MS Counselor
Job Description
Position Title: Middle School Counselor-Social, Emotional
Division: Middle School
Supervisor: Middle Principal
Position Summary:
Utilizing leadership, advocacy and collaboration, the counselor promotes student success, provides preventive services and responds to identified student needs by implementing/delivering a comprehensive school counseling program that addresses social and emotional development for students in grades 6 to grade 8, and transition to grade 9.
Requirements
Education
[Required]
▪ BA degree in education
[Desired]
▪ Masters or advanced degree in guidance counseling with Certification in International Counseling or experience in a clinical setting.
Experience
[Required]
▪ Experience as a counselor in a middle school setting
[Desired]
▪ Counseling experience with middle students for three years or more
▪ Working in an international school setting and familiarity with the American educational system
▪ Working successfully with culturally diverse population, specifically Asian.
▪ Two years of teaching experience
Skills
[Required]
▪ Excellent knowledge of the developmental needs of middle school-aged students.
▪ Grounded in knowledge about Positive Psychology and practice similar to Solution-Based Approach.
▪ Skilled in facilitating groups of students and adults
▪ Ability to develop initiatives responsive to student need.
▪ Skillful at using technology.
▪ Excellent interpersonal skills in order to collaborate with staff, parents, students and administrators.
o Communicator
o Problem solver
o Organized
o Sensitive (particularly to the needs of the expat family & the Third Culture Child)
o Diplomatic
▪ Ability to lead in a crisis intervention
▪ Strong organizational and time management skills
▪ Collaborative skills, teachable, flexible, familiar with working on teams
General Expectations
▪ As a school grounded in the Christian faith, we hire Christian teachers and administrators. Concordia seeks to hire candidates who are able to model their faith, are interested in the complex questions of faith and spirituality, and who are keen to learn and interact with others of different faith traditions.
▪ Addressing the needs of the whole child is an important part of Concordia’s ethos and a member of Concordia’s faculty embraces opportunities to work with students beyond the classroom for co-curricular activities.
▪ Seeks out the opportunities to work with and learn from their peers.
▪ Teaches emotional wellness for students.
▪ Facilitates Care and Concern meetings with teachers and principal.
▪ Maintains accurate records.
▪ Meets with individual students, parents and teachers, as needed.
▪ Contributes to topics for Parent Connection sessions.
▪ Interfaces with outsource specialists, i.e. hearing, OT, speech, medical personnel, or outside therapists.
▪ Assists principal with student homeroom placement.
▪ On regular school days, is on duty between 7:45AM and 3:45PM, not inclusive of activities, duties and meetings.
▪ Other duties as assigned.
Key Areas of Responsibility
Development, management and delivery of a comprehensive school-counseling program in partnership with other counselors and administrators in the Middle School
▪ Ensures that the comprehensive school counseling program and its goals are made available to all stakeholders via the school website.
▪ Develops and maintains a written plan for effective delivery of the school counseling program based on the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and the International Model for School Counseling.
▪ Maintains counseling web pages, etc.
▪ Provides and maintains parent/guardian resources, teacher resources and community resources, etc.
▪ Maintains calendars of activities, outsource list of professionals and services of the school counseling program.
Delivery of a Comprehensive School Counseling Program
▪ Emotional Wellness Curriculum
Purpose: To provide guidance and instruction in, and support for the growth and social-emotional development and the acquisition of pro-social skills that enable each child to be successful in the educational setting.
o Provides leadership and collaborates with other international counselors and educators in the school-wide integration of the ASCA Guidance Curriculum Standards.
Ø Assists teachers with incorporating the ASCA standards and benchmarks into their classrooms.
Ø Provides applicable materials and resources to teachers for following up on guidance activities in their classrooms.
o Implements developmentally appropriate and prevention-oriented group activities to meet student needs and school goals.
Ø Conducts classroom wellness lessons covering: academic, social, career, and global perspectives. Lessons have standards and competency.
Ø Conducts small and large group activities based on the guidance curriculum.
▪ Individual Student Planning and Counseling
Purpose: Counselor provides ongoing planning sessions with faculty, administrators, outsource personnel, and parents (when needed) to ensure that students in need have the benefit of collaborative educational planning.
o Assists all students, individually or in groups, with developing academic, personal/social skills, goals and plans.
Ø Conducts counseling sessions with students.
o Accurately and appropriately interprets, maintains and utilizes student data.
o Collaborates with parents/guardians and educators to assist students with educational planning.
Ø Sends written communications to parents/guardians and teachers
Ø Apprises teachers of adaptive materials and services that exist and are available to students.
▪ Preventive and Responsive Services
Purpose: To enhance the child’s experience of success at school by supporting child and child’s family’s ability to adjust to new situations, cope with life’s difficulties or handle developmental challenges.
o Provides individual and group counseling to students with identified concerns and needs.
o Consults and collaborates effectively with parents/guardians, teachers, administrators and other educational/community resources regarding students with identified concerns and needs.
Ø Advocates for equity and access for all students.
Ø Provides staff with resources to accommodate individual differences and needs of students.
o Implements and maintains an effective referral and follow-up process.
o Accurately and appropriately uses assessment procedures for determining and structuring individual and group counseling services.
▪ System Support
Purpose: To be an active participant of the collaborative team and to establish, maintain and enhance the total counseling program.
Accountability to Administrators:
▪ Conducts a yearly program survey to review extent of program effectiveness.
▪ Collects and analyzes data to guide program direction and emphasis.
▪ Measures results of the school counseling program activities and shares results as appropriate.
▪ Monitors student academic performance, behavior, attendance and assists with appropriate interventions.
▪ Available to support the staff through short-term crisis.
▪ Contributes to spiritual climate and emotional climate of the school through programming.
▪ Contributes to service learning.
