National School Counseling Wk. Recap

With the end of February upon us, I thought it would be a great time to wrap-up some of the exciting things that have happened at my school; including, National School Counseling Week! National School Counseling Week was February 6-10th and each day we did a different activity to promote the school counseling program. On Monday, student received stickers that said "My School Counselor Helps Me Succeed!" and an Acts of Kindness Bingo Board to complete during the week. On Tuesday, the school counselors were on the morning show and read "Roses are pink, your feet really stink" by Diane deGroat. It is a book on friendship and the importance of saying nice things to others. Wednesday was college logo day! Students and faculty got to wear a college logo from their favorite school. Teachers also shared with students information about their college experience. On Thursday, students had the opportunity to complete an activity sheet called "One thing I like about _____ is...." and give it to a classmate. Every student in the building was able to receive a nice 'note' from someone in their class! Friday was career dress up day where students got to dress up as the career they would like to have one day. Overall, National School Counseling Week was a huge success thanks to everyones participation. Click here for a copy of the activities that were completed during the week.

Kindergarten students during College Logo Day!

A second grade class sharing their careers with each other during Career Dress Up Day!

So many students & staff participated in Acts of Kindness Bingo!

National School Counseling Week was the same week as the Pasta 4 Pennies kick-off!

Career Day 2012

Friday was Career Day from 8-11 where we had over 45 presenters share their career with CD-5th grade students. Each presenter was assigned to a classroom and classes did five rotations of twenty minute presentations with ten minute breaks/transition time between each. After the 5th presentation students went outside for the 'vehicle loop' where they got to see different vehicles the presenters brought, including: a fire truck, electric company bucket truck, hot rod car, police car, undercover car, etc. All presenters wore their work uniform and shared visuals, tools, and did hands-on activities that were developmentally and age appropriate. A lot of the presenters were parents of students at the school but many were also community members that agreed to come and share information with students about their job; including, a local meteorologist and the minor league baseball team. In the afternoon students wrote thank you cards and completed other career activities that were provided for them. It's a wonderful day that the students look forward to each year that allows them to see the connection between school and the world of work. Career day is one of the main events coordinated by the school counselors each year that exposes and educates students on different jobs.



Angel Tree 2011

As our schools unofficial community resource liaison, I have the opportunity to coordinate a lot of activities that support the community and particularly our school community. This year's angel tree is being sponsored by a community business (specializing in home lighting). It was so wonderful (and helpful to me) for them to contact us and ask how they could help! Mid-November (through our school newsletter) I informed families that if they needed holiday assistance and were not receiving support from another organization, to contact me to be a part of the angel tree. I just contacted the coordinator of the lighting business that was so eager to provide assistance and gave her the gender, age, grade, clothing sizes, and wish list items of students and their siblings. I'm so glad to be a part of a community where people are willing to help and give back. Come mid-December the parents that contacted (who were very humble and modest) will be able to pick up the items to give to their children on Christmas. I don't know about you, but it is quite frustrating to see people so focused on "black Friday," "cyber-Monday," and decorating a tree before Thanksgiving (sorry if I offended you)....but isn't giving back and focusing on what we're thankful for what this season is all about (among other things)?! This season makes me hopeful that in the bottom of people's hearts, they wonder how we can give back and help those in need....isn't that what this season is all about anyway!?!

Each angel represents an angel we will help this holiday season!

Teachers promoting Careers

It's always such a joy to walk into a classroom and see a counseling related resource I use with students visible in the room. It's also wonderful when teachers do classroom instructional activities that correlate and support the counseling curriculum. I walked down the third grade hall the other day and saw posted outside a classroom a writing lesson that was done on careers and had to share. The students had the opportunity to write about what career/job they wanted when they grow up. They then using card stock people cutouts, decorated the card stock in the career they wrote about. It's very apparent by looking at the pictures below that the students really got into this activity. When talking to the teacher she said she plans to use these cutouts for other activities throughout the year.

Seeing this really makes me excited about our upcoming school-wide Career Day in January! :)

Bullying Awareness on the Wall

To summarize the end of our classroom guidance bullying lessons and to remind students of the importance of NOT allowing bullying at their school, we posted the pledge against bullying in the hallway for all students to see. Students love finding where they signed and I hope it serves as a reminder that they will not bully or stand by and watch it happen to someone else.

I also had the opportunity to do an extension activity with a 5th grade class on the bully machine lesson I discussed in a previous post. To do this activity, I adapted my own version of The School Counselor Blog's anti-bully machine created by Danielle. Students teamed up to do different parts of the machine, some were the 'architects,' their job was to design how the machine would look, some were the 'negative ninjas," their job was to find negative terms and pictures from magazines to put on the 'pain' side of the machine. Lastly, there were the "positive promoters," their job was to find positive terms and pictures from magazines to put on the 'power' side of the machine. Students also used construction paper to write painful and powerful words that have been said to them to add to the collage. Some students even cut out pieces of the machine they created from the first lesson to add to the collage. It is now displayed in the 4th and 5th grade hallway and the students love it!

I wanted to remind students of how to positively and effectively deal with bullying by adding the "What will YOU do to STOP bullying at your school?" section. I made sure to include all the ways we discussed on how they can actively work to stop and prevent bullying from continuing.

