Google Forms and Counseling

This is an exciting entry for me. I am a paper lover and look forward to the moments where I can create files, binders, anything paper for organization. However, it can get overwhelming to have many files to keep track of when I already have hundreds of students on my caseload. I decided to take the plunge after getting inspiration from teachers and fellow school counselors to use an electronic tool to keep track of my counseling notes. 

In past years I have recorded notes with students in two ways. When students wanted to meet about their grades, credit recovery, had a question about college applications, etc. I would have a form where students would sign, date and write down their reason for visiting the counselor. When I met with students regarding personal counseling, crisis counseling, or check ins, I would fill out a paper form and write down a description of what was discussed.  This is a lot of paperwork and keeping track of paperwork. The school I work at has a system where I can log entries but everyone can see them and this is not confidential.  I wanted a system that I could refer to whenever I needed to follow up with a students and to have for my records.

The school I am at uses Google classroom, Google Docs and Google forms.  There’s a lot of Google going on. After seeing how well this was working out with teachers and students, I wanted to give it a try.  When I came across another school counselor who uses Google forms for meeting notes, I was sold.  After the, “how do I do this?” wore off, I went on to Google how to create the form.

The form was easy to create.  I can select why the student wanted to meet or why I want to meet with the student and notes about the meeting. It is super easy to pull up the results page so I can see how many students I’ve met with and also for students I meet with on a weekly basis. I plan to create a form for parent contact information and my academic meetings with students.

Keeping track of student meetings in Google forms will eliminate the paperwork and numerous files.

Do you use Google forms for counseling? Please share!