Monday, December 29, 2014

Bad Days Happen

I'll be the first to admit that the week before winter break was tough for me.  My son got the flu and was out of school for three days.  Luckily no one else in my family caught it, but with present distributions, December lessons, parent referrals, scheduled group sessions, and individual counseling sessions to get done, I felt WAY BEHIND when I came back the last full day before break.  To make matters worse, I returned from being out with him to find a box of county materials in my room with parent permission letters that needed to be distributed before break. In short....... It.was.a.fiasco! I felt like the lady below (the one on the left!!).

                                                                            *Image from westcoastmama.net

I am telling you this because we know that life doesn't always go our way smoothly, but it is sometimes difficult to remember all the positive things that have happened when you  have that bad day that makes you feel like an utter failure (positive self talk, positive self talk!).

In my professional life, I keep a email folder of the "high five/way to go/thanks" emails people send me so I have tangible reminders of how I am making a difference. I also keep notes from students, parents, and teachers visible on my desk or on my picture hanger (to the right-part of my office decor this year). 

Technology is also a great way to keep these memories without creating too much clutter. I have started taking pictures of student notes so I can stay somewhat organized while also enjoying the sentiments.

I also love having this blog as a testament to the work I have accomplished through the year.  So, in that vein, here are my TOP FIVE Groovy Poovey moments of 2014.  Enjoy..............


1.  Presenting at my first ASCA Conference.....remember that?!!! I couldn't believe my luck when I found out my first ASCA conference was going to feature a keynote speech from First Lady Michelle Obama.  I was beyond excited about her visit as well as my presentation and the entire conference as a whole.  I will also be attending and presenting at the 2015 ASCA conference in Phoenix, AZ this June and hope to connect with many of you there! It is truly an experience that every school counselor should have at least once during his or her career.

2.  Starting my Life On the Fly TPT Store
My Life on the Fly TPT Store was something I had thought about for quite awhile before I finally posted products this past July.  Every product I share from my own school activities is carefully created in hopes that it will be helpful to other school counselors out there. Thanks for supporting me in this endeavor!


3.  Receiving the Leading with the Heart award from my peers  
I was so honored to be chosen by my staff to receive this award. It was truly one of the top highlights of my career!
Behind the scenes info:  My son happened to break his elbow at recess the same afternoon I had this award presentation.  The school couldn't reach me and called my principal to notify us what had happened 10 minutes before the reception started.  My husband was on his way to meet me and quickly switched plans to take my son to the ER and orthopaedist's office.  So, inside that smile was an anxious mama who wasn't quite sure what was going on, but I managed to keep it together for the award presentation. #mamaproblems

4.  Submitting my RAMP application
In 17 days I will find out the results of my RAMP application.  Although I will be disappointed if I don't get it on the first try, I am so glad that I checked this professional "to do" off my bucket list.  It is something I have talked about as a school counselor since graduate school and my early years in Wake County under the tutelage of Eric Sparks and Portia Lambright.  My previous co-counselor, Amanda Collins, and I labored over the 100+ page document we submitted and did our very best work.  I took this very grainy picture the day I finally finished....look at that smile!
Fingers crossed............................





5.   Pounding the pavement to get cool things for my students
Kind of random way to describe it, but this is how I feel every time I write a grant to try and get something cool to use with my kids.  I know I am not going to win every grant for which I apply.  I know not every idea is going to be executed perfectly.  I know there is lots of competition and some grants are easier to get than others.  BUT,  my dad was a phenomenal fundraiser and taught me without even knowing the zeal and persistence required to earn grants.  This past year, I got four grants funded and have been able to integrate STEM and technology into my school initiatives in a way I never would have been able to without these funding sources.  It has invigorated my students AND ME in a way that improves teaching and learning.


Thank you for taking the time to be a part of my year, whether you are a regular reader or this post is the first of mine you've ever seen.  Happy New Year to you! May 2015 be realistically imperfect, BOLD, and fantastically fun!  Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Amazing Centers.......


It hasn't been all elves and ugly Christmas sweaters that light up (gotta love it!) at Cleveland Elementary over the past two weeks, as fun as that has been!


All of my lessons are in full swing as I cover the character traits of Respect and Compassion with kindergarten, second, and fourth grade students, many of which incorporate centers for student activities.  I talked about using centers last year for a Compassion lesson in this post and emphasized Compassion in accepting differences, particularly disabilities.  Many of you really liked the idea!

Centers are one of my favorite lesson strategies, and I shared how I use them during my presentation at the 2014 NCSCA Conference.  I was surprised by how many people seemed interested in creating centers for their own lessons and was asked by numerous people if I had any to share on my TPT Life on the Fly Store.  It reminded me of this video I recently saw in a blog post by George Couros, an innovative administrator in Canada.  

