154. March Madness and School Counseling

You're listening to the Counselor Chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy.

I'm Carol Miller, your host. I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students.

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Hey everyone, it's Carol. Welcome back to another episode of Counselor Chat.

Today we are tapping into something that already has energy already built into it.

March Madness.

Now, whether you personally fill out a bracket or not,

your students know about it.

They hear it, they feel the hype. There's excitement, there's competition.

There's that whole who's going to win Energy happening in the air.

And so I started thinking,

what if we used that same energy,

but instead of basketball teams,

we used it for college and career exploration?

Because if there's one thing I want for our students, it's this.

I want them to see their future as something exciting,

not overwhelming, not confusing,

not I'll figure it out later,

but something they can explore right now.

So today I'm going to give you a full March Madness themed college and career plan that you can use in your classrooms. And it's fun, it's structured,

and most importantly, it is totally doable.

I like to start by asking students,

what do you think March Madness is really about?

And the answers that they usually come up with are winning or championships.

Some will say it's the competition.

And then I like to shift it.

What if your future had its own bracket?

What if colleges competed for you?

What if careers battled it out?

And what if you got to decide what makes it to your final four?

And all of a sudden now we have their attention.

So one activity that I really love to do during this time period is the college research pennant project.

And I think this one really shines this time of year.

And instead of randomly assigning colleges, you can frame it to them like this.

This is your college bracket round.

Have your students research a college and create their pennant, highlighting the location,

majors offered, campus life, fun facts, requirements, unique programs.

I mean, the possibilities that they can research about college, they're pretty endless.

And here's what I really love about this pennant format.

It really feels celebratory.

It looks like something you'd see hanging in a Gym.

It taps into that sports energy and it makes research feel less like a worksheet and more like school spirit.

And then you can even display them in a college arena, home hallway.

And if you want, you can have students compare two colleges and then vote on which one advances to their final four based on maybe academic fit,

location preference,

career pathways and cost considerations.

All of a sudden you have just made research interactive.

Guess what? It doesn't feel overwhelming.

Now, besides college pennant research,

you can also do a career research pennant project.

And now we're shifting from colleges to careers.

And I like to do them in that order. I like to do my colleges first and then careers because college should lead to careers.

And I should say, I should back this up a little bit and say when we research colleges,

it's not just four year colleges, but we also include trade schools in there as well. Anything where they can get additional career training after high school.

But for our career research pennant project,

we are really shifting away from that educational piece to careers.

Because here's the thing, we don't want kids choosing colleges without thinking about what it is they want to do about their careers.

So the next round is career madness.

Students research a career and create their career pennant, including the education that's required, the salary range, the skills needed, the work environment,

and even the growth outlook of that particular career.

Now imagine this.

You hang all the career pennants up,

students walk around,

they take notes,

they draft their top three favorite careers,

and then you can ask,

what makes this career advance to your final four?

Is it salary?

Is it passion?

Is it the work life balance?

Is it the impact you might make,

the flexibility?

And all of a sudden, my friends,

you are having real conversations.

Another activity that you could do is a career cluster bracket challenge.

And that's another just fun extension.

Create a bracket using career clusters.

For example, health care versus education,

technology versus business,

or arts versus engineering.

Have students vote round by round.

But here's the key. They must justify their vote.

Technology advances because I like problem solving or healthcare advances because I want to help people.

And all of a sudden you are building critical thinking,

self awareness,

preference identification,

and career language.

It's kind of playful, but it's also really reflective.

And this next one, this next activity, this one is powerful.

Create a Sweet 16 skills bracket list 16 skills students need for future success.

Communication,

teamwork, responsibility,

adaptability,

problem solving, leadership, time management,

persistence, and so on. You get the picture.

And then have students vote each round.

But here's the twist.

They must explain why teamwork beats creativity. Because in Most jobs,

you work with others or adaptability wins because things change all the time.

And now they're thinking about employability.

And you could connect that back to classroom behavior.

And if responsibility made it to that championship,

how are we practicing that in school?

That's the connection.

And at the end of this unit, I really love asking the kids, if your future had a championship banner,

what would it say?

Not a job title, not a college name,

but a quality.

Is it resilient,

curious,

kind,

determined leader?

Because here's the truth.

March Madness is about competition,

but college and career readiness,

it's all about preparation,

it's about exploration, and it's about exposure.

And when we make it interactive and visual, like pennants,

it sticks.

And this works because it is visual, it is interactive,

and it taps into something already happening culturally,

probably within most of our buildings.

And it gives structure to big, overwhelming topics.

And I always think that the pennant format makes it really feel like a celebration instead of stressful.

And if you don't already have structured templates for this, I'll link my college research pennant project and my career research pennant project in the show notes. That way you have them just in case you want them.

And they make this so much easier because the structure, it's already built in as well as all the links for the research.

And students just focus on that research and reflection instead of you building everything from scratch.

And when you're trying to manage classroom lessons in March,

we want engaging,

but we also want efficient.

What I love most about doing this in March is this students really start seeing their future as something exciting.

Not something scary,

not something that they're going to do later on,

but something that they're building right now.

So whether you do a full bracket challenge,

a career cluster face off, or just one research pennant project,

lean into the energy of the season.

Because sometimes the best engagement strategy is just borrowing energy that's already in the air.

So my friends,

you are doing incredible, incredible work.

Just in case nobody has told you that lately,

you are bringing the energy to your program.

Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me.

And until next time,

I hope your students futures make it all the way to the championships.

Until next week,

I hope you have a great week.

Bye for now.

Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor Chat. All of the links I talked about can be found in the show notes and at counselingessentials.org podcast. Be sure to hit follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast player.

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I'd really appreciate it. Want to connect? Send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram at Counseling Essentials until next time. Can't wait till we chat. Bye for now.