Challenge to Collaborate

The power of collaboration is one of my core beliefs as a school counselor. It is the reason I love being a PLC facilitator and was the driving factor for starting a blog. Every time I get an email from another counselor across the country or someone asks a question or comments on one of my posts, it creates a connection and exchange of new ideas that benefits everyone.  The power of social media and technology truly creates unending opportunities for educators (or any hobbyist or working person for that matter!).  It makes me wonder what I did before Pinterest, school counseling blogs, Twitter, and online forums...wow!

On that note,  I wanted to share what some great school counselors are doing and have shared with me recently. I am flattered that my posts have prompted others to implement similar ideas, but more importantly, I am inspired by how others have taken ideas I have shared and made them even better!!

Anne Caudill, an awesome veteran counselor at Laurel Hill Elementary in Scotland County, NC,  emailed me and shared these pictures of a bulletin board she had made after reading about connecting Perseverance to goal setting in this post.  She also gave me a great kinesthetic lesson idea for careers and linking educational achievement to higher pay, which I will be sharing when I focus on careers again next year....fantastic!

Sarah Klimek from Centennial Elementary in North Dakota was in contact with me following my post about book clubs.  We emailed several times sharing resources, and she came up with an EXCELLENT question guide for Strange Case of Origami Yoda, which will add tremendously to the discussion of themes and social strategies that I already use with my students. Check out these cute activities she shared that can be incorporated into a book club session:

Turn these sentences into Yoda-speak:
 --You must read the book to find out.
--Learn to speak Jedi.  
--Clean your room.
-- Ask for a new bike.
--Go to bed early.

Compose an acronym with sentences that describe Dwight’s appearance and personality.

D__________________________________________________________________________

W_________________________________________________________________________

I__________________________________________________________________________

G__________________________________________________________________________

H_________________________________________________________________________

T__________________________________________________________________________

I'm also taking collaboration to heart as the editor of the NCSCA News Magazine.  I know not everyone has time or feels comfortable with writing a long article for our news magazine so I decided to try something different for the Spring issue. I am asking for "best resource" examples from counselors across NC in order to include a "Top 10 or 20" list from the experts who use these materials each day. Counselors can include bibliotherapy books, videos, counselor workbooks, or anything that has become a "go to" resource for them. I would like to open this up to my blog readers, too.  If you have a resource you could not live without in your professional work, please fill out the information below and share it with me.  I will include all shared resources in an upcoming blog post so EVERYONE has a chance to save the list for future PTA funds or school counseling purchases.  Happy Counseling Y'all! ~ Angela