Can One Minute Change Your Program?
Picture this, you park a chair in the hallway outside of a classroom and you spend 60 seconds or so with every student in the class as they rotate in and out of the room. One by one you check off your class list and the names have a new meaning and you have a head full of ideas on what your program can do to make their lives better.
Minute meetings are not new, but they are a game-changer for school counselors with bulging caseloads who don’t have hours to spend getting to know students. But by combining insights from students, teachers, and parents, you can create a comprehensive understanding of the challenges within your school and develop impactful interventions.
Why Minute Meetings Work
Minute meetings are short, structured one-on-one conversations with students designed to gather essential information. By asking the right questions, these meetings help counselors:
Build rapport with students early in the year.
Identify immediate student needs.
Collect actionable data to inform interventions and programming.
With a caseload of hundreds of students, minute meetings are a time-efficient way to assess the overall climate and prioritize support. For example, by asking students about their goals, challenges, and feelings of safety at school, you can gain a snapshot of the areas requiring the most attention.
Data Sources to Complement Minute Meetings
Now the minute meeting is just the first step. To enhance the impact of your minute meetings, integrate data from multiple sources:
Teacher and Parent Needs Assessments
Collect teacher input on classroom needs, student behavior, and professional development interests through semester surveys.
Use parent surveys to understand incoming students and build small groups for social skills or anxiety early on. While parent participation may vary, even partial data can provide valuable insights.
School Data
Align with your school’s improvement goals by analyzing attendance, grades, discipline referrals, and report card comments.
For states with restrictions on student surveys, leverage teacher observations and behavioral data instead.
Screeners and Frameworks
Tools like the BIMAS screener or CASEL framework can guide your tiered interventions, from Tier 1 guidance lessons to Tier III individual counseling. By removing student identifiers, you can also results with teachers to maintain transparency and collaboration.
Tips for Managing the Process
Use Technology
Google Forms simplifies pre- and post-lesson assessments and automatically generates charts and graphs for reporting outcomes.
Incorporate Teacher Collaboration
You can offer monthly consultations during teacher prep periods to review data and address concerns. Sweeten the deal with small incentives like candy bags to encourage participation.
Target Key Groups
Prioritize students impacting schoolwide data, such as those with attendance or behavior challenges. Organize small groups or individual sessions based on this information.
How to Use the Time-Saving Documentation Toolkit
Efficiently managing and organizing the data from minute meetings and other sources is essential. The Time-Saving Documentation Toolkit can help:
Simplify data tracking with ready-to-use templates.
Ensure compliance with school and state reporting standards.
Reduce administrative tasks so you can focus on student support.
BONUS TIP: Grab my FREE list of 101 questions to get a variety of information from kids.
Minute meetings and strategic data use can transform your counseling program by making interventions more targeted and effective. Ready to take your practice to the next level? Explore the Time-Saving Documentation Toolkit and discover how it can simplify your workflow and enhance your impact.
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