MASCA
MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL COUNSELORS ASSOCIATION
Resolutions that Carry Weight By VERONICA KNIGHT MASCA VP Elementary
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ccording to one U.S. government official website, the most popular New Year’s resolutions set by its citizens include: drink less alcohol, eat healthy food, get a better education, get a better job, get fit, lose weight, manage debt, manage stress, quit smoking, reduce, reuse, and recycle, save money, take a trip, and volunteer to help others. Coincidentally, Time magazine reports that the top ten commonly broken New Year’s resolutions are: lose weight and get fit, quit smoking, learn something new, eat healthier and diet, get out of debt and save money, spend more time with family, travel to new places, be less stressed, volunteer, and drink less. No wonder so many people now declare that they don’t believe in resolutions. Who wants to feel like a failure year after year? Explanations for why New Years’ resolutions seldom survive beyond February 1 are abundant. They are unrealistic, we set too many of them, our culture is too cynical to support positive change, we hold a false belief that conquering the resolution will result in increased happiness…. I offer one more thought for consideration. Common New Year’s resolutions seem punitive and restrictive. Many of them have the embedded message that we (continued on page 3)
VOL. 50, NO. 5
JANUARY 2014
Solution Focused Techniques that Work By TINA KARIDOYANES MASCA President-Elect
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y January, counselors are in full swing and looking for ways to make things more efficient in the office and help students problem solve. This past summer while attending the ASCA conference, I participated in a workshop on the “Top 10 Solution Focused Techniques” for helping students. The workshop was presented by Arond Schonberg and Keith Fulthorp, who work as school counselors in Southern California, where caseloads topple 700 students per counselor. Their guiding principles are: • If what you are doing works, then keep doing it. • If what you are doing does not work, try something different. • Small changes lead to larger changes over time. • All students have the capacity to solve their own problems. • Not all problems happen 100% of the time. Using these principles, there are ten steps to helping students learn how to find solutions to their concerns. Each step helps students to clarify the problem and identify actions that they can take to solve the problem. The first seven steps help identify the problem, and the final
three steps are based on the first seven and guide students to different solutions. The steps are: Identifying the Problem. Ask students open-ended questions about why they have come to see you; have them describe their view; ask “what would you say is the biggest reason we are meeting today?” After the student has identified the problem, ask clarifying questions or any pertinent follow-up questions. This is an important step in helping students solve their own problem. By clearly identifying the problem, students will take ownership and increase the awareness of their actions and options. Ultimately it empowers them to move forward and create a solution. Scaling. Have students tell you where they are on a scale of 0 to 10 and define the scale (0 being nothing, 10 being the worst). It is important to follow this up with descriptive questions about what it would it look like if they were closer to zero? Or how would they know they were moving up or down the scale? If they are not at the top of the scale, review how to prevent moving up the scale, so that the problem does not escalate. By (continued on page 4)
Update your MASCA PDPs Submit your Certificates of Attendance / Evidence of Learning Forms as soon as possible. Search “PDP” on the MASCA website and follow the instructions for MASCA PDP Protocol.
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