How to Impact More Students Using Minute Meetings with Heidi MacDonald
Listen to the full episode below:
Is it really possible to meet with EVERY student in your school? We know it’s important to check in with students to see how they are doing but how could you possibly sit down and talk with every single student? Our guest today, Dr. Heidi MacDonald is a school psychologist who uses “minute meetings” to talk to every student in her school and is sharing how you can implement this in your school as well!
Dr. Heidi MacDonald is in her 25th year of being a school psychologist. She resides in Connecticut but was born and raised in Pennsylvania. She is a proud graduate of Penn State University's School Psychology Program. She is married to a school psychologist and they have one daughter, who is a Junior at Penn State. Heidi loves her job! She enjoys supervising interns from and teaching in the School Psychology Program at the University of Hartford. In her spare time, Heidi loves working out, thrift shopping, crafting, and batching everything that she can in order to make life more efficient. She and her family have 4 cats and 1 guinea pig, Marcel, who goes to school with her.
We want to make sure that no student falls through cracks and that every student is getting the services they need. Getting the student’s perspective and input on how things are going not only gives us valuable data but also gives us insight into how we can best support our students. In this episode, Heidi is sharing about her role as a school psychologist, how she implements minute meetings, and what the benefits of implementing these meetings are.
If the start of the school year has you looking for resources, PD, and a community to support you along the way, check out the IMPACT membership! Inside the membership, you’ll have access to curriculum, live quarterly PD, resources, and more to help free up your time, give you fresh ideas, and make your job as a school counselor stress-free!
Some topics covered in this episode are:
A look inside Heidi’s day as a school psychologist
What Heidi wishes school counselors knew about the role of school psychologists
What minute meetings are and why she started utilizing them
The six questions she asks to every student in her school
What positive impact she has seen since implementing them
How she uses the data gathered from these meetings
Resources Mentioned:
Join the IMPACT membership
Check out Heidi's website
Email Heidi at [email protected]
Enroll in the Stress-Free School Counseling Course
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More About School Counseling Simplified:
School Counseling Simplified is a podcast offering easy to implement strategies for busy school counselors. The host, Rachel Davis from Bright Futures Counseling, shares tips and tricks she has learned from her years of experience as a school counselor both in the US and at an international school in Costa Rica.
You can listen to School Counseling Simplified on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more!