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