Can you relate?  The brilliance of bloggers I follow and my school counselor colleagues continues to astound me, while I am still somewhat surprised when someone emails me about a "great idea" they were able to  use from my blog.  And that's what makes collaboration so great! What might seem like a "no brainer" to you could make all the difference to someone else.So, I wanted to share my top tips for using centers in your classroom guidance lessons.

1. Use a timer or give students clear voice/hand signal prompts to make center rotations calm and efficient.  Classroom management is really the key to successfully incorporating centers into your lessons! I give a 30 second warning and then say "Give me 5" to indicate we are about to transition. As soon as my hand goes up, the students' hands go up, and they know mouths are silent. Then, I count down 5-4-3-2-1 as they walk to the next center.  I prefer this method to timers because it gives me flexibility in case there is a group that needs an extra minute on one rotation. However, I have used both methods. Also, don't be afraid to use short time increments for  your centers. In my ability awareness centers, students were only at each of the six centers for about 4 minutes before I had them rotate.

2. Use a center worksheet to maintain student accountability. No matter what type of centers I am using, there is a finished product that holds students accountable. Sometimes there is individual accountability like in my ability awareness center sheet.  Other times, teams are coming up with a skit or writing answers on a whiteboard that will have to be shared in front of the class.

3. Have more activities available than time will allow. I never want students to be bored or have idle time in my centers. If they are brainstorming, I tell them to brainstorm "as many ideas as they can" so I will get at least a handful of quality ideas.  In my ability awareness centers, there are at least two activities for each center.  If they don't get to every single sentence or question it is okay, as long as they learned enough to complete their work product. This strategy helps me keep even the quickest of workers actively engaged during my lesson.

4. Assign your center teams carefully.  This tip is a no brainer but extremely important. If you know you have students that don't handle unstructured activities well, you may need to put them in a smaller group and choose partners for that student that have above-average behavior.

5. Incorporate multimedia into at least one of your centers.  Centers are a great time to use those 2 or 3 computers that are in every classroom.  Find a great website that relates to what you are teaching, play a video from YouTube that will catch the students' attention, or give them something interactive to do on the Smartboard if you have one at your disposal.  There are a million 21st century technology resources available online for free. Use them!

If you want to start with a ready-made lesson, check out my Ability Awareness center pack and accompanying Smartboard lesson on TPT by clicking the images.  Or, get creative and incorporate centers into a lesson you already use. Either way, get started on some amazing centers!


  Enjoy and Happy Counseling! 
                    ~ Angela

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Holiday Cheer-meister!


                                                 Image from Agirlandhergluegun.com

There are 10 more school days before Christmas break.  For some, those 80 hours of work time may feel like 80,000 hours as the anticipation of two glorious weeks (or more) looms in the future.  I like to add a little holiday cheer at this time of year to give staff something to look forward to each day.

Last year, my principal graciously agreed to purchase a school elf for us.  We christened her "STAR" and had a fun time finding her each day.  You may remember some of these pics.......



    This year, STAR arrived in camouflage clothes    in  preparation for some serious hide and seek.  I've tried to add props and have a few pieces of candy for the first couple of staff members who find her each day. 









I also started a festive door decorating chain that I hope will spread to lots of teachers before we leave for break.  I "SNOWED" a couple of teachers who are then supposed to pick someone to SNOW themselves. The snowflakes get passed along unless the teacher wants to make new ones, but the sign stays on their door to remind them they are loved.  Easy but FUN!

You can find the SNOWED template with instructions as a FREEBIE at my TPT store.


Another day of fun will come this Friday as the staff celebrates National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.  Yes, apparently it is a real holiday.  Who knew??!!
I hope you all are enjoying the weeks leading up to winter break. Remember, you find the fun and SNAP, the job's a game!

 Happy Counseling! ~ Angela




*Image from CraftBrewery24.com

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Black Friday Extravaganza

Gobble, gobble! Happy Thanksgiving to all of my lovely school counseling colleagues and blog readers out there. I hope you had a WONDERFUL day! As a THANK YOU to all of YOU, I am having a sale at my TPT store tomorrow. Everything is 15% off! Starts in 23 minutes........
   ~   Enjoy and Happy Shopping!  Angela

Monday, November 24, 2014

Plickers...Things That Make You Go HMMMMM............

                       
      TPT Life on the Fly Store Black Friday Sale---Get Ready!!
 



