Google Docs for School Counselors

Google Docs for School Counselor Organization

As a school counselor, I love using Google Docs to help organize my work life. Last year, as a new school counselor, I began creating docs to organize my schedule, small groups, goals, and more! I referred to the docs often throughout the school year and am thrilled to be able to use them again this year. The best thing about Google Docs is that you can easily make a copy and then tweak them for the following school year. In this post, I will share 6 Google Docs that you can tweak for your own use.

How to Use Shared Docs

All of the docs below are Shared Docs. Customize them to meet your needs by following these steps:

1) Open the doc by clicking on the image below

2) Click on "Make a Copy"

3) Rename your doc

4) Customize!

Classroom Counseling Sign-Up Form

Do you schedule monthly lessons with your teachers? The doc below will help you gather quick info to make scheduling a breeze. Before sending this doc to teachers, I type their names on the left side of the doc and color code them by grade level. Then, I share the doc with my staff and ask them to type in their two preferred days and times for me to do my classroom counseling lessons. This form helps SO much with scheduling because I can almost always choose a preferred time for each teacher.

Classroom Counseling Schedule

Once teachers have chosen their preferred days/times, I schedule classroom lessons for the first semester. On average, I see each classroom once a month. Scheduling lessons for an entire semester allows me to get everything written down in my planner well in advance. Then, I can plan individual check-ins, small groups, and meetings around the classroom lessons. This form is organized the same way as the sign-up form. If you want to create a page for the second semester, simply copy and paste the chart onto the next page.

Character Traits Plan

Last year, I based my monthly classroom lessons on character traits. This next doc was a lifesaver! On the first page of the doc, I made a chart for all of the traits I planned on teaching about in my classroom lessons. Throughout the school year, when I thought of a great idea, I added them to the chart as a way to collect my ideas. The second page of the doc is where the magic happened. For each character trait, I made a chart of how I planned on teaching the topic in every grade level. This was very helpful because I was able to see how my lessons built upon each other and got more complex in each grade level!

Small Group Schedule and Lesson Plans

Up next is a doc that I made for scheduling and planning my small groups. The first page of the doc shows you how I organized my small groups. I made a page like this for every grade level. Whenever I went to pick up students for a small group, I took this page with me so I would not forget anyone! I also made a copy of this page for each classroom teacher to give them easy access to the dates, times, and students in their grade level's small groups.

I used the second page of the doc to create lesson plans for each small group. At the top of the doc, I wrote measurable goals for the group. On the right side, I typed in each student's name and used an "X" to keep track of their attendance at each group session. The rest of the doc was used for lesson planning. Since I used this as a digital doc, I could easily move items around in my lesson plan if I did not get to them each week.

Small Group Counseling Lesson Plan Template

Yearly Counseling Tasks

Do you have trouble remember what tasks you need to complete each month? Me too. I made the next doc to help me remember my reoccurring monthly tasks. For example, every August, I will need to prepare my new student folders. In September, I will need to organize my bullying awareness lessons. In October, I will need to plan for Red Ribbon Week. And so on :) Last school year, I used this doc to list each monthly task and then used the ~~strikethrough~~ feature when the task was complete. At the end of the school year, I turned all of the text back to normal and will re-use this form again this school year!

Counseling Goals

The last doc I am sharing today is my counseling goals doc. At the beginning of the school year, I came up with several long term and short term goals. The long term goals are my "bucket list" items (ex: getting a therapy dog)!! The short term goals are items I planned on accomplishing during the school year. I shared this doc with my administrator so he could see what goals I was working on. Follow the directions on the doc to learn how to turn checkboxes into checkmarks to keep track of your goals!

I hope you found all of these docs helpful! Leave a comment with your favorite docs or tell me about what kind of docs you would love me to create. I would be happy to share more docs in the future!

Stay Organized this School Year

Looking for more ways to stay organized this school year? I love helping other counselors with organization! Check out some of my favorite resources below.

Everything you need to document your sessions and stay organized!

-Intake & Progress Notes Forms

-Check In Form
-Student Schedule Form
-Small Group Lesson Template
-Counseling Referral Forms
-Phone Call Log
-Meeting Notes & Notes Page
-Weekly To Do List
-And more!

My School Counselor Planner is a practical, ink-saving weekly planner for documenting sessions, lessons, meetings, and more! Each two-page spread contains a weekly view for you to document your daily events. The day is divided into 15 minute intervals (7:00-4:00) with additional space to record events before and after school. My planner has free yearly updates!

Interested in the documentation pack AND the planner? Check out my BUNDLE to save $$$.

If you love using Google Drive to keep you organized, check out the resource above. It contains 70 Google Slides files to help you organize your school year!