Common Technology, Extraordinary Results: Interdisciplinary Partnerships to Meet Student Needs

1. Common Technology, Extraordinary Results: Interdisciplinary Partnerships to Meet Student Needs Kylie P. Dotson-Blake Counselor Educator, ECU Kaye B. Dotson Library Science Educator, ECU Laura Mangum School Librarian, North Pitt High School Lauren Walters School Counselor, Gaston County Schools

2. Common Technology, Extraordinary Results: Interdisciplinary Partnerships to Meet Student Needs • High school students are experiencing critical mental health concerns which impact career and college-readiness. This presentation shares how counselors and the librarian at one high school collaborated to use technology to meet standard course of study requirements and address mental health concerns. Implications for career development will also be explored. • Grade Level: High • Kylie Dotson-Blake, Assistant Professor, East Carolina University, Kaye Dotson, Assistant Professor, East Carolina University, Laura Mangum, School Librarian, North Pitt High School, Lauren Walters, School Counselor, North Pitt High School • Friday, 10:00 – 11:10,, Auditorium 4

3. Issues impacting the mental health of our teens and adolescents… • Bullying (Bond, Carlin, Thomas, Rubin & Patton, 2001) • Depression and anxiety, nutrition and physical health, peer relationships (Jaycox, et al., 2009) • Substance abuse (Cuellar, Markowitz & Libby, 2004) • Teen pregnancy (Harden, et al., 2007) • Sexual health (Kalmuss, Davidson, Cohall, Laraque, & Cassell, 2003) • Eating disorders and relational aggression (Crenshaw & Lee, 2010)

4. Kids face a lot of stressors

5. Strong Support is Necessary!

6. Where do contemporary teens and adolescents get information?

7. Counselors and Technology… • Not always the most natural fit – but we are getting better!! • Creating resources using effective – and COOL – technology tools takes time • Time for identifying resources that are interesting and appropriate for students • Time for locating technology tools to share the resources • Time for preparing the resources in a way that will capture teens’ interest! Image borrowed from: http://bearvsoctopus.tumblr.com/post/4333406123/much-like-this-computer-girls-is-confusing

8. Technology & School Counseling • What technology do counselors use in our work? • How do we use technology in our work?

9. Technology & School Counseling • What technology do counselors use in our work? • Email, Online Surveys, FaceBook, Websites, Cell Phones… • How do we use technology in our work? • To connect with stakeholders, to share information, to explore resources…

10. And…how much time does it take to explore these resources and learn how to use new technology tools? A lot!!!

11. Just like students need resources and support, so do school counselors! School Counselors and School Librarians can work together as awesome, powerful collaborative partners!!

12. When we integrate our knowledge, resources, and efforts, our work becomes a beautiful melody that can be the soundtrack of success for our students.

13. Critical for interdisciplinary collaboration

14. Case Example Now, we would like to share one example of how the school counselors and the school librarian at one NC high school used commonly available technology in innovative ways to help their students.

15. Purpose of Collaboration • Counselor: • To broaden students’ access to resources that could positively impact their social/emotional, career and academic development • Counselors were struggling to find time to identify resources and develop materials to market the resources to students. • Librarian: • To enhance collaborative efforts to include personnel beyond classroom teachers • To increase students’ use of library resources • Opportunity for students to create and contribute to the greater good (21st C skills & Common Core)

16. The Building Blocks

17. Initial Student Needs Assessment Technology Used: SurveyMonkey Other Options: Qualtrics,Vovici, Polldaddy Survey of Student Mental Health Concerns 186 Responses

18. Determine the intended outcome for your collaboration • Knowing what you want as an outcome will help to shape your vision! • Both the counselor and the librarian will be clear about what to expect from the collaboration. • Start with the end in mind! • Technology that can help: • Skype • www.tangler.com: Reminiscent of BlackBoard discussion forums • voicethread.com : Forums allow for text, verbal, and/or visual entry • GoogleDocs

