that
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you've collected your data and used it in a way that can help
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remind you of the impact that you've made this school year, so
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that when you are relaxing by the pool, you know that what you
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have done has been good work, and you are advocating for all
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of the great things that you've done this year, and you are
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dreaming of all the things that you want to do in the future.
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And you can only do that with the data that you've collected.
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So you may already have in mind that you want your data to move
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your program somewhere special. Maybe you're hoping that next
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year you get another counselor hired on, so that your caseload
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will be lower and you can have more time with students, because
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that's what you really want, right? Your data is clutch in
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making that happen. Maybe you're hoping that next year is the
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year they assign someone else to testing, anyone but you, and
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your data right now could be the thing that moves the needle for
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that as job responsibilities are shifting here and there, and as
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your principal is maybe hiring someone or moving someone into a
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different position.
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Perhaps you're just feeling really scattered in general, and
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you're wondering if anything you did this year was actually worth
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it. Putting together your data where you tie a pretty bow on it
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can be a huge sigh of relief and a really welcome reminder, like
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what I'm doing truly actually matters. Students are different
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because of what I did. And I may sound like a broken record, I
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say that a lot. I say, Are students different because of
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what I did? I love measuring our effectiveness of being a high
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school counselor by this phrase, are students different because
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of what I'm doing here?
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Whatever you're dreaming of for your program, it's not going to
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happen on its own. You know that. You have to bring
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something compelling to the table and make it impossible to
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say no to. If you want big changes, you got to have the
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data to support it. Data is going to be your best friend in
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making that happen. So there's a huge piece of all of this that's
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advocacy driven. You've done the work this school year. So let's
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see the results, and then let's tell other people about the
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results.
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Now, I'll admit, my brain does not naturally think in numbers.
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It doesn't even go there. If I'm being honest, I still have
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trauma from my advanced math classes in high school where I
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never knew what was going on. And I found it really annoying
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that I had to take statistics in undergrad and grad school to
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find T scores and Z scores and whatever other scores that I
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literally don't know what that means right now. That stuff does
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not matter to me if I can't figure out what it means or why
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I collected it, or what implications it has on my
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program.
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So I'm here to encourage you that it doesn't have to be
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complicated. Don't make it complicated. I'm gonna link in
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the show notes a blog post that really simplifies what you can
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be looking for and where you can pull numbers from. I'm also
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going to link to a free resource that is 49 places that you can
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look for data in your program, just ideas of
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places to dig in
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for numbers that are already sitting there waiting for you to
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peek at them. So you can download that one for yourself
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by clicking on the link in the show notes or going to
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counselorclique.com/dataideas.
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I want to give you some ideas of some of those places where you
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can pull those numbers and see how they may be impactful for
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your people. You know, all those stakeholders who are taking
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interest in what you're doing. But remember, this is totally
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unique to you, your program, what your goals were for this
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year, what you're hoping to change for next year, or just
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ideas that you hope to implement in the future.
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So I would start first by reflecting on my goals from this
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year. Did your team, are you working with a team, did you all
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set goals way back when, in the summer, on a planning day or
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when the year started? Or did you write out some goals in your
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administrative agreements? Did you sit down and determine the
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direction of where your program would go, or what you'd be doing
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this year at a team meeting?
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If the answer is no to any or all of those, step one for you
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is thinking about next year, putting that on the calendar,
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because we can't go back in time right now and change that for at
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the end of this year. But if you did have those goals, let's stop
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and think, How did you do? It's time to pull out all the
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numbers. I'm hoping this one isn't too difficult, like I'm
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hoping that you can look at the goal and then kind of answer
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that, evaluate it, did you meet it? So if you had a goal of
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doing X amount of classroom lessons, or you were hoping Y
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percent of students were promoted, or Z number of
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students could identify their number one career cluster after
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your career fair, did those things happen? Let's provide the
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data answers to all of those smart goals that you set.
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So remember, you accomplishing those or not accomplishing those
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is not a true measure of your value or your success as a high
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school counselor this year. You may have arbitrarily picked a
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number to increase by or a percentage to hit just because
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you needed to pick a number that felt right, because you had
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nothing else to start from. So now that you've got a good
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starting place, you can pace yourself for years to come. So
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don't get down on yourself if you did not meet your goal.
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Are you a new high school counselor navigating your role
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for the first time? Maybe you started in this role mid year,
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or you're dreaming of getting your first job when you finish
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up your internship. I've got the perfect free resource for you.
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Head to counselorclique.com/newcounselorplaylist
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for a curated Spotify playlist, just for new high school
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counselors. This tailored resource will help you level up
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your counseling skills, boost your confidence, and gain some
Lauren:
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wisdom that'll ease your transition for your beginning
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years. With episodes like, what I wish I knew as a beginning
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high school counselor, to mistakes to avoid high school
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counseling, you'll be ready for anything that comes your way.
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Get ready to hit play on your podcast player and start your
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journey with confidence, inspiration and expertise. Head
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to counselorclique.com/newcounselorplaylist.
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Happy listening.
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I'd say that following up on those smart goals with the
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results of data or closing the gap goal are your key places
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that you're going to want to pull data from to highlight. But
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maybe after looking at the free data ideas guide I mentioned, or
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just contemplating some different types of data, like
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process, perception, outcome data, you may realize that you
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want to organize it in a different way. I write about
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this in a blog post that I can link, but it's worth reminding
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to you if it's been a hot minute since you learned these things
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in grad school.
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So I'll just kind of chat with you here real quick about
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process, perception, outcome data. A reminder—process data is
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like your cold, hard facts, like, how many students attended
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an event, how many classroom lessons you did, or how many
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students finished a small group that you ran.
