Tag Archives: Public Relations

Aug 8 2012

Open House is PR Time

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In a previous post, I wrote about Public Relations for School Counselors.  Open House is a great time to promote your school counseling program.  Not only is this important for new school counselors- it’s important for veterans as well.  Use this opportunity to let parents know who you are and how you will be involved with their child(ren) throughout the school year.

How you go about it will depend on your assigned duties.  Over the years, I have usually been assigned as a greeter at the school’s entrance.  This is an excellent area to set up a small table to advertise your program.  Your table should showcase the different programs you plan to implement throughout the school year. Find a simple table cover and add a sign or banner with your name and title.

On your table, include brochures describing your program, business cards with your contact information, and a sign-up form for small groups that require a parent’s permission like Separation/Divorce or Grief Groups.  You can also have your QR code available for parents with smartphones and a small bucket or basket of stickers for students.

This is also a great opportunity to solicit parent volunteers.  If you are hosting Career Café at your school, you can sign-up parents who are willing to come in and share about their profession with your students.  You can also find parents who are willing to serve on your advisory council.  I’d even like to find a parent who enjoys taking pictures. What ever your program needs are, open house is a great time to find your volunteers.  Additionally, be sure to have a small board or poster with post-it notes listing any wish list items you have.  Parents can choose the item they wish to donate to your program and take the post-it note with them as a reminder.

Why not have a free raffle for students who stop by your table?  Find a local business that is willing to donate a free meal, gift card, or sundae.  You may also chose to purchase the prize(s) yourself.  Announce the winner(s) on the first day of school.

Finally, it never hurts to have a fun puppet on hand.  Whether it is on display or on your hand, the students will love to see and interact with it.  Here’s a picture of my puppet after her mini-makeover with a new t-shirt featuring our school mascot the falcon.  All she needs now is a yellow headband, and she’ll be ready to make her debut!  My friend Ed (also known as “Character” Ed) may need to be on stand-by as well.  The kids LOVE him!

Stick around!  You can follow Savvy School Counselor with free email updates.  As always, I’d love to hear from you.  How will you promote your program at your open house this year?

Aug 2 2012

More Character Breakfast Club

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I want to share examples of the flyer, invitation, and exit tickets I will be using for my Character Breakfast Club.  I can’t wait to hold my first one in the fall.  I’ll be sure to update everyone on how things turn out along with any lessons learned.

I made a sample flyer using the Bullying topic I talked about in my first Character Breakfast Club Post.  I will change my flyer each time to tell specifically about the topic of each breakfast club.  If you would like a copy of this form in Publisher in order to make it your own, just email me through my contact page and I will send one to you. ( I can only post PDF documents.)

I ordered my Character Breakfast Club invitations from Vista Print.  I’m looking forward to receiving them soon.  Here are images of the front and back of the invitation.  They are pretty basic as any extra information will have already been included on the flyer sent home with students. If you don’t have time to write each invitation, you can always create labels with the information and attach them to the back of the cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also created a very simple exit ticket.  In order to determine how things are going, you’ll want to know if your guests enjoyed the breakfast club, what activity they liked best, and if they would attend another one.  There is also an area at the bottom for comments or suggestions.  Have these available about ten minutes before the conclusion of the event.  You can also have special stickers on hand for the students as they return them.  I’m thinking about making some that say “Ask me about the Character Breakfast Club!” or “I went to the Character Breakfast Club today!”

I am super excited about including the Character Breakfast Club in my school counseling program.  I am tossing around ideas in regard to how I will invite families.  I am thinking about focusing on one or two classrooms to start in order to gauge the response.  If the response is good, I will offer more than one session in order to accommodate families.  My goal is to host one breakfast club for each grade level this year.  However, response will dictate how things go.  I’ll keep you informed!

Stick around!  You can follow Savvy School Counselor with free email updates! As always, I’d love to hear from you!  Did I miss anything?  Do you have any suggestions for the flyer and/or the exit ticket?

Jun 22 2012

School Counselor PR

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It’s amazing how much I look forward to having a summer break, but I spend all of my time thinking about the next new school year!  My first item of business is looking for ways to make my school counseling program even more visible for 2012-13!

As I packed away some of the books in my office for the summer, I came across a book I purchased eight years ago when I first found out I was hired as the counselor at my school.  It’s called Public Relations Toolbox and it is edited by Barbara Muller-Ackerman.  The information and reproducible items in this book come from the archives of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and is “A practical, hands-on approach to promoting K-12 school counseling programs.”

At the top of the first page in section one is the definition of “public relations” which was taken from the Grolier International Dictionary.  Public Relations are:  1. The methods and activities employed by an individual, organization, corporation, or government to promote a favorable relationship with the public.  2. The degree of success obtained in achieving such a relationship.  3.  The staff employed to promote such a relationship.  4.  The art or science of establishing such a relationship.  After reflecting on my school counseling PR over the years, I decided I could stand to increase my efforts to build this area of my program even higher.

This section goes on to share several things we as school counselors need to remember such as why our programs are an excellent investment, the role of school counselors, what a professional school counselor is, and advocating for the profession.  It also spoke about “quiet efficiency” which is a category I fall under.  I do what I’m supposed to do.  I follow up with parents, teachers, and students.  I conduct my guidance lessons and groups regularly.  However, as stated in the book, sometimes quiet efficiency is not enough.

Public relations also involves recognizing our co-workers and making them feel valued for what they are doing. It gives several examples of positive recognition tools to use to build up the teacher’s sense of being appreciated.   It goes on to share ideas similar to those I pin on Pinterest like the Milky Way Bar with the note “You’re out of this world” or  candy corn with the message “It may sound corny, but I think you’re great!”  Every time I see cute teacher appreciation ideas like these, I pin them on my Teacher Appreciation board. I’m looking forward to finding little ways to encourage the teachers I work with next year.

If I were to share every great thing about this book, this post would be a tad bit lengthy.  I’ll just say, everything in this book is just as relevant today in 2012 as it was when the book was published in 2002.  There are so many ways to increase your school counselor PR.  Here are just a few I plan to implement:

  • Brochure (update)
  • Contact Cards (Vista Print)
  • Phone Tree Messages (to promote different program initiatives)
  • Incentive Cards (Vista Print- for students with behavior concerns)
  • Guidance Blog  (to keep parents informed)
  • Bookmarks, Bulletin Boards, and Recognition
This list includes some things I’ve done in the past as well as some things I’ve thought about doing but haven’t.

Finally, I will begin using National School Counseling Week as a time to crank up the public relations for the school counseling program. I’ve never done that.  There is a section in the book dedicated to this.  It even includes a countdown calendar to help counselors prepare starting one month in advance!

After reading a great post, Mirror Mirror: The Importance of Reflection, on Darrell Sampson’s blog- From the Counselor’s Office, I took some time to reflect on my school year, and this area stood out for me.  I have demonstrated quiet efficiency, but now I am ready to increase my School Counselor PR by including more ways to make my program shine! What are your plans for public relations?

Stick around!  You can follow Savvy School Counselor with free email updates.  You may leave any comments here or visit my contact page to email me directly.  As always, I’d love to hear from you.  Connect with me!