with behavioral difficulties. It also means knowing how your counselors should work with your administrators, curriculum coordinators, admissions department, learning support team, and teaching teams. Savvy administrators understand that an effective counselor can reduce their workload, ameliorate sources of school stress, and proactively anticipate troubles that may be on the horizon, but only when their counselors are working at their best. Does your teaching faculty understand the role of your counsellors? Has time been allotted to, for example, a staff meeting so that your counselors can get out in front of their messaging? Do your counselors proactively communicate with staff, parents and students? In the absence of clear communication about the way that your counselors can work to build community, assumptions will be made about their roles and how counselors should spend their time. When counselors are pulled into tasks and activities that go beyond the scope of their job description, or the boundaries of their training, this can become a source of stress and eventual systemic dysfunction.
enhance your school community. Take, for example, a conversation about the possible grade retention of a student. Counselors are uniquely positioned to work to synthesize different opinions from stakeholders, advocate for the student and/or family, and also run the process through identified tools4 that can provide the school with a robust and authentic decision-making process. Empower counsellors for the good of all In this article we have urged you to consider the potential avenues for collaborating with your counselors in order to strengthen, safeguard and grow your community whilst remaining mindful that a sustainable, balanced approach will always maximise a counselor’s impact. Counseling content has dramatically shifted to the mainstream in recent years, with classrooms and schools focusing on psychological safety, wellbeing and personal and social education. Given this, the input, guidance and support that your schoolbased counselors can offer is a resource worth investing and reinvesting in.
Do you see your counselors as sources of leadership in your school? Counselors often occupy a role in schools that exists somewhere between teacher and assistant principal, and yet counselors also uniquely value-add in important ways that can
INNOVATION in your CLASSROOM: SKETCHNOTING as a form of Visual Curricular Connection By Ms. Jill Allyn Carter, PS-Grade 12 Art Instructor
My colleague, Alexis Snider Grade 4 teacher at Concordia International School Hanoi (CISH) invited me to present my PD learning from ISTE at the Hanoi technology teachers meeting being held at CISH in Sept, 2018. I told her I would like to talk on how I am using Sketchnoting with my MS-HS art students in their sketchbooks. I showed how I present the information for our NEW ART PROJECTS by using anchor chart paper and a marker in analog style. I had photos of my students sketchnotes and how I felt it was working on empowering my art students understanding of the art work they would produce past the sketchnote. Alexis then started working with her Grade 4 students using sketchnoting in Math and in English. I was very happy to see her students enjoying their learning using a drawing pencil while sketchnoting their understanding. Sylvia says in her book that you will have to decide what to start with analog or digital. I chose analog-pen/pencils/ markers to start. I saw myself as a learner just like my students learning something new. I personally had more confidence with my drawing pencils then my Apple pen. But soon Alexis and I were participating in #sketchnotefever on Sylvia’s website and moved to digital and were using the app Procreate with an Apple pencil on my ipad pro.
I entered the huge McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago Illinois for the International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE) in June 2018. I found many great booths to find information on the latest technology. I went to the EdTECH booth to watch and learn from Sylvia Duckworh (@ sylviaduckworth) as she was introducing Sketchnoting to a small group of educators on why drawing was so important to learning in ALL AREAS OF OUR CURRICULUM. As Sylvia says in her book “It’s about the ideas, not the art.” ( How to sketchnote: A Step-By-Step Manual for Teachers and Students.) 2015 Sylvia, a former French teacher from Canada gave a 20 minute demonstration and I was hooked. I have always known drawing was important in the learning process especially in the Art Studio. But, I wanted to see how drawing could be looked at as what I will call a “curricular glue” for learning. I believe sketchnoting can help. “Sketchnoting is not art” (SD) But, I now believe sketchnoting helps students make connections in all areas of learning in analog and digital styles.
Alexis connected with Sylvia and invited her to CISH during her World Sketchnoting Tour on Nov 2, 2019. During our morning session we learned all about the basics of sketchnoting and the benefits of making visual connections. The afternoon included all hands on practice of various shapes, themes and even holidays. The final outcome was to produce our own sketchnote to start a journey in using sketchnoting as a form of visual communication and thinking in your classroom. The 28 participants were from all curricular areas including Administration. I also want to thank our ES Principal , Kristin Kappleman for supporting our efforts to bring Sylvia to the new CISH ART STUDIO and seeing sketchnoting as a valuable learning process. Now I think.....we should use drawing as a means of communication in all curricular areas to show and explain our learning.... I want to be part of this curricular glue to make drawing easy for all by sharing sketchnoting as a learning tool for visual note-taking. My sincere thanks to Sylvia Duckworth and all the best in your retirement. Thank you for including us on your Sketchnoting World Tour. Winter 2019 Issue 39
