Countdown to #NSCW16

Next week is National School Counseling Week; A week where I hope you will be recognized for the many contributions that you make to your school and students each day.  I hear from many of you that it is hard for you to promote yourself during School Counseling Week, and I get your perspective! I have always found it more fun when I focus on celebrating a school counseling program that is collaborative with parents and teachers and helps promote student success. I also LOVED combining Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week with School Counseling Week last year (check out my post here) and am going to do it again this year! I decided to take the ASCA theme- "School Counseling: A Recipe for Success" and switch it up to "Kindness: A Recipe for Success" as I celebrate BOTH school counseling AND RAK.  Don't forget that ASCA has a lot of great resources and photo challenges for National School Counseling Week...be sure to get those FB posts and tweets out with the hashtag #NSCW16! Look for mine at @apoovey with the additional hashtag of #groovypoovey.

After brainstorming my Random Acts of Kindness Activity Pack last year, I'm not changing things up too much with my new school and staff...,why reinvent the wheel when it was so much fun?!! My art teachers are helping out again with Kindness-grams, and the Leadership Club that I help sponsor is going to help us sort all 1,000 of them next week so we will be ready for our deliveries next Friday.  They will also make sure we haven't left any staff members out!

I have also been counting down each day on the morning show to give kids ideas of ways they can show kindness next week. My co-counselor and I are sticking with our Kindness Cocoa Bar as a random act of kindness for our staff, but she came up with the brilliant idea to use Keurigs and K-cups of hot chocolate instead of worrying about all those crockpots of hot chocolate to make....#thatwaseasy.  We will expand our toppings bar depending on how creative I get at the grocery store, and I'm sure it will be a welcome treat that staff can stop in and enjoy any time during the day.

I did change my body outlines from last year to hearts this year because it fit better with my "Kindness: A Recipe for Success" theme and the bulletin board I made. Each classroom will decorate their own heart to show examples of kindness through words and actions. I can't wait for those hearts to be overflowing out of my kindness bowl...so cute!  Also, I put up my "tear a compliment" sheet on the bulletin board today just for fun and it's already totally empty before RAK week even starts! Looks like I'll need a few more copies to post around the school. 







Don't forget to check out my TPT if you are looking for some RAK ideas! I have my activity pack on SALE as a little RAK for you over the next couple of days. Check back next week for more photos and NSCW16 shout outs for our profession!

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

DOLLAR DAYS: College & Career

It is Throwback Thursday (and my first TPT DOLLAR DAYS so read all the way to the bottom!).....do you remember this picture from last year?!  I celebrated Career Dress Up Day as a NASCAR racer and greeted students during arrival with my "Welcome Race Fans" banner.  For those who have followed my blog for awhile, you know that I LOVE the career domain and always promote college & careers schoolwide with morning show announcements, classroom lessons, bulletin boards, and spirit days.  This year, my co-counselor and I are actually extending Career & College month with events in November AND December.  I recently made a flyer for the staff to give an overview of our career and college events and started publicizing colleges and careers on bulletin boards around the school (the college pennant bulletin board below is my MOST popular pin on Pinterest EVERY WEEK!).  

I am asking staff and students to bring in college pennants or other swag for schools they want me to highlight on the morning show. I am also including a "College of the Week" (or every other week) on my bulletin board (see below). 

I love involving staff in the college and career fun! Each Thursday in November and December staff members are invited to wear college spirit wear to school.  Many staff members have also completed career trivia forms (see example below) for the career trivia bulletin board. It is more of a makeshift bulletin board because I wanted to place it in a high visibility area outside of the cafeteria where there is no actual board, but it meets the need! I plan to start asking trivia questions on the morning show next week and continue until winter break.  I think students will love hearing about what their teachers wanted to be when they were in elementary school and what their favorite subjects were as kids. It helps humanize them (we don't sleep at school!). I did put pictures in the corner to highlight their answers so younger students can scan for clues rather than having to read everything. 

Finally, I am ultra excited about the college door decorating contest and can't wait to see what my new colleagues create for the judging on Friday.  It's neat to see which students get involved, who has a lot of school spirit for their alma mater, and what type of facts they include about their school. I am learning a lot!  Pictures to come of their super creative designs.....

If you want to get started with some school-wide college and career fun, check out my new TPT resource with a few things to get you started! Staff career trivia sheets, door decorating contest resources, and bulletin board signs will give you the motivation you need to make DECEMBER or JANUARY your College & Career Month!

Each Thursday in November and December I will be celebrating DOLLAR DAYS in my TPT store as part of my throwback to cheaper times. This resource, along with others, will be reduced to $1 for 24 hours so get them while you can!  By Friday afternoon, we will be back to 2015 prices! :)

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

It's MADNESS......

