End of year Venting
This was my first year as an elementary school counselor and I genuinely feel like I did everything except counseling (we have one counselor per grade level because the school is implementing a big mental health campaign and its apparent to me now that it’s more of a show)
I teach SEL classes, got extra “activity” classes added to my schedule, deal with every behavioral issue in the grade, kids cursing at each other, fighting, refusing to listen in class, classroom disruptions, social conflicts, discipline referrals… everything gets sent to me.
call parents about everything, document everything, solve bus issues and seating charts
Half the time I feel more like a discipline officer and customer service rep than an actual counselor.
I barely practiced any actual counseling skills this year.
Teachers dump everything instead of handling classroom management themselves and when we tried to push back or ask for support, there was very little backing from admins
It’s honestly been very frustrating and very much exhausting