#ASCA14

It's been several days, and I'm still trying to come down from the #ASCA14 high! This was the first time I have attended an ASCA conference, and it was AMAZING! If you've never gone, I highly encourage you to. I didn't know anyone going, and ended up meeting several people and getting so much information to take back to my school. If you haven't downloaded the conference app, you should. So many presenters put their presentations on the app.

Every workshop I attended was awesome! I got some great ideas for branding and marketing my school counseling program (i.e. I am going to ask if our counseling department can have a Twitter account). The presenters made an excellent point: many times we only have one shot with the kids so we need to be on our game.

I also got some great ideas from Barb Micucci's presentation Work Smarter, Not Harder. I loved the idea of having a parent book club but only have them meet twice. Once to introduce the book and then once to wrap it up.

I also got some great ideas from the Data Driven School Counseling program. I can't wait to start collecting data to prove my effectiveness. Dr. Z made an excellent point: we have to do interventions that address the underlying problem, not what the data is showing. The data might be showing low reading scores among boys, but we need to find out what the underlying issues are that are keeping the boys from achieving and address that. Mind. Blown.

The First Lady's speech was amazing. Being in the room while she was speaking was an experience I will never forget. To have someone with her visibility advocating for us is incredible. I walked away from her speech revitalized and energized to get to work! If you weren't able to hear her speech, you can read a transcript here.

Also, I've added so many books to my summer reading this. Stedman Graham challenged us in his keynote to read one hour a night about something you love or your passionate about. I'm going to take on that challenge by reading these books:

Masterminds and Wingmen by Rosalind Wiseman (also at our conference and was AMAZING!)
You Can Make It Happen by Stedman Graham
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
Mistakes I Made at Work by Jessica Bacal
Hatching Results by Trish Hatch

I've got a lot to do, but after attending ASCA 14 I'm much more energized to do it! Can't wait until #ASCA15 in Phoenix!

Were you at #ASCA14? Share what you learned below. If you were #notatasca14, what's on your reading list this summer?