March School Madness

I'm not just talking about bracketology, my friends.  This is the time of the year when I feel like I need an extra shot of espresso in the morning (I don't even drink coffee) and wheels on my feet, and I am not the only one.  Everyone is counting down to spring break and needs a pick me up! So, here is what I am doing to keep the spirit alive for the next 15 days until our abbreviated (thank you SNOW) Spring break occurs.

TEACHERS

Do you remember my Easter egg hunt from last year?  It is back and better than ever thanks to my principal coming through with some delicious treats.  I am still including my funny and inspirational quotes (e.g. Ryan Gosling among others) and hope to spread some cheer the week before break.

We are also doing our own March Madness brackets for bragging rights (and maybe a small gag gift) with staff.  The brackets were due today and points will be updated after each round in our staff mailroom.  I'm hoping to get my College Madness bulletin board back up like last year with the team mascots, but did I mention my "to do list" has its own madness going on right now?! (#nopromises)

STUDENTS

Ever since attending a session at the November NCSCA conference with the entertaining Mr. Kip Jones (Tweet him at @AuthorMrJ), I have had my heart set on coming up with a school pledge and school theme song.  Back in December I proposed an essay contest for any students who wanted to answer the following questions:

       1- What does it mean to you to be a Cleveland STAR?

       2- What is special about being a Cleveland STAR?

I got great answers from a group of third and fourth graders who have amazing school spirit. We have been working the last couple of months to summarize their essays into a concrete and succinct school pledge.  After it was complete, our art club decorated the pledges (pic coming soon), which were then laminated and handed out to each classroom to be posted.

Next was the more difficult part. One of our third graders picked the perfect tune for our theme song, and we got to work writing lyrics.  We used Audacity (free download) on the computer to record and edit our vocals.  Then, we imported the track into the iMovie app and added video clips of the performers.  Fifth grade students applied to be dancers in the video and added the perfect dance moves to give our video some extra flair.  It was a lot of work with the limited technology available, but I hope you will enjoy  our final product. The kids worked really hard, and I am super proud of
them!   Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

School Counseling Week 2015.....KINDNESS COUNTS

*Image from ASCA

Fellow counselors,

Next week is your week! The time of the year when you should be recognized for all of the tears you help dry, the girl drama you help quell, the homework you help get turned in, the kids you help get clothed when they have no coat in 30 degree weather, the teachers you help calm down when they need to vent, the life lessons you help instill in children who need YOU..............................................

Next week is your week! And if no one else tells you next week, I am saying THANK YOU right now to YOU! I am saying thank you for doing the things that no one knows you do, for doing things that may not be quantifiable, for doing a job that often leaves you totally and emotionally drained because you have given every ounce of energy and feeling to the little bodies that fill your school. I am saying thank you because I have had school counseling weeks where lots of people have recognized me and made me feel like I was on top of the world, and I have had weeks where I wondered if anyone knew it was school counseling week.  So no matter what, know you are appreciated by at least this girl!

 

And I am celebrating next week because I love my job.  Believe me, I have been in jobs I didn't love, and the difference is life changing.  I am happy to have a job I love and will be celebrating!

So, fasten your seat belts because School Counseling Week 2015 is on the way, and we are going to have some fun!  It all started last week when my staff got a memo from my co-counselor and me (right) outlining our activities.

We decided to incorporate Random Acts of Kindness Week (actually the week of Feb. 9th) with School Counseling Week as I mentioned in my previous post.  Here is how we are involving our school in our Kindness Counts  theme:

1- Students are creating Kindness Grams for staff members in art classes all week long. They will be delivered on Friday as a Random Act of Kindness to the wonderful teachers, administrators, and support staff at my school.

2-  Students will be given RAK BINGO cards to complete during the week.  The bingo cards are general so that all 1st-5th grade students can participate.


3- In media time, students will be able to write one of the Random Acts of Kindness they completed on a heart template, which will be added to our #RAKTIVIST bulletin board (below).

It may be hard to tell, but the bulletin board is complete with bobble head fairies, a kindness video QR code, and RAK ideas to share.

4-  We are doing a Kindness Cocoa Bar for staff members before school on Wednesday morning---idea courtesy of my awesome intern Ashley Warren. I will share pics later, but one of our hot cocoa toppings to choose from is jumbo heart marshmallows....enough said!  We also have a little candy treat for mailboxes on Monday in case some of our staff isn't available Wednesday morning.

5- Every class has made a class RAK mascot where they brainstormed kindness ideas and discussed the upcoming week.  The mascots will be used to decorate the border of our bulletin board. Here are some examples that have already been turned in. 





















There are so many ideas for School Counseling Week if you look at the ASCA website or Pinterest board. Don't forget the ASCA photo challenge for February 4th!  I also have my Random Acts of Kindness SCW Activity Pack available on TPT here for those who want to use it either week.

So, have fun, celebrate, and enjoy next week....you deserve it! 
Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

PS-  I meant to share the great news that my school got RAMP last week.....cheers!

Hello 2015....Let's Pay it Forward!