19. Product/Outcome • In the case example, the school counselors worked with the school librarian to have students identify and critique resources available through the library and online to support student mental health. • Students developed annotated bibliographies and created a school counseling personal help resources website hosted within the school library’s website • School counselors presented site to students during classroom guidance sessions • Site was also shared during Book Festival held in library • More information about the product will be shared in coming slides…

20. School Counselor’s Role • Collaborate with School Librarian to plan on how to build mental health resources in the media center and mental health resources on-line. • Collaborate with ECU professor, Dr. Dotson-Blake on how to build mental health resources in the media center and on-line. • Research mental health online resources to link to website. • Advertise mental health resources in media center and on-line at website to NPHS during classroom guidance. • Recommend books and on-line resources to students during individual counseling. • Plan and implement a table at the book festival advertising mental health books in the spring. • Created flyers with personal help website and placed around school for students.

21. School Librarian’s Role • Help with web site set up • Teaching students Info Skills for creating Annotated Bibs. • Evaluating library resources and collections for gaps • Help with promotion of resources

22. Important to Align Work with Professional Standards • Case Example: • School Librarian’s alignment with standards is completed in the development of the outcome product • School Counselor’s alignment with standards comes during the implementation and utilization of the outcome product • Alignment with standards requires thought and clear intent • Necessary to document alignment with standards – for counselors, documentation through use of MEASURE is effective (Under Stakeholders UNITE section)

23. Alignment withEssential StandardsSchool Counselor • RED.C.1 • Use creative strategies to make decisions and solve problems. • RED.C.2 • Use analytical strategies to better understand situations and make appropriate decisions. • RED.CR.1 • Understand the meaning and importance of career self-awareness and career goals. • RED.CR.3 • Understand the relationship among personal and academic decisions, career expectations and future life decisions.

24. Alignment with Essential StandardsSchool Librarian • HS.SI.1.1 Evaluate resources for reliability. (Reliability can be determined by currency, credibility, authority, etc. depending on the curriculum topic). • HS.SI.1.2 Evaluate resources for point of view, bias, values, or intent of information • HS.TT.1.1 Use appropriate technology tools and other resources to access information (multi-database search engines, online primary resources, virtual interviews with content experts). • HS.TT.1.3 Use appropriate technology tools and other resources to design products to share information with others (e.g. multimedia presentations, Web 2.0 tools, graphics, podcasts, and audio files).

25. Alignment with curriculum standards • Student Library Assistant Curriculum- • 1.1 The student media assistant will demonstrate proficiency in the EXPLORATION of reading, listening, viewing sources, and formats. • 1.2 The student media assistant will EVALUATE information in a variety of resources and formats to demonstrate information literacy. • 1.3 The student media assistant will RELATE and communicate ideas and information to life experiences.

26. Alignment with common core English standards

27. Product/Outcome

28. Student Responses • “I enjoyed when the counselors met with my class to tell us about the Student Services Personal Help Website. They showed us how to check out books on topics such as depression and relationships.” • Student • “I will recommend my friends to check out books if they have problems and go to the website if they don’t feel comfortable talking to the counselor.” • Student

29. Steps to implementation • Step 1 – Read Chapter (Dotson-Blake, K. P. & Dotson, K. B. (2011). School counselors and school library media specialists: Innovative leaders in partnerships promoting student mental health with online resources. Educational Media and Technology Yearbook. Manuscript in press.) • Step 2 – Meet with school librarianand decide on a shared goal • Step 3 – Conduct a needs assessment through surveys • Step 4 – Collect data on current circulation statistics (pre – share this data in the Element section of MEASURE under Baseline Data) • Step 5 – Librarian helps counselors create web site • Step 6- Students create annotated bibs and upload to web site • Step 7 – Counselors meets with classes to promote web site and resources. Librarian assists students finding and checking out sources • Step 8 – Collect data on circulation statistics (post – share this data in the Results section of MEASURE)

