Position Responsibilities
Middle School Counselor Responsibilities
Counseling Duties:
- Be a champion for a positive student life experience at SAS, working to support students and teachers
- Provide academic counseling services to a broad range of students, including assisting with class schedule setting, regular monitoring of academic progress, and collaborating with teachers and parents regarding academic progress
- Provide skilled direct counseling services in the form of individual/group counseling in consultation with parents, teachers and other related professionals
- Respond to complex social-emotional needs and provide personal counselling to students, including assessing level of severity/threat, plan short-term counseling support (6-8 sessions), triangulate services and support with parents, teachers, administrators, school psychologist, and mental health providers within the community.
(While not a long-term/ therapeutic setting, the expectation is that counselors would be able to provide short-term support addressing mental health issues.) - Encourage student involvement in extracurricular activities, guiding them towards making healthy extra-curricular choices
- Review academic files of incoming students, determining course placement and potential learning support(s)
- Collaborate with School Psychologist on student mental health/academic concerns
- Organize Orientation sessions for students and parents new to the school
- Provide support to the parent community through 1:1 consultation and larger-scale parent education programs
- Be a member of the SAS crisis team and assist during critical incidents
- Collaborate with teachers in service of students
- Collaborate with Admissions, Learning Support teachers and Administration
- Attend PLC meetings and counseling department events
- Participate in the development and sustainability of Peer Support Programs
- Create student support groups and activities, as needed
Other Responsibilities:
- Promote and ensure effective communication between all administrative team members.
- Liaise with the Division Principal and Deputy Principals, taking on tasks as assigned, including all school goals.
Personal:
- Demonstrate commitment to personal continuous professional growth and development.
- Continue involvement with students in various capacities.
- Develop and maintain effective working relationships.
- Represent SAS with students, parents, staff, and the broader school community in a professional manner.
- Exhibit a professional attitude toward criticism.
- Recognize and strengthen personal performance through self-analysis of actions, participating in professional development activities, exploring educational research, participating in professional organizations, and through formal renewal programs.
Position Requirements & Qualifications
Position Qualifications:
- Master's (preferred) or Bachelor's Degree
- Counseling certification required
- At least 5 years of successful classroom teaching & counseling experience preferred
- Excellent organizational and communication skills
- Ability to adapt to flexible working conditions
- Ability to provide lessons/presentations on topics relating to socio-emotional learning to parents, students and faculty
- Willingness to provide extracurricular opportunities for students (i.e., clubs, coaching, etc.)
- Ability to work in a collaborative setting with a diverse team (i.e, admin, counselors, learning support, etc.)
- Experience working with middle school scheduling systems (ie Powerschool or similar) and strong technological skills (Google Apps, etc)
- Skilled at supporting students with a variety of learning differences.
- A strong background working with students in a school setting presenting with a range of mental health issues, including but not limited to: Anxiety, Trauma, Self-Injury, Depression, Suicide Ideation, Eating Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive, Esteem, Organization, Time management, Technology issues, Parenting difficulties (including crisis parenting issues), etc.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience working with middle school students
- Experience working in a diverse, multicultural environment
- Background using positive, proactive behavior interventions and support for students.
Working Requirements
- Sponsoring and/or coaching after-school activities are part of the responsibility of the professional educator.
Therefore, faculty shall be available to coach and/or sponsor an athletic team or other extracurricular activity.
Each faculty member is expected to do a minimum of one Category 1 activity or sport per year.
- Required attendance at school professional learning days
- Chaperone and participate in evening and/or weekend school activities each year, as assigned (including Back-to-School Night).