Apparently I have been living under a rock because I had never heard of Plickers until last week when one of my lovely colleagues forwarded me an article about it. So, I feel like it is my duty to write about them just in case there are other poor school counselors like me who need to see the light.  Plickers are one of those technology tools that make me go HMMM.....First, because I don't really understand how they work;  Second, because I think the person who invented them is BRILLIANT;  Third, because I bet the people who sell the ultra-expensive clicker systems are probably pretty annoyed right now; Fourth, because they are going to totally revolutionize my classroom guidance lessons.

You see, I have talked in numerous blog posts about my data collection methods for pre and post tests in classroom guidance lessons. You may remember seeing something that looked like this when I talked about character trait lessons (right). 
I dutifully collect my pre and post numbers in EVERY class whatever the multiple question may be.  Typically, I ask students to put their heads down and raise their hand for the one answer choice they think is correct.  It has always worked fairly well although I frequently have to remind students about voting ONLY ONE TIME, keeping their eyes closed so they don't peek at others' votes, and raising their hands high so I can get an accurate count.  And then came Plickers......

If you go to their website there isn't a TON of information so I want to let you know how I set up this incredible tool for my lessons.  Disclaimer: You WILL NEED a smart device to use Plickers (iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.)

1. Create a FREE account on Plickers.com.
2. Go to the "Library" tab and type in the question you want to ask your students. You can have up to four multiple choice answers or make it a True/False question.
3. Underneath your question click "Add to Plan" and choose if you want to use the Demo class or add a new class.  (I kept it under Demo class the first time, but I plan on creating a class for each grade level I work with and adding specific questions to that grade level to keep it more organized.)
4. Click on the "Cards" tab and print out your Plicker cards. I chose to print the 40 card large font version since I will be using these with Kindergarten students as well as older students. I will use the SAME cards for each lesson.
5. Download the FREE Plicker App on your smart device.
6. In the app, click on the class where you saved the information so that you can see your question.  Then, press the CAMERA icon. 

At this point, you need to be in a classroom asking your question. Students will look at their unique Plicker code and decide if they think the correct answer is A, B, C, or D (I only had A-C answer choices for my second grade lesson so they ignored the D option).  Whatever answer they want to choose should be AT THE TOP of their Plicker code when they hold it up for you to scan (In the Plicker code at the top of this post, they would be choosing answer D).

Before you start scanning the students' answers, you can pull up the Plicker website on a Smartboard or LCD projector and click on "Live View." This view allows the students to see their answers being taken by your smart device as you walk around the room and scan the Plickers (right- Student View). If you only taught one class/one grade level you could also assign names to each Plicker card to assess who needed reteaching or remediation if that student picked the incorrect answer.  For my purposes, that would be way too time intensive so I just note who still doesn't have the right answer in my post test and check in with them later. Typically it is 2 kids MAX. 

The best part is revealing how the students did after you have scanned all the cards.  Click on the Graph View to see a chart like the one below.  If it's the pretest, you can discuss the results with students and have them predict how many students will have the correct answer AFTER the lesson.  Remember to make sure you are really emphasizing the correct answer and giving clear instruction so they have a chance to meet that goal!

So, there is my brief overview of Plickers.  Leave a comment if you think you can use this tool at your school! I would love to hear what you think.  Also, on a side note, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am truly thankful to have this blog to connect with all of you each day. 

Happy Turkey Day and Happy Counseling!  
~ Angela

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Academics are Aca-Awesome!

 
                                                                 *Image from Pinterest- etc-alltherest.blogspot.com

Can you believe we are already one nine weeks down for the 2014-2015 school year?! AND, we all know how quickly the weeks fly during the holiday season.  With that in mind, I am really increasing the intensity of my academic interventions this school year.  My fabulous co-counselor, Nicole, and I came up with two academic SMART goals for our comprehensive school counseling program this year in addition to our attendance and behavior goals.  If you are not using the ASCA Smart Goal worksheet to create program goals, check out this previous post and access info from my ABCs of the ASCA National Model presentation.  Links to many of the ASCA forms and examples can be found in it.

