Priya's Thursday, two ways

Priya, a middle school counselor at a busy public school.

Priya is a middle school counselor at a busy public school. On Thursday, she has two individual sessions, a lunch group, three emails to teachers, and a safety plan to update. Before the course, she would start each task from a blank page and stay late to finish.

Now she opens ChatGPT for the first session. She types: Help me plan a 20-minute session for a seventh grader named Devon who is avoiding math class. Give me a gentle opening, two questions, and one small take-home practice. She reads the draft, changes one question, and prints it.

At lunch, she uses Claude for her group of five eighth graders working on friendship and conflict. She asks for a 30-minute session on repairing friendships after an argument, with norms, an activity, and a closing question. Later, she uses Gemini to draft a short, warm email to Devon's math teacher asking for a five-minute check-in about missing work. She also asks ChatGPT for a safety plan template for a student who feels overwhelmed, with warning signs, two coping steps, and who to contact at school.

Priya reviews every draft and makes it fit her students. The time she wins back goes to a student who had been waiting to talk, and she still leaves school before the sun goes down.