We all know that school counselors do great things every day, right? So why not recognize a fellow counselor for their outstanding work by nominating them for West Central School Counselor of the Year? The nomination form is found below (also available on the Forms page) and are due to Sara Pender by March 13th. What a great way to make someone’s day! Now the only thing left to think about is who you should nominate!

WCSCA Counselor of the Year Nomination Form

Happy School Counselors Week! That’s right, our hats are off to all of you fabulous school counselors out there who make a difference in students’ lives every single day! The theme this year is “School Counselors: Helping Students Be Brilliant!” This week, February 6-10, 2012, make sure to toot your own horn a little bit, and remind your school boards, parents, administration, and staff of the integral role you play in our schools. Need ideas of how to do that? Check out these sites for some great tips:

Ideas from ASCA

School Counselor Blog

Hold on to your hats folks, because our awesome president has planned yet another wonderful day for us! I hope you can all make it to the Winter Meeting to be held at M State – Fergus Falls campus on Friday, February 3rd! Some things to look forward to:

• presentation on crisis management from our own Angela Paulson
• meet your MSCA president, Chris Otto
• presentation on SPARC-MN from the MSCA president
• get an attorney’s take on how to best handle social media issues in the school
• WCSCA business meeting

Registration and breakfast starts at 8:30.

Business Mtg Agenda 02.03.2012

WCSCA WINTER Agenda 2012

We are off to a great school year here in West Central MN and thanks to our president, Mr. Dave Thorpe, we got to learn our “ABCs” at the fall meeting on Friday, September 30th at MSU, Moorhead. We started the day off with the ACT workshop, got to hear from Laurie and Mark about the awesome bullying intervention program implemented at Hawley High School last spring, and had some powerful conversations about the state of school counseling in our area during our business meeting. Thanks to all of those who were able to join us! Click here for links to the WCSCA Fall Meeting Minutes 2011 and the updated WCSCA Directory.

Mark your calendars – our Fall WCSCA meeting will take place on Friday, September 30th at MSU, Moorhead. Our new president, Mr. Dave Thorpe, has planned a wonderful day full of learning and networking for us. The morning highlight is the ACT conference for high school counselors (don’t worry elementary and middle level, we have fun planned for you, too!), while the afternoon we will hear from our fellow counselor, Laurie Sandness-Boeshans, about bullying, followed by our business meeting. Hope you can make it! See links below for the agenda and directions.

Fall 2011 Agenda

MSU, M Driving Directions

Congratulations to Marlys Ebersviller, school counselor at Pelican Rapids High School, on her retirement! She served as a school counselor for 26 years.

Congratulations also goes out to Shari Gustafson, school counselor at Horizons Middle School in Moorhead. Shari was the winner of this year’s West Central School Counselor of the Year Award!

Our spring meeting is coming on Friday, April 8th! We will be meeting in Room 203 of the Comstock Student Union on the MSU, Moorhead campus. We have another fun-filled day planned, so I hope you all can make it.

• Therapy Dogs
• Level Sharing Time
• Stress Relief and Relaxation
• Youthworks Program
• WCSCA Business Meeting

Please RSVP to Rachel at rclose@sebeka.k12.mn.us. Look forward to seeing you on Friday!

Our WCSCA winter meeting was held at M State Moorhead on Friday, February 11th – and what a great day it was! We heard an excellent presentation about cyberbullying, sexting, and internet crimes against children, as well as an update on mental health trends. Our heartfelt thanks to M State for hosting us and keeping us well-fed and comfortable all day! Click here for the cyberbullying power point presentation. Stay tuned for more information about the spring meeting. Reminders:

• MSCA scholarships are due to Rachel Close by March 1st!
• Renew your MSCA membership by March 31st!
• Register for the MSCA annual conference by April 1st!

Happy School Counselors Week! Its time to pat yourself on the back and be recognized for the crucial role you play in the lives of students. Thank you for all of the hard work you do to help our students every single day! Looking for ways to celebrate and promote the school counseling profession? Check out the ASCA Website

This year’s Day on the Hill will be taking place on Monday, January 24th! If you are able to make it down to the cities that day, its a great opportunity to support the school counseling profession in Minnesota! The day’s schedule is:

• State Office Building – Room 500 North

• 8:30-9:00 – Breakfast & Networking

• 9:00-10:00 – MSCA Legislative Agenda

• 10:00-3:00 – Meet with Legislators

If you’re attending for the first time or are hesitant to attend because you don’t know what to do – don’t worry! We have seasoned veterans who will assist in making this a great experience for you. Plus, we will give you a quick training before we all go out to advocate for our profession and our students.  Please make appts with your legislators and someone will go with you to assist in getting the MSCA message to all if you’d like the help. Questions? Feel free to contact Rachel Close – 218.837.5101 ext. 217.