Join Jake and Loni as they discuss their journey to school counseling, and why school counseling is a vital, important, and wonderful role within the school environment. This will be Loni and Jake's last episode running the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast, it has been our pleasure to help facilitate these conversations and professional development to our colleagues in the state and beyond. Thank you for listening!

For all that school counseling entails, one of the most challenging aspects can be supporting our buildings when grief visits our schools. Join Loni and Jake as they discuss grief, including strategies, resources, and the importance for making room for grief when it enters our buildings and communities.

On today's episode of School Counseling in Nebraska Jake is joined by Kalene Heaton. Kalene is a current high school counselor at Glenbrook South High School in Illinois. Illinois as a state implemented their own version of Universal FAFSA a number of years ago, and Kalene has both served on the government side of getting Universal FAFSA implemented as well as the school side being in the trenches. Kalene shares some of the intention behind the legislation, tips for how to engage with parents, the timeline they use at her school, and some final thoughts on how this can benefit families and students.

Join Loni and Jake as they discuss the second half of our NSCA Book Club read, The Anxious Generation. In this episode cell phone bans are discussed: is there a benefit to them? Are cell phones the cause of these behaviors in school or just correlated with some other issue. How do students seem to take to not having cell phones?

Additionally, we discuss the impacts that zero tolerance policies can play and if it impacts some of our students with the most needs. Please share out to us with your own stories and experiences. And thank you for listening!

Welcome back to the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast. We are starting off season 3 with a bang, starting back up our NSCA Book Club with Jonathan Haidt's new novel "The Anxious Generation." Join Jake and Loni as they discuss the themes of the book, as well as addressing the great re-wiring of childhood that has left our schools and students processing how to best serve our communities.

We are so excited for you to join us. In two weeks we will come back with another episode detailing cell phone bans, something that The Anxious Generation touches on and now many schools are starting to implement.

Please reach out with any questions or suggestions. Have a great school year everyone!

Welcome to our 3rd edition of Unusual Professional Development! Loni and Jake share some recommendations for our listeners regarding some reads and listens that could benefit school counselors during the summer months. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and we will see you in July with episodes over our upcoming book club: The Anxious Generation.

We see your questions on the email listerv, and are ready to talk class rank! Are you ready to pitch to your local school board, have you read the research behind reporting class rank?

Listen as Loni tells the story of moving Chadron High School from a traditional class rank/valedictorian system to a cum laude system and the benefits.

Why Stop Reporting Class Rank?

1. Reduction in kids avoiding challenging classes in order to maintain a class ranking

2. Force colleges and scholarship providers to consider the student's body of work as opposed to rank

3. Excessive competition with classmates

Listen and learn how you can challenge the status quo in your own district if needed.

Join Jake and Loni as they wrap up the first ever @NSCApod Book Club with the final chapters of Hope Rising. Listen as they go through 15 tips and tricks to incorporate hope and increase hope scores in students and colleagues for educators everywhere.

Don't forget to join us Thursday, May 23rd LIVE Zoom NSCA discussion happy hour! Time TBD

This week Jake welcomes guest Rachel Catlett - former NSCA School Counselor of the Year, current NSCA Governing Board President, and current Director of School Counseling at Doane University.

Listen to Rachel and Jake talk about why school counselors should be using the ASCA Position Statements, where to find them, and how they are created.

Join in for the third episode of the mini-series @NSCApod Book Club studying the book Hope Rising by Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman.  “Hope is measurable. Hope is malleable. Hope changes lives. Hope Rising provides a roadmap to measure hope in your life, assess what may have robbed you of the power of hope, and then provides strategies to increase hope.“

To join the club grab your copy of Hope Rising wherever you buy your books and get ready for some great conversations led by @NSCApod School Counseling in Nebraska hosts. Each month an episode will drop discussing chapters and how we can apply them to our daily lives and our role as school counselors and educational leaders.  

This month we discuss chapters 9-16, we talk all things covered in these chapters including the stories and quotes that caught our attention, ACE scores, our interpretation of hard data given from Gwinn and Hellman on domestic violence, obesity, and childhood abuse and how we can use the science of hope to help students find their hopeful future by increasing waypower and willpower.

At the beginning of each month, we will dedicate an episode to the book study, and on Thursday, May 23rd get your favorite beverage ready as we will host a live Zoom to have a social hour, discuss the book, and collaborate to celebrate another successful year of school! ALL ARE WELCOME HERE! You belong, whether you read the whole book, part of the book, or just want to collaborate with great professionals and make connections with other school counselors and educators.

Follow, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and make sure you get on our new Instagram Page @NSCApod for book updates and a School Counselors in Nebraska