Technology and School Counseling
By Stacy Solsaa
Technology continues to become an invaluable resource for school counselors. Because technology has become so important to school counseling, The South Dakota School Counseling Association web page is currently under construction. I hope that the changes being made will be valuable to all school counselors. I am currently working on updating the resources page. I hope that the new format and added resources will assist counselors in their jobs. If anyone has a great web page that you would like to see added to the resources page, please contact me at stacy.solsaa@k12.sd.us. Any other types of resources you have would also be great. You can e-mail me if you would like to send something through the postal mail.
Technology Tip: Elementary School Counselors:
A digital camera is a great way to add some fun to classroom guidance activities. You can take pictures of students working together. Then just print the pictures, place them on a sheet of paper or poster board, include some key points you talked about in class or a short poem or song that goes with working together, a title like First Graders Know About Team Work, and you have something great to hang in the hallway. You can also send a sheet home with kids as a reminder of the skills they have learned.
Technology Tip: Middle School Counselors:
Students sometimes believe everything they find on the internet is truthful or valuable information, which we know is often not the case. A fun way to introduce a topic is to have each student bring in something they printed off the internet on the topic you are talking about. Have students share what they have found and you can point out what is good information and what is not.
Technology Tip: High School Counselors:
High School students sometimes have problems navigating post-secondary school’s web pages. Each site is different and has the information located in different places. You can do this activity to help students get practice navigating college web pages. Have every student go to a specific college web page. Then you tell them to find a piece of information such as the admission requirements. The first student who finds it gets a piece of candy. Sometimes it is a good idea not to go the next site or piece of information until everyone in the class has found it. You can even write the numbers 1, 8, 12 on the board and give a piece of candy for the person who find the info 8th and 12th as well.