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