Safety Lesson from Fire Educator

A special thank you to Kathy Nieuwhaus (County Fire Educator) for coming to our school this week to do a lesson with kindergarten students on fire safety. A video was shown to students on fire safety/awareness and several volunteer fire fighters also did a demonstration and role-play with students on how they rescue them from danger. They even left souvenier fire chief hats for each students to keep as a reminder that fire fighters are their friend and ready to help when 911 is called. We look forward to having them back during Career Day in January!

Parent Program on Personal Safety

Next week we will begin our last rotation of classroom guidance before the winter break and it will be on personal safety. To introduce this series, I will be co-facilitating a parent program this evening with my wonderful co-counselor! We will be sharing with parents the Yello Dyno curriculum that we will be using to teach students about personal safety. This program was purchased for the counseling department with money donated from a local church to the school. It's a wonderful program that teaches about 'tricky people' and being safe in a developmentally appropriate way that is easy for kids to understand. Come join us this evening from 5:30-6:30 to learn more about Yello Dyno!

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Conflict Resolution Extension Lesson

Due to the schedule (and large number of students) at our school, there are a few classes I see more frequently than others. I use this to my advantage to try out new activities and based on student response, determine if they're worthy of doing with other classes.

This past week I did an extension lesson of the conflict resolution lesson I completed last month. To do this, I used a fantastic resource called Counseling on the Wall. This resource has lesson plans and activities on a variety of topics while also allowing you to display them to advertise/reference those strategies at a later time. The included CD allows you to print all that you need for your bulletin board so it's user friendly and time efficient!

For this lesson we reviewed Kelso and the conflict resolution wheel of choices for solving small problems. We then talked about the importance of calming down before solving a problem to avoid saying or doing something we might regret (not allowing your anger/frustration interfere with solving the problem). We then discussed ways to calm down and relax and I introduced 'The Peace Train' from the Counseling on the Wall book. After discussing the possible techniques to calm down as suggested by the peace train, I distributed blank 'tickets' for students to write things they do to calm themselves down. Students had the opportunity to share their wonderful ideas including; play with my dog, go for a walk, play sports, draw, read a book, etc. I encouraged all students to actively listen (eyes on speaker and avoid distracting those around them) to gain other ideas/suggestions they might not have thought of to calm down. With the remaining time we used the Kelso Conflict Resolution thumb ball to finish our review of conflict resolution.

I displayed in my 'counseling cottage' The Peace Train for students to see when they come to classroom guidance and small group counseling. I left some space to add more 'tickets' from students that I talk with during individual counseling that need assistance with dealing with anger. More tickets could also be added from individuals that participate in an anger group. I look forward to displaying more Counseling on the Wall for students to reference when working with me!

'Intro to the Counselor' Lesson

For the first classroom guidance lesson each year I share with students what my job is as a SCHOOL counselor, (more details on that later!) ;) procedures/expectations for the 'counseling cottage' that align with the school PBIS motto (that our school R.O.C.K.S.), and most importantly how to request to come and talk. I share with students that I'm an adult that cares and want to hear about good AND not so good things going on in their life. I do this to build rapport and to let students know that I'm not just someone that listens/helps with their problems- I want to hear about their successes too! In every classroom there is an envelope with "I would like to see the Counselor" slips in them. I inform the students that during NON-instructional time they can fill out one of the slips and either 1. give it to their teacher to give to me or 2. put it in the envelope on my office door. I also share with the students that if they have an emergency (that involves safety, them or someone else getting physically hurt) to NOT fill out a note. If they have an emergency, they need to tell their teacher or another adult that they have an emergency and need to see the counselor right away. We then work together to make sure they see me or my co-counselor that day. As you might imagine, the notes certainly pile up but we make sure to get to everyone as soon as we can. It's a great way for students to self monitor their needs and to know they have an objective adult in their life they can trust. It's also a great way to 'advertise' ourselves to students- sharing with them what our role is. Early in the year we also give teachers referral forms to use when they have a student they feel would benefit from seeing us.

At the end of the lesson we do a 'getting to know you' activity with my infamous 'thumb ball' the kids LOVE it and ask to use it often. Some students have even asked where I got it so they can get one! It's a great tool to use to get to know students, as an icebreaker, and even as an incentive for following classroom procedures and finishing the lesson with extra time remaining!

When meeting with the young students we are a bit more creative with our approach and how we share what we do. To do this and keep the students engaged, we compare ourselves to Mrs. Potato Head! We ask the students how we are like Mrs. Potato Head and they certainly give creative responses. :) Then we go into detail about how our job and what we do is comparable to Mrs. Potato Head, for example we have ears to listen to students, hands to 'lend a helping hand' when students are in need of help or to give 'high fives' to celebrate successes with them, the glasses are to help students see more clearly and gain a different perspective to the problem they have, the purse/bag is full of tools and ideas to help students work through their problems, etc. The students really get into it and it also allows students to take turn and celebrate differences (i.e. what one student might select for the hat might be different from another student). I've also heard of counselors using a beach bag of tools that relate to their job, you can even use a beach ball and add questions to the different sections much like the thumb ball.

Another way we advertise our comprehensive program and all the components of our job, while also letting people know where we are is through our "Where is the Counselor" door sign. I made the apple sign my first year as a counselor and used library pockets to demonstrate where I was in the building. Since it's one of the first things I made as a counselor, it means a lot to me and it has traveled with me to every school I've been at. When I was split between two schools I wanted one for my other office so I made a fish and used Velcro to show where I was in that building. It's now in the safe possession of my co-counselor.