                               *Picture from RandomActsofKindness.org

Happy 2015!  I reflected on 2014 in my blog post here  and am waiting as I type this post to hear about my RAMP results via email some time tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

I have also been thinking a lot about the notion of "Paying It Forward."  As school counselors, we probably spread a lot of kindness around during the holidays with angel trees, canned food drives, backpack buddy programs, and coat drives among other activities. School counselors are naturally what Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) enthusiasts would call #RAKTVITISTS (There is a Twitter hashtag!). 

Today I am proudly jumping on the #Raktivist bandwagon.  At the beginning of the school year I decided I wanted to participate in Random Acts of Kindness Week to help my students think beyond themselves.  After looking at the school calendar, I realized Random Acts of Kindness Week was scheduled for the week after National School Counseling Week.  How perfect! I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our profession than combining those two weeks. So, at my school, National School Counseling Week and Random Acts of Kindness Week will both be celebrated February 2nd-6th.  Our theme is Kindness Counts.

Next week, I will be sharing the schoolwide, invididual, and counselor activities that my co-counselor and I plan to incorporate into this kindness-spreading week at my school.  For ideas until then, visit the Random Acts of Kindness website, a truly great resource!  Pinterest also has a ton of ideas to offer, and the RAK foundation has their own set of Pinterest boards here.

In closing this post I am offering YOU, my readers, a random act of kindness. My most-pinned picture in 2014 was probably my college pennant bulletin board above.  If you click on the picture below, you will be taken a Google doc I created with all of the schools and email addresses I contacted to request the free materials that allowed me to create this beautiful bulletin board. I hope that this resource will save you time and give you the motivation needed to cross one item off of your "to do" list for 2015.

                Enjoy and Happy Counseling!   ~  Angela

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ocVeUdOmE5LmGt5D_p5yORLRHdQ1_BJ-PusMa0hoSgw/edit?usp=sharing

October: Careers, College, and Costumes...Oh my!

Whew.....I have not written in three weeks, and I am ready to share! October has been a fun, busy, and eventful month at Cleveland Elementary.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we celebrate Career and College Month in October.  Be sure to check out some of my favorite career resources here if you are planning lessons.  This year, we had two Fridays where staff and students wore college shirts to promote their favorite teams or alma maters.  Teachers also had a blast decorating their doors for our door decorating contests. The winning doors were exceptional with either sound, light, 3D design, and/or student work being incorporated for a phenomenal display. Winning teachers were awarded a small gift card prize to recognize their awesome creativity and hard work, but ALL staff members who participated were given this little "treat" (below).

Our two first-place doors are below (ECU and NC State) as well as our second place doors (Meredith College).  The NC State door had paws going down the hall with recorded student voices making the wolf howl, and the ECU door had purple lights as well as student-made pirate faces to represent each child...very creative Ms. Troxler and Ms. Graham!

The Meredith doors created by our music teacher, Ms. Fitzgerald, were 3D with balloons, an iron gate, and clouds. Lovely!

For some extra fun this year, I asked teachers to complete a career interview so I could present trivia questions on the morning broadcast throughout the month.  It was a big hit, although next year I will have staff (including myself!) type their answers for ease of reading when students look for answers on my bulletin board.  I did add picture clues next to the interview sheets, which helped out a lot! Students were able to find the teachers who matched the trivia questions and put answers in a basket located in the media center.  I drew one correct answer for each question during the week to recognize the winning students, and they received a small prize.  I will add pictures of my bulletin board this coming week!

Red Ribbon Week fell within our Career and College Week so we linked a drug-free, healthy lifestyle to future education and career success on Career Dress Up Day.  I decided to dress up like a NASCAR race car driver and welcomed my "race fan students" with a floor sign as they came into the building from front carpool. It was a great way to start our Friday as I greeted lots of doctors, animal caretakers, professional athletes, business people, lawyers, and builders (as well as superheroes.....who knew you could get paid for that as an adult?!).

We also began our Career Cafe lunch events this week after completing our Holland's Theory lessons with each fifth grade class. Our first speaker, a fire chief,  represented the REALISTIC category.  We had approximely 25 fifth graders join him for lunch, and the best part was when the students got to try on all the fire gear at the end. I have decided to use an exit slip with the students during Career Cafe events this year so I can gather data on knowledge acquired by the students. I will be adding that slip and my Career Cafe invitation to my TPT store in the coming days. We have lined up future speakers to represent the other Holland's personality categories and have some extension activities planned, which I will share when they occur in December.

I hope my NC friends are gearing up for the NCSCA Conference next week in Greensboro where we will be able to advance our education through professional development.  The annual conference is such a great time to recharge and renew enthusiasm about our profession.  I will be presenting the session "Help! I'm in the Specialist Rotation....Now What?!" on Friday at 9am and would love to see you there. It will be a fun time!  For those of you not in NC, I'll be sure to share the highlights in a future blog post.

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~Angela