Andes Central Middle and High School Counselor, Synnora Wilbur, held an Organizational Boot Camp starting Tuesday, September 24th that will be coming to an end on October 15th. The workshop was open to 6th through 12th grade students. The curriculum was set up so that the students would meet two times a week for four weeks for 35 minutes per session. This is the first time that this type of small group workshop was held at Andes Central. Synnora decided to make the boot camp one of her small group events this school year. The whole idea behind the “boot camp” came about as she was hearing from her fellow Andes Central staff members that they were wishing that their students were more organized. In addition to the teachers wanting this, there were several students that had expressed interest in learning about how to get better organized.

As the high school and middle school counselor, Synnora feels that it is a part of her counselor’s duties to help students with career readiness, social and emotional learning as well as academic preparedness. Learning the tips to be organized that were presented in the Organizational Boot Camp can help with all of these areas. While attending the American School Counselor Association’s annual conference this past summer, Synnora purchased the curriculum that she would use to teach the boot camp.

The boot camp aimed to provide information about and expose students to tips and tricks for organizing various areas of their lives. These tips and tricks have far reaching abilities beyond the school walls. Synnora’s goals of offering the organizational boot camp is to get students thinking about how they can organize their life which will not only better them in school, but also help them better stay on top of all of their responsibilities.

Some of the concepts and skills that were presented to the attending students were self-realization on when they had the most energy during the day; their organizational habits; time-management; organizing notes, backpacks, lockers, and bedrooms; accountability; and incorporating the learned skills into multiple areas of their life. When asked if the organizational boot camp is something that parents and students can anticipate being offered in the future, Synnora’s answer was “Somewhat!” The curriculum can be used in a classroom, small group setting (the boot camp) or on the individual level. Synnora plans to use the curriculum materials throughout the rest of her educational career in these areas in order to better assist her students with working on their organizational skills.

Synnora’s goal for the rest of the school year is to do at least one other small-group workshop. The topic/focus of the workshop will be determined by her after looking at the data to see what is needed or would be most beneficial to the students. The workshop was very successful having 13 students attend the boot camp. Synnora has even been receiving feedback from some of the attendees’ parents as their children have been talking about the workshop and the skills that they have been learning.