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The perception data can be things like quotes from students
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or pictures of events or initiatives that you hosted
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related to your goals, or even stories from your students or
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your school counseling team. Perception data really can help
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you answer questions of how students are different because
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of what you're doing as a high school counselor. The thing I
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said before as like a really great measure, perception data
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is kind of
the encompassing thing that could help you get
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there. So when students answer questions like, I know, or I
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believe, or I can, like I can do this thing now, you've got some
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insight for your perception data. I like to work these
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phrases into post test or like post surveys or, needs
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assessment's not the right word, but the surveys that you give,
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or the ways that you're assessing students when you're
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asking for feedback for something that they've done.
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Outcome data is probably the stuff that you're getting
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intimidated with around data, the graphs, the charts, the
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visuals with the numbers that you collected that show the
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results. Think of outcome data like the before and after to
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show the effectiveness of your intervention that you put into
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A reminder for all of these sorts of data points. Of course,
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place.
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it doesn't necessarily feel good to be like, Oh, we didn't hit
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our goals. Or here's the data to show for it, and it's not the
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data I thought it was gonna be. But maybe your outcome data
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reveals that your intervention wasn't as meaningful of a thing
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as you hoped it would be. But guess what? That is still good
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news. You can scratch it from your interventions for next
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year, or trash it completely so you don't waste your time
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anymore. Or you could tweak things with that intervention,
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and now you have education from the data that you collected to
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change those things up, and really permission to change it
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up.
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So now, once you've kind of thought of where you're going to
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pull your data from, what kind of data that's going to look
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like, what are you going to do with it? I want you to spread it
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far and wide. Think of all of your end of the year meetings
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that you may already have on your calendar, or the places
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that you're going to show up as you're wrapping things up and
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putting a bow on the end of your year, I want you to format your
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data to be shared out in these places.
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So do you have one more advisory council meeting? Use this space
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to revisit the goals you've been talking about with this crew,
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and then share your results. These people are showing up.
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They're interested in it. You've got a captive audience, so let's
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go ahead and share it with them. This can be on a printable PDF
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handout, like to all of the members of your advisory
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council, or can be on a slide deck that you present on a TV
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screen. This is a great small group of people to share those
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more personal perception type data stories with them. You
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don't have to use real names, but you can share student quotes
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or pictures of events or interventions that you ran this
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year. People love visuals and storytelling. I know that I do.
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I'm sure you'll have an end of year staff luncheon, or one more
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faculty meeting. Ask for a few minutes of their time, or, you
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know, get on the principal's list of the presentations that
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are happening at that faculty meeting. If you've been working
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on your teachers to have buy in, or this is something that you've
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been trying to get them on your team to care about what you're
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doing, it's important to be transparent with that data you
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collected. Don't just present it at the beginning of the year,
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tell them your role and then never check back in and share
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what you're doing. I think a lot of respect can come from being
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transparent with your numbers.
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So let them see what came out of your data driven program that
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you've told them that you're running, let them celebrate with
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you. You can probably use the same sorts of compelling data
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that you did at your advisory council here with your teachers.
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Remind them that you got to this point because of their
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willingness to partner with you. You genuinely couldn't do it
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without their partnership. But if you're listening to this and
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you feel like you don't have them on board with what you're
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doing, you know that it feels like running a marathon in the
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mud, like you've got boots on, trailing through the mud and you
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can't make any progress without their buy in. So this is all
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kind of tied together.
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You can send a follow up email after this faculty meeting with
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those key points that you summarized at the meeting. So
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whether someone was there and they need this re-emphasized and
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they get to look at it one more time, or maybe they missed the
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meeting, you're hitting those key things with them here. So
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maybe you can link to that PDF that you printed out and put on
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their tables. Maybe you can just hit those bullet points, make it
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short and sweet in an email, and have them be able to visually
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read that and remember all the good things that you're doing.
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If you have a district get together that maybe someone
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higher up than you hosts, don't be afraid to share out your good
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things. I know sometimes it can feel awkward to be the one that
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stands up and says, Yeah, I have something to share, but you
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being one person to be bold and start that conversation will
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inspire other high school counselors. So I'd challenge
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you, why can't it be you who stands up and shares something
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awesome?
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Share online in your communities that you're a part of. If you're
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in the Clique Collaborative, go share over in our community, we
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want to celebrate with you and chat about how you got your
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results and what you hope to do differently next year. If your
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school has a social media page or your school counseling
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department is active on social media, share out some of those
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results there, people want to celebrate you, and honestly,
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they're gonna file it in the back of their brain, like, hey,
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what they're doing matters, and that's really cool. I didn't
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even know they did that.
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I ended up having a lot more to say about end of year data than
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I originally thought I did, because, like I said, I don't
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think it's particularly sexy or glamorous to talk about data,
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especially when that's not my natural inclination to gravitate
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towards data. It's not what I want to do for fun. My husband
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would beg to differ in terms of interests and stuff, he's the
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numbers guy. But I wanted you to think a little bit differently
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about the data that you might uncover that is already in front
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of you, that process, perception, outcome data. And
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then I want you to brainstorm places that you're going to
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share that good news to. So use those five different places that
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I gave you, and I'm excited to see and hear how you share out
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your data and how it inspires other people to take interest in
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your school counseling program.
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So remember to check out the show notes for that free data
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guide, and then all of the related blog posts and podcast
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episodes around data and other end of year ideas. If I spark
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some questions, always feel free to reach out to me on Instagram
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DMs, I am happy to chat, and I'll see you next week.
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Thanks for listening to today's episode of High School
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Counseling Conversations. All the links I talked about today
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can be found in the show notes and also at
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counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you
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listen to your podcasts so that you never miss a new episode.
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Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me
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a DM @counselorclique, that's C, L, I, Q, U, E. I'll see you next
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week.