I used today's Idea Lab to continue my work that I started last June. I find myself in the same position as last year in that I have two new arrivals to my advising team. My veteran advisor is returning to Burkes after being here for one year. The goal of the day was to continue work on two documents that serve as the clearing house/brainstorm/home base for advisory planning. After having served as lead 8th grade advisor last year and attending some valuable PD, I am better equipped to begin planning advisory content and activities. Today's endeavor was focused on updating the document for my new team members as well as putting in potential activities and curriculum into the advisory slots. This is a communal effort and discussion with my team members is crucial. While the start of a new academic year and the first year at a new school can be daunting, it is my goal to render the advisory planning simple and seamless for my team. We will use the model of previous advisory curricula and also launch new activities (referencing recently attended PD and summer work). Today's work was creating a schedule and visual aids (monthly advisory at a glance) to plot activities. In addition to this, I also followed up on needed correspondence to our team of room parents and the other Burke's adults who support the 8th grade experience (like the personal counselor, the director of high school placement, etc). In the end, the key to creating a meaningful, effective advising program is the planning of good advising and SEL components and sustaining the relationships with the many individuals that make important contributions to our work.