Our first overall program goal written in SMART goal format aims to increase EOG scores among third, fourth, and fifth grade students. Each year, I do homework clubs in the spring, which then transitions into EOG small groups for students who missed the passing EOG scale score by 1 or 2 points in Reading or Math. Most educators call them the "bubble kids."  We focus on coping with test anxiety, multiple choice strategies, test preparation habits, and goal setting for the upcoming EOGs.  However, this year I really wanted to include our K-2 students, too, when addressing academic success.  This year's goal, in general, is to decrease the number of K-2 students that come before the retention committee in June.  We have Closing the Gap Action Plans as well as other initiatives designed to meet this goal.  Here are a few of the interventions:

11.  Reading Readiness Book Clubs:  Typically my book clubs address primarily social/emotional issues with reading improvement as a pleasant side effect, but this year I am specifically targeting "bubble" second graders who are a level or two below their MCLASS benchmarks in reading fluency and comprehension.  I am starting with two second grade groups, a boy group and a girl group.  We will be reading the book The One and Only Stuey Lewis:  Other Stories from Second Grade.  I really loved this book when I previewed it because the main character, Stuey Lewis, provides a great model for young readers who lack confidence. Stuey is self-conscious about reading, hates being around "good readers," and needs lots of encouragement from his teacher at the beginning of the story. I  am predicting that  my students will be able to relate to him and will be able to do some vicarious learning as they see him persevere and totally change his attitude about school. I will also be emphasizing a growth mind-set by discussing Stuey and facilitating confidence building activities as we practice reading.
If you have read about my book clubs before, you know I always give the students "jobs" to give them a sense of ownership in the book club. This time,  I have added a WORD MASTER job so we can include vocabulary or word work while we read.  Anytime a student sees a word they don't recognize, they will smash this buzzer (left).  We will then add the word to our list, look up the meaning, and draw a picture to help us remember our new vocabulary word.  Pretty fun, huh?!

The best part of the book club is that I have definitely upped the "WOW" factor by getting new Kindle Fires for the students to use.  I requested six Kindle Fires and cases in a recent Donor's Choose Grant and had it fulfilled in about 24 hours!  If you haven't tried out Donor's Choose yet, you really should give it a try.  The key is promoting your project on Facebook, Twitter, email, and any other social media outlets you use.  I also plan on having popcorn parties, reading camp-outs, and other fun activities during the Stuey Lewis book clubs so I can avoid having these weekly lunches be another dreaded work time. Check out my 24-page Stuey Lewis Book Club Activity Pack here and get started on your own!

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2.  Report Card Conferences: I am holding report card conferences with all of my RtI students and others I am concerned about following report cards going home last week. I have always had informal meetings with students about report cards, but this year I am using a specific, standard form with my students to help me stay organized.  Find it on TPT here.

3.  Retention Groups:  2014-2015 is the first year I have conducted retention groups with K-2 students.  I am working with second grade students who were retained and Nicole is working with first grade students. I will be sharing more about the structure of these groups in an upcoming post. 

I would love to hear about any academic interventions you are excited about this year.  Leave a comment!  ALSO, the first person to correctly identify the movie this blog post title is referencing will receive a free item of their choice from my Life on the Fly TPT Store....good luck!

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~  Angela

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Are You READY?!!!

Rejuvenated.  Recharged.  READY to work hard to make my school the best it can be! That's always how I feel after returning home from the always fantastic NCSCA Conference.  This year was no different, and I wanted to share my highlights with you (in no particular order).



1.  Presenting my session "Help! I'm in the Specialist Rotation.....Now What?!".  I loved every minute of my 70 minute presentation to elementary counselors from all over NC.  My attendees asked great questions, were enthusiastic about the ideas I shared to help school counselors survive being specialists, and even stayed after my session was over to talk to me further. They ALSO indulged me and acted out my behavior management intro, "Body Basics",  that I use with my students (action shot to the right).  Several people asked about the Body Basics wording and you will find a video with the words and hand motions in this previous post.  As promised, my PowerPoint handout is available electronically to those who attended my session and all my other blog readers out there.  I think you will especially like the links at the end of the presentation to video clips, songs, and other multimedia resources that I frequently use in my classroom lessons to engage students.

2.  The Keynote from Dr. Carolyn Stone on Ethical and Legal Issues:  Let's be real, ethical and legal issues don't quicken my pulse or evoke any type of passionate response from me, but somehow Dr. Stone makes it FUN! She was witty, passionate, extremely knowledgeable, and an entertaining speaker.  It was a great chance to brush up on recent cases affecting school counselors, and the moral of the story is that you MUST ALWAYS consult when sticky situation arise in your school building.


3.  Roll-call:  I love roll call.  You get a sense of "oneness" with hundreds of other school counselors while they proudly represent their regional districts.  Capital region (my region) brought some noise with Tamara Gray, but I loved Tim Hardin's southwest region shout out and the TURN DOWN FOR WHAT?! finale from Dena Parson from the Central Region.

4. Mr. Kip Jones:  This TN school counselor is a man after my own heart.  His session was one of the best I have attended in my years at NCSCA simply because you can see how much he enjoys his job and the way he builds relationships with kids on their level.  Between his school raps, iMovie videos with characters in costume, and self-made books, I had lots of note taking to do during his session, and I left feeling ultra excited about incorporating his ideas in my school counseling program.  You can check out a trailer for his newest book The Power of Self- D below.