30. Next Steps • Expanding topics to meet students passions, interests, personal experiences, and career goals ex. religious discrimination • Including Primary Documents • PTSA • Working to market the resources and website to parents and families of students

31. Technology to Assist in Collaboration: Discussion & Planning • www.tangler.com: Reminiscent of BlackBoard discussion forums • voicethread.com : Forums allow for text, verbal, and/or visual entry • Facebook & Blogging: Over 121 million American adults maintain a blog, while 57 million read them (Lenhart & Fox, 2006) • Elluminate Live!!: www.elluminate.com • An arm of BlackBoard: web conferencing program that "rents" out virtual rooms or vSpaces where virtual schools and businesses can hold classes and meetings • Google Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/ • Google Talk is Google’s instant communications service that lets you communicate more effectively • Skype: www.skype.com • Moodle: moodle.org

32. Technology to Assist in Collaboration: Data Gathering • The programs listed below enable users to create their own Web-based surveys, conduct statistical analysis, provide training and are all exceptionally easy to use. • Determine which, if any, survey software your institution holds a license for because these programs will likely provide more stringent security measures • Software for Online Data Gathering • www.qualtrics.com • www.surveymonkey.com • www.vovici.com • www.polldaddy.com

33. Technology to Assist in Collaboration: Website Development • The programs listed below enable users to create their own websites and are all exceptionally easy to use. • Determine what requirements your LEA has for website development and linking sites to your overarching school site! • Software for website development • Microsoft Office Live (Changing to Office 365) • www.weebly.com • www.wikispaces.com

34. Ways to approach your librarian • Would you like to collaborate on a project with me? • I have all the lesson materials you need. • With this project I would like to create a self perpetuating product to which student contribute. • The impact of this project can have far reaching results for our students • This project goes along with the new Common Core and Essential Standards of students evaluating resources and creating (Bloom’s Taxonomy) a product.

35. References • American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. Chicago, IL: Author. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards • American School Counselor Association. (2005). The ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs, Second Edition. Alexandria, VA: Author. • Bond, L., Carlin, J. B., Thomas, L., Rubin, K., & Patton, G. (2001). Does bullying cause emotional problems: A prospective study of young teenagers. British Medical Journal, 323(1), 480-484. doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7311.480 • Crenshaw, D. A. & Lee, J. (2010). At-risk adolescents: Self-esteem, youth violence and teen pregnancy. In M. H. GuindonSelf-Esteem Across the Life-Span: Issues and Interventions (pp. 143-158). New York, NY: Routledge. • Cuellar, A. E., Markowitz, S., & Libby, A. M. (2004). Mental health and substance abuse treatment and juvenile crime. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, 7(2), 59-68. • Harden, K.P., Lynch, S.K., Turkheimer, E., Emery, R.E., D'Onofrio, B.M., Slutske, W.S., Heath, A.C., Waldron, M., Madden, P., & Martin, N.G. (2007). A behavior genetic investigation of adolescent motherhood and offspring mental health problems. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 667-683. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.116.4.667 • Jaycox, L. H., Stein, B. D., Paddock, S., Miles, J. N. V., Chandra, A., Meredith, L. S., Tanielian, T., Hickey, S., & Burnam, M. A. (2009). Impact of teen depression on academic, social and physical functioning. PEDIATRICS, 124(4), e596-e605. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-3348 • Kalmuss, D., Davidson, A., Cohall, A., Laraque, D. & Cassell, C. (2003) Preventing sexual risk behaviors and pregnancy among teenagers: linking research and programs. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 35, 87–93. doi:10.1363/3508703

36. Please consider joining our collaborative community.Information and documents are available. http://counslibcollab.wikispaces.com/

37. Thank you for attending our presentation! For more information or to share feedback, please feel free to contact any of us. Kylie Dotson-Blake ~ blakek@ecu.edu Kaye Dotson ~ dotsonl@ecu.edu Laura Mangum ~ manguml.npitt@pitt.k12.nc.us Lauren Walters ~ LaurenWalters@gaston.k12.nc.us