Join Jake and Loni as they discuss their journey to school counseling, and why school counseling is a vital, important, and wonderful role within the school environment. This will be Loni and Jake's last episode running the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast, it has been our pleasure to help facilitate these conversations and professional development to our colleagues in the state and beyond. Thank you for listening!

For all that school counseling entails, one of the most challenging aspects can be supporting our buildings when grief visits our schools. Join Loni and Jake as they discuss grief, including strategies, resources, and the importance for making room for grief when it enters our buildings and communities.

On today's episode of School Counseling in Nebraska Jake is joined by Kalene Heaton. Kalene is a current high school counselor at Glenbrook South High School in Illinois. Illinois as a state implemented their own version of Universal FAFSA a number of years ago, and Kalene has both served on the government side of getting Universal FAFSA implemented as well as the school side being in the trenches. Kalene shares some of the intention behind the legislation, tips for how to engage with parents, the timeline they use at her school, and some final thoughts on how this can benefit families and students.

Join Loni and Jake as they discuss the second half of our NSCA Book Club read, The Anxious Generation. In this episode cell phone bans are discussed: is there a benefit to them? Are cell phones the cause of these behaviors in school or just correlated with some other issue. How do students seem to take to not having cell phones?

Additionally, we discuss the impacts that zero tolerance policies can play and if it impacts some of our students with the most needs. Please share out to us with your own stories and experiences. And thank you for listening!

Welcome back to the School Counseling in Nebraska podcast. We are starting off season 3 with a bang, starting back up our NSCA Book Club with Jonathan Haidt's new novel "The Anxious Generation." Join Jake and Loni as they discuss the themes of the book, as well as addressing the great re-wiring of childhood that has left our schools and students processing how to best serve our communities.

We are so excited for you to join us. In two weeks we will come back with another episode detailing cell phone bans, something that The Anxious Generation touches on and now many schools are starting to implement.

Please reach out with any questions or suggestions. Have a great school year everyone!

Welcome to our 3rd edition of Unusual Professional Development! Loni and Jake share some recommendations for our listeners regarding some reads and listens that could benefit school counselors during the summer months. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and we will see you in July with episodes over our upcoming book club: The Anxious Generation.

We see your questions on the email listerv, and are ready to talk class rank! Are you ready to pitch to your local school board, have you read the research behind reporting class rank?

Listen as Loni tells the story of moving Chadron High School from a traditional class rank/valedictorian system to a cum laude system and the benefits.

Why Stop Reporting Class Rank?

1. Reduction in kids avoiding challenging classes in order to maintain a class ranking

2. Force colleges and scholarship providers to consider the student's body of work as opposed to rank

3. Excessive competition with classmates

Listen and learn how you can challenge the status quo in your own district if needed.

Join Jake and Loni as they wrap up the first ever @NSCApod Book Club with the final chapters of Hope Rising. Listen as they go through 15 tips and tricks to incorporate hope and increase hope scores in students and colleagues for educators everywhere.

Don't forget to join us Thursday, May 23rd LIVE Zoom NSCA discussion happy hour! Time TBD