around the uft

Counselor conference offers ways to cope while helping kids

by Ellie Spielberg

Mar 27, 2008 5:32 PM

It was a kickoff to National Guidance Counselors Week and a thank you from the UFT to the educators who do one of the toughest jobs in the school system.

Creating Pathways to Success, the union’s fourth annual guidance counselors’ conference, offered workshops, exhibits, information, networking, literature, ideas and good food to the nearly 400 counselors who turned out for the Feb. 2 event at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.

“When educators with such full schedules make the time to attend a work-related event on a Saturday, it goes to show how thirsty they are for professional development,” said Angela Reformato, head of the guidance chapter. “Networking and camaraderie were high on their list, too, because guidance counselors often work in isolation.

“They were so pleased that Randi [UFT President Randi Weingarten] was there for them, that she had such a deep understanding of their work, ongoing challenges and the measures of a guidance counselor’s success,” Reformato said.

“It really hit home when Randi said that in the current climate of high-stakes testing, too often administrators don’t take into account how students’ emotions, or home life, or simply hunger for food can affect their performance — that administrators don’t always have the whole child in mind, which is something a guidance counselor focuses on every day of the week,” she added.

Morning workshops gave counselors insights into various topics, including self-injurious behavior among adolescents, eating disorders, substance abuse prevention, conflict resolution, helping students choose and apply to colleges, heal from grief, and deal with growing up in adoptive or foster families.

Afternoon workshops addressed issues such as HPV vaccination, gang intervention, using visualization as a tool for helping students deal with anger, anxiety and low self-esteem, understanding the issues faced by gay, lesbian, transgendered or bisexual students, and helping victims of abuse and domestic violence.

To help counselors better take care of themselves while taking care of students, guest speaker Thomas Bull discussed strategies for managing life’s daily challenges both in and out of school.

“All of it added up to how we can be effective in helping children with issues so many of them deal with, and help them move forward and succeed,” said Reformato. “Because being a guidance counselor is being in the business of enhancing children’s hope and advancing their dreams.”