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
Hi there! I love this post. My co counselor and I applied for RAMP this year too. How did you do? I love your ideas. I'd love to collaborate and share with you! We do a lot of video lessons for our kids, we are in a middle school. This is your first post that I've read so I didn't find out where you are located or what grade levels you're in. Would love to hear back from you! My transitional site right now is counselorwithacape.wordpress.com, but I am about to publish my new site in the next couple weeks. :) Look forward to hearing more about your program!
ReplyDeleteHi Kylie- Great to hear from you! I am in NC at a K-5 school, but I'd love to see if there are ideas we can share and modify for our specific grade levels. I'm also on TPT and FB at Life on the Fly Counselor. Let's keep in touch! I'll check out your website soon. :) Angela
ReplyDeleteReally nice post, Thanks for sharing useful and informative post.
ReplyDeleteTrikle Trade
THANKS!! Glad you enjoyed it! :)
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