5.  Diane Senn:  I don't really need to say anything else, do I?! Diane Senn has been a go-to resource for me since I was in graduate school.  Every list of "must have" resources I share with new counselors or my PLC contains several of her books.  I am proud to say we can now claim her as a North Carolina counselor!  She also shared a fantastic resource packet with attendees at her session, which included tons of free activities from her publications.  I already downloaded the FREE Fluid app she shared to use in anxiety small groups or with students who need a calm-down strategy,

So, here's the real question, what do we do to harness all this enthusiasm into concrete actions to take once we return to school on Monday? It's all too easy to hear these great ideas at conference, feel overwhelmed once you return to school with voicemails and emails galore, and never implement any of the ideas that made you feel excited in the first place.  Sound familiar? Yeah, me too! So, I decided to CHUNK my conference notes this year (what's good for RtI/MTSS is good for me!).  I realistically reflected on what I already have going on at my school and committed to implementing a few ideas in the next couple of months, other ideas by the end of the year, and several ideas next year or further into the future.
I feel good about my plan and hope you will also harness your excitement from the NCSCA conference to prioritize the ideas you liked best.  After all, we already know the answer to this blog post title, ARE YOU READY?!!!  Of course you're ready! You just need to get organized, create a plan, and get going!
Good Luck and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

Saturday, November 1, 2014

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

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Rockin' in my Career Shoes- Responsibility and Careers

*From Pinterest from instapray.com

October is Career and College Month at Cleveland Elementary, one of my favorite school-wide activities of the year!  There is nothing I love more than linking what students are doing each day to their future education, career success, and happiness.  I feel like I have hit the lottery each day when I go to work loving what I am doing, and I want my students to feel the same way in their chosen fields.

At the very end of September, I sent home this flyer to parents so they would be clued into all the activities we are doing this month.

This Friday is our first college team shirt day so I have been promoting it on the morning broadcast and have been having fun showing examples of what students can wear.  Next week, we will kick off our college door decorating contest with teachers showing school spirit for their alma maters.  It is a great way to get college conversations started and create awareness of different higher education institutions that students can attend. Teachers also have a chance to win prizes for the best decorations if they finish in first, second, or third place. My PTA President, my co-counselor, and I are judges and will be following a rubric to assign points....this contest is no joke! Here are some of our submissions from last year......


Later in the month, we will incorporate Red Ribbon Week into our Career and College activities by having Career Dress Up Day with our daily theme, "Love Your Future, Be Drug Free." My co-counselor and I are also linking the character trait of responsibility to career-focused lessons in all grades K-5 and are gearing up to start our Virtual Campus tour lunches and Career Cafes again.  As you can see, it is quite a busy month! I have written about previous classroom guidance career lessons  in my Life on the Fly posts here and here, and I have added several career lesson plans and activities to my Life on the Fly TPT store here (Budgeting, Hats for Ivan, Pete the Cat, etc.).  Check them out for some FUN, ALREADY MADE career ideas!!!

If you are looking for more professional development on career awareness activities or resources, check out CFNC.org.   I had no idea that CFNC had a Wednesday webinar series prior to being asked to share my ideas as a presenter.  I hope you will find this link helpful in seeing upcoming professional development opportunities that  may be of use to you in planning career domain activities. The PDF handout from my webinar presentation can be downloaded here and is a modified version of the career presentation I gave at the NC School Counselor's Conference last year.

Last, I was extremely excited to try something new this year and incorporated everyone's beloved book character, Pete the Cat, into my second grade career lessons. After introducing the lesson by showing them real shoes as a "hook", I asked students how they could apply the character trait of Responsibility in their jobs as students. Then, I showed a Pete the Cat "Rockin' in my School Shoes" YouTube video, which really got their attention! If you have not seen students dance and sing to Pete the Cat, it is quite an entertaining sight. A brief trailer is below:



We discussed the video and listed Pete's responsibilities as a student.  Next, we completed a Smartboard activity where students brainstormed names of future jobs while putting different types of shoes on Pete.  This activity could also be done in a paper version if you do NOT have a Smartboard.  

Finally, we linked these possible jobs to interests in a cooperative learning activity. Students began to make the connection between things they love to do and jobs they might choose.  Their finished work products included decorating their own rockin' shoes, listing their high school graduation date, and writing the name of the job they are interested in.  

It was a really fun lesson and one I will definitely do again next year. Check out some of my work samples below!  How are you promoting college and career awareness at your school??  

Happy Counseling! ~ Angela









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