Sufia Azmat Noor-Ul-Iman School - NJ

Middle School Division Head

Council of Islamic Schools in North America Executive Director

Is responsible for following up with students regarding academic or social issues.

Acts as a liaison between students, parents, and teachers, helping them to work together to help the student succeed socially and academically.

Recognizes the worth and dignity of each student

Helps students build their self-esteem and self-confidence, develop better peer relationships, improve organizational skills, and improve behavior and anger management skills.

DOES ALL OF THOSE

THINGS

Many elementary schools have no counselors.

California has regularly ranked at or near the bottom among the states in the number of counselors per student.

What’s Happening In Schools Now?

In California, there was one counselor for every 810 students in 2009-10. Nationally, there were almost twice as many.

The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of one counselor to 250 students.

http://edsource.org/today/2012/california-near-bottom-in-numbers-of-school-counselors/24557#.UtM3bvRDvmd

Schools without enough or ANY counselors have to be able to rely on teachers and administrators to identify troubled students.

Guidance is an integral part of being a teacher!

It is about empowering a student to decide how to accomplish his/her tasks;

not solve problems but facilitating the way and enabling the person to help him/herself.

Guidance is assisting the student in making wise choices, plans and adjustments as he/she faces the many crisis life holds.

For students who need to be challenged academically beyond the regular curriculum ◦ - ensure that opportunities are provided through

programs and contests in various disciplines both within and outside the school.

For students who are having academic difficulties ◦ - set up a meeting with the parent(s) and teacher(s)

to identify the reason for the problem.

Must involve entire grade level staff

Move toward preventive/planned rather than reactionary

Include an on-going monitoring system and use data regularly to constantly assess and analyze student performance to improve students’ learning

Parent and family involvement means ensuring their participation in students’ academic and social success

Information for parents is provided at a time and in places that are convenient for family work schedules ◦ Schedule Parent meetings on half days;

Federal holidays or evenings!

The secret sauce in programs that try to improve student behavior is relationships.

The goal is to get students to feel connected – to their school, to their classmates and to their teachers.

One strategy developed by an education professor showed that it doesn’t always have to be time-consuming for already jammed teachers; it can take as little as two minutes a day.

http://edsource.org/today/2012/districts-use-creative-methods-to-counsel-students/24562#.UtM6UfRDvmd

Developed by education professor Raymond Wlodkowski:

Teachers spend two minutes a day for ten consecutive days having private conversations with their most challenging students.

Teachers leave it up to the student to pick the topic, but may get the ball rolling with a comment or question such as, “You seem especially tired today.”

Teachers can learn a lot about what’s going on in the student’s life and begin to adjust their thinking.

Instead of seeing students as willfully being defiant of the teacher,

◦ the teacher understands that they’re exhibiting

behaviors because something is going on in their lives that is causing them to behave in a certain way.

http://edsource.org/today/wp-content/uploads/Two-by-Ten-slide1.jpg

Validate the student’s feelings

Validate what students are already doing well and acknowledge how difficult their problems may be

Encourage the student to change while demonstrating that you are actively listening and care

Compliment

Normalize

Clarify problems and related details.

Develop clear and meaningful goals.

Requires the student to envision how his or her future will be different when his or her problem is no longer present

Know when professional counseling is needed

Keep administrators informed – Cover yourself!

Documentation is key!

Keep parents in the loop.

Reach out to community to find Muslim Counselors

All students must be viewed as potential high achievers as opposed to only high-ability students

sufiaazmat@gmail.com